In some sales-stables, when a coachman commissioned by a rich layman to purchase a single horse, or match a pair in his behalf, has stated his needs, looked over a few animals, and hinted at what he can afford to pay, he is asked by the dealer: “How much shall I protect you?” That means how much commission will you expect if the deal is consummated; and the coachman is not slow to ask a handsome rake-off. Another plan of making a profit, is to get as low a price or option as possible from the dealer, and then add a profit by having the seller charge a higher price than the option and afterward hand the balance to the buyer’s agent. Unless the commissioner is paid a special fee by his employer for making the purchase, these methods of making living wages for the work involved in the deal are considered perfectly legitimate by men connected with the horse markets. Splitting the Profit Three Ways. In the great horse markets, when a gentleman’s coachman, or a man who is deemed by him to be an expert judge, is commissioned to buy a certain style of horse at not over a stated price, the expert can easily arrange to make a double profit. He seeks out some scalper friend, and gives him a detailed description of the sort of horse wanted. The scalper then visits the stable of his associates in the business, selects a horse that “looks like the job” and secures an option on him at a price considerably lower than the buyer has said he will be willing to pay. He now brings in the expert, and if the horse suits that worthy, he is purchased at the option price and turned over to the employer of the expert at his specified price or a trifle less. Then the scalper and the expert divide the profit, or if another man “on the inside” has been used in the deal, the profit is “split three ways,” to give him a slice. The buyer is usually well satisfied with his bargain, and probably could not have bought the horse cheaper at first hand. A Glossary of Market Terms. In each of the great horse markets of the country certain technical, trade and slang terms are used in speaking of horses, and the intending buyer will do well to familiarize himself with them, else he may learn their meaning by dear-bought experience. In preparing the following glossary many of the terms explained are such as one hears in the Chicago market and elsewhere, and the writer has also freely quoted from an article entitled, “The Veterinary Horse Buyer,” from the pen of Dr. H. W. Hawley, V. S., in the Chicago Veterinary College “Quarterly Bulletin” for June, 1903, and from Bulletin No. 122 of the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, in which Prof. Rufus C. Obrecht deals elaborately and instructively with the subject of “Market Classes and Grades of Horses and Mules.” In many instances it has been thought well to explain technical matters relating to practical subjects as well as to interpret the special term used by horsemen.