Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1911-02-03

mushroom business THE CASHIER q
which springs up
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 COM
panes of this Sort only shifting their positions to
greener fields the crowds change.
There three ways to tell a legitimate auc-
ton. If the place is permanent and advertises
sales on certain days, if the goods to be sold
are catalogued piece for piece and If there are
outside men hired to control the bidding, then
1t s 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 claimed to have
been consigned from private sources or 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
5obbers, 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
fvories they handle made of cheap clay by
shrewd Japs who have scraped through the shell
OF American bluff and found the iabbness of the
flesh beneath These antiques crumble to pieces
after six months in heated '.partment Practi-
caly all the goods handled in these stores are
made on the same principle and bought at from
oneifth to onefftieth of what they will bring at
auction.
There is nothing criminal in selling at an ex-
proHI III tne purchaser gets tne square
deal But fake auction company is primarily a
ring of cheats never Intentionally giving anyone
a 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 If run for the
average buyer; 1t is merely trap, plant" for
the occasional good thing" who happens in and
is quickly relieved of large amount of money
through an elaborate system he never suspects.
1t is a joyless game, played on cut-and-dried
rules which admit of no freshness or originality.
The average CASTOR they all actors and
play the same cheap show every day-is made up
of one hacker, or proprietor. two auctoneers, one
pretty girl cashier, and from two to ten "shills"
(the palefaced people with mushy morals), their
number depending on the size and situation of
the store.
The backer usually is shrewd and unscrupu-
lous mall who rents vacant store, fills 1t with
scattering of cheap, snowy articles to attract at
tention and number of large so-called works
of art" and antiques" which, on inspection,
prove to be minors The range 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 additional attraction. He gets
one or two auctioneers-they usually travel in
guarantees them ten per cent of the sales which
commission runs from forty to two hundred dollars
week
Then the dealer incorporates the backbone of
the whole crooked business-the body of "shills"