All Pumped Up: A Real Horse Trick in Faulkner's The Hamlet

NOTES ALL PUMPED UP: A REAL HORSE TRICK IN FAULKNER'S THE HAMLET Stephen R. Portch University of Wisconsin, Richland Few readers question the deflating of sheep in Thomas Hardy's Farfrom the Madding Crowd; such a procedure is clearly possible. But most readers doubt the inflating of a horse in William Faulkner's novel The Hamlet; such a procedure seems impossible. Joseph W. Reed, Jr.'s reaction in Faulkner's Narrative is typical: "The story itself might leave something to be desired in verisimilitude: without the audience we might stop to ask whether one could really do that to a horse with ... a bicycle pump."1 This hilarious scene in which Ab Snopes has his own disguised horse traded back to him by Pat Stamper—an incident which helps sour Ab on life—has often been cited as a classic example of Faulkner belonging to the American tall-tale tradition.2 The manner of the disguise seems very tall indeed. This poor horse is spirited because of a fish hook in his hide, is dyed black instead of his natural bay color, and is fattened by air pumped under his skin. But incredible though it may seem, such tricks are plausible and were known by Faulkner. Faulkner knew horses. His father bought and operated a livery stable in Oxford; William got his first pony at age four. As Joseph Blotner puts it in Faulkner: A Biography, "he must have absorbed much of the lore of horses and horsetrading."3 Indeed he did, and some of it from an unusual source. Blotner also mentions an advertisement in the Oxford Eagle on 20 January 1910 for a book called Horse Secrets by Dr. A. S. Alexander.4 Faulkner obviously read a copy of this remarkable 25 cent book5 (which describes tricks from placing a ginger root in the horse's rectum to make him carry his tail high, to inserting lemon ends in the horse's nostril to make him breathe quietly) and used it as his direct source for the horse-trading episode. Not only does Alexander , a Professor of Veterinary Science and a prolific author on horses and cattle, provide a recipe for black dye,e but he also exposes a technique call "Blowing Air Under the Skin": When the muscles of the shoulder have wasted away, constituting the condition termed "sweeny," air sometimes is blown under the skin to give the part a plump condition. This trick is easily detected, for 94Notes when the hand is passed over the inflated part it crackles (crepitates) showing the presence of air under the skin (emphysema). The same trick is practised to make an old horse appear younger than he really is, the hollows over the eyes being blown up by means of a hollow needle, quill or straw passed through the skin. For low hip and atrophy of the shoulder muscles we have also known tricksters to inject a two per cent solution of phenol under the skin and then thoroughly massage the part.7 And Faulkner probably borrowed even more from Alexander —the bare bones of the story itself. In a section headed "Miscellaneous Secrets," Alexander tells the following story: An Honest "Hoss" Dealer There lived in Michigan a shrewd old horse dealer who gave folks due warning to beware when he donned his selling clothes. He used to say: "When I say, 'Hoss,' - look out! I'm a-goin' to trade. But when it's 'Horse,' - nawthin' doin'l Ye're perfectly safe." It is related that this character had a balky horse put on him by brother dealers in a neighboring town; but a few days later he got even, and with the same "hoss." The former owners failed to recognize the beast, for in the interim it had been clipped, roached, docked and bishoped, besides receiving a few artistic spots of dye, and having had "tug marks" and "collar galls" manufactured by skilful [sic] shaving at the right places. In his new fix he looked a young, handsome, hard-working animal, but when the deal was made and the new owners hitched him up, they realized at once that both they and the horse were "stuck...