beautiful Bradford goods—lustrous as silk—soft as
wool;—and wool it is—wool of the alpaca.
Here is west of England broad-cloth;—
nothing beats west of England cloth, says
Gilliflower. How perfect its texture!—how
rich its surface! This particular piece is
worth nineteen shillings the yard. Guess
what your tailor would charge if ever he sold
such stuff.

We pass on through fustians, and leave
them with great expedition, and a strong
conviction that the word fusty takes its name
from that useful but odorous material; and,
as we pass along, assistant sprites draw
themselves erect, washing their hands with
invisible soap in imperceptible water the
while, as those who deal in haberdashery are
wont to do.

We inquire if they sell to none but the
trade. Gilliflower smiles, and says, that
now and then, people come there under
pretence of "just seeing the place," and try to
pick up a bargain, "just to remind them of
their visit." Under these circumstances, it is
the custom to pass a word well understood
by the assistants. "Mr. Jones: has Smith's
parcel been sent?" "Yes, sir;" with an
anticipatory smile. "Very well; then take
the Reverend Mr. Haggle, and show him
some shawls; and let him have a cheap one
to take home to his wife." Whereupon the
reverend purchaser is marched up to the
shawl-department, and is permitted, as a
special favour, to purchase a shawl for about
ten shillings more than he would have paid
for the same, had he purchased it of
Lutestring the village draper; and, as he only
wanted it for a memento, it will serve all the
better for that, when he finds how dearly he
has paid for it.

By this time we are in a large room, where
the packing is being briskly carried on.
A "hoist" conveys the purchased goods from
the various floors of the warehouse, and men
are engaged in piling up the articles within
hydraulic presses, which squeeze them with
mighty power into bales of remarkable
neatness and compactness. In one corner of this
room we observe a desk, at which a man is
busily engaged in continually opening and
shutting a little cupboard, into which little
scraps of paper come fluttering down as if by
magic, and then the man writes their
contents in a ponderous tome. Gilliflower
explains that this is a contrivance for ascertaining
"how far the customers are going." The
customers wander from department to department,
ordering as it may seem good to them.
As soon as a purchase is made, a notification
of the fact flutters down the communication-pipe
to the man at the desk; so that, before
each customer leaves the house, an account of
his orders has been submitted to a member
of the firm, whose fiat determines their
execution, or otherwise. When a
customer has been ordering a little too
speculatively (an event of not unfrequent
occurrence), he is a little startled by being
requested to step aside into the parlour, just
as he is about to leave the warehouse.
There, he is confronted by our matter-of-fact
friend, Gilliflower, who tells him straight-
forwardly that his introduction, being
so-and-so, and his references so-and-so, they
have no objection to trust him to a
certain amount; but that, if he goes beyond
it, he must give security. And what means,
say we, have you, O Gilliflower, for
ascertaining the solvency of your customers?
Gilliflower smiles meaningly, and taking
down one of a series of ledger-like volumes,
opens it for our inspection. "Here," says
he, "is a list of all our customers. Beneath
each man's name, you will find entered,
all we know about him; we spare no trouble
in obtaining this information; our travellers
and others in our employ collect it as they
are able; and we make confidential exchanges
of such information with four or five of the
leading houses in the trade."

The information stored in this strange
treasury of knowledge is comprehensive and
available; rather suggestive than conveying
direct information either way.

SARSNET, JAMES.— Draper at Spindleton.
Introduced to us by Goodchilds and Co. Phipps's say that
they have had dealings with him up to £500; that he
was always punctual, and availed himself of discount
[Very suggestive]. Griggs says that he has £2,000
in the funds. Ports says that he had £1500 with his
wife.

Sometimes the note is pithy, but pregnant.

HEARTWELL, FRANK.— Introduced by Silver and
Co.

In this case the introduction is enough to
secure any amount of credit without further
inquiry.

But it occasionally happens that the
remarks appended are not so flattering:

FLIGHTY, THOMAS.— Haberdasher at Plasterton.
Introduced by Grogram, who says that he will not be
answerable, but believes the young man to be honest
and well-meaning. Phipps's say that he has bought
up to £50, and paid pretty regularly. Jones says that
he has not saved money, but married, when one-and-twenty,
a young woman of showy habits. Plays
billiards, and occasionally drinks.

And across this character is written in the
handwriting of Gilliflower, "I don't think
this young man will succeed."

Against some of the names, we observe
large black crosses. On requesting to
know their significance, Gilliflower replies,
"Well, the fact is these persons are—" and
here his voice drops to a whisper.

"You don't mean to say so?"

"I do. We can't trust them; and when
they take to preaching, we—" and here
Gilliflower dashes his hand very expressively
across the page.

In taking leave of this splendid and