CHAPTER XL 



HORSE DEALERS — WHO THEY ARE, THEIR MODE OP DEALING, THEIR 

 PROFITS, THEIR MORALITY, AND THEIR SECRETS. 



"All horse dealers are rogues !" Such is a common belief, which too 

 many persons are willing to indorse. The term "horse dealer," how- 

 ever, embraces individuals of very adverse and of entirely different 

 pursuits, each seeking business in opposite spheres ; one rjarely meeting 

 the other ; but all trading with the animal, though with a very dis- 

 similar description of horse. Horse "copers" and horse "chaunters" 

 assuredly buy and sell horses. So far they are entitled to be called 

 "horse dealers;" but all such characters are unscrupulous rogues. 

 Most liverymen, and the various people who live in a mews, or write 

 "job master" after their names, dehght in "a deal," when they can con- 

 template a speedy and a safe profit. Carters, cab proprietors, farmers, 

 and the heads of all commission stables either buy or sell — or do both 

 occasionally — horses. There is hardly a gentleman in Britain who, if 

 buying or selling an animal could constitute a dealer in horses, might 

 not wear the title. The genius which presides over an auction mart 

 has always a desire to knock down, to himself, any very cheap lot; 

 while the majority of blacklegs and of men about town can, generally, 

 inform an inquiring friend of "the very spiciest thing," which will "be 

 given away for the merest trifle. " 



Of all these cheats, for all are ready to become such upon opportunity, 

 the bad one, perhaps the least suspected, is no other than gentlemen 

 who, over a glass of wine, will reluctautly part with a "screw" for fifty 

 times the value of its carcass. The worst specimen of unmitigated im- 

 position, having any pretense to fair bargaining, which the author can 

 >all to mind, was thus palmed off upon an unsuspecting friend. The 

 gentlemen looked fierce and talked loud when expostulated with, having 

 strong motives for not hearkening to reason. There are always one or 

 two very pleasant fellows of this stamp, riding after every pack of 

 hounds. They usually are careful equestrians, very saving of their 

 steeds, excepting when near to some youthful member of the hunt; 

 then the rein is slackened and the spur quietly applied. But of all 



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