"
The bell stopped, and in a loud voice the man read from a paper:
"Oh, yes! Oh, yes! Lost, lost! On market square, a tin box, containing
papers. The finder will be rewarded by leaving it with the city marshal at
the court-house. Oh, yes! Oh, yes!"
The bell rang again at the conclusion of the proclamation, and the man
hurried on to the next street-crossing, where the loss was again set forth,
his voice coming back in waves of sound as the carriage rolled farther
away.
"The 'town-crier,'--that means a crier hired by the town, does it?" said
Lancy. "I thought there was not such a thing this side the Atlantic. Why do
not people advertise their losses?"
"That is the way they do it," said Beatrice, smiling, "and it pays better,
particularly on market days, than to put it in all the city papers. It is
the quickest way to make a loss known, or to advertise a sale, for
everybody listens to old Hatch, or Mr. Hatch, I should say. It is very
old-fashioned to have a town-crier, I suppose, but we should miss him very
much, though I daresay the office will die with the present crier."
"I think it is an old English custom," said Lancy.
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