o lay hold of a falling
newspaper. Sometimes a lucky fellow got hold of five or six newspapers
and ran off with them to a corner, in order to select his favourite
paper; but he was always hotly pursued by some half-dozen of the
disappointed scramblers, who, without ceremony, pulled from his hands
the first paper they could lay hold of, regardless of its being torn in
the contest. On these occasions I have often seen a heap of gentlemen
sprawling on the floor of the room and riding upon one another's backs
like a parcel of boys. It happened, however, unfortunately, that a
gentleman in one of these scrambles got two of his teeth knocked out of
his head, and this ultimately brought about a change in the manner of
delivering the newspapers."

[Illustration: THE TONTINE READING-ROOMS, GLASGOW--ARRIVAL OF THE
MAIL--PERIOD: END OF LAST CENTURY. (_After an old print._)]

Another instance of the anxiety for early news is exhibited in a
practice which prevailed in Glasgow about fifty years ago. The Glasgow
merchants were deeply interested in shipping and other news coming from
Liverpool. The mail at that period arrived in Glasgow some time in the
afternoon during business hours. A letter containing quotations from
Liverpool for the Royal Exchange was due in the mail daily. This letter
was enclosed in a conspicuously bright red cover, and it was the
business of the post-office clerk, immediately he opened the Liverpool
bag, to seize this letter and hand it to a messenger from the Royal
Exchange who was in attendance at the Post Office to receive it. This
messenger hastened to the Exchange, rang a bell to announce the arrival
of the news, and forthwith the contents of the letter were posted up in
the Exchange. The merchants who had offices within sound of the bell
were then seen hurrying to the Exchange buildings, to be cheered or
depressed as the case might be by the information which the mail had
brought them.

A clever instance of how the possession of early news could be turned to
profitable account in the younger days of the century is recorded of Mr.
John Rennie, a nephew of his namesake the great engineer, and an
extensive dealer in corn and cattle. His headquarters at the time were
at East Linton, near Dunbar. "At one period of his career Mr. Rennie
habitually visited London either for business or pleasure, or both
combined. One day, when present at the grain market, in Mark Lane,
sudden war news arrived, in consequence