| Show 1 BIG FRUIT AUCTION California on Show at the Chicago Depot WILLIAM II STILL TALKING Washington Wisps Harrison Denies New ProhibitionistsHanged Master of Arts California Fruit at Auction CHICAGO June 27All the animation and rivalry and representative character char-acter of the national political convention conven-tion were presented this morning in the line stretching to the railroad depot de-pot just across the river from where State Street and South Water the two busiest thoroughfares in Chicago cross one another The honors and attention atten-tion showered upon the Californians at the great national gatherings in St Louis and Chicago had equally their counterpart here California in fact seemed the one subject in which for the time being everyoody present was interested High piles of lucious looking fruit in boxes bewildering bewilder-ing in variety and extent littered the floor of the depot in every direction Still more fruit was pouring from heavily laden cars drawn upon tracks beide the depots many open doors while on the other side of the depot through ether open doors were seen swearing yellow teamsters with trucks and wagons crowding each other for first place in the general onslaught evidently soon to commence Among the stack of boxes on the floor little groups of well dressed business men were moving pencil and note book in hand carefully examining and making calculations regarding the boxes that the stalwart porters about them were pulling open everywhere Right in the midst or the rows upon rows of boxes and exactly like a miniature convention a number of chairs were ranged just in front of what looked surprisingly similiar to the speakers stand occupied by ExGovernor White of California when presiding over the Democratic hosts at St Louis or that of the of er distinguished Californian Estee in the gathering of Republicans at the Auditorium There was one notable difference no gaudy decorations were visible anywhere and the scene though lively in the extreme had an aspect that bespoke business and nothing else No hornblowing or cheering or speech making was necessary to stir things up and when a brisk young man mounted a stand and rapped again for order the proceedings began instanterwith a regular reg-ular hop skip and jump It was virtually virtu-ally the inauguration of the auction sysem of handling fruit in this market for though sales had been going on for nearly a week the experiment was too unfamiliar to buyers 111 attendance to be said until this morning to be really under way Heretofore one firm has had practically a monopoly so far as Chicago and the vast territory tributary tribu-tary is concerned of the entire product of the great California orchards purchases by private sale and the result was that the traffic here was stunted almost from its birth Generally Gener-ally money could be realized and profits or losses were counted by growers in California only after weeks of delay when the final consignee in some outlying out-lying town had at last been rounded up single handed by the sale agent of the Californians in this city Hundreds of boxes were knocked down this morning morn-ing in a minute and the cash was by the terms of the sale available on the spot Everything in the depot baa been disposed of within half an hour and in less than sixty minutes afterward the money for the product was ready on demand m San Francisco banks for the growers of the Pacific slope wherever they might be located to draw upon in an instant Strangely enough too there was so far as could be ascertained no letting down in the average prices realized by the old system Open hot competition from at least twentyfive different firms was the explanation Every man knew what his neighbor was doing and all took hold boldly knowing as they did that no favorite was to overreach them by doing better secretly in the dark Three cars the total arrivals today brought a gross average price of 142 per ton A notable feature of the auction auc-tion was that the sales were not confined to Chicago or thee west but large quantities were taken by agents for Canada and even Boston New York and Philadelphia Whenever Chicagoans proper failed to grab a lowpriced lot Everyone present pres-ent whose attention could be detracted for a moment was intervewed as to how they regarded the new system and what its influence would be S Page a wellknown dealer happened to be the first He was very enthusiastic I think said he that Chicago is now going go-ing to be the market for California fruit I have commenced issuing letters to all my correspondents soliciting trade We can do something now and buildup a trade where before the market mar-ket was all but closed to us M Ostagg of Ostagg Co who was one of the liveliest bidders on the floor stopped stop-ped long enough to say This beats selling one box at four dollars and a hundred at most nothing Why where the people have eaten one car of California fruit they will soon eat ten Everybody will want it when they dont have to wait for it to be rotten before they can afford to buy it Instead of a luxury for the few it will be the staple for the many The I growers will be benefitted more than anybody else for they will get a fair average price for everything with quick returns Similar views were expressed ex-pressed by representatives of Garibaldi Cuneoz Co F A Thomas Sons Dunley Clapp Doe and many others oth-ers The firm which had a monopoly of the product of 700 California growers grow-ers Porter Bros intimated that they at first feared it would hurt their business busi-ness but were pretty well satisfied that the enormously increased traffic which was almost certain to ensue before long would more than compensate them |
