Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-11-25
CROWDS ATTEND SALES.
Auctions at New York Customs
House Draw Throngs Daily.
INTEREST IS ROMANTIC.
Many Articles with Histories Are Bar
tered-Common Impulse Brings
Buyers to Wharf.

Hundreds of thousands OF packages
are brought to this country By incoming
passenger vessels and trading ships
Thousands of these packages never
reach their owners Unclaimed or aban-
doned. they pile up in the New York
custom house until their bulk becomes a
nuisance ana the collector of the port
orders clearing safe by public auction
Crowds Attend Sales.
\ large and eager throng attend these
sales, and the interested spectator try
ing TO force his way 10 a position in
range OF the aucti0neers desk finds him
self one moment the center of a knot
OF excited liquor dealers diSputing the
vintage of an unclaimed consignment of
Wine, the next elbowing Il Chinaman
feasting his eyes in reyerent alterations
on conhScated JOSS hanging high above
the heads of the crowd, the next pushed
rudely to one side by a chatIerin@ mob
from the Ghetto intent on securing the
many consignments of damaged and UNI
claimed clothing.
Another shifting of the mass of hui
mainly and his eyes meet those of a
dark skinned immigrant with a bright
kerchiet knotted under her chin. but
with shoulders bent with toll and an eX-
preston of hopeless melancholy dulling
her eyes. She is not on the lookout for
bargains, but to bid in, if her scanty
savings suffice, a bundle of clothing and
an accordion sent months before from
the old home on which she was unable
to pay the duty. There are other immi-
grants and crowded close to them is a
group of well dressed young women who
have come just for the fun of it"
Common Impulse Brings Them.
Diverse though the nationalities. types
and caste of the throng may be, it needs
bat glance to discern that common
impulse has brought il together-the
impulse that has made Il race of bargain
hunters of every nation on the globe, and
nowhere IS this universal trait more
Enthusiastically and amuSiugly dis
played than at these unclaimed goods
sales, with their motley crowds strug-
Cling and pushing and jostling each 9TH
ef III the effort to secure the biggest
prize for the least money.
Interest Grows Keener.
As tie auction proceeds the interest
of the throng grows keener. On every
side, piled high on tables, and from
floor to ceiling are the goods being bar
tered, in bundles, boxes, cases, barrels
and bales OF every size and description,
and keeping guard over them was I'm
Gle joe GU kshank, one of the quaint
characters of the New York custom
house. All surreptitious attempts to ex-
anime the contents of the myriad parcels
were quickly stopped, but it was not oil
blind bidding, as there had been two
days exhibition of the articles.
Consignments of tobacco, wine, tea,
hay, earthenware, hemp, Irvine, crude
colors and liquors are put up and prompt
~ bid on by the dealers.
There was buzz of excitement
throughout the sale of mysterious bead
ed handbag, marked with the name Van
derbilt. 1t was appraised at 81, though
its original price was said to have been
more than 500, but the magic of the
name sent it above its appraisal on the
second bid, and after sharp contest it
went to a forid gentleman of apparent
means for SD.
Romantic Interest Settles on Some
One of the articles about which the
most romantic interest settled was an
old Swedish spinning wheel, originally
billed to one OIL Hansen, Pride Corners.
Me-, Z. s. A, the history of which it
would have been interesting to know
An old cannon, shipped from Santo
Domingo, which doubtless also had his
tory, went to a relic hunter for a song.
while a 500 wooden leg went for So TO
a great, hearty man with all his limbs
intact. A score of clerks were kept busy
during the sale, and at it's close Uncle
Sam was found to be nearly $4,000 in
Docket.-BrOoklyn Eagle.