"Spotted Horses" is one of Faulkner's finest examples of his unique type of local color. Critics familiar with American Old Southwest humor will recognize his indebtedness to this brand of tall-tale humor, which relies almost entirely on a liberally exaggerated oral narration. In the short story, Faulkner utilizes a sewing machine agent as the oral narrator to create an informal, chatty, conversational tone.
In addition to this narrative style, Faulkner uses other classical types and techniques of humor in his storytelling; here, he uses a traditional character known as the con man, someone who captures a person's confidence — from which we get the word "con" — in order to take advantage of that person's gullibility. There are many variations of the con man, but in all cases the con man's success depends on the greed of his victim; a good con man will know intuitively which approach of deception will be the most successful. For example, in "Spotted Horses," the Texan knows that Henry Armstid is not going to allow Eck Snopes to buy a horse for a mere two dollars, especially since the Texan has already given Eck a free horse.
In this particular short story, we have three types of con men: the sewing machine agent, the Texan, and Flem Snopes, and each of these con men displays his con artistry differently. The sewing machine agent is unassuming; the Texan redeems himself; and Flem is a schemer who lies adeptly.
