Horse Trading

[snowyday]

There is much more to horse trading than shifting of ownership. The amenities of the preliminary skirmishing follow a definite ritual. When two men get together with the idea of a trade they discuss the weather, the condition of the live-stock, the abominable condition of the roads, politics, and the chances of a good growing season. As they sit in the open barn doorway very likely they are casually whittling as they work along to the time when it will be acceptable for one to mention that he had heard the other might consider a trade.

Then the dickering begins. One allows he had considered trading his horse. Wasn’t anxious at all for old Jerry was a mighty faithful horse. Clever, too, dependable, and all his teeth were still sound. The other knows all about old Jerry. He’s likely to balk; gives up in hard situations and his teeth are poor. But the second man wants to trade his old Daisy. As he puts, “she’s a great horse, steady, faithful and a hard worker.†The other knows all about old Daisy. Her wind is poor and she has to be fed wet mash instead of hard grain.

There’s a strange philosophy governing men when they trade horses. Men who otherwise hew close to the trail of veracity stretch the facts to a thin line. With straight faces they summon arguments of paper-tissue strength. But there’s the essence of pioneering democracy in the situation. Each man believes his judgment is as good as his peers. Each knows he must abide by the results. No paternalistic bureaucracy will lift the weight from his shoulders.

Maybe a little horse trading philosophy could be infused into the body politic with beneficial results.

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