Nasby in Exile: or, Six Months of Travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travel
John Locke · en
What do all these people do? It would be easier to answer the question,
What don't they do? They do everything. If there is an article on
earth--that is, a second-hand article,--that is not bought and sold in
Petticoat Lane on Sunday morning, I have not seen it. You can buy
anything you want there, provided you want it second-hand, from a
knitting needle to a ship's anchor. There is nothing in the street that
is not second-hand, except the people. They all bear the stamp of
originality, every one of them. They are born traders. If a pair of
Petticoat Lane Jew twins in a cradle don't trade teething rings, and
attempt to swindle each other, the father and mother drop tears of
sorrow over them, and as soon as they are old enough, take them out of
the place and apprentice them to a trade. Without this manifestation
they would not be considered good enough for Petticoat Lane. Very few
have, however, been so apprenticed.
Here is a hideous old woman on the sidewalk with her stock in trade
under her eye, and a sharp eye it is, arranged along the curb. What is
it? A few dozen or more pairs of boots and shoes, in all stages of
dilapidation, carefully polished, and made to look as respectable as
possible, any pair of which (by the way, they are not always mates,) you
shall buy, if you desire, at any price ranging from a penny to a
shilling. No matter what the ancient dame gets for them, she has made a
profit. She picked them up on the streets, save a few that she may have
borrowed when the owner was not looking. What anybody wants of these
remnants, these ghosts of foot wear, I can't conceive. But she sells
them. The trade is consummated easily after the chaffering is over with.
The purchaser pays the woman, and sheds the worse ones he has on, and
puts on his acquisition, and wends his way. Probably in an hour he would
be glad to trade back, but it is too late.
Next to her stands a cart, which is a portable hardware store. There are
hinges, nails, all second-hand, carpenter's tools, axes, locks, keys,
and all sorts of iron-mongery, and he sells, too. Somebody wants these
goods, and he gets his price. As these things are collected as were the
boots, the vender is happy at every pennyworth he sells.
[Sidenote: THE CLOTHING DEALER.]