The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-05-11
A GREAT AUCTION SALE.
How the Ely Walker Stock was Dis
posed of at st. Louis.

posed of at st. Louis.
The auction sale of the Ely-Walker
stock of dry goods, which number of
Topeka merchants attended at st. Louis
last week, is thus described by the St.
Louis Republic:
At midnight last night the biggest auc-
ton sale ever held in the United States,
if not in the world, was brought to a
close in this city. It was the disposal Of
the entire salvage stock of the Ely-Walk-
er Dry Goods company, under the direc-
ton of the underwriters committee. The
stock was valued at 81, OO0 900, and brought
somewhere between $50O,O00 and 5000, 900.
The purchasers came from every Sec
ton of the country and constituted a
gathering of the brainest, shrewdest and
most quick-witted men in their special
lines that were ever brought together in
a commercial emporium. Every point
was sharply contested and the competi-
ton was hot from start to finish, yet the
sale was so well conducted and the
crowds so well handled that there was
friction and the whole thing passed
off in the most harmonious manner pos
sible.
Some idea of the immensely of the sale
may be had from the fact that upwards
of 100, 900 600 yards of goods were disposed
of upon practically a cash basis; that
the auction went on uninterruptedly from
early morning till late at night every day
for week, and more than half a mil
lion dollars passed over the counters dur
ing that time. Every line of goods that
is carried by dry goods house of the
first magnitude, with the exception of
few lines of notions that were so badly
damaged that they were worth nothing,
was included in the sale.
If every bolt of goods had been unrolIed
and stretched out in a straight line its
length would have been 3O0OOO,OOO feet or
IS, 0S3 miles. The line would have been
long enough to extend two and a half
times around the world and would have
been sufficient to festoon the entire coast
line of the North American continent
with vari-cOlored fabrics, from Panama
clear around the Atlantic side to the Arc
tic, sweeping down into Hudson Bay and
over to the Pacific, and thence down to
Washington, Oregon and California
coast to Mexico and the Central Ameri-
can Republics, and back to the point of
beginning. This would have been in turn
decorated with laces, ribbons, suspend
ers, hosiery and a thousand and one
knickknacks which are not sold by the
yard.
On an average from 125 to $50 lots per
hour were knocked down under the ham
mer day in and day out until every yard
of the stock had been bid in.
In some of these lots there were as
many as 100 pieces. which makes the
thing the more remarkable, as the buy
ers had to keep themselves keyed up to
the very highest notch and be on the
alert every moment of the day in order
to be able to keep apace with their com
petitors and still buy within the market
value of the goods Such keen wit and
such rapidity at figures have probably
never before been witnessed. The goods
went off at the rate of one lot or more
per minute during the whole time the
auction was on, in spite of the fact that
the purchasers had great financial inter-
ests at stake, and the slightest niscaI-
culatiOn in the value of the merchandise
for which they were bidding might have
entailed great pecuniary loss to them or
the houses they represented The aver
age value of the purchases made was
about $3.50 the sales running all the way
from $500 to $4,000, with not moment
for calculation.
Chicago merchants were probably the
largest purchasers, with st. Louis. New
York, Boston, Cincinnati, Baltimore and
in fact nearly every large city in the
country close at their heels. The largest
individual purchase was $4,000 by a Chi
cagO house. which was one of the most
persistent and continuous bidders on the
floor St. Louis houses got great deaf
of the cream of the stock and some hand
SOIHe margins Will De realized by the To-
cal dry goods men, many of whom dis
tinguished themselves as close buyers
At one time 400 lots of goods were sold
in 80 minutes, and the rate frequently
ran as high 200 lots an hour Within
% hours 3,001 separate and distinct lots
were disposed of, among which was con-
siderable stuff that was particularly
hard to sell
A remarkable feature of the auction
was the nicely with which the goods
were arranged for the inspection of pros
pective purchasers. Within 4S hours after
the fire the underwriters had a drying
plant in operation in which 2,OOOOOO yards
per day could be dried and gotten ready
for inspection. A force of $50 men was
kept busy day and night and Sundays
for several weeks sorting, arranging and
cataloguing the goods. The drying was
done with an exhaust fan and blower,
and the greater part of the material
| could be dried in the bolt.
Within six days the whole stock con-
tanned in three immense houses. one at
the corner of Ninth and Washington ave-
nue., another at Eighth and Lucas ave-
nue., and the third the warehouse near
Ninth and Lucas avenue, has been dis
! posed of, with the exception of a few
lots which will be sold at a supplement
tary sale, to be held within a week or
10 days. The out-of-town bidders will not
remain for this sale, as there are only
300 or 400 lots to be disposed of, and To-
cal bidders will take it in.