The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1911-02-01
m H5TLER

which springs up
night in a 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
panies Of this Sort only shifting their positions to
greener celds as the crowds change.
There are three ways to tell legitimate
tion. IL the place is permanent and advertises
sales on certain days. IL the goods to be sold
catalogied piece for piece, and II there are
outside men 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 auctoneer'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 a 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 stun
and to be found in all the larger cities. The
worries they handle made of cheap clay by
shrewd Japs who have scraped through the shell
of American blum and found the habbiness OF the
flesh beneath. These antiques crumble to pieces
after six months in a heated apartment. Practi-
cay all the goods handled in these stores are
made on the same principle and bought at from
oneffth to one-fftieth of what they will bring at
auction.
There is nothing criminal in selling at an ex-
orbitant profit IL the purchaser gets the square
deal But fake auction company is primarily
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 II run for the
average buyer it is merely trap. a 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 joyess game. played on cut anddried
rules which admit of freshness or originality.
The average CASTOR they all actors and,
play the same cheap show every day-is made up
of one hacker proprietor, two auctioneers one
pretty girl cashier. and from two to ten "shills
1.-THE pale-faced people with mushy moras), their
number depending the size and situation of
the store
The hacker usually is a shrewd and unscrupu-
lous man who rents a vacant store fills 1t with
scattering of cheap snowy articles to attract at
tention and a number of large so-called works
of art" and antiques" which, inspection.
prove to be minors. The range runs from foun-
tain pens at ten cents to deceptive "ivories.
.bronzes" and paintings by the old masters that
bring from fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars
and sometimes more. from the uninitated.
The proprietor hires pretty girl cashier and
counts her as 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 busness-the body of 'shis."