Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/115

Rh up aud stow away. I may, however, repeat what I have said elsewhere, and that is "knock down the man, or indeed the woman, who dares to touch you with the hands:" should you wish to decline this, at least huff the intruder with "hands off, fellow!"

Another set of these are employed at MOCK AUCTIONS, and no other. "Walk in! the auction is now on," or "just going to begin," they utter, in coarse stentorian strains. Such auctions are easily distinguished from the real ones, notwithstanding they assume all the external marks of genuineness, even up to advertising in the newspapers, and being held in the house of a person lately gone away, or dead. They are called mock auctions, because no intention exists of selling under certain prices, previously fixed upon; which, although not high, is invariably too much for the quality of the goods—which are again of a very inferior cast. And, they are further known, by the anxiety evinced to show the goods to strangers the moment they enter; by the overstrained panegyrics bestowed upon every thing put up; by the exacerbated vocabulary of the auctioneer, who endeavours to jest, to bully,