, 1884-12-18
AT A WOOL AUCTION.
AN INTERESTING PICTURE FROM THE
LONDON WOOL EXCHANGE
The seifPossessed, Keen-Eyed Auctioneer
"A Bear Garden of Understandable Con-
l1 ~fusion-The Dimeulty of spot
ting the Highest Bidder.


London Spectator
There Is no more curious sight in the city
than one OF the wool auctions which are now
being held every afternoon in the wool ex-
change, Coleman street Imagine a large
and lofty room, capable OF holding about 800
people. Benches, in the form of q semi-
circle, rise tier above tier. so that all the sit
tors are plainly visible from the tribune or
rostrum-an elevated desk at the bottom OF
the room. Every seat Is numbered, and the
highest number is sos. A narrow gallery
provides accommodation for the few spec
tators. Five minutes before 4 nearly every
seat is occupied, the demand for them ex-
ceeding the supply; and as the clock strikes
the hour the a~uctioneer, or selling broker,
takes his place in the tribune He is a cool,
self-possessed, ~good-looking man, with a
keen eye, rosy checks, and hair parted in the
middle. On either side OF him sits a clerk
one bald and dark, the other hirsute and
blonde.
No time Is lost in preliminaries; an elo-
quent wool auctioneer would be an i~ntolera-
BILE nuisance, and this one Is as sparing OF
words as a telegram from China Every
buyer before him is the busiest Of men, and
he has to sell 100000 pounds sterling worth
Of wool before o o'clock. aLot 2i3, ten
bales" he says. Simple words, but the
signal for a very tempest OF excitement
From every part of the room come, as it
were, scattered shots in quick succession
-eight, half, nine, ten, ten-half." Then up
spring a dozen, or it may be a score, OF eager,
earnest men, who shout passionately at the
top of their voices, and almost in chorus;
~Ten-half, ten-half, ten-half, ten-half," until
it almost seems as If the roof
would split Some stretch their arms
toward the tribune, asst they were Threaten
ing a foe; others work Thorn 10 and fro, as If
they were engaged in mortal combat; others,
again, raise them upward, as IL they were
appealing to heaven. They yell still more
loudly; gesticulate still more wildly, some
in their excitement bending forward until
they nearly topple over on the seats below.
1t is n bear garden, n Babel, a scene Of indie
scribable confusion, and to the INITIATED
spectator it seems as II the frantic bidders
were about to spring from their places and
punch each others heads.
But the auctioneer speaks one word, and
the storm is stilled; every voice is hushed,
every man resumes his seat. That word is
"TomkinsLr The lot has been knocked down
TO Tomkins. Without drawing breath the
selling broker goes ON TO the next lot, and
then there is another startling roar, followed
by an equally sudden collapse. The faces of
some Of the bidders are a study.
One gentleman, with a bald head
surrounded by a fringe of black
hair, and features Enthusiastically French
gets 30 excited that you fear he may break a
blood vessel or have a fit of appoplexy. His
wide nostrils CULVER, his swarthy face be-
comes dark red, he fights the air with his
arms, and hurls bids at the auctioneer as II
he would annihilate him.
Near the Gaul Is a fair Teuton, stalwart
and tall, shouting offers as IL he were crying
4Vorwartsl" in the smoke Of battle and glar-
Ing at his competitors as II he would like to
charge down upon them as the Uhlans
charged down upon the French at Gravelotte
and Sednn. Not far from the foreigners sits
a gentleman whose cast Of features and
style of dress leave little doubt that he Is a
manufacturer of wool, or stapler, and halls
from a northern country. To make his bid
more effective he puts one hand to the dde
Of his mouth and gesticulates with the other,
but he needs no artificial aid, for he has a
voice Of thunder and shouts like a Boan-
srges. ID
But why all this noisel Why can not a
wool auctioneer knock down his wares to the
highest bidder, like any other a~uctioneeri
There is the rub; the difficulty Is to spot"
he highest bidder. All the firms represented
at the auction know to a fraction the value
Of every parcel they wish to acquire, and
five, or ten, or a score, as the case may be,
are willing buyers of a certain lot at, let US
say 1 shilling a -pound-more they can not
afford to give. The rule is, when there are
several bidders at the same price-and there
generally are several bidders-to prefer the
one who bids the first, which is practically
the one who first succeeds In attracting the
auctioneer's attention. In such a contest
the feeble-voiced have no chance, and the
loud shouters are the most likely to come out
Of 1t victorious. When the selling broker
names the buyer who has caught his ear,
all the rest subside like would-be orators in
the house of commons who fail to catch the
speakers eye. The confidence In the auc-
honeer's impartiality seems to be absolute;
he never loses his self-possession, and time
Is too precious to be wasted in wrangling.