The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-01-18
THEY GO IT BLIND
People Who Attend the Waah'
ington Dead Letter Sale.
Crowds Throns Around the Auctionesr.
All Striving tn Get Something for Next
TO Nothing-How the Debris 10 Dis
posed of and What IL Realized

It Is aphoristic among gamblers that
"there is sucker born every second
| Proof would be attainable IN Washing
! ton that the above reflection is at least
half true Nor does the evidence lie
more thickly 10 the hand than whea
some auction of the government,
whether Of post Office or custom house,
calls il 20 the surface. Mankind, purely
I for the clements OF luck and chance,
! does dearly love an auction The
Toodles family under a variety OF
aliases bristles like asparagus through
every director, Washington. besides,
being the Mecca of cranks and tie
haven OF faddists of all sorts, Is the par
adise Of the country for auction tends
/ Not that all people who attend auc-
Z lions are fiepGs who smoke cigarettes
or work cameras. but there Is large
I class who make a rccrea ton Of attend
/ ing auctions as most people do of going
/ TO thsaters. And there is no place in
the country where this class gets in its
creGtion with more effect than in
/ Washington. Poor Uncle sam can
never give or throw anything away.
I
Z II is when he gets through with il he
has TO advertise and sell it. The gov.
ernment departments have ''old hoss.-
otherwise junk, sales. every year. and
one can buy anything. from a worm
ont cannon TO q com binstion safe that
has lost the combination But the
feast of fat things for the hnoftue OF
the auction-rooIn Is when the annual
dead-letter sale comes around That
| joyful time came the other day. and
Thomas Bowling. Nashiagton's vet
eran aucticneer, who In his time has
knocked down everything from a patent
flying machine 70 = suburban subdi-
vision, was Uncle Sans deputy who
cried out the accumulation OF thingA
that had gone astray n the mails.
The proportion of articles lost in the
mails is relatively infinitesimal, hut
even a fraction Of Der cent. out of the
millions of letters and packages trans
ported mounts up TO the thousands be-
fore the year is out, 90 there were
| over 5000 packages, containing any
where from one To half dozen articles
each, that were piled up in the auction
These were divided into three sched-
ules. the first, miscellaneous arts :les;
the second, books, and the third.
sewelry and kindred ARTICLES. The last
schedule contained genuine articles In
the jewelry line, and the 'snide" ar
ticlos were thrown In with the misccl-
laneous and so labeled. There wer>
4,252 miscellaneous packages, LIZ
books. of which little over 100 were
/ foreign publications, and 1s5 packages
of jewelry. The crowd was more thar
the average slze-larger. in fact, than
has attended dead-letter sale Ia
Washington for years. 1t may be that
this was because Of the approaching
holidays, when many people were look
ing for bargains in Christmas pr~senta
for their more or lees dear friends, but
however that may be Mr.. Bowling toole
In about $500 of the pubiic's money for
the !, 600 or more heterogeneous pacA.
ages that were bid of. Tho bidding
were short, sharp, and decisive, and tina
sale averaged about two packages
minute for the actual working time.
I This record was beaten for occasional
epurts, however, the auctionecr getting
away with as many as six packages In
a single minute.
The government, while 80 really ran
a lottery scheme 10 The auction. waA IA
fair as possible - its customers AL
the packages were put up m elcsed
bundles, and ali one had 20 Judge by
was the size Of the package and The
description in tho catalogue. But in
tho case Of damaged goods they were
so marked. and I'll articles of clothing.
where size was a copsidssa Hon, had
the size given also. For Instance, the
second package ia the List WA given
as pair Of woman's corsst~, - inehes,-
so there was no ground for grrrn bling
II the stout gentleman who bought
them found they did not st
But nero description Of the concise
sort given Ia the catalogue was not
much Of guide. Pipe and tobacco"
might mean Sc mesr-chaGm and
fYe pounds OF choice Turkish, or IL
might mean a short-stemm~d dndeps
and plug Of thrse-ply. You named
your bids, snd II you got the frss
named for 81 cents you uer. that
b
element OF your next door neigh boz
led you into bidding e. for the latter,
that vas your tault. not his Razor
and q pair q shoes. which was ors
package. might mean Damascus steel
and mother II pearl handle, with .
pair OF The best kangaroo leather and
calf tops, or II nigh, mean q pair a
police-nen's brogsus and one Of the
Eort Of weapons that the police justice
gives the resiosnts q BioocSeld So
months for carrying. whichever 10
wa Downing did uos bstrSy By word
or gesture what so<t Of AArgsfn be
was giTiI.g. and the eu<orrer did not
know TIL be opsnsd his package. But
taking II al IL al, the FoTernment
and the bidders about broke sven IN
TIE race
History OF tbs Pea
The word pa" Il derived from Pisa.