The making of dolls, like that of many a thing required for a mere recreation, a toy, a pastime, is often carried on amidst squalor, wretchedness, or privation, or—to use the word I have frequently heard among the poor—"pinching." Of this matter, however, I shall have to treat when I proceed to consider the manufacture of and trade in dolls generally, not merely as respects street-sale.

Dolls are now so cheap, and so generally sold by open-air traders whose wares are of a miscellaneous character, as among the "swag-barrow" or "penny-a-piece" men of whom I have treated separately, that the sale of what are among the most ancient of all toys, as a "business of itself," is far smaller, numerically, than it was.

The dolls are most usually carried in baskets by street-sellers (who are not makers) and generally by women who are very poor. Here and there in the streets most frequented by the patrons of the open-air trade may be seen a handsome stall of dolls of all sizes and fashions, but these are generally the property of makers, although those makers may buy a portion of their stock. There are also smaller stalls which may present the stock of the mere seller.

The dolls for street traffic may be bought at the swag-shops or of the makers. For the little armless dolls the maker charges the street-seller , and to the swag-shop keeper who may buy largely, the dozen. Some little stalls are composed entirely of penny dolls; on others the prices run from to The chief trade, however, among the class I now describe, is carried on by the display of dolls in baskets. If the vendor can only attract the notice of children—and more especially in a private suburban residence, where children are not used to the sight of dolls on stalls or barrows, or in shops—and can shower a few blessings and compliments, "God be wid your bhutiful faces thin—and yours too, my lady, ma'am (with a curtsey to mistress or maid). Buy of these dolls of a poor woman: shure they're bhutiful dolls and shuted for them angels o' the worruld;" under such circumstances, I say, a sale is almost certain. I may add that the words I have given I myself heard a poor Irishwoman, whom I had seen before selling large pincushions in the same neighbourhood (that of the Regent's Park), address to a lady who was walking round her garden accompanied by children.

A vendor of dolls expresses an opinion that as long as ever there are children from years old to , there will always be purchasers of dolls; "but for all that," said he, "somehow or another 'tis nothing of a trade to what it used to be. I've seen the time when I could turn out in the morning and earn a pound afore night; but it's different now there's so many bazaars, and so many toy shops that the doll hawker hasn't half the chance he used to have. Sartinly we gets a chance now and then—fine days is the best—and if we can get into the squares or where the children walks with their nurses, we can do tidy; but the police are so very particular there's not much of a livelihood to be got. Spoiled children are our best customers. Whenever we sees a likely customer approaching—we, that is, those who know their business—always throw ourselves in the way, and spread out our dolls to the best advantage. If we hears young miss say have , and cries for it, we are almost sure of a customer, and if we see her kick and fight a bit with the nuss-maid we are sure of a good price. If a child we never baits our price. Most of the doll-sellers are the manufacturers of the dolls—that is, I mean, they puts 'em together. The heads are made in Hamburgh; the principal places for buying them in London are at Alfred Davis's, in ; White's, in ; and Joseph's, in . They are sold as thus:—The heads that we sell for each, when made up, cost us per gross, or per dozen; these are called —O's. No. — O's., are per gross, and No. —O's. per gross. yard and half of calico will make a dozen bodies, small size. These we get sewn for halfpence, and we stuffs and finishes them ourselves.

When our 3d. dolls are made up, they cost about 1s. per dozen—so there is 2d. profit on every doll, which I thinks is little enough; but we often sells 'em at 2d.; we lays 'em out to the best advantage in a deep basket, all standing up, as it were, or leaning against the sides of the basket. The legs and bodies is carefully wrapped in tissue paper, not exactly to preserve the lower part of the doll, for that isn't so very valuable, but in reality to conceal the legs and body, which is rather the reverse of symmetrical; for, to tell the truth, every doll looks as if it were labouring under an attack of the gout. There are, however, some very neat articles exported from Germany, especially the jointed dolls, but they are too dear for the street-hawker, and would not show to such advantage. There is also the plaster dolls, with the match legs. I wonder how they keep their stand, for they are very old-fashioned; but they sell, for you never see a chandler's shop window without seeing one of these sticking in it, and a falling down as if it was drunk. Then there's the wax dolls. Some of 'em are made of wax, and others of 'pappy mashy,' and afterwards dipped in wax. The cheapest and best mart for these is in Barbi- can; it would astonish many if they knew exactly what was laid out in the course of a year in dolls. It would be impossible, I think, to ascertain exactly; but I think I could guess something near the mark. There are, at least, at this time of year, when the fairs are coming on, fifty dollhawkers, who sell nothing else. Say each of these sells one dozen dolls per day, and that their average price is 4d. each. That is just 10l. a day, and 60l. per week. In the winter time so many are not sold; but I have no doubt that 50l.'s worth of dolls are sold each week throughout the year by London hawkers alone, or just upon 3000l. per annum. The shops sell as many as the hawkers, and the stalls attending fairs half the amount; and you may safely say that the sum taken for dolls in and around London in one year amounts to 7500l. A doll-merchant can begin business with a trifle," continued my informant; "a shilling will obtain a dozen 3d. dolls. If you have no basket, carry them in your arms, although they don't show off to such advantage there as they do when nicely basketed; however, if you've luck, you may soon raise a basket; for 3s. 6d. you can get a very nice one; and although the doll trade is not what it used to be, there are," said my informant, "worse games than that yet, I know. One man, who is now in a very respectable way of business —'a regular gentleman'—was a very few years ago only a doll-hawker. Another man, who had two hands and only one arm—poor fellow! he was born with one arm, and had two hands, one appended to his arm in the usual way, and the other attached to his shoulder—a freak of nature, I think, they called it. However, my one-armed friend keeps now a very respectable little swagshop at North Shields, in Northumberland.

I inquired of my informant whether he objected to relate a little of his history? He replied, "not the least," and recounted as follows:—

They call me Dick the Dollman. I was, I believe, the first as ever cried dolls three a shilling in the streets. Afore I began they al'ays stood still with 'em; but I cried 'em out same as they do mackrel; that is twenty years ago. I wasn't originally a doll-seller. My father was a pensioner in Greenwich College. My mother used to hawk, and had a licence. I was put to school in St. Patrick's-school, Lanark's-passage, where I remained six years, but I didn't learn much. At thirteen years of age I was apprenticed to a brush and broom maker's, corner of C—— Street, Spitalfields. My master was not the honestest chap in the world, for he bought hair illegal, was found out, and got transported for seven years. A man who worked for my master took me to finish my apprenticeship; this man and his wife was very old people. I used to work four days in the week, two for them and two for myself; the other two days I went out hawking brooms and brushes, and very often would earn 7s. or 8s. on a Saturday, but times was better then than they are now. Arter that, for sake of gain, I left the old people, I was offered 20s. to make and hawk; and in course I took it. I remained with this master five months; he was afflicted with rheumatic fever— went into the hospital—and I was left to shift for myself. When my master went to the hospital I had 7s. 6d. in my pocket; I knew I must do something, and, to tell you the truth, I didn't like the brush-making; I would rather have hawked something without the trouble of making it. I think now I was a little afflicted with laziness. I was passing London-bridge and saw a man selling Marshall's pocket-books; I knowed him afore; I thought I should like to try the pocket-book selling, and communicated my wishes to the man; he told me they cost eight shillings a dozen, if I liked we would purchase a dozen a'twixt us; we did so; I received half a dozen, but I afterwards learned that my friend obtained seven for his share, as they were sold thirteen to the dozen. I went to Chancery-lane with my lot and was very lucky; I sold the six books to one gentleman for six shillings: in course I soon obtained another supply; that day I sold four dozen, and earned 20s. I was such a good seller that Marshall let me have 3l. or 4l.'s worth on credit—and I never paid him. I know that was wrong now; but I was such a foolish chap, and used to spend my money as fast as I got it. I would have given Marshall a shilling the other day if I had had one, for I see him selling penny books in the street. I thought it was hard lines, and had been such a gentleman too. Somerset-house corner was a capital stand for selling pocket-books. The way I took to the dolls was this; I met a girl with a doll basket one day as I was standing at Somerset-house corner; she and I got a talking. 'Will you go to the 'Delphy to night?' says I; she consented. They was a playing Tom and Jerry at this time, all the street-sellers went to see it, and other people; and nice and crabbed some on 'em was. Well, we goes to the 'Delphy—and I sees her often arter that, and at last gets married. She used to buy her dolls ready made; I soon finds out where to get the heads—and the profits when we made them ourselves was much greater. We began to serve hawkers and shops; went to Bristol—saved 47l.—comes to London and spends it all; walks back to Bristol, and by the time we got there we had cleared more than 20l. We were about a month on the journey, and visited Cheltenham and other towns. We used to spend our money very foolishly; we were too fond of what was called getting on the spree. You see we might have done well if we had liked, but we hadn't the sense. My wife got very clever at the dolls and so did I. Then I tried my hand at the wax dolls, and got to make them very well. I paid a guinea to learn.

I was selling wax-dolls one day in London, and a gentleman asked me if I could mend a wax figure whose face was broken. I replied yes, for I had made a few wax heads, large size, for some showmen. I had made some murderers who was hung; lately I made Rush and Mr. and Mrs. Manning; but the showmen can't afford to get new heads now-a-days, so they generally makes one head do for all; sometimes they changes the dress. Well, as I was telling you, I went with this gentleman, and proposed that he should have a new head cast, for the face of the figure was so much broken. It was Androcles pulling the thorn out of the lion's foot, and was to be exhibited. I got 20s. for making the new head. The gentleman asked me if I knew the story about Androcles. Now I had never heard on him afore, but I didn't like to confess my ignorance, so I says 'yes;' then he offers me 30s. a week to describe it in the Flora Gardens, where it was to be exhibited. I at once accepted the engagement; but I was in a bit of a fix, for I didn't know what to say. I inquired of a good many people, but none on 'em could tell me; at last I was advised to go to Mr. Charles Sloman—you know who I mean—him as makes a song and sings it directly; I was told he writes things for people. I went, and he wrote me out a patter. I asked him how much he charged; he said, 'Nothing my man.' Sartinly he wasn't long a-doing it, but it was very kind of him. I got what Mr. Sloman wrote out for me printed, and this I stuck inside my hat; the people couldn't see it, though I dare say they wondered what I was looking in my hat about. However, in a week or so, I got it by heart, and could speak it well enough. After exhibiting Androcles I got an engagement with another waxwork show—named Biancis—and afterwards at other shows. I was considered a very good doorsman in time, but there's very little to be got by that now; so we keeps to the dolly business, and finds we can get a better living at that than anything else. Me and the old woman can earn 1l. a week, bad and all as things are; but we're obliged to hawk.