The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-02-18
N
Scenes at an Auction of an Oriental Drug
stock.


other afternoon.
The place had been attached by cred
itors and sold by the sheriff to an auc-
t%ioneer, who disposed of the stock at
public sale. Nobody but experts would
have given five dollars for the contents
of the whole store. A tea-box filled
with dirt, which was not even fit for
fertllizing purposes, brought thirty
dollars, after a spirited contest between
two highbinders.
Then the Chinese auctioneer held up
a pill box full of little pinto beans,
and, after explaining that they had
been dipped in the blood of a brave
hatchetman and were actually guaran-
teed to cure anything from a sore zoe
to cholera infantum, received a bid of
twelve dollars-just one dollar each
and finally knocked them down regret
fully at eighteen dollars to the leader
of the Suey Ong Tong.
A little handful of goose quilts, filed
with spaghetti of an inferior quality
and apparently unfit for even Chinese
soap, sold for ten dollars. This, the
auctioneer explained, was a sort of Ce-
lestial pepsin that would take the kinks
out of a disordered stomach or a sam
shu head quicker than anything the or
binary druggist could concoct.
The next remedy offered for sale was
a paper box filled with dry ducks feet,
which had been stepped in Gears gall.
The rheumatism has about as much
show against this combination as an
Fc1-.r,o ~ ~
Therefore, the box containing the webs
of a dozen ducks sold readily for eight
dollars. A bears gall. fresh from the
mountains of Sonoma, brought five dol
lars.
Real owl grease went rapidly at high
prices. A handful of desiccated water
melon seeds sold for a price hat would
buy a carload of melons. A small bot
tie of coon grease and pitch, a sure and
speedy cure for the earache, was
knocked down at four dollars and fifty
cents. When bidding tagged the auc-
tioneer explained that the price Of
plain Don and the value of pitch should
not be taken into consideration. The
value of the remedy all lay in knowing
how to mix them.
A single curved surgeons needle was
found in the stock. The Chinese were
10th to bid anything for it, as they had
always done their sewing with straight
needles and did not care to experiment
with a crooked one.
Huh, him no good" muttered a
prospective purchaser. Heap clooked;
stick finger all time. ST want clooked
needle l BEN it."
"You heap fool. No sabe. How docta
sew up bullet hole stlaight needle?
Mus be lound. like hole. How
muchee?" and a broad grin spread over
his countenance as a highlander bid
one dollar. 1t was finally knocked
down for two dollars and a half.
Two large tea boxes filled with lot
terry tickets sold for ten dollars: but
just as the purchaser was about to pay
for them the police appeared and carted
them off to the central station. The
a%uctioneer raved and swore in Chinese
and English, but he could not compel
the purchaser to pay for them.
"Gim me ten dolly" he demanded,
savagely.
Gin me ticket" responded the buy
err, indifferently.
VIVA TO you no GIN me money!"
"Wha' fo' you no GIN me ticket?"
"P'leece take EN-"
"P1eece TAX money, too, maybe" re-
sponded the other. That argument
was apparently a tinisher, for after
muttering a few ~anathemas upon the
police the a%uctioneer exposed a can full
of dry mashed potatoes Ind called for a
bid. He volunteered to pay for any
case of anything on earth that the COM
pound would not cure if properly APP
piled. A tiny vial containing poison
from the fangs of some reptile was sold
to another Chinese druggist for fifty
dollars. 1t was to be used for poison
ing the blades of highbinders' knives.
All sorts of curious looking COM
pounds We're sold for what seemed
most unconscionable prices. There
was what appeared to be extract of
dried abalone, also a mixture of blue
stone and molasses, which the white
auctioneer pronounced to be compound
pollywog t%incture of blue ruin, and I'M
der that name it was sold by his Chi
nese colleague for seven dollars and
sixty-five cents.
Waters of sliced devil-fsh for boils,
powders Of dried tarantula legs for
f~evers, and anything o~utlandish or
unique that could be concocted was
produced and sold for fabulous prices.
In fact. half a ton of ~quinine or honest
boneset wouldn't have sold for ten
cents. To the superstitious Mongolian
mind it was only something out of the
ordinary that would prove eficacious.
The auctioneer realized a handsome
profit, however, and the purchasers