Shortening, polishing, cupping and staining the incisor teeth of a nine or ten-year-old horse may be so cleverly performed that the most circumspect study of the mouth may fail to detect the alteration. In these cases the cupping is limited to the removal of the crusta petrosa within the infundibula, thus leaving the cup with a perfect enamel boundary. At that age the other retrogressive changes are not pronounced, and afford but little evidence to guide the diagnostician. When horses are past the age of twelve years the results of these operations are easily detected by the interrupted contact of the incisor arcades (rows of teeth) and especially by the angle of inclination, which is never altered by any natural process and which cannot be artificially changed. The shape of the tables and the absence of enamel around the cup will also lead readily to detection of the fraudulent attempts to make very old horses appear younger.”
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.