To obtain money to pay for themselves they practice the most severe economy and self-denial in the very few indulgences which the law grants them.

They sometimes resort to deception to depreciate their value with the appraisers.

He mentioned an instance of a man who lead for many years been an overseer on a large estate.

Wishing to purchase himself, and knowing that his master valued him very highly, he permitted his beard to grow; gave his face a wrinkled and haggard appearance, and bound a handkerchief about his head.

His clothes were suffered to become ragged and dirty, and he began to feign great weakness in his limbs, and to complain of a "misery all down his back." He soon appeared marked with all the signs of old age and decrepitude.
In this plight, and leaning on a stick, he hobbled up to the station-house one day, and requested to be appraised.