Morning journal and courier., 1880-07-09
London Mock Auctions.
What a ''Crab'' Has to Say as to COnspir- acfes Which are Doubtless Known in New York.

What ssCrab'' Has to Sayas to Conspir.
 acies Which Doubtless Known in
 New York.
 From the London TeIegraph.l
 ''What trade did follow before I became brokers man ? Well, I don't suppose there's many that know what crab is un- less they are in the trade-the furniture-auc- tion trade, mean. I'll tell you how it is There's a certain class of auctioneers who de- pend on their regular followers for making a good show of attendance at sales. Say I'm an auctloneer just gone into business, and not very particular so long as I can do a brisk trade. My first move is to make myself known to and to make friends with those secondhand furniture-dealers who regularly attend private sales I give lem to under stand that if they'll work with me I'll work with them. We'll, say I've got house of goods to sell. Soon as the catalogues are printed send 'em one each by post, so that they may see the kind of goods that are go- ing, and I-the auctioneer I mean-have been over lem, and am able to put tick against anything that may be specially worth their buying. Say thut -she auction is aldver- tised for 12 o'clock an hour before that time the room in which the sale is to be held will be packed pretty we'll full with the auction eer's followers, and by the likes of me who
 follow the followers and who are known as
 crabs I don't know why they're so called unless 1t is that their business is to put crab or a stop, or whatever you like to call it, on the biddings of the private people who may come to the sale. How do they interfere with the private bidding? Oh, there's twenty ways of doing it. They're not very nice lot, the knockout crabs. Nasty in their ways and not nice in their language-and manners. Thems the tools they work with in general That and horsepfay. Say there's 'spectable three or four ladies and gentlemen of the neighborhood come very likely to give good price for some things, and thinking in their innocence they're doing the sold-up party a good turn by doing so. We'll it's the duty of the crabs to work that respectable lot fore and aft as the sayin' is. A couple of crabs will get behind 'em, and there's sure to be others before lem, and the dodge is to pass orkard articles of furniture that's being put up showed round back ards and for ards, so that they-the respectable lot I mean-gets the benefit of it, and have bonnets showed off and their hats knocked over their eyes, and sharp corners O mahogany poked agin their back and shoulders. That nat 'rlly gets lem out of temper, and they get chaffed and push ed about and jeered at for being there at all, and taking the bread out of the mouth of the regular trade. Sometimes there'n be stran- gers-of the respectable sort, I mean-who have just happened to drop in, and mean buy ing. The way to choke them off is for the crabs to talk amongst themselves so as to be overheard, as to whether it was smallpox or typhus fever the late owner of the goods died
 
 and that sort of thing has been seen to. One way and another those that are not wanted are in general got rid of before the sale has been on an hour, and then of course, things go smooth Does the auctioneer say nothing to the crabs about their playful ways? Rath- CT. He goes on at lem good un, and takes the part of the 'spectable ones. But the game goes on all the same till they're got rid of You don't see where their advantage is Very true; and, as you remark, an auctioneer's game is regulated by the amount of money sale realizes, and that if he lets the goods go for less than they would fetch if fairly treat ed he has less to charge his client in the way of percentage; but you must understand, cording to the system I'm talking about the obigin' auctioneer gets two percentages. What on? Why, on the second sale of the furniture, to be sure-on the real side of it. The auctioneer don't sell it again. Oh, dear no it's the cheerman of the knockout that does that. Whats the knockout? The swim-the followers mean. It don't mat ter what the lots have been knocked down at the value of 'em has got to be regulated af terwards The followers, who have cleared pretty well all the catalogue, come from all parts; so it's convenient to settle the business before they separate. They generally go to a public house near the sale place, where there is room they can sit in quiet and comforta- ble. They-the followers, I mean-choose a cheerman and the others sit round, each
 
 goes to business as follows The cheerman he says, 'P'raps gen'lmen, the fust lot of ours is the drawing room chimney glass. Thirty five shillings was the hammer price. Wot's it worth? Then the bidding begins, and p'raps it goes up two pun ten, if so that's fif- teen shillings for the poel. There's pretty well sure to be amongst the followers regu- lar buyer of good pianos and another of old china. If such goods are in the knockout and the regular buyer is present there is no opposition. He puts something wots con sidered liberal in the pool and takes the arti- cle at the hammer price. So 1t goes on all until all the lots are shared in a sat isfaetory manner and nothing remains to be done but divide the pool, which perhaps is twenty or thirty pounds strong It is divid- ed according to how much each man has spent in buying at the knockout price, three or four shillings in the pound, the auctioneer in general standing in for sum the same as that took out of the pool by the buyer first on the list. What do the crabs get ? They get what's chucked to lem, in manner O. speaking They do dogs work, and they get dogs treatment. Nobody hires them; they follow the followers-there agin, just as dogs might and they know what's expected of 'em and they do it, and they are thankful if the knockout gentlemen up stairs send lem down a shilling each, and allow lem a feed of bread and d-cheese and drink of beer It is a wretched way for man to earn a living a : mean and miserable way" said MT. Rock, wagging his head dolefully at the remnant of rum and water before him, "but it'll be bet ter than the workus anyhow, if it's only on account of the privilege of sleeping in cheer instead of on bedsteadn
 Work is about to be begun at Hop Brook, near Waterbury, the widest and deepest gap on the New York and New Enpland railroad z