The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-03-08

work are achieved. Occasionally, ship bearing fur consignments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars Is de- layed and the commission men are wild with impatience and alarm. The opening day of the auction Is just at hand Nothing has been heard of the shin. Suddenly, she is sighted. The fur men have a big force of workmen on the dock, special train is in waiting. me skins are hustled off the ship, handled at lightning speed and thrown aboaTu the special train, which makes record time to London. There all hands are waiting Not moment is lost Assort- Ing and cataloguing are done as II py miracle and at the eleventh hour an- other particular is handed to the trade and the heads of the commission house draw long breaths of rellef ana triumph. The bulk of the business done by these firms is enormous. Silver ana blue fox, sea otter and Russian sahie arrive in comparatively small quanti- ties, but the more plebian furs are col lected in surprising quantities. The idea of catching two hundred and thir- ty thousand skunks would be rather ap-. palling to the man who has been ac- customed to having one skunk in his yard. but that number of skunk skins was sold at last years sale. Then two hundred and nineteen thousand minks contributed their skins to the annual collection, seven hundred and seven- teen thousand muskrats died the death for the same purpose, sixty thousand red foxes suspended their chicken stealing in order to become ornamental, and there were six hundred and four teen thousand opossum skins.
 The auction is held in the Commercial sales rooms, holding. possibly, four hundred buyers Year after year tile same men occupy the same seats, by no right save that of universal recognition and tolerance. Sometimes father drops out and his place is taken by his son or partner, but the firm is there in the old place, and every one knows where to look for it. The big buyers are closely watched by the smaller fry for upon them to a great extent depends the race of the sale. The auctioneer starts elf with some small and univer- sally salable skin, as for example, the Hudson Bay sable. The first lot goes slowly. No one is in a hurry or Wildly interested. The price goes up, shil- ling at move, until it reaches twenty, then goes by two-and-siX. A buyer bids thirty, and no one overbids. The first lot is sold Now the fun begins The buyer of the first lot at thirty, has q right to take all the other lots of the same class at that same price unless some one interferes and bids higher. There's rGthing slow about the proce- d,ra now. The auctioneer starts in upon the list of lots, rattling them off as fast as his tongue can work.
 "No. 2-Same. No. S-same," &c.
 If the original buyer represents q small business, 5he other men know that he will want only few lots; so they quietly wait until he shakes his head. Then they jump in, and the quickest oAe sets the option at the same ol1 thirty. Hut the buyers know that this man will gobble everything within sight al that :rice so they can't af- ford to let him have it. They begin to hid. If the hldding is lively, he is forced up and up. He lets small buyers in because he knows they will want lttle. and letting them have it may keep the price down for him, but when the other fig buyers are in he must fight. or | done out of his supply
 Rids rattle like hailstones and yet af- ter q sale an experienced buyers cata- loeue will show not only what each lot sold for. hut also to whom it was sold. Often the game Waxes so fast and furi-