 | OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF CHEMICAL ARTICLES
OF MANUFACTURE.
The street purveyors of blacking, of the different
preparations of black lead, of plating-balls, of corn-
salves, of grease-removing compositions, of china
and glass cements, of rat poisons, of fly-papers, of
beetle-wafers, of gutta-percha heads, of lucifer-
matches, and of cigar-lights, may be classed
generally under two heads. They are either very
old or very young persons, or else they are men
who recommend their wares by patter.
Among the first-mentioned class are the vendors
of cakes of blacking, papers of black-lead, and
lucifer matches. Of blacking and black-lead the
street-sellers are more frequently old women; of
lucifer matches they are usually women and
children, and of all ages. It is not uncommon,
in the quieter roads of the suburbs especially, to
see a young woman extend her bare red arm from
beneath a scanty ragged shawl, and with an im-
ploring look, a low curtsey, and a piteous tone,
proffer a box of matches for sale; while a child in
her arms, perhaps of two or three years old, ex-
tends in its little hand another box. There are
also in the street sale of lucifer matches very
many girls and boys, parentless or uncared for,
and many old or infirm women and men.
The street-sellers of chemically-manufactured
articles, who feel it necessary to recommend their
wares by a little street oratory, or patter, (the
paper-worker, whose humorous remarks I have
before quoted, once described it to me as "adver-
tising by word of mouth,") are the vendors of
the articles which are to cure, to repair, to reno-
vate, or to kill. Any other itinerant vendors of
chemical articles are of the ordinary class of street
traders.
| OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |