Page 159 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Early days in Los Angeles

wonderful performance of the animal. Of course, he was not alone
there; many other people, dressed like horsemen, in broad-brim
Stetson hats, nodded their heads and agreed with Mr. Watkins that
the animal has it.
The horse I bought looked heavy around the belly; of course, I did
not know they had given it plenty of water that morning. It wore a
bridle with blinders, which horses had in the early days of the
automobile, so as not to be scared by the rattling Fords. Its left leg
was stiff, but I was on the right side of the street where the stable
was. Somebody started to bid, naturally Watkins’ men who were
supposed to be buyers, but were really busters for the house, as they
were called, or cappers. One of them looked at the horse’s teeth and
said it had wonderful teeth, and patted it on the neck, so I took it for
granted since I did not know much about it. They bid up to ninety
dollars with harness and wagon, which seemed cheap to me
compared to renting a horse by the day for several months. My
brother pushed me in the ribs, not to let such a bargain out of my
grasp. Well, I had a horse of my own.
I had learned to drive a wagon long ago in Warsaw, when I aided
my father on his bakery route. That horse was not first class, but it
was well-fed, groomed and shod often in winter so that it would not
slip on the icy streets. It could gallop when I talked to it in Polish or
just touched it with the whip. To describe the horse I bought, I
would need to be a horse fancier. The next morning, when I put on
the bridle and faced my new purchase, I found that it was blind in the
left eye. Driving around that day, I saw that right foot bend and the
horse limp because of its stiff left leg. Its upper lip was short and
turned upwards, showing its teeth and seeming to laugh at me. But
one could not claim any misrepresentation at those auctions; as the
old Latin proverb goes, let the buyer beware. And I did not think of
racing or pleasure riding, although everyone had a buggy those days,
like the automobiles of today. Who can think of pleasure when
starvation stares at you?
The horse did have intelligence. After he had traveled home with
me for two days on Central Avenue, I was absent-minded and forgot
to turn on Twenty-eighth Street, where I lived. The horse just turned
into the alley and went into the barn. That was my start in business—
155