BUYING. 157 



the purchaser acknowledged his ignorance and depended 

 upon the dealer's judgment. Unless a man is a thorough 

 knave, dependence makes him act more honestly than the 

 assumption of knowledge which he realizes to be superficial. 

 '* It is as true in horse dealing as in any other trade, that constant and 

 permanent success depends on character, as well for honesty as for judg- 

 ment. A man may sell a bad horse to advantage, but he knows that, if 

 chargeable with an intention to deceive, he is at once classed with the 

 knaves of his profession ; and regular customers are driven away from his 

 stables forever. Horses are rarely to be found at these places cheap, nor 

 is it reasonable to expect it ; for all perishable commodities, and few de- 

 serve the epithet more than cattle, are inevitably high priced. It is better, 

 however, to give sixty or seventy guineas, in the first instance, for a good 

 and tried horse, than to buy half a dozen at an average of half the money, 

 with the certainty of losing at least forty per cent on the sale, exchange or 

 return of five of them. The horses of such dealers are generally high 

 priced ; and I have seen many among them which I would not buy at any 

 price ; but still I should go with confidence to their stables." — '^The Adven- 

 tures of a Gentlemaii in Search of a Hotse,^' pp. j6, 3y. 



To those who, through the deference usurped by stable 

 servants or who are seized with qualms and misgivings as the 

 climax of a purchase approaches, turn to their coachman 

 with the mingled feelings of hope and relief that he will 

 detect faults so far unobserved, or that the responsibility will 

 rest on some one who can be unreservedly blamed, to the 

 novice who finds himself in this predicament, a few words on 

 the inadvisability of placing much, if any, confidence in the 

 opinion of an ordinary coachman may be disheartening, but 

 worthy of consideration. 



The proportion of absolutely honest and disinterested 

 coachmen is so small that those who have their master's 

 interests alone at heart are never met with by the average 

 horse owner. In the barter of a horse the seller has from $5 



