CAPPERS. 65 



CAPPERS. 



There are no class of men so useful to intending pur- 

 chasers of horses as a respectable capper, one who ob- 

 tains a livelihood selecting horses and finding custom- 

 ers for them. To some persons the name will no doubt 

 imply something wrong or illegitimate in regard to 

 buying and selling horses, but I can assure my readers 

 that it is often through the judgment and experience 

 of these men the driving i)ublic are enable<l to obtain 

 matched pairs and extra good carriage horses at reason- 

 able prices. Only for the class of people amongst whom 

 they have to associate, and the line of stock in which 

 they trade, I cannot see any difference between them 

 and stock brokers. They buy from one and sell to 

 another, and \ice versa, in most cases by request at a 

 margin or commission, in fact cappers are m my opinion 

 more useful to those Avho buy horses than brokers are 

 to those who buy stocks, for the simple reason that 

 cappers are scarce, while brokers are plentiful. Cap- 

 pers are in every way as necessary to dealers as to 

 buyers, they being acquainted with eveiy sale stable, 

 and constantly moving from one to another, they note 



