The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1910-08-09
HORSE SWAPPING
In the Good Old Days 1t Was
Sport, Not commerciaIisnl.
A MAN TOOK A CHANCE THEN.

A MAN TOOK A CHANCE THEN.
he Didn't AJAX For a Written Guar
antes That the Animal Was Sound,
and u He Got Stuck He Bided His
Time TO Pass Along the Prize.
y have been reading that David
Harum story" said the ancient livery
man when bis cronies were comforta-
bly, seated In his little Office. "a friend
told me that story was the last word
on horse trading, but the man who
wrote it didn't understand the spirit
OF the game at all David Harum
would have been skinned out Of his
teeth II 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 ia
theirs. Nobody Is willing to take a
chance nowadays. If q man buys a
cigar he wants a bill Of sale with it.
The other day a cheap skate pestered
me whole afternoon talking about
buying q horse. He tried out all the
nags In the barn and finally decided
that the glass eyed bay would suit
Kim And he actually wanted a Writ
ten guarantee that the horse was
soundl A written guaranteed No. gen.
tlemen. am not joking. That bald
headed travesty on q man actually
asked for such document regarded
It as an insult. and after had rebuked
him they had to pour four buckets OF
water over him before he recovered
I'm the good old days horse trading
was 4 game. not a commercial transac-
tion- II q 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
drove to my barn
:" 4 have quite a neat package Of
horsefiesh here said the major, and
/ have q sort Of presentiment that he
can travel a few lines when the wind
Is blowing In the right direction
His horse was handsome roam,
regular peacock for style, with his
head away up In the air SO you'd need
q stepladder to see If he had q star
on his forehead. And the way he hit
the road was sin. Talk about gated
horsesl That roam handled bis legs
as though he had taken sparrtng les
SONS. Now, my weak point In the
horse business Is that when / want
q certain nag the worst way / can't
conceal the fact 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.
It's no use, Jake says the major.
This boss isn't on my swapping list
livery roam hair on him Just suits me,
and I'd be a chump to let him go.'
well. Of course got the roam all
right. The major was just bluff1ng
And ! 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 roam
~ tk49 W0t64 AVuA4 LUZ u Ia 44A \ 4Oukl0
that he couldn't lower his head. He
had to carry 1t about ten feet In the air
all the time, owing to some injury in
bis neck. He had to eat his faxed rice
or a shelf and drink from a garden
hose, and man needed an aeroplane
to put bride on him.
did raise a fuss with the major7
What sort Of skate do you take me
for7 Next time met him / told him
liked the roam better than any horse
ever saw. He isn't always roofing
In the ground like pig said I, and
II You had told me about his patent
dirigible neck I'd have given you $40
more We were sports In those days.
AOne time the veterinary surgeon
told me about fine trotting horse In a
town some distance away which had
been deprived of its tail by a surgical
operation. went and looked at the
horse. He was perfect beauty and
could trot like an avalanche. But he
had just a stump of tail, and the
owner was ashamed to drive him, so
bought the critter for song. / went
to a lot Of trouble having a tail made
for him. It was a beautiful, flowing
tail, credit to the hairdresser's art.
1t was fixed to slip over the horses
stub tail and was then fastened to the
crupper Of the harness, and a man
needed good eyes to see that 1t wasn't
the real thing.
The major had poor eyes, and when
took him for a drive behind that
black trotter he simply had to be tied
Down to the seat he was so excited.
he said he'd always wanted horse
with a tail Hike that. He had my own
weakness. He couldn't pretend indif-
ference when he wanted thing the
worst way, and he wanted that horse
80 bad that bis hair was falling out
After q great deal Of elaboration
issued my ult1matum-
TN give you the horse harness
and buggy just as they stand said l.
for your sorrel three-year-olds and
$50 Either of the sorrels was worth
herd Of horses like the black.
It's trade cried the major.
'Next morning the major came
around to my barn all smiles Ever
since ! was child and quit playing
with rattle says he. I have wanted
q horse with a detachable tail-a tail
that q man could take off and use as
chin whiskers at a masked ball. l just
called to pay you another 80 cents. 80
that when l meet you after this you
can't say took advantage Of you In
our trade yesterday
"on, there were real sports In those
days.s-wait Mason in Chicago News