The Sun.
London, England, 1817-11-11 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

Mr. Eorrott,l 'live in a large town, where
the principal inhabitants have long-been used to
have their clothes'made by one or Other of 'two
principal houses ; which, of course, are rivals for
superiority in busine-Ss. This Contest, as in other
cases, would much,
twefit the public, if it were
'but fairly caraintineiti g.but 'cannot' say that I ap•
ris-wdostte
prove some park-0.1.16w.: • proceedings.

The firm of one-house, when I first remember
it, was WELLS and Co. the other WOLF and Co.
WuXi]pr WELL, as he was sometimes called)
was a man much esteemed in his business, anil.
regard.d an oxceibmr wotkman. No man could
cut more neatly. IVoLF.too was no bad cutter,
and had gnat vogue with some customers ; but
was by no means so regular a man ; and with all
his talents, I mast say that I never saw a coat of
his which really became the, wearer. Yet there
were not wanting persdns ri ho would have forced
him upon the town as the sole tailor. But, in
spite of all their efforts, Welk rats awa+ with the
chief, or at least the highest custom, and certain-
ly cut out some of the most becoming dresses
that were ever seen.

Well's, however, died, some time back, and
IVolf not long after, but the rival houses were
continued ander, different names, and their rival-
ship continued with unabated violence ; but the
successors of AVells, by the influence of a very fa-
shionable young man, still carry on the greatest
businest.- Now, had the unsuccessful house en
deayoured to gain the superior custom, merely by
procuring better cloth, cutting it out with more
skill, or making it up in a more elegant style, I
should not have blamed them in the least. But
the practice which seems to me most shameful, is
that of employing men, who are no workmen at
all, merely to run about and bespatter, or endea- •
your to spoil, the coats made by the other house.
Dirt they throw without mercy ; and if they'. can
pick a hole in any of those coats, they -trill not
tail to do it. Sometimes -they will even stick so
strongly in the skirts, as to endanger both the
coat and the wearer. But their common efforts
go no further than the annoyance of throwing,
filth of all kinds, or some staining liquor, to dis-;
figure the coats in which they cannot pick a bole.,
It is true that these stains almost always give wa-y,
to Tell-trq,Ch'sjlateot brushes,;
often prove very troublesome to the-wearers, be-
fore they can•:be removed; and sometimes have
occasioned them to be hooted by the populace,•
when they were
.perfectly unconscious of bayirtg
'the slightest sptil" upon their clothes.
One of the•tricks of INroll's bonse at onetime,
was to pretend that they l l rtL the slicers ; and
that the other house bad not a 511-441 e pair shun p
enough to en( otit'a common piece of,.cloth. But
'Art this was all-a pretence,lor at ,the sante time
the successors of Wells were- calling out' dresses•
which were admired all over Europe.
• There 'Wrie one spatterer, or dirt-thrower; who
for a time attacked the clothes of both hottses.
But he at length got transported, and so there
was an end of him ; his name was Gobbett. But
the most successful, as well as notorious spat=
terer is a man named Cyder, who has practiced
this dirty work for nearly ibirty years, and is
thourbt to have made a fortune by it. Ile and
his underlings, of wboni be has many, have be-
spattered every coat that came from the house of
Wells, in that whole period. Sometimes with
such address, as to mike a coat, which was
.per-
tectly white, look as entirely black, till restored
by the patent brush of Tell-truth. On this he
prides himself.much. There is, however, a voting
practitioner of the name of Small-blAck, who al-
ready rivals him in his own way, and is sometimes
thought to throw blacker dirt than even old Cyder
himself.

After all, I cannot think that the House of
Wolf is at all equal in skill to the other. In
making breeches they are so notoriatisly deficient,
that for a time they actually endeavoured to per-
suade their customers not to wear them at all ;
and even now, some of their best friends seem to
feel as if that part of their dress sat very awk-
wardly upon them. The t--
jilt() the manufacture of Red Caps; but
.of this
they were soon ashamed. They have had, of late,
but little success in. any way ; and some of their
warmest friends have, in a fit of very ill-humour,
got themselves Iwo such: a scrape, that no honest
Man .would like to be in their coats.
MERC. SCISS.

EXPLOSION IN A COAL PlT.—Last week the
workmen in the coal-pit in the Newton Green,
Ayr, went to work with candles, .when the flame
of the candle of one of the men who was working
apart from the lest came in contact with imilam-
nothle gas, and bithe explosion be was killed on
the, spot. - Another man, who was working in the
pit, on.hearing the explosion, instantly ran to the
place front whenee it proceeded to assist .his fel-
low workman, or to see,if his two sons, who were
at tvork near the Spot, Were safe, and he also was
suffocated: The two sOnS, • however, and the
other. workmen, escaped unhurt. It is said this
coal-work is amply, provided with safety-lamps,
and that the circumstance of candles being used
instead of them prOceedi principally' from the
workmen themselves incautiously preferring, the
light of the former to that emitted by the lamps,
(Ayr Advertiser.)