University of Virginia Library

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF STATIONERY.

Of this body of street-traders there are two
descriptions, the itinerant and the "pitching."
There are some also who unite the two quali-
ties, so far as that they move a short distance,
perhaps 200 yards, along a thoroughfare, but
preserve the same locality.

Of the itinerant again, there are some who,
on an evening, and more especially a Saturday
evening, take a stand in a street-market, and
pursue their regular "rounds" the other por-
tions of the day.

The itinerant trader carries a tray, and in no
few cases, as respects the "display" of his
wares, emulates the tradesman's zeal in "dress-
ing" a window temptingly. The tray most in
use is painted, or mahogany, with "ledges,"
front and sides; or, as one man described it,
"an upright four -inch bordering, to keep
things in their places." The back of the tray,
which rests against the bearer's breast, is about
twelve inches high. Narrow pink tapes are
generally attached to the "ledges" and back,
within which are "slipped" the articles for
sale. At the bottom of the tray are often
divisions, in which are deposited steel pens,
wafers, wax, pencils, pen-holders, and, as one
stationer expressed it, "packable things that
you can't get much show out of." One man —
who rather plumed himself on being a tho-
rough master of his trade — said to me: "It's
a grand point to display, sir. Now, just take it
in this way. Suppose you yourself, sir, lived
in my round. Werry good. You hear me cry
as I'm a approaching your door, and suppose
you was a customer, you says to yourself:
`Here's Penny-a-quire,' as I'm called oft
enough. And I'll soon be with you, and I
gives a extra emphasis at a customer's door.
Werry good, you buys the note. As you buys
the note, you gives a look over my tray, and
then you says, `O, I want some steel pens, and
is your ink good?' and you buys some. But
for the `display,' you'd have sent to the shop-
keeper's, and I should have lost custom, 'cause
it wouldn't have struck you."*

The articles more regularly sold by the
street-sellers of stationery are note-paper, letter-
paper, envelopes, steel pens, pen-holders, seal-
ing -wax, wafers, black -lead pencils, ink in
stonebottles, memorandum -books, almanacks,
and valentines. Occasionally, they sell India-
rubber, slate-pencil, slates, copy-books, story-
books, and arithmetical tables.

The stationery is purchased, for the most part,
in Budge-row and Drury-lane. The half-quires
(sold at 1d.) contain, generally, 10 sheets; if the
paper, however, be of superior quality, only 8
sheets. In the paper-warehouses it is known as
"outsides," with no more than 10 sheets to the
half quire, the price varying from 4s. to 6s. the
ream (20 quires); or, if bought by weight, from
7d. to 9d. the pound. The envelopes are sold
(wholesale) at from 6d. to 15d. the dozen; the
higher-priced being adhesive, and with impres-
sions — now, generally, the Crystal Palace — on
the place of the seal. The commoner are retailed
in the streets at 12, and the better at 6, a penny.
Sometimes "a job-lot," soiled, is picked up by
the street-stationer at 4d. a pound. The sealing,
a pound, retailed at ½d. each; the "flat" wax,
however, is 1s. 4d. per lb., containing from 30 to
36 sticks, retailed at 1d. each. Wafers (at the
same swag shops) are 3d. or 4d. the lb. — in small
boxes, 9d. the gross; ink, 4½d. or 5d. the dozen
bottles; pencils, 7d. to 8s. a gross; and steel
pens from 4d. (waste) to 3s. a gross; but the
street-stationers do not go beyond 2s. the gross,
which is for magnum bonums.

* I may here observe that I have rarely heard
tradesmen dealing in the same wares as street-sellers,
described by those street-sellers by any other term
than that of "shopkeepers."