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The Horse Trader
| Article
# : |
11883 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1987 |
5,000 Words |
| Author
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Roger L. Welsch
Plains folklorist Roger L. Welsch is professor of English and
anthropology at the University of Nebraska. |
It was the sort of thing one could see annually in almost any farmyard in nineteenth-century America. A horse trader drove his road-battered wagon into the farmer's yard, from the corner of his eye assessing the quality of the two bay work horses standing at the watering tank near the barn. A quick glance told him that the bays might be good animals - in good health, well cared for, well fed, in fit condition. Chances were that the farmer would not be the least bit interested in trading them off. The traveling trader would have liked to examine the team a little more thoroughly, as well as the handsome mule in the side yard, more likely trading material. But anything more than a casual glance might betray his interest, thus raising the stock's value in the farmer's mind.
The trader halted his team and quickly checked the ten animals of mixed quality tethered behind his own wagon. The trader - known as a "roader" or "Gypsy trader" because he operated from a rolling wagon rather than from a yard or livery stable - inventoried his string. There were still the three horses he had started off with when he left home a little over a month ago. There was a mare so lame that he would probably never be able to get rid of her. She was still useful, however: He started off every trade with a standard phrase, "Now, don't get any ideas about that little brown mare there. She may look pretty good but actually she is lamed up bad right now. I wouldn't want you to find out after a trade with me that you had wound up with a horse that won't do you no good."
That sort of honesty tended to set customers' minds at ease. They might then be more honest in statements about their own animals and accept the trader's stock more readily, thinking
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