1 48 JUSEN- B y PERSE VER.'i NCR. 



encouraged him in his speculation. He remained firm, 

 however, in his determination to give the wool a trial, and 

 bought the whole consignment of alpaca from the Liverpool 

 brokers at eightpence a pound Next he organized new 

 machinery for its manufacture into fabric. 



Charles Dickens made this incident the basis of a 

 humorous article in Household Words, part of which we 

 quote : — 



'A huge pile of dirty-looking sacks, filled with some 

 fibrous material, which bore a strong resemblance to super- 

 annuated horse hair, or frowsy elongated wool, or anything 

 unpleasant or unattractive, vras landed in Liverpool. When 

 these queer-looking bales had first arrived, or by what 

 vessel brought, or for what purpose intended, the very 

 oldest warehouseman in Liverpool docks couldn't say. There 

 had once been a rumour — a mere warehouseman's rumour 

 — that the bales had been shipped from South America on 

 " spec," and consigned to the agency of C. W. & F. Foozle 

 & Co. But even this seems to have been forgotten, and 

 it was agreed upon all hands that the three hundred and 

 odd sacks of nondescript hair wool were a perfect nuisance. 

 The rats appeared to be the only parties who approved at 

 all of the importation, and to them it was the finest invest- 

 ment for capital that had been known in Liverpool since 

 their first ancestors had emigrated thither. Well, these 

 bales seemed likely to rot or fall to the dust, or be bitten 

 up for the particular use of family rats. Merchants would 

 have nothing to say to them ; dealers couldn't make them 

 out ; manufacturers shook their heads at the bare mention 

 of them; while the agents, C. W. & F. Foozle & Co., looked 

 at the bill of lading, and had once spoken to their head 



