1908 - Old Hoss Sale Begins Monday

[NW Mailing List]

Roanoke Times - April 23, 1908

OLD HOSS SALE BEGINS MONDAY

N. & W. to Sell at Auction Fourteen Carloads of Unclaimed Freight

BUYERS ARE EXPECTED FROM DISTANT STATES

Large Crowds Will Take Advantage of Opportunity to Purchase Articles 
at Bargain Figures - Sale Will Continue Many Days and $12,000 to 
$15,000 Worth of Goods Will Be Sold

   One of the largest, if not the very largest, sales of unclaimed, 
refuse and other freight ever conducted by the Norfolk and Western 
Railway company, will be held in Roanoke next Week. The sale will 
begin at 10 o'clock on next Monday morning at the company's 
warehouse, known as the old Huff Mill building, on First avenue, 
northwest, between Park and Commerce streets, and will continue until 
the entire stock of goods has been disposed of.
   There will be fourteen car loads of freight, valued at from 
$12,000 to $15,000 offered at auction and every article will be 
knocked down by the auctioneers to the highest bidder.
   These sales of unclaimed freight, commonly referred to as "old 
hoss" sales, always attract large crowds, and it it expected that 
this annual sale will draw to Roanoke the greatest number of 
out-of-town people that has ever attended one of these occasions.
   Not only will strangers be present from Columbus, Bristol, 
Cleveland, Hagerstown, Lynchburg, Norfolk, Petersburg, Richmond, 
Winston and intermediate points, but, as is always the case, 
Roanokers will attend in large forces.
   The unclaimed packages to be offered have been forwarded to 
Roanoke from stations along the various lines of the Norfolk and 
Western railway in this state and the list of articles is one of great length.
   This "old hoss" sale will not be one altogether of the 
pig-in-the-poke variety, because there will be thousands of dollars' 
worth of merchandise of various kinds placed on the block in full 
view of the buyers and everybody will have a chance to see what he or 
she bids on.
   Of course there will be scores of packages sold that contain 
unknown quantities. Some man may get it into his head that he is 
bidding on a crate of imported chinaware and find after he opens it 
that he has unknowingly purchased five thousand Japanese fans bearing 
the advertisement of some soda fountain drink. Another man may buy a 
box that he believes contains three bushels of stem-winding watches 
and when he opens it will find that he is the possessor of seventeen 
gallons of cooking extracts worth $10 per gallon. Another man may buy 
a keg of what he thinks is port wine and when he smashes in the head 
he finds that he has bought ten dozen pairs of Merry Widow hose or a 
lot of patent medicine literature. Another bidder gets a box that he 
thinks contains silk parasols but finds enclosed 200 ostrich plumes 
worth $8 a piece.
   At the last "old hoss" sale held in Roanoke a gentleman living in 
the southeast section of the city bought 150 alarm clocks for 35 
cents. The clocks were easily worth $1 each. The same man bought 
enough cough medicine of a well-known make to last all the Mormon 
families in Utah for a hundred years, for fifteen cents.
   It is the pig-in-the-poke part of these sales that furnishes lots 
amusement for buyers and spectators. The buyers break about even. 
Probably more of them get something for nothing than nothing for something.
   But the things that attract the man who is hunting real bargains 
is the open package, or the things that are put up in full view of 
the crowd and sold to the man who offers the most money.
   The list of articles to be offered at auction next week includes 
almost everything imaginable, and many things that most people would 
never imagine. One this list, in close proximity to one another are 
such things as one case of cigarettes, one box of tools, one barrel 
of vinegar, one package of books, one package of books, package bed 
rails, one piano, one case of candy, one box of medicine, one box 
garden seed, one barrel of bottles, seven trunks, two cases of 
cheese, three cases of tomatoes, fives cases of Peruna, one drum of 
wine, one cask of beer, one refrigerator, five cases of blacking, one 
reservoir, eight buggies and shafts, one case of tobacco, one bag of 
peanuts, one case of pig feet, one sewing machine, one box 
insulators, one case of saddles, one wardrobe, one barrel of paint 
(it doesn't say whether face or fence,) twenty-five cases macaroni, 
one chicken coop, etc., etc.
   The sales will be for cash and each buyer will get his package 
when the money is paid over.
   The warehouse used for storing unclaimed packages is open every 
week day in the year and straight sales of merchandise are made 
daily. These are of course, aside from the auction end of it. Not a 
day pases but that some merchant or a number of merchants in and out 
of Roanoke, buy staple goods at big bargains at this warehouse.


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- Ron Davis, Roger Link