OF THE STREET STATIONERS, AND THE
STREET CARD-SELLERS.
I have before mentioned that the street-station-
ers — the sellers of writing-paper, envelopes,
pens, and of the other articles which constitute
the stationery in the most general demand —
were not to be confounded with the pattering
"paper-workers." They are, indeed, a dif-
ferent class altogether. The majority of them
have been mechanics, or in the employ of
tradesmen whose callings were not mechanical
(as regards handicraft labour), but what is best
described perhaps as commercial; or as selling
but not producing; as in the instances of the
large body of "warehousemen" in the dif-
ferent departments of trade. One street-sta-
tioner thought that of his entire body, not more
than six had been gentlemen's servants. He
himself knew four who had been in such em-
ployment, and one only as a boy — but there
might be six.
The card-sellers are, in the instances I shall
show, more akin to the class of patterers, and
I shall, therefore, give them first. The more
especially as I can so preserve the consecutive-
ness of the accounts, in the present number, by
presenting the reader with a sketch of the life
of an informant, in whose revelations I find that
many have taken a strong interest.
