minated
Mock Auctions, because no real intention exists on the part of the
sellers to dispose of their articles under a certain price previously
fixed upon, which, although it may not be high, is invariably more than
they are actually worth: besides which, they may be easily discovered by
the anxiety they evince to show the goods to strangers at

~366~~the moment they enter, never failing to bestow over-strained
panegyrics upon every lot they put up, and asking repeatedly--"What
shall we say for this article? a better cannot be produced;" and
promising, if not approved of when purchased, to change it. The
Auctioneer has a language suited to all companies, and, according to his
view of a customer, can occasionally jest, bully, or perplex him into
a purchase.--"The goods must be sold at what they will fetch;" and
he declares (notwithstanding among his confederates, who stand by as
bidders, they are run up beyond the real value, in order to catch a
flat,) that "the present bidding can never have paid the manufacturer
for his labour."

In such places, various articles of silver, plate, glass and household
furniture are exposed to sale, but generally made up of damaged
materials, and slight workmanship of little intrinsic value, for the
self-same purpose as the Razor-seller states--

"Friend, (cried the Razor-man) I'm no knave;
As for the razors you have bought,
Upon my soul! I never thought
That they would shave."

"Not shave!" quoth Hodge, with wond'ring eyes,
And voice not much unlike an Indian yell;
"What were they made for then, you dog?" he cries.
"Made! (quoth the fellow with a smile) to sell."

Passing the end of White Horse Yard--"Here," continued Tom, "in this
yard and the various courts and alleys which lead into it, reside
numerous Girls in the very lowest state of prostitution; and it is
dangerous even in the day time to pass their habitations, at all
events very dangerous to enter any one of them. Do you see the crowd
of squalid, half-clad and half-starved creatures that surround the old
woman at the corner?--Observe, that young thing without a stocking is
stealing along with a bottle in one hand and a gown in the other; she is
going to put the latter _up the spout_{1} with her

1 Up the spout, or up the five--Are synonimous in their
import, and mean the act of pledging property with a
Pawnbroker for the l