HOW TO iTAKE MONEY BY HOESES. ' 175 



at defiance, where comfort was to be attained by 

 doing so. 



Some worthy citizen may somewhat indignantly 

 remark, if he holds good taste in horses and equipages, 

 or its reverse, a circumstance worthy his indignation, 

 why should not a lord mayor or sheriff possess as 

 good taste in either, or both, as a nobleman or gen- 

 tleman ? There is certainly no reason why they 

 should not, but why they do not is easily explained : 

 till late in life, neither have probably possessed either ; 

 and the man whose early life has been devoted to 

 perfecting his judgment in indigo, cloth, or sugar, 

 profitable and meritorious as such pursuits may be, 

 is not likely to have devoted much attention to horses 

 and equipages, more than men differently situated 

 have to cloth or indigo. I mean no sneer or disre- 

 spect to worthy citizens by what I say, for I fervently 

 now wish, as perhaps do many more, that my early 

 life had been devoted to becoming a judge of horses' 

 hides, instead of the living animal, though at the time 

 I should have been ready to jump down the man's 

 throat who made such a proposal to me. 



