UNCLAIMED LUGGAGE SALE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2921, 9 March 1910, Page 12

UNCLAIMED LUGGAGE SALE.

A RUSH FOR THE GOODS. 1 Absent-minded people and others who 'from time to time leave parcels and other I trifles in railway trains form a much ; larger section of the community than I many people imagine, and every little while ■ lost, strayed, and forgotten odds and ends of human impedimenta are sent to Dun- : edin from Clinton to the south and Qamaru i to the north. In the course of three or ! four months the officials find themselves getting crowded with these goeds, and then they have a sale. One of those clearing sales took place on the 2nd. Am. hour before the advertised time about a score ot people j congregated around the B goods shed, in j the hope of getting a leisurely private ■ view, and perchance divining the approxi- ■ mate vaJue of prospective purchases, but ; alas ! officialdom turned an unfeeling key on their enterprise, and the doors re- : mained locked until half-past 12. By this ; time fully 400 people had assembled, and ; when the doors* were opened men, women, : and children rushed in pell-mell and : elbowed each other for a good stand at the barrier. A large square was railed : off, and at the rear were piled row upon row of packages, swags, bags, boxes, hats, cloaks, furs, and umbrellas. An off-hand guess would lead one to suppose that nearly every man and woman in the disi trict "must contrive to leave an umbrella in the hands of the railway officials for : safe keeping. . And such gamps ! From ; the dainty parasol designed to guard the i complexion of the swagger Gibson girl to • the motherly old contraption big enough to j shelter- a family, or roof over a small tea I garden. Some . had handles, others had j ribs. A few had both, but most of them i had seen better days. and had evidently i slid down the social scale in company with '■ dozens of men's hats and caps which had j survived the capping carnival, only to be I turned over to the Government for revenue. I Evidence of mental lapse was not confined ! to male effects, as more than 90 per cent. j of the purses offered up for sacrifice had ; belonged to ladies. j The disposal of the accumulation i was entrusted to Messrs Geerin, Haliy, ! and Co., and the 1082 packages submitted to the hammer constitutes a record for Dunedin. Mr Geerin wielded the hammer; ! and intimated that the goods would be Isold with all faults, terms net cash, puri chasers to take immediate delivery. " Here you are ! A ring in an envelope. j Might be a diamond ring for all I know. I How much?" A young woman gets it for ; 4s. A walking-stick, a pair of gioves._ and | a cap fail to raise a bid, so a suit ol ! clothes and a dress are added, and the i lot is knocked down for 2s 6d. _ " Fine leather trunk. How much?" "Shilling":" j "Two!" "And six!" The bids rise, and ! a buyer gets it at 9s 6d, and disappears j into 'seclusion. Two mysterious-looking j packages, which might contain anything | from ladies' lingerie to butchers' aprons, I are knocked down at, 3s 6d to half a dozen j clamouring bidders. " Put them up : again," says the auctioneer, and suiting I. action to word, knocks them down to a | young man for 5s od. A little later the i purchaser cautiously opens one package, ! and discovers a baby's hygienic feeding I bottle, but a raucous laugh over his i shoulder makes him decide to open the I other parcel in another neighbourhood. A '■ lady's handbag goes up next. After I spirited bidding a man claims it at 6s fed, j but a shrill voice disputes his ownership I and on'being put up again the owner of I the voice gets it at her own price—lis. A ; silk dust-coat finds a fitting; buyer in an i elderlv gent, whose purchase included a j hat and parcel. A shilling bought the ! lot, and on gaining possession the pur- | chaser retired to a corner and spent two ' hours in disguising them so that he could venture abroad without being asked for a hawker's license. Perched upon the barrier was a small urchin whose limit was ISd. Six times he reached his limit, only to find that someone else had beaten him by sixpence. Up goes a bundle of battered gamps. " Give us a chance this time, mister," pipes a shrill treble. " Eightoenpence!" "Right you are, sonny," and the boy finds himself the sudden possessor of an armful of derelict ginghams. " Now, then, ladies and gentlemen! A nice four-wheeled pram. How much?" The crowd hesitates. The tyres are gone. The body of tlie vehicle has an ominous sag. to leeward, and a wheel buckles in at the top. "What are you all waiting for? Give us a starting offer. Perhaps you wan* a family thrown in." " A bob, . yells a melancholy-looking man from wayback. " Yours," find the crowd laughs heartily. An hour later the pram is loaded up with two pairs of ladies' boots, a lady s sunshade, a sack of rabbit traps, a camping outfit, and a kit of tools, and as the buyer, trundled his vehicle through a long line oi vans and expresses a man remarked that the Victoria Cross had been awarded for less. " Here'B .-omething you can all see for yourselves," and two bottles of old Scotch are held up before the gaze of 500 thirsty, perspiring mortals. At this juncture a woman faints, and whilst a male person fans her face one of her own sex endeavours to raise the fainting one's feet towards the zenith In less than five minutes she is on her feet again, but meanwhile the whisky has been knocked down to a man who rose to fame through buttermilk, and, having paid his seven shillings, sidles through the crowd before a sympathetic philanthropist has time to commandeer a drop for the invalid. Fancy anyone forgetting to take home a large coloured photo-enlargement of the whole family! More than that. Just try to imagine four largo handsomely-framed family groups, dose to a turn in oil, all homeless, (discarded, unknown, unwanted, and unhung! An old gentleman buys one £©r 4s 6d, «. lady gets another at the same ngurgi & j»aft buy? one (for the frame, he says) a$ §§ §d, and another solemn individual gets a fourth thrown at him for 6s, ffo one weulq" haye taken that '•' painting " surely, snjess M had been thrown at him, If the aforesaid picture had failed to get «hung m i'J*« ]"»®: ? ' it certainly did net deprive the artist of his right to a position gtjpve }£. A few minutes latsi? a strange, fojncidenefi .arrives. Tbje.new purchase)? re= f!QgaJßf:§ , hi§ ' fajtkgf, mother, sisters, '...'*M toother*, jji purchase, 'an*} ?&% 4iQ.ss what*no 'one sse eao do —recognises, himself ip'' the ■ 'sgfpiip. at j;he age of Jfj Wars. Fact I "Fwo- perspiring men lug % faiSte jron-bgund' trunk into the arena. .'''Herj you are, ladies and gentlemen: Bjg emigrant trunk ', all the way frcm ! gome. That didn't come all this way I .with nothing' in it." The crowd thinks so, 1 fee; m§ m sif" ssisferj" nm Bail §§§ i$

offered, and the lot is quickly dumped into the arms of a fat, motherly old lady, who beamed upon her bargain as though it were a newly-arrived grandchild. A blue swag that suggested the Morgue csr the long enforced retirement of its rightful owner was knocked down for 3s 6d, and another fetched 4s 6d, apparently because the outside looked a little cleaner. If a man is deserving of s.corn for leaving his swag unattended in a public place, what are we to think of a young maiden who leaves a, nice shiny, well-groomed bike to take care of itself? "Why did Jones leave home?" becomes commonplace beside this proposition. Was the lady abducted, or did she go to New Brighton for the bathing season? Pea-haps she got married in haste, and hasn't yet had leisure to remember where she left that bike. After waiting for her patiently for two years the Government sold it last week, more to sorrow than in anger, and has £4 5s to uay it for its trouble. . ' A very weighty brown leather brief bag r.ext claims attention, not because it is any better looking than thousands of its kind, but simply because the pocket edition of Sandow who holds it up to view finds lhat it taxes his strength severely, and, rather than see him burdened too long with it, a men with a mutton-chop whisker and a smile like Uriah Heep offers seven shillings, and takes it for his very own. Fiv© minutes later he investigates his' purchase, and, on finding it loaded up to the muzzle with fine sand, is heard to exclaim something which sounds suspiciously ]jk e . The sale concluded about 5 p.m.,' and from that hour to 6 p.m. the landscape was dotted with a heterogeneous assortment of animated humanity, so that a F.traJiger might have been excused for imagining that the big flood had just receded, and that Noah's ark had discharged its passengers and all their worldly gear in the vicinity of Lower Rattray street.