DESCRIPTION OF A LONDON WOOL

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 366, 20 June 1874, Page 3

DESCRIPTION OF A LONDON WOOL

{From the London Empire") This afternoon I went to the wool sales, getting to the building in which 'they are held by a corkscrew arrangement of street, lane, and winding passage at the back of Moorgate-street. I found the obscure place with difficulty, and should have missed it altogether had I not come upon a straggling line of men with wool catalogues in their hands. I followed them as a honey-seeker does a bee, and soon found the market. Entering the door of a by no means imposing building, I climbed a stone staircase, which had very much the appearance of a way to prison cells. On every stair and on every landing were men with wool catalogues. Here and there a door opened into a room in which I could see men with wool catalogues, and only men with wool catalogues. At last I arrived at the sale room itself, and there were at lest 350 men with , wool catalogues. The mart is a square and bare building, lighted from the ceiling. The auctioneer has his stand in an elevated desk planted firmly against one wall of the room. On each side of him is a clerk whose duty it is to register the sales. Immediately about this desk are pews- yes pews — on the level of the floor, arranged in formal rows. There are about half-a-dozen of these pew rooms on the floor level. From these there rise more pews, ascending step by step, on an incline, until the topmost row is about ten feet from the ceiling. There are thirteen or fifteen of these gallery pews each one of which can accommodate about twenty buyers. I call these seats " pews " because they have in front a desk arrangement like the book shelf of a church seat. At intervals, all along these desks, the names of the buyers are are placarded. The entrance to the room are at the sides on the topmost level of the gallery. Thus when I went in, I looked down upon a crowd of seated men arranged in tiers. The auctioneer's desk was below, against the opposite walL The buyers sat with their backs towards me. My first sensation was that of suffocation.' The room was crowded. 1 was above the mob. The hot air rose like the breath from a volcano. My first inclination was to retreat. Remembering, however, that I had nothing for my next " Colonist," I stood my ground like a — well, like a Colonial Briton. The heat, however, was not aIL The noise was a terror ! equal to the fiery breath. Scarcely had I been in the room a second when a score or two of the men in the pews arose together and screamed out at the top or bottom of their voices, some, at first, unintelligible sounds, with frantic eagerness throwing out their arms at full length and pointing their fingers at the auctioneer. This conduct was repeated as often as the auctioneer announced a wool lot. The hot air and the furious screams came up together in mingled gusts of nastiness, and produced a conviction that wool buying in England is an evil trade — and it certainly is a rascally piece of business when prices are low. The unintelligible sounds soon resolved themselves into numerals and fractions. A dozen buyers would run up the gamut of " one !" " two I" "three!" "ten!" "eleven!" and a dozen others would squeeze a " half !' The jumping and the finger pointing were the means of attracting the anctioneei''a attention. How that calm and clever functionary managed to fix the successful buyer is a mystery to me, for to my unaccustomed ear half-a-dozen voices would bawl out the same figure' at the same time. But his dicisions were prompt and evidently correct. His duty was to read out the number of the lot as printed on the catalogue and keep his eye on the of buyers. As soon, as a bid came, and no time was lost while I was in the room, repeating the advances as they were screamed out. When the last bid was made — and 1 , he seemed to know the last by instinct — down went his little hammar, and the next number was read out. Once and once only a curious whistling arose, following a bid for a lot of grease. It was a low, expostulating, and surprised, critical and wailing whistle— if you know what that is. It was not the whistle of one or two or a dozen, but of two or three scores of buyers. Not understanding it in the least, I asked a neighbour what it meant. Said he with a low voice — " That lot was dear, the buyer gave too much." This I found is a practice of the market. When an unlucky broker goes beyond the value of the day, he is reminded of his blunder by a general whistle. Very unpleasant I should say to the criminal. There is another noise which belongs to the wool sales — that of turning over the leaves of paper. As soon as the lots on one side of the catalogue were disposed of there was a general folding over, and such a rustling I never heard before. The turning over hymnbook leaves in church is nothing to it. I observed that each buyer had his catalogue in a portfolio, and that the lots each wanted had as rule, been marked with pencil before the sale began. No samples were handed about. As the brokers all sat with their faces away from me, I had no opportunity of watching the play of countenance, which I am sure, must have been amusing. The auctioneer I could see well, and a fine broadfaced, bearded, handsome great Briton he looked. His equanimity was perfect. His eye was keen, restless, rapid, and intelligent. His ear could evidently distinguish each voice in the general scream. His hand poised the hammar without nervousness and brought it down without hesitation. On the least show of a dispute he ruled with dicision as a judge rules his own- court. He cracked no jokes, poked no fun, indulged in no play of words, and barely announced his wares. He hadaglassof some whiteliquid by his side, of which he now and then 'took a modest sip It might have been water and it might have been Old Tom. His clerks looked as much like recording angels as any clerks I have ever seen, and they did their work evidently with unerring accuracy. Having noted this much and feeling that one bid would be very mnch like another, being conscious also that the atmosphere was— so to speak — mixed, I quitted the sale room and cork-screwed myself out of the mysterous hole and corner of the city in which I had spent a lively half hour. Very likely I shall go again to the sales. If I do, I will give you another sketch of the proceedings.

Captain Hutton makes a confession when he says, in a late report : -*' With regard to quartz reefs, I am sorry to have to say that, in my opinion, science can be of very little assistance. Up to the present time, scientific men visit quartz mines to learn, and not to teach ; for no satisfactory theory has yet been established as to the origin of the metaliferous veins."

Owen Brown, son of him whose " soul goe* marching along," in his story to Ralph Kuller of his escape from Harper's Ferry, philosophises about dogs after this fashion : — " I counselled the boys, however, not to shoot the dogs unless the men were with them. If you understand dogs, there isn't much danger from them. I never saw one bite mo. Dogs, you see, are like men ; if you pretend to know them, they are not sure but they do, and at least believe that a certain civility is due to the doubt. The fact that you arn't afraid of them, too, has to both dogs and men a convincing, peacemaking mystery about it."

Tasma.nia.it Gold. -A splendid cake of Tasmanian gold, weighing 6930z5. 16dwts. is now being exhibited in the window of Mr, A. K. Moore, broker". Melbourne. It weighs 693 ozs. 16 dwta., and was obtained in the claim of the Gulden Point Company, Nine Mile Springs, about thirty-two miles from Launceston, It is the result of a crushing of 72 tons, and this gives 9 oss. 15 dwta. per ton,