San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-08-31
Oh, YES /! Oh, YES 4!
THE WAYS AND BUSINESS OF
AUCCIONEERS.
The Three HIS in san AntoniO-Sto'
ries BY Them OF Their
Experience.

full of talk, always ready to laugh,
has lots of brass, makes political
speeches In any place and at any
time, and is generally known as q
"hsle fellow, we'll met" Some auc-
tioneers are bright, always being
ready to reply to any and all ques-
tons. using, If he deems necessary,
wit of any description.
The life led by an auctioneer is q
pleasant one. he is not compelled to
read, All, in fact, most of them do
not. They learn how to talk or "cry
a SALE" rapidly, and this is the ex-
tent of their busi2ess and social
| knowledge. They ar, as rule,
great schemers, in way, A lady
| DESTROYS of closing out her nn%use-
hold goods, preparatory to going loi
an extended visit to some relative,
calls at the Office OF the auctioneer
and makes known her desire. He
will find out what amount of goods
are to be disposed of, makes an
nouncements of the sale in the daily
papers and circulates a number Of
dodgers over the city. On the day of
the sale. he, puts on his natural airs
and makes his appearance before his
victims, smiling If he sees crowd Of
inexperienced ladies, whom he thinks
are ready and anxious to buy al a
large price. II, when the sale Is
first arranged for, the salesman
finds that the stock Is not q
large one, he makes . visit to
| some secondhand furniture store and
requests that the proprietor send a
load of goods to the house to be sold,
| and the commissions to be divided
between the two. In many cases the
| goods from the store are sold at bet
| ter prices than the goods belonging
to the house, at which the sale Is
taking place, as the "cryer" spends
more of his time, tongue and wit on
| these goods, there being more money
| In the sale for him. Many times q
secondhand piano is carried to the
selling place aud sold in the same way
and on the same terms as the
| furniture from the two-bit store. This
| is q good money making plan for both
the secondhand people and tue
suctioneer, but does not in all cases,
please the lady who is disposiug of
| her stock. There Is another thing too,
| In this profession, which is not genrr-
ally known to the public and that is,
how goods are "sold to Mrs.
Jones'" An article is put up, bi Dis
| are made and when the suctioneer
sees that the cost of the article is not
beng received he will run it up thai k
| ing some one in the rear of the crowd
for his generous bid and knocks it
| down" to the rear man at
| large price, when 1t will be learn ed
later that the man in the back was
not present, but that the windy cry or
had only made up a name in order to
retain the goods, the amount of the
real bids not being large enough to
Justify q sale. Another thing is
noticed frequently at an auction ga lie,
and that is a wink and q blink. +"
When you see man selling an arti Gle
and at the same time winking and
blinking his left eye, you may C ~
clude at once that there is mischief at
hand.
In this city, the residents are not
bothered with this taking class of
suctioneers; that IL, to any great ex-
| tent, though they all have their
tricks. there being tricks in all
trades" In San Antonio there are
three good auctioneers, known as the
three HIS" They are Hossck, Hud
ley and Harvey, and are very bright,
witty and pleasant men, and, being
strictly honest, one can attend the
sales without anticipating "beat on
1 tho deal
Col. w. 8. HadIy, in speaking u
| tho Oh oject of queer happenings la
his experience, told Of a lady he had
| in q crowd at one time, where he was
selling some household goods. He
was selling $l5.5 water cooler and it
was sitting on top S2h refrigerator.
| He had a bid OF 35 cents wnen the
lady stopped him and inquired if the
refrigerator went with it, Eyes,
Madam" he said, land that $500
plano over there, also.
Then I'll bid cents MORE" said
the lady and the colonel fell of the
table in fit and the sale was post
pon0d tor the day.
1T knock the breath out of US
auctioneers sometime" said Col.
Hadlsy, when we can work off an
old wornout birdcage, worth Is cents,
for so or 70 cents, on the crowd, and
we laugh for three days when we
sell lady's side saddle, castor oil on
bulk, or old pots OF paint. But the
people who attend auction sales will
buy anything"