The Widow Trick.
Some years since it was common to find cunningly worded horse-sale advertisements in the daily newspapers, offering seemingly valuable animals at sacrifice prices. In some of these advertisements it was stated that a widow about to leave for Europe, where she hoped to be able to assuage the grief of her recent bereavement, would sell her favorite carriage horse, provided she could be assured of a good home and kind treatment for the highly esteemed animal. In reality the widow was a myth and the valuable horse a good looking, but worthless “robber.”
The scheme was craftily carried out, and many a man from the country fell a dupe to the wiles of the “widow” and her confederates. On going to the address mentioned in the advertisement, the prospective buyer would find a large stable in the rear of a fine old-fashioned mansion on one of the outlying boulevards or avenues. Here in charge of a glib-tongued coachman, usually a colored man, would be found several finely groomed horses standing knee deep in the finest of wheat straw bedding and surrounded by every appointment of a swell private stable. Opening negotiations with the groom, the buyer would hear one of the most plausible and pleasing tales imaginable elaborative of a similar, condensed story told in the glowing advertisement that had induced the visit. The filly or gelding would be described as bred in the purple, by Allerton, out of Kentucky Queen, she by a Pilot Jr., or some such combination of standard blood, possessed of great speed, having done halves in 1.08, a final quarter in 34 seconds, and the half “would have been as good as 1.06¼ had the track ‘near the pole’ not been heavy from a recent rain.” When the purchaser had become interested, but not sufficiently so to agree to a somewhat steep price, the “widow” dressed in deepest mourning and heavily veiled would opportunely appear upon the scene, do the weeping act and manage matters so adroitly that soon a bargain would be struck at a handsome figure.
Sometimes a “Colonel” or a “General” or a “Judge” would take the place of the “widow,” the man posing as that character being suitably dressed for the part, commanding in appearance, and so plausible and polished in address as to disarm all suspicion. During the preliminary negotiations between the groom and the buyer, the “General” would be conveniently stationed in the hay-loft overhead and would be summoned by electric bell when wanted, the “sucker” meanwhile being taken into the alley to see the horse go through his paces.
Needless to say that the buyer on getting the horse home and trying him out quickly rued his bargain, and equally unnecessary to say that when he went back to the swell stable for redress he found the place abandoned and was wholly unable to locate the men who had perpetrated the swindle.
This method of fleecing the unwary buyer is still in vogue but far less common than was the case before the advent of the automobile. Still it will be well to take glowing horse-sale advertisements with a large grain of salt, and better still to purchase a horse through some reliable commission man or dealer.