20 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



escorted by attendants also dressed in linen dusters from room to 

 room and shelf to shelf where they can personally inspect the furs 

 and take their numbers, grade and classification. The prospective 

 bidder is then given a book of catalogued furs in which he can mark 

 what he intends to buy. 



Promptly at 9, the sale opens in some large assembly hall. 

 No more are the furs visible at the auction as they were in the old 

 Fur Fair days. When only $500,000 of furs would be sold by a com- 

 pany in London in a year in three different sales, it was possible to 

 display the goods; but with one single auction now totalling $12,- 

 000,000 to $27,000,000 this is no longer possible. 



The sale is not noisy and clamorous. It is silent, tense, swift. 

 An electric sign behind the auctioneer's head announces the number 

 of the catalogue. The buyers open their books to the number. 

 We'll say it is fitch. The classification is so fine, there is no mis- 

 taking the quality and grade and age. Behind the auctioneer stands 

 "a spotter." At each side of him sits "a spotter." The auctioneer 

 names a possible price. A bidder lifts his finger, or his pencil, or 

 nods his head that he will buy at that figure. The auctioneer calls 

 the figure. A man to right or left outbids by a lift of his finger, or 

 nod of the head. The spotter shouts "up," "up." A whack of 

 the gavel ; and the fur is gone. 



In this way have furs to the value of $2,000,000 been sold in a 

 day, and furs to the value of $27,000,000 sold in a week. I look back 

 over the reports of the great fur auctions of London for a term of 

 years. The sales total 37,000 to 60,000 coon at Nesbitt's in 1905 

 and 1912; 739,000 to 658,000 muskrat; 124,000 to 326,000 

 skunk. Or I look over the Hudson's Bay Company — 1855: 

 136,513 marten; 55,740 mink; 346,955 muskrat; 480 silver fox; 

 15,000 wolf; 5000 lynx; 1500 ermine; 5800 squirrel. Then I 

 look over the sales of 1920 : London, 66,000 coon ; 661,000 muskrat ; 

 1,100,000 skunk; 18,000 marten; 38,000 mink; 700 silver fox; 

 80,000 wolf; 700 lynx; 200,000 ermine ; almost 1,000,000 squirrel. 

 Or the St. Louis sales in May, 1920 : 22,500 marten, 97,000 mink, 



