The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-08-18
HORSE SWAPPING
In the Good Old Days 1t Was
Sport. Not Ccmmercialism.
A MAN TUoN A CHANCE THEN.
He Didn't ..sS For a Written Guar
antee That the Animal Was Sound,
and If He Got Stuck He Bided His
Time to Pass Along the Prize.

and If He Got Stuck He Bded His
Time to Pass Along the Prize.
II have been reading that David
Harum story" said the ancient livery
man when his cronies were comforta-
bly, seated in his little office. "A friend
told me that story was the last word
OH horse trading. but the man who
wrote it didn't understand the spirit
of the game ut all. David Harum
would have been skinned out of his
teeth If he had blown into any west
ern town In the palmy days of horse
trading twenty-five or thirty years ago. |
Il tell you, my friends. all the dead |
game sports are asleep with their fa-
Tiers. Nobody is willing to take a !
chance nowadays. If "A man buys q |
cigar he wants Il bill of sale with 1t. !
The other day a cheap skate pestered !
me whole afternoon talking about |
buying horse. He tried out all the
nays in the barn and finally decided
that the glass eyed bay would suit
him. And he actually wanted writ
ten guarantee that the horse was
sound. A written guarantee. No, gen.
tlemen, j am not joking. That bald
headed travesty on man actually
asked for such document. l regarded
1t as an insult. and after had rebuked
him they had TO pour four buckets OF
! water over him before he recovered.
"In the good old days horse trading
was game, not commercial transac-
ton. If man wasn't willing to take
the chances when he went trading he
was advised to try some other line Of
business. Many and many a time
had the harpoon administered to me.
One day Major Charlie Slaughter
Ldrove to my barn.
al have quite a neat package of
horsefiesh here. said the major, and
l have a sort of presentiment that he
can travel few lines when the wind
is blowing in the right direction
Ellis horse was handsome roam, a
regular peacock for style, with his
head away up in the air so you'd need
stepladder to see If he had star
on his forehead. And the way he hit
the road was sin. Talk about gated
horses. That roam handled his legs
|
sons. Now. my weak point in the
horse business is that when l want
certain nag the worst way l can't
conceal the fact. l just can't sleep or
eat my victuals until that horse is in
my barn with a new halter on him.
The major was wise to my weakness.
"'Its no use, Jake says the major
This boss isn't on my swapping list.
Every roam hair on him just suits me
and I'd be chump to let him CO.
"Well, of course / got the roam all
right. The major was just bluffing
And 1 gave him the biggest trade you
ever heard of-gave him a matched
team and several bills for that gan
Cling roam. And when took the roar
to the water trough for drink found
. that he couldn't lower his head. He
had to carry it about ten feet in the all
all the time, owing to some injury II
, his neck. He had to eat his faxed rice
, off Il shelf and drink from a garder
, hose, and Il man needed an aeroplan'
| to put a bride on him.
Ibid raise Il fuss with the major
What sort of skate do you take me-
for? Next time | met him | told hin
1 liked the roam better than any hors'
r l ever saw. He isn't always roofing
in the ground like a pig said |, 'anl
if you had told me about his paten
dirigible neck I'd have given you $1'
: more We were sports in those days
q "One time the veterinary surgeon
told me about fine trotting horse in ,
:. town some distance away which hat
been deprived of its tail by surgica
operation. l went and looked at tn
horse. He was perfect beauty ant
could trot like an avalanche. But b.
had just stump of tail. and tn
= owner was ashamed to drive him, s.
bought the critter for a song. l wen
to a lot of trouble having a tail mad
for him. 1t was a beautiful. fowin
! tail, a credit to the hairdressers arr
1t was fixed to slip over the horse
s stub tail and was then fastened to tn
crupper of the harness, and ma
needed good eyes to see that it WASH
). the real thing.
q 1.-The major had poor eyes, and whe
I took him for drive behind tina
black trotter he simply had to be tie
down to the seat ,he was so excited
It He said he'd always wanted hors
1t with tail like that. He had my ow
weakness. He couldn't pretend indi
1t ference when he wanted a thing tn
Sc worst way, and he wanted that hors
so bad that his hair was falling on
ze After a great deal of elaboration
b. issued my ultimatum.
"'Pll give you the horse, harnes
and buggy just as they stand said
for your sorrel three-year-olds an
re- $50 Either of the sorrels was worth
r. herd of horses like the black.
20 "Tt's trade cried the major.
Id "Next morning the major can