TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10540, 29 December 1899, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

MeHwumo'e first*lad}- '«£ . A Lady tiotieer, -who made tar fi- 8 t > Auctioneer, appearance in that capsdty ■"* * a few days before driifajM ' is, so far as we know, the pioneer of fej " : sex in this particular business in the cofo. nies. The calling of an auctioneer does not appew ftt firtf thoagbt to be quite suitable for a -woman, even for one gifted with &$ power and fluency of Jangmge attributed to '. all women by the alleged comic papers. But' Miss Hewitt.seems to have got- through ' , opening sale -with credit and success, the latter perhaps being partly due to that she had to deal with the. little thinw a woman cares, and knows, about, such a* household furniture, kitohen utensils, ajj sundries. The buyers were clearly jm* pressed with the novelty of tho occasion, ''They (the men) were decidedly ill *t ease' and even the professional dealers amongst " them had for once left the familiarity aod jocularity of the auction must behind tjjaa, Tiie first comers—two Hebrew gentlemen— ' took off their hats, conversed in whispen, and stole to tho chairs on-<tip-toe, as if they were entering pews near tho prrtpit. Even the street <boys wiio dropped in with a com* mendabk dtesire to see all that was going forward sat bolt upright on the edges of the chairs, and were (noiseless." The Jady patrons wero more at home, and "were" welcomed -with smites and shakes of the hand and in many cases.with kisses. But as the horn* approached -when Miss Hewitt had to begin the serious work of the sale, she cvi« dently became more and more disinolipej for the ordeal, and there was oonademble "disorder" when? some minutes after "the due time, a man mounted the rostrum-— <* jam case. Greeted with cries of "You're mot a lady," "Bring out the Eedy," ihe explained t-fiat Miss Hewitt had , undertaken a trying task, and asked for a little forbearance, An enterprising uTealer offered to take a, wager of a pound to haH-a-crown from another deaJer that the lady did not offer a single lot, but he was mistaken, for tiia fair auctioneer presently made her appear--ance, and announced in a voice that hardly rose above a whisper, that the next lot-con- ' sisted of two pieces of carpet and a bird caga. Whatever voice "she lacked was more than made up by ; her male attendant, -yvio drowned the noises of the outside street by his roaring echo of his principal's announce ment. Little by little, however, the kdf auctioneer began to feel her feet, she bft> came more audible, amd her stentorian'assistant bad less to do. The feature of the sale was its excessive politeness, by which even the dealers became infected. A smile and a "thank you" greeted 1 every bid, and under these harmonious conditions t-he proceedings progressed to'their close. At the end an aged earner appears to have voiced tho general! opinion , when he declared, as he carried hie end of a piano, that "with tf ittle more practice and some impudence she'll beat the best auctioneer in the city."-

The report that the '' Boer Boers are short of c Powdiar and Shot, ammunition conflicts c with what one is told c by ai man who seems to know fairly well the , ins and outs of Transvaal military arrangements. Most of the ammuni:-*? ec «9i&ed by our enemy ia made in France, * " a little has come from EngWj, and a-little i is made at the Transvaal Government works, 1 at Daspoort, about four m-Hes from Pre*. . torfa. A tremendous amount of secrecy ie , thrown round the operations at this fac» tory, a great deal more than appears rjeces* 1 sary <)on-side*rin_ the exceedingly poor ? quality of ammunition which is produced there. No one ia allowed to approach b within half a mile of the pfctce without * . t very special permit, but probably no tvisitor who -knew -anything about the business would carry away with him any very'exalted idea of the methods of the German em- - • ployees. The head of the factory is aMr - Kruger, who' is at great pains to assure . everybody that he is no relation of the. : President, "This seems quite likely/ remarks the visitor, "for he was a very decent sort of fellow." Foreign ammunition of all r sorts was imported by way oi Delagoa Bay - - —except such as before the war (was allowed Iby the patriotic Mr Schreiner to pass . through Cape Colony. Its passage from ■ Delagoa Bay Transvaal was only ac« compftished eijter extraordinary formalities had been complied with. Even these did not always prove effective, and now and ! then, we are told, the Portugese officials at • Lorenzo Marquez (Delagoa. Ba*t|, for some , reasons- best known to themselves, would refuse to pass the ammunition, aad then there would; 'be an angry and -heated exchange of letters in a queer mixture of Portuguese, Dutch, udid English, and after a long delay the goods might arrive at their destination, or they mig-ht not-. ."I» at least one instanoe an aanusing contretemps ..<«♦ cun-ed. A large lot of ammunition, ***ne 1200 boxes, went astray -at the port, and could not be found. At fast, after the lapse of many months, it turned ,"W* b by some imaccoun table error the, whole lot had been re-shipped to Beh-a, and bad got thnwgh to Bula-wayo, and was comforWWy' reposing in the magazine* of the Chartered Company of-vßritish South Afrioa. 'She Boers indignantly claimed their tmunuoition. Mr Rhodes's officials said, "Very well; come and fetch it; but, as we happen to w-airfc some of this particular brand ourselves, you hod better let us pay you for it, and #ay no more ou the -subject.' Thisactually happened, but it was never found out whether the mistake occurred on purpose or by accident.". The German ammunition has frequently been found to be excessively fjuttyy, an**! 1 in the days* ju«t before the war, when many of the Boej-0 were only just receiving their Mauser rifles, numbers of accidenta took place, owing to bad cartridges, which the Boers attributed to the rifles. The quantity of ammunition stored in the Transvaal is declared to be cckmsaJ, and one can well 'believe it, for -the Boers have been preparing for this war for J years, and the Uitlanders have been paying unwillingly the bills of the foreign amm**ni*> tion makers.