LEFT ON THE RAILWAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1507, 1 August 1912, Page 4

LEFT ON THE RAILWAY.

1M ss. FOE 2j. fid. ■\Vb are reminded annually at the sale of unclaimed goods left on railway trains and in stations of what un "absentminded .beggar" the average man (or woman for that matter) is. At 1 p.m. yesterday one corner of the old slied (formerly Cablo and Co.'s foundry) was stocked with a fearful and wonderful agglomeration of articles which careless people had forgotten during the year, or which hail been sent on by rail and had never been clnimed. The range of goods was a source of abundant surprise, for apart from tlio bundles of clothing, swags, and umbrellas, there were such things as sacks of oats, bedsteads, mattresses, dozens of ladies' hats (very second-hand), and scores of baskels and trunks and bags of cloths*. These are sold exactly as they were left in railway carriages and waiting rooms, and considerable curiosity was evinced as each purchaser onened up his lot to see "if lie Jiad slruek anything." The third lot sold produced a sensation in the crowd present. The purchaser had found in the pocket of a eoni; which formed part of a bundle, of clothing lie bad purchased fdr 2s. (id...the sum of ,CI 55.. The "find'' had an.exhilarating effect on (lie bidding for (he next half-hour, but there were no oilier cash trophies discovered. Bundles of umbrellas, more or less the worse for wear went for 25., and bundles and trunks of clothing ranged in nrice from sixpence to that many sliillings.'The duantity of lots were 100 many to allow the auctioneer to g;t through yesterday and he will resume operations this afternoon.