AT A WOOL SALE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2474, 19 May 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

AT A WOOL SALE.

A correspondent supplies the St. James' Gazette with the following account of an Australian wool sale in London :— A strange sight greeted me a few evenings ago in an out-of-the-way part of tho city—a sight which I can heartily recommend to those leisured people who unceasingly crave for fresh excitement. I may mention that the entertainment is provided gratis. Wishing to see a London sale of wool from our colonies, I was sent about & p.m. to Coleman-street, and, passing through the motley crowd gathered round the doorway of the Wool Exchange (a crowd of many tongues and strange garments—merchants, brokers, buyers from the manufacturing , districts

of England, Prance, Germany, and perhaps from America— all talking or exchanging greetings). I reached the glass doors of tho sale-room. At tbe door,a gentleman who seemed to be a French general in undress uniform, courteously offered me the Caulois, Petit Journal, and Gil Bias, evidently mistaking me for some other person. Declining the proffered feuilles in my best but halting Parisian, I pass through, and find myself in the gallery of a fairsized theatre, dome-roofed and lit by

a circle of gas-jets at the base of the dome. On the floor below gentlemen are rapidly filling up the benches, which are arranged in the form ef a horseshoe, running round three sides of the auctioneer's raised desk. These seats are apptopriated to the buyers, the brokers, and staff, at the opening of each series of sales, lasting, I believe, about four or six weeks. The sessions are daily, from 4to 7 p.m. Taking my seat beside a youth, evidently a railway messenger by bis uniform, I witness the bees assembling.

Observing my interest in the scene, the railway official gave me much useful information, and I hereby cordially thank him. Three gentlemen were seated at the atictioneer's desk, and their names were, as well ae I could gather from my informant iu the increasing noise (but I may have heard him imperfectly) Messrs Grevy, Gambetta, and Roseberry. The catalogue contained some 600 lots, amounting to about 12,000 bales nf wool, principally Australian and Cape.

The clock pointed to tho hour of 4, and immediately about 40 men leapt to their feet, and without, as far as I could see, the least provocation, wildly pointed at the auctioneer, screaming something at tho top of their voices. Presently one or two of them thought better of it and sat down ; the auctioneer eyed the rest for a moment and then fixing upon a bald-headed gentleman, almost bursting with passion in the centre of the room, gently said, " Nine half." This completely routed the rest; they sank to their seats and began to scribble in their catalogues. Scarcely had this happened when an entirely different lot of fellows got up and screamed. One man seemed to be trying

to score the auctioneer's face with a pencil ; but luckily half the width of the room separated them. Gambetta merely smiled, murmured "Thank you," and tapped the desk with his hammer, when the others quietly sat down again. I was told these men wore bidding, but the only thing in any way resembling it that I could think about at that moment was that scene in Milton's Paradise Lost when the archfiend summons the fallen angels immediately after the expulsion.

Now the room is a little quieter, and the railway gentleman tells me the fine Western District wools are being put up. One gentleman goes and sternly offers the auctioneer " half-a-crow," what for he did not explain.. Immediately another man, almost under th o pulpit, calls out "halfpenny ; " then these tws simply pelt one another with halfpennies, till one of thorn gets tired and sits down. Then the auctioneer points gravely at the survivor, and is about to knock the lot down, when some one, without any warning whatever, hisses out "Last buyer," which effectually quashes tho other man. A groan goes round the room, every one feels that

it was a dastardly blow ; but Gambetta passes on to the next lot without the slightest comment.

These scenes are repeated over and over again. At last I left the room, giddy and stunned by the noise, utterly confounded by the yells of all kinds from the brazen throats of this strange commercial gathering.