American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-02-26
Horse Dealers and Horse Dealing.

A horse dealer may be defined as
person who reads horses, and under
stands all the virtues and vices of the
whole species. He has more ways to
hide the defects in horse flesh than
women have to hide decays in faces,
with which oaths and lies are the most
general Accomplishments. He under
stands the chronology of horses
mOut h most critically, and will find out
the year of his nativity by it as certain
ly as if he had been at the mares labor
that bore him. After all, few horse
dealers are really good judges of horses.
1t is true that many of them possess
peculiar rapidity of vision. the effect of
q guickened intellect; and that in the
inspection of a horse one of their eagle
glances will comprehend more than half
an hours scrutiny from other eyes; yet
this chiefly has reference to what may be
termed his selling points. They too
often buy horses as butchers do bull
locks, by their size and weight; and az
fat conceals many faults, their highest
notion of condition is being fat. OF
action-that is. proper. lasting action
they are for the most part Ignorant.
The vocabulary of the horse dealing
fraternity is not less amusing than
pithy, having what is called clash
term for almost every description of
horse. Amongst these is the ''fool-
catcher namely, horse with a good
head and tail. possessing snowy action,
but not intrinsically worth twelve
months keep. This sort of animal,
from his worthlessness. is commonly
purchased at a small price; but when
made fat. is sure to answer to his name,
especially in the larger cities. But all
this is classical. The horse-dealer's
heaven on earth is located in places
where there is much money and abund-
ance of fools.
A great portion Of horsc-buyers, how
ever, have to thank themselves for be-
ing cheated in their purchases, because
they will rely on their own judgment,
without its having had the benefit of ex-
perience. Almost every man, in fact,
wishes to be thought a good Judge of
horse, which, from the various points
TO be taken into consideration, not only
OF form, but as relating to action, for
several purposes, is of all others the an
imal most difficult to Judge of correctly.
But such is the case in other matters
than horse-dealing. and the experience
which often comes too late for our own
use, is rarely accepted for that of 9TH
ers. When a horse case is brought into
court, the witnesses on both sides
usually seem to consider they have a
prescriptive right to indulge in an I'M
limited quantity of what is technically
termed ''hard swearing" We should
say there is no branch of dealings in
which every class of society is so freely
taken in, as in the purchase of horses.
In the daily, and especially in
the Sunday papers of our large
cities, may frequently be no.
tced advertisements of horses
for sale, said to belong to an invalid
lady, or a gentleman suddenly obliged
to travel in foreign countries for his
health, and who must forthwith part
with her or his exquisite trotter, or
team of trotters, bought only recently
at a high price in Kentucky. Besides
u spurious pedigree, and statement
of their capacity for trotting which is
the fiery steeds are said to be
SO gentle that child might drive them.
There are no specific rules by which
persons. can avoid these impositions,
but they may, at any rate, decline
placing confidence ia those with whom
they have no previous acquaintance.
In transactions which are fair, the
negotiating party is anxious that every
facility be given to purchaser to see
that he is being dealt with in good
faith; and we should pause the moment
we detect undue haste or reservation,
as in nineteen cases out of twenty, we
may depend upon it, there is something
suspicious in the transaction.