158 BUYING. 



to $100 or even more for your servant if he has the power of 

 determining the sale and exercises it to the dealer's advan- 

 tage. This bribe or so-called commission is a well under- 

 stood item in the deal, and if the coachman is honest and 

 smart he will treat his employer fairly and get his commission 

 to boot ; but if he is, as are most of his calling, of elastic 

 morals, the tyro will buy many worthless " screws," on the 

 sale of each of which the coachman will receive his " mite " 

 and something besides from a quack whose services are after- 

 wards sought to mend some incurable defect. 



Then again a purchaser may be led astray by the advice 

 of an honest but ignorant servant who has accepted, without 

 discrimination or thought, hearsay traditions with the result 

 that his knowledge of horses is worthless. 



A coachman's opinion is infallible : an expert often errs. 

 As a general thing, although coachmen profess to be judges 

 of horses, they know little or nothing about proportion and 

 other essential qualifications, and their opinions are usually 

 formed by the more material considerations of the trans- 

 actions than upon the actual merits of the horse. If all men 

 were as good judges as they profess to be, their services 

 would be worth double or triple what they command,^nd 

 it is no injustice to say that their opinions pass muster owing 

 to the ignorance of the inexperienced master rather than on 

 the honest endorsement of educated owners and successful 

 dealers. 



When a buyer can afford the time, he should go about 

 the horse markets and learn what is the average current 

 price for the class of horse he desires to buy. During such 

 a tour the methods of practised purchasers may be observed 

 as well as the follies committed by " green ones," and one 



