The St. Johns herald., 1899-05-06
CONVERSION OF "cRuIsER."
How an American Tanned the Most
 Vicious Horse in England.

How an American Famed the Most
 Vicious Horse in England.
 Under the title, "An Inyincible Horse-Tamer," Lida Rose McCabe re hearses in the St. Nicholas the story of John S. Rarey's career in America and England as a breaker of colts and tanner of vicious horses. His most con spicuous triumph was the tanning of Lord Dorchester's Cruiser" forty years ago. The horses temper had de preciated his value five thousand dol lars. For three years he had been abandoned to himself. Tormented by huge bits loaded with chains, his head was incased in a complication of iron ribs and plates, so that he had to pro- cure his food by licking it up with his tongue. Oppression and cruelty had made him a demon. He resented the approach of any one by fearful screams and yells of hate and fury. He snapped an iron bar, an inch in diameter, in two pieces with his teeth. The heavy blanks that formed his prison he fire quently kicked into splinters.
 Cruiser, I think" said Lord Dor chester, in his challenge, would be the right horse in the right place to try MT. Rarey's skill; and the sooner the experiment is made, the better. If he can rider Cruiser as hack guarantee him immortality and enough ready money to make a British bank-direc- tors mouth water"
 'I will tell you," said MT. Rarey, in recounting this crowning incident of his career, what happened at my first Interview with Cruiser. I believe there Is some cause for everything a horse does. He acts according to the i'm pressions on his mind. Instead of throwing out stick to fight him, when first approached Cruiser, I threw open the door and walked In. He was as tonished at seeing this, and more so at my exhibiting no fear. He had on his head a large muzzle, lined inside and out with iron. He had worn 1t three years, until it bored hole in his head. I took it off, and he never wore 1t again."
 In three hours Lord Dorchester was able to mount Cruiser, and Rarey rode the horse as hack to London. Cruiser became the property of his tanner. The fortune of MT. Rarey was made. All classes, headed by the nobility, focked to his lectures and exhibitions. Lord Palmerston opened the subscription list to MT. Rarey's private instructions, given in the riding g-academy of the Duke of Wellington. Queen Victoria was among the first to express joy at the regeneration of Cruiser, and to re- gret the hard usage to which the horse had been subjected. Frequently, she caressed the beautiful creature with her own hand. On the eve of the mar riage of the Princess Royal, MT. Rarey was invited by the Queen to give in the riding school at Buckingham Palace an exhibition before the royal guests sum- moned to the wedding. The next day he was honored with an invitation to the wedding at St. James, Palace.
 Under the favorable influence of kind treatment Cruiser rapidly im- proved in appearance. His rough, shaggy coat was shed for one of the luster of satin. Festive in a royal purple silk bridle, with rosettes of gold filigree, and the look of a war-horse in his high-bred nostrils, he followed his master through the capitals of Europe. Everywhere throughout his travels in the old world, Mr. Rarey gave free lee lures and exhibitions to cab and truck drivers. In his remarkable collection of souvenirs is a gold medal of won derfully fine workmanship, presented MT. Rarey by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.