El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-19
SEVEN DOLLARS
Buys Barrel OF "6o1d Ore" At q
Sale OF UnCldimed Freight

Sale OF Unclaimed Freight
An auction of unclaimed freight 4
Pnilade lpaia, says the Inquirer, at
tr1cted queer crowd of gvniuses Il
com merce ana Industry. If that hal
| of the world which does not know hoy
the other half Lve4 had beeu there i
wOul1 have been aole to zee ten thou
sand tricks of trade never dreamed o
| before.
| speculatOr can start upon nOLhing anC
build u fortune is All wrong. Th,
NapoleOns of SJuth sire ct were .hen n
| work. the heaps of ARTICLES for sal.
| were surrounded by dozens of juLE
dealers, who counted themselves luck
that the rain kept away rival bidders
The most sensational item on the lis
was ''ODe barrel of gold Ore." There
we're no marks on tue barr el. There
nor to whom IL was sent. The railrC ]
company bad not taken any of it to the
mint to have 1t asssyed. Il was very
heavy, like gold ought to be.
WHAT am l BID for it?" cried the
auctioneer 10 the same manner as he
called out lin cans or boxes of soap.
Fifty cents" answered the only in
dividual who seemed to take an inter
est In it at first. .'I's Ike buyi' q
policy Slip" he added, with a shrug OF
the shoulders But such Is human ma
ture, rs mauifest d a. an auction, To AZ
there was al immediate suspicion that
that man knew the real value of the
stuff.
"Fresh from the KIon dike," said the
auctiOneer, rafting away; "adOllar-
ad ollarad ollsradol Ia sdollar."
The bids vent up by ten-cent jumps
to 50, while the auctiOneer informed
them that the war with the Tran-vaal
bad even forced Englsnd, chief credi-
tor nation of the earth, to become q boz =
rover and that congress is sure to
adopt the gold standard.
"W hats COpgres-T' grunted a be-
whiskered individual from the Che ITO,
A more Am-ricanized dealer replied
TO the auct,oneer's jollying. ''DJn't
you kuO~ you cao't increase the value
of gold by legislation?"
That right, because it has iutrin-
sic value" SAID the auctioper.
"FivedOlla -sIhaveivedollarsI nayefve-
do larsw hO'l max eitshalf?"
The spsculators consulted their
dreams and man who said he had
dreamed of ghosts TIE n ght before and
knew that ghosts always meant good
luck for him made 1t a half" for the
aucti"neer. AT last the stuff was
knocked down to a man named Mason
for 81.
Guess you've got gold brick 90
| said the InQuirer reporter, as he back
ed away from the crowd.
"Well," said the man with a know
ing look, 81 guess there Is enough
stuff 10 that barrel to make several
gold bricks. What do you take me
for, an Indian?''
Ii his look meant what the Inquirer
man thought IL did there will be lot
of visitors to the Uoited States mint
during the course of the next month
with small consignmepts. just received
from relatives 10 the KloLdike, to be
assayed, and the man who paid 81 for
the barrel will not be among them,
He Ia something of 40 ssssyer him
self. He also knoweth the meaning of
caveat empto-, and he will cell tha
stuff for exactly what it is, to wit,
''poid dust"
But there was something decided v
more interesting to thu student of the
phenomena of life and business of the
''su Emerged teutn" in the purchases of
the THOUSAND and one OTHER articles In
the piles of goods which we're too
worthless to the consignees TO induce
the IN to ray for freight and hauling.
L. was the mystery OF ingenuity of me n
and women in the struggle for exist
ence. They were proving the pbiloso-
piers axiom + a. there is nothing
that Is u-eI Sc, tt at refuse is cnly mis-
placed matter; and these buyers were
the keen-eyed business mn who could
see the Places where those things
would be useful. and how they could
handle them so a. to make money out
of them and make them useful to
humanity.