The Penn's Grove record., 1892-08-19
a LONDON IVORY SALE

A-A.a ~ hAA =
s,,~i IN - ,.m,,,sy msnnsr Win row
49, rs,rr ans t,eb,n1 ,bs .tbep
icn,s.n. t,msilx Va tals our s-si
.Man, - l.sxs msnx ~ whom a,
@.noas snJ .srh ~ whom has i
f,ont ~ lin uh.t looks like an exam
ns,,,a ,.r.r .nd ! sba.t ~ Whit
fo.lsaofor his In the we
r. the ~lecturer. seated at the table q
ItAs msnsl hn,id and in 'front.' of him !
L. lower tahIe Is a row Of excitabl
~xanns man whom n il evidently nd
yis.hi. Ia should have uuder hi
eye
,sssy tusntv.five." rays the lecturer
Ana he saws il and no one takes an,
l~po,iea,
..Twsuty.four ten" continues th,
lecturer. And there is a fiutter Of on
: white nsner. but no one presumes I,
make = rems,k.
.sTxenty-fourr- psuse-'.twenty
three tsn-another tause-"twenty
!. three. xenty-two tam: twenty-two,"-
I'm rapid succession-and no one be
strays the slightest interest in the mum
bsrs
ssTyenty.tvo ten"-pause, punctua
lssed by a sneeze~"twenty-o nei'-
pause Really, gentlemen. 1 with
ldns. would rather take them home
and boil them for teal
And ahen there is a laugh all round,
IS MIGHT be expected, for the articles
Threatened to be boiled for tea are ele.
plants tusks, and this is an ivory sale
lin the Commercial Sale Rooms, Mine.
ling Lane.
"Next lot, says the lecturer. whom
We have now discovered to be . bro
Iker. "Twenty-four"- silence. TWEEN
tty-three tend-silence- "twenty-three,"
"Tventy-three teni" q Q voice.
s1Tuenty-fouri" says another. and then
from ali parts Of the room a rapid firing
lof successive numbers and tens, failing
of into sstwenty-nine te~n-thirty-
thirty tenl"
ANY advance on thirty teu2" asks
the broker. ANY ~advaace?" Knock
goes the hammer. "YoursI" says the
broker, nodding al q man ON q back
bench. Next loti'
And so it goes on, the broker puttins
the goods in at q trial price, and drop.
ping BIZ half soyereigns till the buyers
take the chance, and then, o~utbidding
each other, raise the price by half SOW
ereigns to perhaps more than the bro.
ker's trial.
Four times a year, in January, April.
July, and October, these ivory sales
are held, and the display of the goods
in the warehouse is one of the strange
sights of London. The floor is crowd
ed with ivory Of all sorts and sizes, in
tnsks and sections, and odds and ends,
some of it in huge teeth weighing 70
lib. each, some mere trifles OF 20 lb.
apiece, some mere pigmy ''scrivelloes,"
and crooked, cracked, hollow, decayed
and broken. On every lot is q big
clumsy number, and every assemblape
of lots has a notice board giving the
broker 5 name and the first and last
numbers of the lots he has to sell. The
wilderness of teeth seems all in move
meut round the gigantic pair of trav-
cling scales in the centre; the curving
Itusks are hike SO many worms, all
strangely scratched and soribed, and
are of all colors from white, through
the browns, to almost black; and an
expert can tell at a glance where en- b
came from, and q sort the lots from
the pink Calcutta to the black West
Coast which comes wrapped up in the
raw hides bearing the mysterious name
OF "schroons."
Mr.. Stanley tells as that in the
Congo basin there are two hundred
thousand elephants, each with 90 Id.
Of ivory in his jaws, the total being
worth hall q million OF money; but
even that stock would soon be exhaust
ed If the Congo aloneh had to NIL this
door four times q year.
And besides the London sales there
are sales at Liverpool and Antwerp
and Rotterdam. Most OF the Liver
pool ivory comes from the West Coast
Of Africa. and q quarter OF it goes to
sheffield, q quarter to London. and
half to Germany, France, and the
United States. To the London sale
the ivory comes from all parts.
But all the ivory does not come from
A good deal Of it comes from
India: and 9 very little OF the Indian
ivory is obtained without killing the
owing to its being the custom
10 cut Q captive elephants tusk every
ten years. From the Malay Peninsula
and the islands whereabouts, there il q
lair ivory trade direct with China, and
The nests Of balls, which are the high. !
est achievement Of ivory turning, are
invariably made from the island
teeth. These balls are q terrible puz-
zle until an hour or SOS careful manip-
reveals how they are managed,
By careful shifting il will be found that
all the large holes come opposite to
each other, and that il ia down these
shafts that ..s work has been douo
The Chinaman has made probably |
fourteen holes in the solid bali, dimin
as thew approach the centre. !
the walls OF these conical sbafte |
he has spaced ont the number OF Law
,rs he REQUIRES. snd. beaiunine with
The smallest bali. he has cut each LAYER
Tree and carved it II has been q long
Job evidently. and as a matter of fact
he has worked Ave DAYS. on an average.
It each ball, and for his three months
xork he was probably paid at the rate
II 1--WE shiIlipes . week. which is first.
,lass nav for q Chinamau.
In Europe the great iyory-caryina
W ~ otCbPEs AnrLc Al y hOhAGAlu