AT TATTERSALL'S

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 369, 1 July 1874, Page 6

AT TATTERSALL'S

This was Tattersall's sure enough ; though I had been in doubt, for my recollections of Tattersall's had been of a place at Hyde Park corner, down G-rosvenor-place, a little way, and then off behind St George's Hospital. Tattersall's took it into his head to move, or had to move, and the result Mas that it fixed the pegs of its tent down here by Knightsbridge-green, and a sale was on -—"this day." You are quite welcome there if you will walk into the clean, red-sanded, courtyard, with doors round, every one of which you could take your oath led into a stable, without having the fact forced upon you through every sense, as you see wisps of straw, smell ammonia, rattle of hoofs and headstalls, taste of the horsey atmosphere, and feel disposed to button up your pockets tightly, only if there are bottons. " Who'll* say a hundred guineas for this horse ?' exclaims a voice, which comes from a corner where there is a rostrum, denominating a horse held by a .helper and surrounded by a group — a very .peculiar looking group, by the way. The noise is that of the auctioneer who stands with what looks like a black drumstick in his hand, He is florid, smart, and sports a choice rose-bud iv his button hole. He does not look horsey, but decidedly shrewd. There is the horsey look, though, amongst his audience, as well as that of the the calm, welldressed patrician. Looking right and left there are men with their pursuit " plainly written upon their exterior. Here is the gentleman with his legs iv tight "check," and coat of Oxford mixture without a wrinkle, bird's-eye neckerchief and fox-tooth pin , his hat is glossy and narrow of brim, and you may see him any morning in the park exercising a high stepper, whose price is three figures. Rubbing shoulders with this last is a seedy individual who stands, as well as walks with a slouch ; his liat is indescribable, he chews a piece of straw and if he is not to be met at every low horse fair in England, the fault is not his btudgroom is the next with 'well-cut breeches, natty boots-, and a cane to tap the latter very ■ frequently. Pad-groom beside him, out of livery, and indulging in a roll of something that looks like a table-cloth round his neck. A. few steps further and- there is the sleevewaistooated helper, with breeches and gaiters, cap slouched, over his ears, and his hands making determined efforts to get to the very bottom of his pockets, even at the expense of a stoop of the shoulders. There js a keen, eager, not to say knowing look on every face ; to some it is natural, to others the result of practice ; and again, to others, the gentlemanly portion of the audience, it Js forced for the day by the knowledge that they are amongst cunning blades, and that there is danger in ho- se-dealing for the unwary. But no business. The voice cries again — "Who'll say a hundred guineas for $hia. horse ?" No one, apparently, and no wonder, for the animal looks "screwish;" his muscles stand out too prominently, and there is such a very small amount of diffinlty in counting his ribs, that it is impossible to avoid thinking of the Hansom cabs used fo* night work. No one will say a hundred guineas, so the auctioneer proceeds :—: — "Eighty ? Sixty ? Fifty ? Forty ? Thirty ? Twenty-five?" Bather an extensive descent , frpm the hundred guineas ; but if the mountain will not go to Mahomet, Mahomet must go the mountain ; so coming down to the quarter — twenty-five— some one looks at the auctioneer, and gives one twitch of a mu3cle pt the oorner of his mouth. The man of the hammar— maybe it is Tattersall himself — understands the motion, takes it as a bid, and acts accordingly. On the instant he gives a signal from the private code in use at the yard to the helper, who holdes the slave on four legs ; there is a shout from a policeman, •• Stand back, there ;" and the horse is trotted along the side of the court and back »g»in when another guinea is bid, and then another, till the black drumstick which re- - presents a hammar falls, and the horse is gold.— " Once a Week ."

Terrible Occurrence in India. — A pad catastrophe has happened at a small independent territory in the interior of India, oalled Jubal. It appears (says the « Bombay Gazette ") that Lady Napier find party were encamped there, and that seven of her ladyship's servants had retired lor the night into an adjacent ,tent, when having made up a lars^e charpoal fire, previously closing every nook and. corner of their canvas covering to Jceep out the cold, they fell asleep. Six pf the unfortunate men were found dead Jn the morning, and the seventh has since &§d, Mange. — A correspondent 'to a contemporary asks :—": — " Is there a cure for mange ? ( We have a valuable shepherd's dog severly ftfiigted with, it,' and would be very thankful fw a remedy. Is there any danger of contagion » I mean of children playing with the §98;" . The term mange is rather indefinite <ta it msy refer to any one of a dozen different diseases of the skin. Two skin diieaseg of the dog are cqmmunicable to man : one. a variety of ringworm, is due to a vegetable fungus (tripophyton tonsurana) which preys, on the hair and hair bulbs— and the second the mange proper.^ due to a living tfiWP (tfarcoptis cunis) analogous to that of the human itch. A careful microscopic examination would divine the true nature of the disease. presuming that it is one or the other of these two, we would recommend a liberal dressing with the following mixture Carbolic acid, 4 ounce, olive oil, 10 ounces, to be repeated two or three fimes at intervals pf two days. A fortune of £30,000 (so the " Courier" is informed) has fallen to the lot of cue of the workmen in a Ballarat foundry. He rethe.neys by the t mail, and immediately got on the spijee, was' found in a gutter, and '-■figislie^thg'Blgfetis-thg lgck-up,