THE street-sellers of braces are a numerous and a mixed class. They are nearly all men, and the majority are Irishmen; but this relates only to the itinerant or public-house brace-sellers. These wares are sold also by street-traders, who make other articles the staple of their trade—such as the dog-collar-sellers.

The braces sold years ago were of a very different manufacture from those vended in the streets at present. India-rubber web was then unknown as a component part of the street braces. The braces, which in some parts of the country are called "gallowses," were, at the time specified, made of a woollen web, both washable and durable. " pair of such braces, good ones," said an old tailor with whom I had some talk on the subject, "would last a poor man his lifetime. Now they're in a rope or in rags in no time." These woollen braces were sold at from to the pair in the streets; the straps being of good firm leather. Not long after this period a much cheaper brace-web was introduced—a mixture of cotton with the woollen—and the cheap manufacture gradually supplanted the better article, as respects the street trade. The cheaper braces were made with sheepskin straps, which soon yielded to friction, and were little serviceable. The introduction of the India-rubber web was another change in the trade, and the manufacture has become lower and lower-priced until the present time.

The braces sold in the streets, or hawked in the public-houses, are, however, not all of the very inferior manufacture. Some are called "silk," others "buck-leather," and others "knitted cotton." The "silk" are of a silken surface, with an admixture of cotton and India-rubber; the "buck-leather" (a kind now very little known in street sale) are of strong sheepskin, dressed buckleather fashion; and the "knitted" cotton are woven, some kinds of them being very good and strong.

The street brace-sellers, when trying to do business in the streets, carry their goods generally with a few belts, and sometimes with hose in their hands and across their arms. They stretch them from end to end, as they invite the custom of passers by, to evince the elasticity and firmness of the web. Sometimes the braces are slung from a pole carried on the shoulder. The sellers call at the public-house bars and tap-rooms; some are admitted into the parlours; and at a wellfre- quented gin-palace, I was informed by a manager of , a brace-seller will call from to times a day, especially on a Monday; while on a Saturday evening they will remain , , or hours, accosting fresh customers. At the gin-palaces, the young and strong Irishmen offering these wares—and there are many such— are frequently scoffed at for selling "braces and things a baby can carry."

The following account, which I received from a street brace-seller, shows the class who purchase such articles:—

"I was put to a carriage-lamp maker," the man said, "at Birmingham, but soon ran away. Nobody saw after me, for I had only an uncle, and he left me to to the parish. It was all my own fault. I was always after some idle end, though I can read very well. It seems as if I couldn't help it, being wild, I mean. I ran away to Worcester, I was half starved in Worcester, for I lived as I could. I found my way to London afterwards. I've been in the streets ever since, at thing or the other; how many years I can't say. Time goes so quick sometimes, and sometimes so slow, and I'm never long in place. I've sold braces off and on ever since Amato won the Derby, if you know when that was. I remember it because I went to Epsom races that year to sell race cards. When I came to London after the races I laid out in braces. I hardly remember how many pairs I bought for it, but they wasn't such common things as I'm carrying now. I could sell a few then at from to a pair, to the 'cads' and people at such places as the 'Elephant,' and the 'Flower Pot' in , which was a great ''bus' place then. I used to sell, too, to the helpers in inn-yards, and a few in the mews. The helpers in the mews mostly buys knitted cotton. I've got and sometimes for an extra article from them, but now I don't carry them; there's no demand there. You see, many of them work in their shirts, and the head coachmen and grooms, which is often great Turks, would blow up if the men had dirty braces hanging to their buttons, so they uses what 'll wash. Nearly all my business now is done at public-houses. I go from tavern to another on my round all day long, and sell in the street when I can. I think I sell as many at and at as at all other prices together, and most at ; but when I have what I call a full stock I carry 'em from to The poorer sort of people, such as wears braces—for there's a many as does without 'em—likes the out of , and the others the out of the ; it tempts them. It's a tiresome life, and not so good as costermongering, for I once did tidy well in apples. But in the brace trade you ar'n't troubled with hiring barrows, and it's easy carried on in public-houses in wet weather, and there's no stock to spoil. I sell all to working-people, I think. Sometimes an odd pair or at , or so, to a tradesman, that may happen to be in a bar, and likes the look and the price; or to a gentleman's servant. I make from to a day; full if I stick close to it. I may make or a week, too, in selling belts and stockings; but I only sometimes carry stockings. Perhaps I clear a week the year round. There's lots in the trade don't clear a day, for they only carry low-priced things. I go for profit on every shilling's worth I sell. I've only myself to keep. I pay a night at a lodging-house, and nothing on Sundays. I had a young woman with me when I was a coster, but we didn't agree, and parted. She was too fond of lifting her hand to her mouth ('tippling') to please me. I mean to live very near this week, and get a few shillings if I can to

The braces are bought by the street-sellers at the swag-shops I have described. The prices range from (for common children's) to a dozen; , , , and being the most frequent prices. Higher-priced articles are also sold at the swags and by the street-sellers, but not in of these compared with the lower priced.

In London and its suburbs, and on "rounds," of which the metropolis forms the central point, and at stands, there are, I am assured, not fewer than persons vending braces. Of these a portion may be women, and a old and sometimes infirm men. There are few children in the trade. The stall-keepers, selling braces with other articles, are about , and of the remainder of this class, those who are not Irishmen are often impoverished mechanics, such as tailors—brace-vending being easily resorted to, and carried on quietly in public-houses, and it does not entail the necessity of bawling aloud, to which a working-man, driven to a street-life, usually feels repugnance. Calculating that brace-sellers clear a week each on those articles alone, and estimating the profit at per cent., it shows a street expenditure of brace-seller considered that such sellers was too low a number; but the most intelligent I met with agreed on that estimate.

The Belts sold in the street are nearly all of stout cotton web, "with India-rubber threads," and usually of a drab colour, woollen belts being rarely ever seen now. They are procured in the same way, and sold by the same parties, as are braces. The amount expended on belts is, from the best information I can command, about an of that expended on braces. The belts are sold at each, and cost the dozen, or each, if only be purchased.

The street-sale of hose used to be far more considerable than it is now, and was, in a great measure, in the hands of a class who had personal claims to notice, independent of the goodness of their wares. These were old women, wearing, generally, large white aprons, and chintz-patterned gowns, and always scrupulously clean. They carried from door to door, in the quieter streets, and in the then suburbs, stockings of their "own knitting." Such they often were; and those which were not were still knitted stockings, although they might be the work of old women in the country, who knitted by the fireside, needing no other light on winter evenings and at the doors of their cottages in the sunshine in summer. Of these street-sellers some were blind. Between and years ago, I am told, there were from to blind knitters, but my informant could not speak with certainty, as he might probably observe the same women in different parts. The blind stocking-sellers would knit at a door as they waited. The informant I have quoted thought that the last of these knitters and street-sellers disappeared upwards of years ago, as he then missed her from his door, at which she used to make her regular periodical appearance. The stockings of this trade were most frequently of white lamb's-wool, and were sold at from to They were long in the leg, and were suited "for gentle-people's winter wear." The women-sellers made in those days, I am assured, a comfortable livelihood.

The sale of stockings is now principally in the hands of the men who vend braces, &c. The kind sold is most frequently unbleached cotton. The price to a street-buyer is generally from to ; but the trade is of small extent. "It's of the trades," a street-seller said to me, "that we can't compete with shop-keepers in. You shall go to a haberdashery swag-shop, and though they have 'wholesale haberdashers,' and 'hawkers supplied' on the door-post, you'll see a pair of stockings in the window marked with a very big and very black , and a very little and not half black ; and if I was to go in, they'd very likely ask me a dozen for an inferior thing. They retail themselves, and won't be undersold if they can help it, and so they don't care to accommodate us in things that's always going."

A few pairs of women's stockings are hawked by women, and sold to servant-maids; but the trade in these goods, I am informed, including all classes of sellers—of whom there may be —does not exceed (notwithstanding the universality of the wear), the receipt of weekly per individual, with a profit of from to , and an aggregate expenditure of about in the year. The trade is an addition to some other street trade.

The brace-sellers used to carry with their wares another article, of which India-rubber web formed the principal part. These were trowser-straps, "with leather buttonings and ingy-spring bodies." It was only, however, the better class of bracesellers who carried them; those who, as my informant expressed it, "had a full stock;" and their sale was insignificant. At time, the number of brace-sellers offering these straps was, I am informed, from to . "It was a poor trade, sir," said of the class. "At I sold at , as they was in middling shops, and in the toppers, if not ; but they soon came down to , and then to My profit was short of in My best customers for braces didn't want such things; plain working-men don't. And grooms, and stable-keepers generally, wears boots or knee-gaiters, and footmen sports knee-buckles and stockings. All I did sell to was, as far as I can judge, young mechanics as liked to turn out like gents on a Sunday or an evening, and real gents that wanted things cheap. I very seldom cleared more than a week on them. The trade's over now. If you see a few at a stand, it's the remains of an old stock, or some that a swag-shop has pushed out for next to nothing to be rid of them."

The sale of waistcoats is confined to , as regards the class I now treat of—the sellers of articles made by others. or years back, there was a considerable sale in what was a branch of duffing. Waistcoats were sold to countrymen, generally graziers' servants, under

The waistcoats now sold in market, or in the public-houses connected with it, are, I am told, and also by a tailor, very paltry things; but the price asked removes the trade from the imputation of duffing. These garments are sold at from to each; but very rarely The shilling waistcoats are only fit for boys—or "youths," as the slop-tailors prefer styling them— but is a common price enough; and seveneighths of the trade, I am informed, is for prices under, or not exceeding, The trade is, moreover, very small. There are sometimes no waistcoat-sellers at all; but generally , and not unfrequently . The profits of these men are on a bad, and on a good day. As, at intervals, these street-sellers dispose of a sleevewaistcoat (waiscoat with sleeves) at from to , we may estimate the average earnings in the trade at per market day, or in the week. This shows an outlay of in the year, as the profits of these street traders may be taken at per cent.; or, as it is almost invariably worded by such classes, " in the " The material is of a kind of cotton made to look as stout as possible, the back, &c., being the commonest stuff. They are supplied by a slop-house at the East End, and are made by women, or rather girls.

The sale of waistcoats in the street, markets, &c., is of -hand goods, or otherwise in the hands of a distinct class. There are other belts, and other portions of wearing apparel, which, though not of textile fabrics, as they are often sold by the same persons as I have just treated of, may be described here. These are children's "patent leather" belts, trowser-straps, and garters.

The sellers of children's and men's belts and trowser-straps are less numerous than they were, for both these things, I am told, but only on street authority, are going out of fashion. From elderly man who had "dropped belts, and straps, and all that, for oranges," I heard bitter complaints of the conduct of the swag shop-keepers who supplied these wares. The substance of his garrulous and not very lucid complaint was that when boys' patent leather belts came into fashion, , , or years back, he could not remember which, the usual price in the shops was , and they were soon to be had in the streets for each. The belt-sellers "did well" for a while. But the "swags" who, according to my informant, at supplied belts of patent horse-leather, came to substitute patent sheepleather for them, which were softer, and looked as well. The consequence was, that whenever the sheep-leather belts were wet, or when there was any "pull" upon them, they stretched, and "the polish went to cracks." After having been wet a few times, too, they were easily torn, and so the street trade became distrusted. It was the same with trowser-straps.

The belt trade is now almost extinct in the streets, and the strap trade, which was chiefly in the hands of old and infirm, and young people, is now confined to the sellers of dog-collars, &c. The trowser-straps are not glazed or patent-leather, now, but "plain calf;" sold at a pair generally, and bought at from to the dozen pairs. Many readers will remember how often they used to hear the cry, " pair for sixpence! pair for sixpence!" A crynow, I believe, never heard.

Among the belt and strap-sellers were some blind persons. man counted to me blind men whom he knew selling them, and sells them still, attached to the rails by St. Botolph's church, Bishopsgate.

The same persons who sold straps, &c., not including the present sellers, the dog-collar men, &c., had lately no small traffic in the vending of garters. The garter-sellers were, however, far more numerous than ever were the strap-sellers. At time, I am told, there were garter sellers; all old or infirm, or poor women, or children, and chiefly Irish children. As these children were often stockingless and shoeless, their cry of "Penny a pair! India-rubber garters, penny a pair!" was sometimes pitiful enough, as they were offering a cheap article, unused by themselves. The sudden influx of garters, so to speak, was owing, I am told, to a manufacturer having discovered a cheap way of "working the India-rubber threads," and having "thrown a lot into the market through the swag shops." The price was at a gross ( a dozen), but as the demand increased, it was raised to and The trade continued about weeks, but has now almost entirely ceased. The stock of garters still offered for sale is what stall-keepers have on hand, or what swag shop-keepers tempt street-sellers to buy by reducing the price. The leather garter-trade, a pair being the usual price for sheep-skin garters, is now almost unknown. It was somewhat extensive.