Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1911-02-03
THE CASHIER

Wncn springs up over
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 less than eight practically permanent COM
panies of this sort, only shifting their positions to
greener fields as the crowds change
There three ways to tell legitimate auc-
ton If the place is permanent and advert1ses
sales certain days, If the goods to be sold
are catalogued piece for piece and if there are no
outside hired to control the bidding, then
it is certain that the sale is genuine
The fake auction game is played under the
pseudo patronage of reliability. The auctioneers
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,
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
ivories they handle made of cheap clay by
shrewd Japs who have scraped through the she'll
Of American bluff and found the fabbiness Of the
flesh beneath These antiques crumble to pieces
after six months in heated apartment. Practt-
cally all the goods handled in these stores are
made on the principle and bought at from
one-ffth to one-ffteth OF what they will bring at
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
ring of cheats never Intentionally giving anyone
a square deal.
The proprietor is the arch rogue His profit
depends on selling an article at anywhere from
fifty to two three and sometimes five hundred
dollars The auction does not pay If 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 joyless game, played on cut-anddried
rules which admit of no freshness or originality.
The average CASTOR they are all actors and
plav the same cheap show every day-is made up
of one hacker, proprietor, two aucttoneers one
pretty girl cashier, and from two to ten shills
the pale-faced people with mushy morals) their
number depending the size and situation or
the store.
The hacker usually Is a shrewd and unscrupu-
lous man 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 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 uninitiated
The proprietor hires a pretty girl cashier and
counts her as an additional attraction. He gets
one or two auctioneers-they usually travel in
nairs. to relieve one another and the public-and
guarantees them ten per cent. of the sales; which
commission runs from forty two hundred dollars
a week
Then the dealer incorporates the backbone OF
| the whole crooked business-the body OF "shils.