London Labour and the London Poor, volume 2
Mayhew, Henry
1851
Of the Street-Sellers of Second-Hand Car- Peting, Flannels, Stocking-Legs, &c., &c.
I CLASS these -hand wares together, as they are all of woollen materials. | |
has a fair sale, and in the streets is vended not as an entire floor or stair-carpet, but in pieces. The floor-carpet pieces are from to each; the stair-carpet pieces are from to a yard. Hearth-rugs are very rarely offered to street-customers, but when offered are sold from to Drugget is also sold in the same way as the floor-carpeting, and sometimes for housescouring cloths. | |
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What in the street-trade is known as "," is for the most part -hand blankets, which having been worn as bed furniture, and then very probably, or at the same time, used for ironing cloths, are found in the street-markets, where | |
15 | they are purchased for flannel petticoats for the children of the poor, or when not good enough for such use, for house cloths, at each. |
The trade in is considerable. In these legs the feet have been cut off, further darning being impossible, and the fragment of the stocking which is worth preserving is sold to the careful housewives who attach to it a new foot. Sometimes for winter wear a new cheap sock is attached to the footless hose. These legs sell from to the pair, but very rarely , and only when of the best quality, though the legs would not be saleable in the streets at all, had they not been of a good manufacture originally. Men's hose are sold in this way more largely than women's. | |
The trade in -hand stockings is very considerable, but they form a part of the -hand apparel of street-commerce, and I shall notice them under that head. | |