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BARTERING FOR BLADES

buy sheep and donkeys, grain and vegetables, or to supply themselves with foreign luxuries for their women, left in some distant village. Strange to say, the calicoes and cottons, of which vast quantities are purchased here, are not from the factories of France, for every bale is marked in large plain letters "MANCHESTER." France sheds her blood, conquers barbarous countries, and England then steps in and reaps the profit. But as we now enter the inner market-place, we observe that although the dealings are collectively important, they are individually tiny to a rare degree. The infinite smallness of some transactions defies description. For five centimes the frugal Arab buys dates enough to constitute his midday meal; oats are sold by the handful, wheat is dealt out in pinches;—men gain a living by a daily commerce unworthy elsewhere the time and labor of a fly. In comparison with these retailers of atoms, the bread merchant with a score of loaves on sale becomes a magnate