cannot better characterise than by the title
given to this paper; for you can there
purchase literally almost everything, all sorts
and all sizes.

We might suppose that if there were
twenty dealers selling the same kind of
commodities at the same time in the same place,
they would eat one another up by competition;
but experience teaches otherwise.
The truth is, that when many traders of one
kind live near together, the workmen in
search of employment know whither to go,
the masters in search of workmen find an
equal convenience, while buyers can be
sure of being suited on account of the large
variety to choose from. And so, when
dealers in many kinds of commodities
crowd into one spot, there is a well-founded
supposition on their parts that customers
will be attracted in large numbers, being
able to make useful purchases of many
things in a very short time at the cheapest
prices. Look at the New Cut on a Saturday
evening, or at Shoreditch, or at the
west side of Tottenham Court-road and
the Hampstead-road, or at Whitechapel
High- street, or at Upper-street, Islington.
The working men and their wives flock
to these places, well knowing that their
weekly earnings can be laid out there to the
best advantage. And so it is with the
dealers in all sorts, at the Friday market
where Copenhagen House once stood.

As we have implied, the difficulty of
deciding in this omnium gatherum is, not
what it does comprise, but what it does not.
We must not be sure that anything is
"conspicuous by its absence," until we
have ferreted out the collection from side
to side, and from end to end. From living
quadrupeds, down to tin-tacks; from cart-
wheels, to children's socks; from pieces of
floor-cloth, to baked potatoes; from old
bedsteads, to old boots; from wheel-barrows,
to envelopes; from saddles and
harness, to sugar-stick and hardbake—here
these articles all are.

Of course, quadrupeds are the chief
subjects of consideration at a cattle-market,
where live bullocks, cows, calves, sheep,
lambs, and pigs, are assembled in their
thousands for sale. But these, and the
market days relating to them, are not
under consideration. Friday is our day
up Copenhagen way; and horses and
donkeys are our quadrupeds. Oh, such
horses! Once now and then we see a tight
little cob, trotted out to show his paces;
but mostly they are poor creatures, which
have had a full share of this world's woes.
Here, is a big white fellow, all bones and
bumps, with tender red places where the
once glossy coat has been worn off by
rubbing, or disease, or ill usage. Here, is a
dirty brown, blind of one eye, and with
little sight in the other. Here, is a rickety
black, so queer about the legs as to suggest
a doubt whether the horse will carry home
the buyer, or the buyer will carry home the
horse. Then, the donkeys! The donkeys
that won't go, that can't go, that will go,
that may perhaps go, that might, could,
would, should go! Neddy is looked
at with much critical watchfulness; for
the costermongers and small tradesmen
who make their purchases here, have no
money to throw away. It is a matter of
earnest business; a few shillings more or
less are of importance; and there is good
reason to believe that the price actually
given is a very close approximation to the
real value. In the avenues in the eastern
half of the market, during "high change,"
it is no small achievement to steer a path
safely, without being run down by these
equine and asinine relics of better days;
so wildly are they driven about. Besides
horses and donkeys, cocks and hens, ducks
and geese, are to be found in our Friday
market; also carrier pigeons, cage-birds,
rabbits, and guinea-pigs.

While the living creatures are thus bought
and sold in the open parts of the market,
the inanimates, the commodities, the goods
and chattels, are brought together in
crowds, mostly under shelter of the roof of
the pig market. Every man pays so much
rent (of course a very small sum) for the
space he occupies during the day, measured
by the square foot. Some lay out counters
or tables; but mostly a piece of sacking or
old carpeting or floor-cloth is spread out
on the clean paved ground, and the
commodities are displayed upon it. There are
scores of carts, a few waggons, many
trucks and barrows, in which the articles
have been brought to market; and these
vehicles are in many instances made to do
duty as shops. In the main avenue there
is not an inch lost between the rented
domains of the several tenants or dealers.
Whence the things have been obtained is a
puzzling question. Are they brought from
the establishments of brokers; or from
wholesale places where the stock is getting
old and dirty; or from retail shops where
ordinary trade is dull; or from those (so-
called) marine store dealers who will buy
anything of anybody, whether it has been
stolen or not? If we look from the wares
to their owners, we find various grades
represented,. There is the hairy cap with