New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-09-23

of novels and picture books. grim person, WIN
long skirts and gray beard, and bag on his bacK'
Here were 10 be dealers not only In old Clothes
but In every variety of article which, having been
used once might possibly still serve smother turn
basket was filed with secondhand spoDges-
which can hardly have been nice. On walls and
fences hung tho most amazing collections OF OLD
leather straps, relics of abandoned trunks ana
fragments of rotten harness. There were
scraps of leather; there were millions OF
rusty keys; there were stray door-knobs and
odd furniture casters. and broken hammer-heads
and all the litter of brass and iron rubbish which is
usually found In the bottoms of tool-boxes. There
were trays full of old spectacle cases. There was a
clothes basket containing four OF five pccks of an
cient kid and leather gloves. mostly not mated A
young man devoted himself entrey TO the sale OF
ends of Irvine. done up IN hanks az halt-penny a
bunch. Artisans tools OF all kinds in every stage
Of dilapidaton. were great articles OF trare ana
workmen who had secured a job for Monday morn
ing came here to supply themselves with such poor
implements as they had the pence to buy.
With the noise of bargaining and disputing
mingled the uproar of the vendors OF drinks ana
deicacies and nostrums and scores OF useless con-
yeniences. "Now then gents" shouted seller of
sarsaparilla wine, this is the true elixir OF hie
recommended by the entire medical faculty of
Great Britain without exception" Penny potl
penny a pot" screamed parrot-iike young Hebrew
with basket of NUS "Hokey-pokey, pennyV
roared very large man, taking from an ice-creom
freezer a little squire of something when
looked like a slice OF white CASTLE sOap fm the
only party breathing that's got these goods" ex-
claimed dealer in something utterly undesirable;
have forgotten now what II was. young man III
the uniform of the French infantry of the line'
mounted a chair and announced himself, by means
of a placard rs the Parish IN Electric Light Com
pany," his stock in trade being cigar-lghts ana
penny needle-cases 4 lively person VINO was ell
deayorlng to dispose of a barrow full of hammers
at two pence each, drove purely imaginary hut
tremendous trade with speechless and invisible
buyers: "You take this one at tuppencei thank
YOU sir. Here you are. Now, then, genta, who's
for the next at tuppence, only two pencef They're
a-gong fastP tie never took IN any money ana
he always held up the same hammers and L rather
Thought that the nonchalance with which ne omit
ted 10 pretend to believe that anybody believed IN
his little fiction was the drollest thing ia the tair
There WA another young man VINO Stoou
on a table with vial of water Ill DIS
hand al will now proceed said he, 10
6u a hottie and distribute its contents
among YOU -; whereupon lac poured the water from
one vial INTO anobher, and calmly went on with an
irrelevant haranaue. was his only auditor, ana he
fortunately did not consider it worth whie % US
tribute the contents of his bottle among nc; but
LATER he collected a crowd, and when passed that
way aaan he was hard az work with his vial OF
water and sundry essences, manufacturing spurious
ponies of rum aud brandy. More varieties oi mus
sels and other unpleasant-lOoklng shell-tsh were
exposed for sale than imagined the whole worlu
contained; and the quantity of these viands con-
sumed in Rag FAIR seemed TO be beyondsan eompu-
tstion. Whole alleys were full of them, displayed
an costermoncer,' barrows. The shell being pre-
viouslv removed. the habby edible and its juice
we're generally kept in a washbasin. whence the
wonder Iadled out penny-worths with his hand, ana
served them on small earhenware plates OF Dits VI
broken china. What with dripping sheli-hsh ana
| bonncing g;nger-beer, the alleys were everywh
slippery.
| The uproar was at Its height when turned INTO
n comparatively quiet court to escape the I'M
pleasant spectacle. 1t was one OF a series OF con-
nected Yards Just on the margin OF the falr' smut
! i'm by tall and squad tenements. and communicate
/ ing with HOunds,litch by narrow and crooked pas
saces Children were swarning about the horrible
pools mingled overflow of the kitchen and washtub,
which festered the hollows of the pavement. and
a few feeble women sat llstless III the doorways,
excepting house" while the able-bodied members
of the family were busy at the Fair. These and
such IA these were the homes of the merchants of
Petticoat Lane-Only few yards from the Bank Of
England and yet when came out into the Sunday
stiffness and decorous solidIty of Leadenhailst.
felt as If bad just got back from very particu-
larry dirty and degraded foreign country.