Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

The Richmond Whig says that there is a “horse tamer” in that city, who professes to be in possession of a secret which enables him to tame the wildest horse. The Whig gives this account of an experiment he made in Richmond on Thursday:
“The experiment was performed at the circus. The exhibition to the public eye proceeded in throwing the mare upon her side, by the machinery of a leather strap carried over her shoulders and buckled at each end to her ankles, which being gradually contracted, she, per force, came down awhile, first upon her knees, then her side. The experimenter [the mesmerizer’ a wag called him] then gently manipulated her face, and patted her neck, and after a half minute or so, applied a powder to her nostrils. The fastenings were then loosed and she was permitted to rise.-[We should have stated that she exhibited, during the manipulation, indications of pleasure instead of fright.] When up, Mr. Franche [the tamer] took hold of her tail and suspended his weight upon it. She was then led off by his assistant, he still suspended by her tail and suffering himself to be dragged along. During these feats she exhibited no alarm or disposition to kick. A sheep skin [not very agreeable to a horse] was then tied to her tail, which she dragged about the circus without any sign of repugnance. Mr. Franche then snapped his fingers, when she turned and followed him.
Such was the result of the experiment, and yet we did not regard it as doing justice to Mr. F. or his secret, for the mare had been broken, and it was not in the power of the spectators to know what degree of wildness he had to subdue. He would have preferred, the wildest mustang just caught in the prairies, or the wildest and most unbroken colt in the vicinity of Richmond, on the principle that it is easier to teach the untaught, than first to learn and teach the mistaught.