The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 244: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

TWO FRIENDS 217 “True! ’’? said Mr. Limber; “ there are no doubt many things which two can do together, but which can’t be ac- complished by one.”’ | “T have got hold of a capital idea,” said Mr. Bealby, “but it wants a little cash to start it, — some twenty or thirty pounds or so.” “ Sell off the whole of this trumpery and raise the coin,”’ suggested Mr. Limber. ‘““My dear fellow,’ responded his edifying friend Mr. Bealby, ‘‘ you require to be enlightened on this point. These things are not worth eighteenpence, unless somebody takes afancy to them. Look at their intrinsic value: it is nothing. Send them to an auction, or call in a lot of brokers, and to what ignominious nothingness do all my beautiful curiosities become reduced. A brickbat is then simply a brickbat; this corselet, which I declare to have been worn by Sir William Wallace at the battle of Falkirk, turns out to be a horse-guard’s rusty breastplate, worth a few pence as old iron; that piece of pottery with the handle broken off, and with the letters T. I. scratched upon it, which I, speaking archeologically, pronounce to be an ancient Roman vessel of the time of the Emperor Tiberius, the initials standing for Tiberius Imperator, — that piece of pottery, I say, dwindles down in a moment to a vase pipkin in which some urchin of modern times has confectioned hardbake or Everton toffy. So it is, my dear fellow, with the best part of these archzo- logical marvels, with all the quaint dresses and curious cos- tumes; or at all events auctioneers and brokers are such Goths and Vandals as to be utterly indifferent to the value with which antiquity stamps them. In a word, Ben, barring the mummy which is as good as sold, I don’t think my whole collection, if sent to the hammer, would fetch ten shillings.” ‘Why not invite a number of your archeological friends to inspect the museum,’’ asked Mr. Limber, “ and tell them that you want to sell off in order to make a voyage around the world, or take a descent into Vesuvius, or to plunge into the Maelstrom to see what causes the whirlpool — ”’ ‘‘ All this is ingenious enough, Ben,” interrupted Mr. Bealby, ‘and I honour you for the inventive genius you have just displayed. But the trick will not take. I told you just now that the curiosity market is as dull as ditch-water, skeletons EOMIGIOOKS (CO)