HORSES AT AUCTION. 151 



a soft tan runway by a man who judiciously allows no free- 

 dom to the head, and the horse is further deprived of any 

 chance or inclination to exhibit his natural qualities by the 

 free use of the whip which is applied by the faithful lieuten- 

 ants of the auctioneer who form a gantlet of efficient per- 

 secutors. As a result bad horses show to an advantage and 

 superior ones to a disadvantage. 



The apparently irrational course pursued in showing 

 some horses in harness and others in hand usually has some 

 very sound foundation in which the welfare of the prospec- 

 tive buyer does not enter very largely. Harness improves 

 the appearance of awkwardly made horses, and a horse shown 

 in hand does not have an opportunity to demonstrate by 

 kicking a wagon to pieces that, although " safe and kind for 

 a lady to drive," the wear and tear incident to vehicles 

 make him an undesirable possession. 



The common biography of all horses that find their way 

 to auction sales is " six, coming seven, sound, kind, fit for 

 any one to drive, and sold only because the owner has no 

 further use for him." To the initiated these descriptive re- 

 marks are merely precautionary measures against allowing 

 any chance being lost of impressing an ingenuous onlooker. 

 This recommendation is of such a general nature that if it 

 is proved that it is undeserved, the buyer can obtain no 

 satisfactory redress. The auctioneer transfers the blame to 

 the former owner, who maintains that the guarantee was 

 unauthorized, or he offers to exchange the subject of dispute 

 for another horse which is either a higher priced animal, for 

 which the buyer has to pay an additional sum, or else he is 

 worse than the horse already bought ; more than likely he 

 is both together. 



