The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-11-03

been allowed to secure LII0 Aoi'o9 N1 I4le
 price, This preceding Justice Darling stigmatized as the grossest traud, ad-
 ding: Tt is a circumstance which l
 should think would make people shy of
 going to autcion rooms where such things are permitted, A horse is
 knocked down at half its vaIue-why?
 Because there is ring or persons who go there and convert the auction into perfect mockery'
 One can we'll understand the judges indfgnation. but his strictures appear a
 little unfair to the auctioneers' It IS
 manifestly impossible for the latter to turn a number of dealers out or the
 room merely on the suspicion that they
 might have some secret agreement
 among themselves. Plainly, the
 knockout is as bad for the honest
 auetioneer as for the seller; if lots go
 for less than their value, the auctloheer
 gets so much the less commission.
 do not think am wrong in saying that
 every dealing aucttoneer is an enemy
 of rings" of dealers as anypouy'
 Let me describe little more in de- l tail the method of these 'KnocKout
 rings" The first thing that will oc-
 cur to the reader is that 1t is all very
 well to go on bidding against a priVate
 buyer until he is, to use an Amerlcan-
 ism. lifted out of his boots" but, after all the price bid has to be paid, so that
 the members of the ring who outbids
 the amateur may, and probably will l eventually. be forced to pay more than
 the market value of the article or lot,
 Quite so. Such, in fact, IS often ac- tually the case. But this Is how the
 knockout" is worked. We will sup
 nose that the first "lot" is piece of china, worth e1O. The amateur collec- tor. who has fair idea of it's value
 puts that price as its limit, and of
 course, hopes to get the article for less
 money. He begins the bidding, but each bid is capped, He reaches e10. To his amazement some one else says
 "FIeven." If the amateur wants the Hot" badly, he may make one more bid, but again his opponent goes one better. and he retires from the contest,
 disappointed and disgusted, He may
 try for a second or even a third 'lot"
 which strikes his fancy, but in each case he is outbidden, with the result
 that he sees, or thinks he sees that
 prices are ruling absurdly high, and in
 nine cases out of ten retires altogether
 from the sale. He is, in fact, "knooked out" So soon as the private bidders are all knocked out, the gang have the sale to themselves, and dozens of first class "lots" are knocked down to them at their own prices, It is easy to
 see that the profit on these Is so large is that the ring" can well afford their small losses caused by the extra prices given for the first few lots" When 1 the sale is an important one lasting perhaps over several days and com prising a number of different classes of goods, such as china, books, jewelry and old furniture, it may be necessary l to arrange a Knockout" for each class,
 but In ordinary cases one Is quite sufa- cient
 When the auction Is over the com spirators adjourn to some previously agreed upon meeting place usually a private room In neighboring public house, and a second and, of course, strictly autcion takes place This is called a settlement It must be re- nembered that the bidding at the original sale has been done most methodicaly. In each case 1t has been
 the member of the ring" who best understood each Hot" who did the bid-
 ding for it. The china expert bid for the china, the picture dealer for the paintings, and so on, But it does not follow that each man specially required what he bid for. Hence the necessity for the section auction of settlement" !" The rings" method of sharing the plunder are simple but ingenious. For the sake of argument we will say that there are four of them present at the
 settlement We will call these IA, B, value.-Grand Magazine.
 Y and 2. At the sale A has secured an
 old chest four pounds, which is a lit- tie more for than one-third its value. B and z each want this chest, as each knows a market for it. At the "settle- ment" B offers an advance of pound
 on its original price; 2 says two, mak- ing the price seven. B runs another ten shillings, but caps him by saying eight pounds, B will go not further, and the chest belongs to z for eight pounds. This Is double what was origi- nally paid for the chest at the sale and leaves a profit of four pounds. This
 extra four pounds does not go to IA.
 but is equally divided between the whole gang. Thus A. gets his original | money back and pound into the bar gain, B and Y a pound a piece, and z has really only paid seven pounds for an article which he will eventually sell for eleven or twelve. These figures, in-
 serted merely for the sake of making | the settlement methods clear, are very low. In many cases hundreds of pounds change hands at settlements. ' and when the ring" is a large one. Tots" of great individual value may
 became the subject of a second or even
 a third settlement" among select men-
 bers of the ring" so that eventual 1 prices paid for articles that orignallv l went for few pounds would make the 1 sWindIed owners thereof pnash thei,