The Washington herald., 1910-06-05

Bensinger's auction house. in Sixth
street was the scene yesterday morning
of one of the most interesting Of the an
nual auctions taking place in this city.
The dead letter sale, which comes off in
December, and the auction of the arti-
cles captured and found by the police are
two sales that always attract a large
amount of interest.
Yesterdays auction was one of all arti-
cles thGt the police have captured or
which have been turned in to them as
found, and have remained unclaimed II
was a heterogeneous mass of articles of
all descriptions. Bicycles and alarm
| clocks. clothing and flags. rubbers and
caps, hair brushes and tricycles-all were
put into lots and sold to the highest bid
der.
1t was an expectant crowd that awaited
the call Of the auctioneer, and as 10
o'clock came around. they moved UP to
the block to see what would be the first
thing put Up.
Only Few spokes Missing.
Here you are" was the call 'What'n
you give for this perfectly good bicycle?
It's all right. except for a few spokes.
Whatn you give for it?'' After little
bidding II was knocked down" 10 an in
dividual known as Eddie" for 50. And
as time went on. Eddie" was seen to
purchase most of the wheels. no mat
ter what condition they were in In
fact. there were but few of the machines
that were not gobbled up by Eddie" or
Dick" and these worthless piled their
purchases up in one corner Of the hall
and went back 10 get some more. They
bought nearly a hundred machines.
When a good machine was put up there
| was no scarcity of bids. "Come on.
gents called the leather-lunged auc-
| tiOneeT. ''what'll you give for this? It's
the best OF the lot. Not thing the mat
ter with il. Come on with your bids"
Two dollars squeaked a little voice
in the corner which was found 10 ema-
nate from a boy about six, but bid Of
g from another corner was heard. ed
die promptly came 10 the rescue with a
raise of 80 cents, and Dick" followed
with 80 more. This went on alternately
until the price reached $40. and Dick
quit.
Much Junk AuctiOned.
Lead pipe, brass fittings, milk cans. a
gross OF corlls. collections OF keys and
cutlery. knives and chain, lengths of rope.
and other things tco numerous to men
tion all went under the hammer On none
of these was the bidding particularly
brisk, the prices offered ranging from e5
cents to 81.
4 baby carriage came along next
Here you are. ladies. Just the thing you
need. Think how nice Clarence or Jennie
would look in this? Whatu You give?
| Three dollars? No. Well, make il 8
| then. Try 81. Sure it's worth that much.
/ You couldn't get one like It for s. any
| where in town. What? 4 quarter. All
right let it 90 at that. It's not my stun,
/ and / don't care what II goes for
| And so IL went. But the real Interest,"
/ OF the morning came with the sale o.
/ three trunks with their contents un-
! known. That there was something in
/ them was evident from their weight bat
what il was the audience knew not. The
| bidding was rather brisk, and they
/ finally went TO couple Of porters from
one of the hotels. What was in them
was not given out by the bidders.
Two suit cases were sold in the same
manner and a banjo, minus the strings
brought only - cents 4 mans suit was
sold at s1.25 and ladies fur pieces cheap
Eddie" and Dick" were evidently the
only ones who were known 10 the auc-
| tioneer for every one else had to pay
cash
Well here's the best thing in the lot. -
cried the man on the block. a lot OF
cutlery and other articles" This great lot
brought only mere trife. and. while
small prices seemed to be the rule OF the
sale. the total was probably quite large
as there were over four hundred lots sold
during the morning
Some idea of the rapidly OF the sales
may be gained from the fact that the
auction started at 10 and was over a few
moments before u during which time
there were probably a thousand separate
articles sold, though there were but 800
odd lots. The success Of the sales of this
and past years insures their continuance
/ IN the future. but Il will be another year
he afnra fha auction,