OF these street-traders there are now regularly ; man counted to me , but of these only sold dog-collars occasionally, when they could not get employment in their trade as journeymen brass-founders. Of the regular hands, , , and sometimes sell only dog-collars (with the usual adjuncts of locks, and sometimes chains, and key-rings), but even these, when their stock-money avails, prefer uniting to the collars some other trifling article.

of the most profitable pitches for the sale of these articles are in the neighbourhood of the Old Swan Pier, off , and at a corner of the Bank. Neither of these traders confines his stock to dog-collars, though they constitute the most valuable portion of it. The sells, in addition to his collars, key-rings, keys and chains, dog-whistles, stamps with letters engraved upon them, printer's type, in which any name or initials may be set up, shaving-brushes, trowser-straps, razors, and a few other light articles. The other sells little more than "dog" articles, with the addition of brass padlocks and small whips. But the minor commodities are frequently varied, according to the season and to the street-seller's opinion of what may "sell."

Some of these traders hang their wares against the rails of any public or other building in a good situation, where they can obtain leave. Others have stalls, with "a back," from the corners of which hang the strings of dog-collars, linked within another. The manner in which streetseller displays his wares is shown in the illustration before given. Of the whole number, half are either itinerant on a round, or walk up and down a thoroughfare and an adjacent street or . "Dog-collars," said man, "is no good at Saturday-night markets. People has said to me— for I was flat enough to try once—'Dogs! pooh, I've hardly grub enough for the kids.' For all that, sir, some poor people has dogs, and is very fond of them too; ay, and I've sold them collars, but seldom. I think it's them as has no children has dogs."

The collars most in demand are brass. man pointed out to me the merits of his stock, which he retailed from each (for the very small ones) to —for collars seemingly big enough for Pyrenean sheep dogs. Some of the street-sold collars have black and red rims and linings; others are of leather, often scarlet, stitched ornamentally over a sort of jointed iron or wire-work. A few are of strong compact steel chain-work; "but them's more the fashion," said seller, "for sporting dogs, like pointers and greyhounds, and is very seldom bought in the streets. It's the pet dogs as is our best friends."

The dog-collar sellers have, as regards perhaps -half, been connected in their youth with some mechanical occupation in metal manufacture. , I am told, are or were pensioners to a small amount, as soldiers or sailors.

Some further particulars of the business will be found in the following statement given me by a man in the trade. He was sickly-looking, seemed dispirited at , but to recover his spirits as he conversed, and spoke with a provincial (I presume a Warwickshire or Staffordshire) accent.

I served my time, sir; my relations put me —for my parents died when I was a boy—to a harness furniture maker, in Wa'sall (Walsal), who supplied Mr. Dixon, a saddler's ironmonger, in a good way. I had fair makings, and was well treated, and when I was out of my time I worked for another master, and I then found I could make my pad territs" (the round loops of the harness pad, through which the reins are passed), "my hooks, my buckles, my ornaments (some of 'em crests), as well as any man. I worked only in brass, never plated, but sometimes the body for plating, and mostly territs and hooks. Thinking I'd better myself, I came to London. I was between five and six weeks before I got a stroke of work, and my money had gone. I found that London harness makers and coachmakers' names was put on Walsal-made goods, and 'London made' and 'town made' was put too. They might be as good, but they wasn't town made no more nor I am. I can't tell what I suffered, and felt, and thought, as at last I walked the streets. I was afraid to call at any brass-worker's—for I can do many sorts of brass work—I was so shabby. I called once at Mr. A——'s, near Smithfield, and he, or his foreman perhaps it was, says to me, 'Give that tugbuckle a file.' I'd had nothing to eat but an apple I found in the street that day, and my hand trembled, and so he told me that drunkards, with trembling hands, wouldn't do there. I was never a drinking man; and at that time hadn't tasted so much as beer for ten days. My landlady—I paid her 1s. a week for half a bed with a porter—trusted me my rent, 'cause I paid her when I had it; but I walked about, narvussed and trembling, and frightened at every sudden sound. No, sir, I've stood looking over a bridge, but, though I may have thought of suicide, I never once had really a notion of it. I don't know how to tell it, but I felt stupified like, as much as miserable. I felt I could do nothing. Perhaps I shouldn't have had power of mind to drown myself if I'd made up my resolution; besides, it's a dreadful wickedness. I always liked reading, and, before I was fairly beaten out, used to read at home, at shopwin- dows, and at book-stalls, as long as I dared, but latterly, when I was starving, I couldn't fix my mind to read anyhow. One night I met a Wa's'll friend, and he took me to his inn, and gave me a good beef-steak supper and some beer, and he got me a nice clean bed in the house. In the morning he gave me what did me most good of all, a good new shirt, and 5s. I got work two days after, and kept it near five years, with four masters, and married and saved 12l. We had no family to live, and my poor wife died in the cholera in 1849, and I buried her decently, thank God, for she was a good soul. When I thought the cholera was gone, I had it myself, and was ill long, and lost my work, and had the same sufferings as before, and was without soles to my shoes or a shirt to my back, 'till a gentleman I'd worked for lent me 1l., and then I went into this trade, and pulled up a little. In six weeks I paid 15s. of my debt, and had my own time for the remaining 5s. Now I get an odd job with my master sometimes, and at others sell my collars, and chains, and key-rings, and locks, and such like. I'm ashamed of the dog-collar locks; I can buy them at 2d. a dozen, or 1s. 6d. a gross; they're sad rubbish. In two or three weeks sometimes, the wire hasp is worn through, just by the rattling of the collar, and the lock falls off. I make now, one way and another, about 10s. a week. My lodging's 2s. a week for a bed-room—it's a closet tho,' for my furniture all went. God's good, and I'll see better days yet. I have sure promise of regular work, and then I can earn 30s. to 40s. I do best with my collars about the docks. I'm sure I don't know why.

I am told that each of the street-sellers of dogcollars sell on the average a dozen a week, at a medium receipt of ("sometimes , and sometimes "), though some will sell and even dozen collars in the week. Any regular dog-collar seller will undertake to get a name engraved upon it at a letter. The goods are bought at a swag-shop, or an establishment carried on in the same way. The retailer's profit is per cent.

Reckoning weekly taken by men, we find expended yearly in the streets in dog-collars.