Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1911-02-04
TRE CASHIER

which springs up over
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 nc less than eight practically permanent COM
panes of this sort, only shifting their positions
greener fields the crowds change.
There are three ways to tell legitimate
ton. If the place is permanent and advertises
sales certain days, If the goods be sold
are cataogued piece for piece, and if there
outside men hired to control the bidding then
it is certain that the sale is genuine.
The fake auction game is played under
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 a matter of fact the goods
were picked up in job lots from novelty houses
1oooers. japanese stores and regular auction sup
ply firms who handle job lots of trashy stuff
and to be found in all the larger cities The
worries they handle made cheap clay by
shrewd Japs who have scraped through the shell
of American bluff and found the fabbiness of the
flesh beneath. These antiques crumble to pieces
after six months in a heated apartment. Practi-
cally all the goods handled in these stores are
made the same principle and bought at from
auction.
There is nothing criminal in selling at an ex-
orbitant profit if the purchaser gets the square
deal But fake auction company is primarily a
ring of cheats never Intentionally giving anyone
square deal
The proprietor is the arch rogue His profit
depends selling article at anywhere from
fifty to two, three and sometimes five hundred
dollars. The auction does not pay II for the
average buyer; it is merely trap. plant for
the occasional good thing who happens in and
is quickly relieved of a large of money
through elaborate system he never suspects.
1t is joyless game, played cut-and-dred
rules which admit of freshness originality.
The average CASTOR they all
play the same cheap show every days made up
of hacker, proprietor, two auctioneers, one
pretty girl cashier, and from two to "shills''
(the pale-faced people with mushy morals), their
number depending the size and situation of
the store
The hacker usually is shrewd and unscrupu-
lous who rents a vacant store. fills it with a
scattering of cheap, snowy articles to attract
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 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 uninitiated-
The proprietor hires pretty girl cashier and
counts her as an additional attraction He gets
two auctioneers-they usually travel in
pairs. to relieve 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-"