MOCK AUCTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 96, 27 April 1929, Page 20

MOCK AUCTIONS

BRITISH LEGISLATION

Lord Gorell is—unknown, to most of his peers—an amateur crime investigator. For some time, as ho confessed lo the House of Lords (says a report in the London "Daily Chronicle"), he has been watching' bogus auctions in the by-streets of the towns and in seaside resorts. He moved the second reading of a Bill to prohibit mock auctions, "at which worthless goods are sold to the public by means of intentional misrepresentations ,as to their nature." . : ■ . Lord G-orell described how "as a student of crime and the English language" he had picked up somo of the queerest examples of the language employed ib.the business. He noted, for instance,' that the confederates of the auctioneer, or "hammerer," who mingle withi the: crowd, .' and- try to stimulate interest in the exhibits, are called "gees" and."ricks." To "sling a gee" is to take part in a swindle on a spectator. , : If a victim makes trouble the next move is known as "smitzing the bogey to hlnten""' and"to "noise the-tfdge'";-otherwise, to manoeuvre the objector round:.to 'the back of .the place so. .that he should .np.t.. spoil, tho remainder of the auction. ■.•'". Tho operation of robbing' a victim f money is; known •■by the' weird; term of' "gazoomphing a sar,ker." -The aim of .the auctionoer,. as soon as the, "ricks" 'and "gees." Spot a 'man with, money r a, "sarkor,*'vis-,..t0. "gazoomph" him, ia'nd to get;!hold-\of all tho victim has. In money;, phrases, "deuce , phunt" means £2, and "Uncle Ben" £10. The "hammerer,"in fp.et, practises a sort di' capital levy On. his Victims,, but is. not satisfied with a partial levy if ho caii get the lot. This."hammerer'" is expected, to get at, least "half bunco'"'on every articlo he sells. The victims are drawn from all kinds of' people. , . . ; No purchaser ever gets a bargain, because the .."hammerer" must show a profit, and the victim generally pays three or four .times the .value of the article knocked.down to him.- Another kind of fraudisthe- ''rigged "sale, generally in a country house, hired for the purpose, and furnished throughout. The Bill was read a second time, and sent to ft Select Committee.