Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-04-30


tutions of Commerce, and in no city does it
exist in greater vigor. and with more popu-
larity than in New York In looking over
the second volume of APPLEToSs' New
American Cyclopedia, just published, we
find the following, which viii interest some of.
our readers
AUCTION (Lat. olIcsio, the act of increas-
ing,) public sale, whereat persons openly
compete. each offer or bid increasing upon
the previous one, and the property being
finally sold to him who will give the most
for it, the highest bidder. In Holland, and
at what are called Dutch auctions elsewhere
this process is reversed, the seller naming
price beyond the value of his goods, which
is gradually lowered, until some one closes
with the offer, the term auction, as applied
to such a sale, being obviously a case of luczs
non tIceado a complete misnomer. Rome,
so far as is known. invented the auction,
which was at first held for the sale of military
spoil among the soldiers behind spear stuck
in the ground, whence it was called Guctio
s1rb hGsta tunder the spear,) or subhasdtto. The
signal of the spear was afterward put up at
all sorts of auctions, and the name was re-
tanned long after the signal was disused. At
auctions in Rome, for which the permission
of a magistrate must always be had, spear
was fixed in the forum by a crier, who pro-
the company with a catalogue upon tables.
Subsequently sales were proclaimed by trum-
pet. Bids were made by holding up the
fingers. After the death of Pertinax. A. d.
1913, the pratorian guards put up the Roman
Empire at auction, which. after a number of
bids by Sulpician and Julian, the sole COM
petitOrs, was knocked down to the latter for
$3.50 drachms, about 81 900, to each soldier
In England, sale ''by the candle" or by the
inch of candle" which are still occasionally
advertised, derived their name from an anci-
ent practice of measuring the time within
which the biddings must be completed by
candle, the highest bidder at the moment the
inch burnt out becoming the purchaser. The
minimum price at which the owner was
willing to part with his property was some
times put under a andlestick-'dumb bid
dings;'' and in the north of England still
occur sales where the bidders do not know
each others ffers-''candlestick bddings."
A curious kind of auction used according to
an old reporter Il Dow. 81 to be held by
females, who did not speak during the whole
sale, but gave every person the moment he
bid glass of bI andy, the purchaser being
he who received the last glass in a private
room. 1t is a little surprising that practice,
so well calculated to warm up competition,
should have become obsolete. In England
person is sometimes appointed, called the
judge of the roup, to superintend the sale
and act as arbiter if disputes arise. In mo-
dern times sales at public auction are
as common as private sales, and are directed
in most cases by the law, where it interposes
between the owner of property and the pur-
chaser-its object being the protection OF
those who necessarily put the disposition OF
their estate in the hands of trustee as bank
rupts or members of municipal corporation.
The red flag is the ordinary sign OF the trade and
the auctioneer, with his hammer. his boisterous
aV,1 l. N
humorous appeals to the company, is often
very original character. No prejudice APP
pears to exist against him or his business
now; but from 1917 to 1881 there was a
strong anti-auctiOn feeling in this country,
particularly in New York, and upon the part
of importers and iobbing merchants. Auc
tions were charged with furnishing facilities
for cOncealment. smuggling and perjury, and
with being injurious TO the growth and
prosperity of cities. and il was vainly at
tempted to induce Congress TO pass a law,
imposing such duty upon them as would
amount to prohibition. The auctioneer is the
sellers agent, and as such has special pro-
perty in the goods, a lien upon them or upon
the purchase money, where he il authorized
to receive it. for his commission, the auction
duty, and the charges of the sale. If he
exceed bis authority, or refuse to give the
name of his principal he renders himself
usually authorized to receive the deposit,
but not the residue of the purchase money.
He often receives this deposit as a sort of
stakeholder. to be paid over if a good title is
made. 1t is his duty TO do his best to possess
skill, to pursue the regular course of business,
and to comply with all legal instructions.
The conditions of sale and the plans and
description of the property, particularly If
real estate, should be accurately made known
beforehand. If printed or written, they
control the oral statement of the auctioneer,
for. in the words of Lord Peterborough
''men cannot tell what contracts they enter
INTO, II the CONDITIONS UfSie are to be controIl-
ed by the babble of the auction ruUln.r Slight
inaccuracies of description do not, but suhstan-
tial ones do avoid the sale. A bid at an auction
may be retracted before the hammer is down,
and in cases where a written entry is required
to complete the sale, before that is made.
For bid is only an offer, which does not
bind either party until assented to. Fraud
upon either side avoids the sale. The employ
ment of bidders by the owner is or is not
Illegal, according as circumstances tend to
show bad or good faith. To employ them
in order to prevent a sacrifice by buying in
the property, is, except where the sale is
advertised as being without reserve" allow
able. But it is a fraud to use them for the
purpose of enhancing the price through a
fictitious competition. On the other hand
the sale is void if the purchaser prevails
upon Others to desist from bidding by appeals
to their sympathy or false representations.
Mock auctions live by the disregarding Of
these rules. The only bona tide bidders at
them are persons unacquainted with the ways
of the city, to whom, therefore, articles are
knocked down at once. NJ Y. C0ur. and Eaq