The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1911-03-16

night in cheap store, leased from month to
month, and stays until trouble occurs or the field
is worked dry.
New York city alone demands to be duped
by no less than eight practically permanent CON-
panies of this sort, only shifting their positions to
greener fields as the crowds change.
There are three ways to tell legitimate auc
ton. If the place is permanent and advertses
sales certain days, il the goods to be sold
are cataogued piece for piece, and If there are no
outside hired to control the bidding, then
| 1t is certain that the sale is genuine
The fake auction game is played under the
pseudo patronage of reliability The auctioneer's
license, issued by the CITY, is hung conspicuously
near the door and the goods are claimed to have
been consigned from private sources pawn
brokers in nearby cities 1t is Misrepresentation
from the start. AS matter of fact the goods
were picked up In job lots from novelty houses,
jobbers, Japanese stores and regular auction sup
ply firms who handle job lots of trashy stuff
and are to be found in all the larger cities. The
worries they handle are made of cheap clay by
shrewd Japs who have scraped through the she'll
of American bluff and found the 1abbness of the
flesh beneath. These antiques crumble to pieces
after six months in heated apartment Practi-
cally all the goods handled in these stores are
made the same principle and bought at from
one-ffth to one-fftieth of what they will bring at
auction.
There is nothing criminal in selling at
deal. But fake auction company is primarily
ring of cheats never Intentionally giving anyone
square deal.
The proprietor is the arch rogue. His profit
depends on selling article at anywhere from
fifty to two, three and sometimes five hundred
dollars. The auction does not pay II run for the
average buyer; it is merely trap, plant" for
the occasional good thing" who happens in and
is quickly relieved of large amount of money
through elaborate system he never suspects.
1t is joyless game, played on cutand-dried
rules which admit of no freshness or originality
The average CASTOR they are all actors and
play the same cheap show every day-is made up
of one hacker, or proprietor, two auctioneers one
pretty girl cashier and from two to ten 'shills"
(the palefaced people with mushy morals) their
number depending the size and situation of
the store.
The hacker usually is shrewd and unscrupu-
ious man who rents vacant store, fills 1t with a
scattering of cheap, snowy articles to attract at
tention and q number of large so-called works
OF art" and antiques" which, on inspection,
prove to be minors. The range runs from foun-
tain pens at ten cents to deceptive 'ivores,
"bronzes" and paintings by the old masters that
bring from fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars,
and sometimes more. from the uninitiated.
The proprietor hires pretty girl cashier and
counts her as an additional attraction. He gets
one or two auctioneers-they usually travel in
pairs, to relieve one another and the public-and
guarantees them ten per cent. OF the sales which
commission runs from forty to two hundred dollars
a week.
Then the dealer incorporates the backbone of
the whole crooked business-the body OF "shills."