The central narrator, a mild-mannered con man with something of a conscience, is a perfect narrator because, as an itinerant sewing machine agent, he himself knows the value of a con game. Because Flem Snopes once took advantage of him, he has a grudging admiration for anyone who is sharp enough to get the best of him. As a con artist himself, he recognizes and admires Flem's superiority, although he despises Flem's inhumanity.
The Texan is a traditional con man. He plays the game of selling horses and enjoys his triumphs, but he is not as vicious as Flem. When he sees how disturbingly calm and defeated Mrs. Armstid is about her husband's squandering their last five dollars, he attempts to restore the money. He responds to her human needs and tries to lessen the hardships and pain caused by her rashly impractical, abusive husband.
Comparing Mrs. Armstid's treatment by the Texan and how she is treated by Flem, the narrator reveals that Flem is a third type of con man, one who is mean, vicious, and unerringly inhumane. He does not soil his hands by directly involving himself in any dirty work. Instead, he sits apart from the entire transaction. His omnipotence and omnipresence, felt constantly throughout the story, are emphasized by the narrator's often-reiterated phrases, "That Flem" and "Them Snopes."
A key ingredient in Old Southwest humor is incongruity, or the juxtaposition of contrasting elements. For example, the narrator describes the Texas ponies in these terms: "They was colored like parrots and they was quiet as doves, and ere a one of them would kill you quick as a rattlesnake." The first two statements conjure a lovely, quiet image of beauty and peacefulness, but this idyllic image contrasts with the third statement-that the horses would kill a person as quickly as a rattlesnake would. To describe the animals as "ponies" is, in itself, absurdly incongruous because the word "pony" evokes a benign, sweet, lovable, and tame animal, which is the opposite of these wild, vicious, and untamable beasts.
