"SPARS," as spar ornaments are called by the street-sellers, are sold to the retailers at only places in London, and in Gravesend (where the hawkers are for the most part supplied). The London spar-houses are— in , in , and on Battle-bridge. None of them present any display of their goods which are kept in large drawers, closets, and packages. At Gravesend the spar-shops are handsome.

These wares are principally of Derbyshire spar, and made in Matlock; a few are German. The "spars" are hawked on a round, and are on fine Saturday nights offered for sale in the street and markets. The trade was unknown as a street, or a hawking trade in London, I am informed, until about years ago, and then was not extensive, the goods, owing to the cost of carriage, &c., being high-priced. As public conveyance became more rapid, certain and cheap, the trade in spars increased, and cheaper articles were prepared for the London market. From to years ago the vendors of spars "did well in swop" (as street-sellers always call barters). The articles with which they tempted housewives were just the sort of article to which it was difficult for inexperienced persons to attach a value. They were massive and handsome ornaments, and the spar-sellers did not fail to expatiate on their many beauties. "God rest Jack Moody's soul," said an Irishman, now a crock-seller, to me; "Jack Moody was only his nick-name, but that don't matter; God rist his sowl and the hivens be his bid. He was the boy to sell the spar-r's. They was from the cavrents at the bottom of the say, he towld them, or from a new island in the frozen ocean. He did well; God rist him; but he died young." The articles "swopped" were such as I have described in my account of the tradings of the crock-sellers; and if the "swop" were in favour of the spar-seller, still the customer became possessed of something solid, enduring, and generally handsome.

At the outset of the street or hawking trade, the spar-sellers carried their goods done up in paper, in strong baskets on their heads; the man's wife sometimes carrying a smaller basket, with less burdensome articles, on her arm. Men have been known to start on a round, with a basket of spars, which would weigh from cwt. to cwt. (or stone). This, it must be remembered, might

Some of the spar ornaments are plain, white, and smooth. Of these many have flowers, or rims, or insects, painted upon them, and in brilliant colours. Those which are now in demand for the street sales, or for itinerant barterings, are— Small microscopes, candlesticks, inkstands, pincushions, mugs, paper-holders, match perfumery, and shaving-boxes, etc. The general price of these articles is to the street-seller or hawker, some of the dealers being licensed hawkers. The wholesale price varies from to per dozen; or an average of or Of the larger articles the most saleable are candlesticks, at from to each; from to being the most frequent price. Watch-stands and vases are now, I am told, in small demand. "People's got stocked, I think," man said, "and there's so much cheap glass and chaney work, that they looks on spars as heavy and old-fashioned."

Some street-sellers have their spars in covered barrows, the goods being displayed when the top of the barrow is removed, so that the conveyance is serviceable whether the owner be stationary or itinerant. The spar-sellers, however, are reluctant to expose their goods to the weather, as the colours are easily affected.

In this trade I am informed that there are now men, of whom are assisted by their wives, and that in the summer months there are eighteen. Their profits are about per week on an average of the whole year, including the metropolis and a wide range of the suburbs. What amount of money may be expended by the public in the street purchase of "spars" I am unable to state, so much being done in the way of barter; but assuming that there are sellers throughout the year, and that their profits are cent. per cent., there would appear to be about per annum thus laid out.

Of stone fruit there are now usually street sellers, and in fine weather . or years ago there were . The fruit is principally made at Chesterfield in Derbyshire, and is disposed of to the London street-sellers in the swag-shops in . Some of the articles, both as regards form and colour, are well executed; others are far too red or too green; but that, I was told, pleased children best. The most saleable fruits are apples, pears, peaches, apricots, oranges, lemons and cucumbers. The cucumbers, which are sometimes of pot as well as of stone, are often hollow, and are sometimes made to serve for ginbottles, holding about a quartern.

The price at the swag-shops is for a gross of fruit of all kinds in equal quantities; for a better quality the price is The street-seller endeavours to get each for the lower priced, and for the higher, but has most frequently to be content with and The stone fruitmen are itinerant during the week and stationary in the street markets on Saturday, and sometimes other evenings. They carry their stock both in baskets and barrows. man told me that he always cried, "Pick 'em out! pick 'em out! Half-penny each! Cheapest fruit ever seen! As good tomorrow as last week! Never lose flavour! Everlasting fruit."

Supposing that there are persons selling stone-fruit in the streets through the year, and that each earns—and I am assured that is the full amount— weekly ( man said was the limit of his weekly profits in fruit), we find received as profit on these articles, and calculating the gains at per cent., an outlay of

The trade in China ornaments somewhat differs from the others I have described under the present head. It is both a street and a public-house trade, and is carried on both in the regular way and by means of raffles. At some public-houses, indeed, the China ornament dealers are called "rafflers."

The "ornaments" now most generally sold or raffled are Joy and Grief ( figures, laughing and the other crying); dancing Highlanders; mustard pots in the form of cottages, &c.; grotesque heads, especially of an old man, which serves as a pepper-box, the grains being thrown through the eyes, nose, and mouth; Queen and Alberts (but not half so well as the others); and, until of late, Smith O'Briens. There are others, also, such as I have mentioned in my account of the general swag-shops, to the windows of many of which they form the principal furniture. Some of these "ornaments" sold "on the sly" can hardly be called obscene, but they are dirty, and cannot be further described.

The most lucrative part of the trade is in the raffling. A street-seller after doing what business he can, on a round or at a stand, during the day, will in the evening resort to public-houses, where he is known, and is allowed to offer his wares to the guests. The ornaments, in public-house sale, are hardly ever offered for less than each, or a pair. The raffling is carried on rapidly and simply. Dice are very rarely used now, and when used, provoke many murmurs from the landlords. The raffler of the China ornaments produces a portable roulette box or table—these tables becoming an established part of street traffic— or inches in diameter. What may be called "the board" of some of these "roulettes" is numbered to . It is set rapidly spinning on a pivot, a pea is then slipped through a hole in the lid of the box, and, when the motion has ceased, the pea is found in of the numbered partitions. "Now, gentlemen," a raffler told me he would say, "try your luck for this beautiful pair of ornaments; of you at a piece. If you go home rather how came you so, show what you've bought for the old lady, and it'll be all right and peaceful." If persons contribute each, the "spinning" the highest number

The ornaments are bought at the swag shops I have described, and are nearly all of German make. They are retailed from and sometimes to each, and the profit is from to per cent. There are, I am informed, about persons in this trade, -thirds of them being rafflers, and their receipts being from to weekly. Most of them mix "fancy glass" goods and spars, and other articles, with their "ornament" trade, so that it is not easy to ascertain what is expended upon the china ornaments independently of other wares. If we calculate it at weekly (a low average considering the success of some of the raffles), we find expended in the streets in these ornamental productions.