Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-04-29
Where Character is Shown.

An auction sale is a world in miniature,
where the characteristics of men and women
may be studied by those who have sufficient
control of themselves to turn deaf ear to
the persuasions of the auctioneer. There
is the unimpressionable, selfish man, who
wants front seat but buys only undoubted
bargains, and not at all unless he knows
how he can dispose of his purchases. There
is the confiding young housewife longing
for articles with which to decorate her
home and too innocent to doubt the descrip-
tons given of the things put up for SALE
There is the timid man, constantly losing
the chance to buy because he cannot make
up his mind until the hammer has fallen.
There is the obstinate woman, who, being
opposed, buys at any price rather than
yield to a rival. There is the proud man,
who once having entered the lists bids
steadily on without regard to market
values, and there is the experienced buyer
of either sex who knows to cent what to
pay for an article, bids up to that point and
then stops, and cannot be cajoled or
bullied or ridiculed into going one step
farther. All these characters meet in COM
petition in the auction-room, and these
same characters meet also in less obvious
competition in ordinary business dealings
and in social and political life. The ready
wit, the control of ones feelings and emo
tions, the strong character that marks out
line of action and follows it-all these
qualities that 60 to make up good buyer
at auction are useful elsewhere While it
may not be true that good auction buyer
is leader in society or a shrewd and sue
cessful man in business-because he may
have developed skill in only one direction
yet it is safe to say that one who cannot,
after little experience, become good
buyer at auction, is deficient in some
quality that is essential to the makeup of a
strong, self-reliant, successful man. 1t
used to be a custom for men to submit
their heads to the examination of q
phrenologist that they might be told in
what they were deficient, the purpose being
to make endeavors to correct their faults of
character under the guidance thus afforded
them. One might with equal propriety,
and at little more expense, submit himself
to the examination of an auctioneer-not in
formal way, but by an actual test of his
powers as buyer. If he should find him.
self too timid to bid, or too rash, or liable
to be carried away by pride or obstinacy,
or to be discouraged by opposition, he
would know what his weaknesses were and
could seek to correct them. The general
auction-room does not offer SO fair test,
perhaps, as one of the special auctions of
books or of pictures, for example. The art
lover who can go to sale of paintings and
resist the temptation to buy that which he
does not want, but knows to be cheap,
may be sure that he has himself under good
control. If, having reached the limits of a
prudent bid on a picture he covets, be
resolutely resists the seductive appeals of
the auctioneer and the irritating chances of
those who look with plying eye upon him
because he dares not raise the bid, he may
set himself down as hero fitted To fight
the battle of life on more important fields.
If, however, he should discover weakness
in himself, that be is irresolute and slets
dare not wait upon 7 would" or that he is
rash and buys beyond the prudent limits
of his purse, he has learned valuable les
son respecting his faults Of character that
he may put to good account. In this
.jostling world men are continually bidding
one against another with their money, their
talents and their energies, and they have to
zee that they do not pay too much for the
purchases they make; they have also to
see that they are not continually outbid
for want of courage and an effort on their
part to command attention. Above all they
must learn to be self-reliant and to depend
upon their own judgment rather than sub.
nit themselves to be led away by the song
of the auctioneer or driven to foolish
course by the sneers of their companions
The auction-room offers them little world
in which they may see their faults in min
iature, which is the way most people pre-
fer to regard them. Yet this miniature will
serve as well as magnifed image to point
the way to proper development and such
49, ing out of character as shall make the
get man.-BdH. Sun.