The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, January 21, 1909.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 449, 21 January 1909, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, January 21, 1909.

The advent of the annual rpce meeting brings to Foxton all sorts and conditions ojmen—and women. What the annual fair was to* *the villages in the/ Old .Land, so the * race, meetings are to the inland toWns throughout the Oominion. A few days before the meeting takes place strangers put in an appearance, take their bearings and ply their calling. Every animal and insect has its parasite, so also the racecourse. Where the crowd gathers—even at a church bazaar — there will be found the pickpocket and sharper. - Jt is impossible .to choke them off. These human parasites wax fat because they possess more cunning and a keener insight into human nature than their fellows. They are not fools. It is surprising bow people are sometimes taken down by these gentry,- Two of them some lime since pitched a tent nearby where the crowd was' assembled. One announced that within the tent was to be seen a monstrosity in the form of ,a horse with its head where its tail should be. A charge of; |pne shilling was made for admission. The show was • well patronised and proved a “ regular sell.” The horse was there, placed “end.for end” in the shafts of acart, and was meekly nibbling its food •with its head over the front bpard !, Of ' course patrons recommended the sight to their friends. Another sharper was gulling a crowd with the purse-selling trick: A purse containing a half-sovereign was offered for half-a-crown, but by a clever piece of palming a halfpenny or sixpence was substituted in the purse for the “ half-a-sov.” Still, a gullible public snapped up the “ bargains.” The purchasers, of course, kept their own counsel. How gullible we are until we get nipped !