Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1915-07-07
SALE BILLS AND FREE LUNCH.
Day of the Sale Bill and Free Lunch
are Passing.

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such animal as the auction bill, says
an exchange. Twenty years ago a
farm auction advertisement larger
than a reader was curiosity. Now
they blossom out in full pages and
half pages, and are as common as a
pink wart on a shoat.
In Greene county, however, the
public sale holder has one more
piece of foolishness to abolish, and
like lot of other old silly schemes,
| it dies hard. We refer to the free
lunch plan.
Where is the business man who
serves a free lunch to all who are
in his store at II o'clock noon?
Where is the man who has town
sale" who serves free lunch? Why
then the free lunch?
We'll, you know, Mr.. Editor, out
in the country one can not find a res
taurant, and they have to be fed"
Nothing to it. Greene county is
the only county left in Iowa where
the free lunch is being given, and
folks attending sales elsewhere are
not Starving either. The lunch
wagon is there, and all the food nee
.essary is to be had, except it is not
free to the public sale loafer The
fellow who goes there for a free
lunch has his own bill to pay.
About a month ago farmer COM
planned to the Bee that a 14-year-
old neighbor boy came to his sale,
and, when the lunch was served, the
boy got outside of eleven hot wiene
sandwiches. My cash, think of it.
and from all reports the boy is still
alive! The question is, how many
Sandwiches would the boy have eat
en- if he had had them to buy?
No one has any objection whatev-
Ier to giving the bidder upon proper
ty good, first class, feed. If every
man who pas took of the free lunch
was bidder and a buyer, no one
would have any license to kick. 1t
would be perfectly all right. The
farmer would be glad to entertain
and feed his customers and patrons.
AT the average good sized sale
there are about thirty or forty buy
ers, that is, those who really hold on
and make a purchase of property
There are probably few more WHO
go there and bid, in good earnest,
but do not purchase. There are prob
ably 70 to $50 there who do not go
with the idea of bidding. They go
to loaf, mix with the crowd, eat the
lunch, and offer advice to bidders,
about half of them doing full days
work of knocking" And the aver
age "knocker' you know, can eat
about twice as much as a white man.
THIS the free lunch story in a nut
she'll
In Story county, Iowa, there are
SCFSldl ISSld VI dulcIS WHO SSuu OUT |
lunch wagons to the public sales.
They serve a first class lunch a la |
carte-or on the cart if you please
at price that need not exceed Ii |
cents. If the loafer has the price |
he eats. If he doesn't he either does |
not cumber the earth round-a bout |
the barnyard, or he goes hungry.
If the holder of the sale feels he
must feed his bidding friends, he
can deduct the price of the lunch
out of what they purchase. 1t would
be simple job. The ordinary man
ought not to expect the farmer to
feed everybody in sight, just for the
privilege of having a public SALE
There is no business method whatey-
er in the free lunch. 1t is an injury
to a sale to have too many non-bid-
ders about. They take up space,
they make a larger crowd to alarm
timid stock, and their ever-free chin
music hurts the auction. The lunch
wagon is the best way, it is sensible,
and the real business headed farmer
would welcome it as a solution of q
problem which now means both ex-
pense and waste.