THE AUCTIONEER. 59 



a similar want of caution, how can he ever expect to 

 trace them to the party from whom he received them. 

 This reprehensible practice is a .direct encouragement to 

 dealers in counterfeit notes and " smashers/' 



" What shall I say for this chesnut gelding? he is 

 five years old, goes in harness, is as handsome as a pea- 

 'cock, and will carry a gentleman pr lady, without trip- 

 ping, shying, or hroken paces ; and, as far as my judg- 

 ment serves me, appears perfectly sound," said the 

 auctioneer at a coping repository in the provinces to 

 an assemblage gathered round his rostrum, composed of 

 a few gentlemen who are on the look-out for a cheap 

 horse, and some tradesmen who are obliged to keep a 

 horse and trap for the delivery of those commodities 

 to their customers in which they may deal, but who are 

 constantly buying, selling, or swapping their pony away 

 and losing the money which they should have paid 

 the traveller from the house which sent them that cir- 

 cular, the purport of which was to say that their Mr. 

 So-and-So would have the pleasure of waiting upon 

 them on such a day, when, &c., &c. One really would 

 think a nudge like this would be sufficient to cool the 

 horse fever, which seems to rage in their very souls, 

 more especially with those who (by chance) have pur- 

 chased at this repository, or elsewhere, a horse or pony 

 out of which they have cleared a pound or two. I'll 

 lay my life to a bad potato that such a man ^will never 

 give up dabbling in horse-flesh (instead of minding his 

 own business) until he loses the price of a useful horse: 



