The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1911-02-03


night in q cheap store, leased from month to
month, and stays until trouble occurs or the neio
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 10
greener fields as the crowds change.
There are three ways to tell 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 no
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 auctloneers
license issued by the city, is hung conspicuously
near the door and the goods are 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 I'D in Job lots from novelty houses,
tobbers Japanese stores and regular auction sup
ply firms who handle Job lots Of trashy stun
and are to be found In all the larger cities Inc
ivories they handle are made of cheap clay by
shrewd Japs who have scraped through the shell
of American bluff and found the fabbiness OF the
flesh beneath These antiques crumbe to pieces
| after six months in a heated apartment Practl-
caly all the goods handled in these stores are
made on the same principle and bought at from
|
auction.
There is nothing criminal in selling at an ex-
| orbtant profit If the purchaser gets the square
deal. But fake auction company is primarily
ring of cheats never Intentionally giving anyone
q 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; 1t is merely trap plant for
the occasional good thing" who happens IN and
Is quickly relieved of a large amount CT money
through an elaborate system he never suspects
1t is a joyless game played on cutand-dried
rules which admit of no freshness or originality.
The average cast-for 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 pae-faced people with mushy morals). their
number depending on the size and situation OF
the store.
The hacker usually is shrewd and unscrupu-
fous man who rents vacant store, fills it with a
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 unritated.
The proprietor hires a pretty girl cashier and
counts her as an additional attraction. He gets
one or two auctisneers-they usually travel in
pairs to relieve one another and the pubc-and
guarantees them ten per cent. OF the sales; which
commission runs from forty to two hundred dollars
week.
Then the dealer Incorporates the backbone o.
the whole crooked business-the body of "shills.'