that the company cleared above ten per cent.
was to be given to the poor.  Wonderful
balsams; charms to be worn for the repulsion
of diseases; prophetic warnings drawn
from the Apocalypse; pure water laid on
in pipes from the White Conduit; beatific
poems on her late sacred Majesty Queen
Mary—all were thrown together, on terms
of equality, in these advertising pages.

But perhaps more curious than any
advertisements inserted by John Houghton in his
weekly journal on the part of others are
those which sprang more immediately from
himself—as a commission-agent for all sorts
of people on all sorts of subjects.  He first
began by announcing his own dealings in
chocolate, at that time a somewhat costly
luxury:  "I have two sorts, both made of
the best suets, without spice or perfume,
the one five shillings and the other six
shillings the pound, and with vinelloes
(vanilla) and spices, at seven shillings the
pound.  I'll answer for their goodness.  If I
shall think fit to sell any other sorts, I'll
give notice."   At a later date, he announced
his excellent sago and German spa
water.  But the advertisements now more
especially under notice are those in which he
evidently acted for others.  His language
on such occasions has a brevity, clearness,
and precision of outline—an absence of
roundabout verbiage and hollow quackery,
that renders them quite pleasant contrasts
to certain other advertisements of a
hundred and sixty years later.  We will string
a number of these pearls together, just
as we find them, and form them into a
paragraph.

"A bunch of six keys, with a little silver
seal hanging on a string, were found in
Gracechurch Street last Saturday; I can
give an account of them.—One that is well
qualified to wait upon a gentleman, desires
some such an employment.  He looks
gracefully, has had the small-pox, can give
security for his fidelity, and can be well
recommended.—For a boy about thirteen year old,
I want a handicraft master, that deserves
from ten to twenty pound.—If any have an
advowson worth one hundred pounds a-year,
in a good air, I can help him to a customer.
—I want an apprentice for a packer of very
good trade.—I can give an account of an
estate not far from this, of twelve hundred
pounds the year, to be sold in gross or
parcels.—I want a negro man that is a good
house carpenter or a good shoemaker.—There
is a good large house-organ to be sold at
Chelsea.—I want apprentice for a cheesemonger.
—I have met with a curious gardener
that will furnish anybody that sends to me
for fruit-trees and florent-shrubs and garden-
seeds.  I have made him promise with all
solemnity that whatever he sends me shall
be purely good; and I verily believe he may
be depended on.—A friend of mine has
fifteen gallon of spirit of elderberries for
sale, and I have a sample of them.—Whoever
will have their head drawn, I can tell how it
may be done at near half the common rates
which the gentleman draws for, and yet as
well as if the utmost value was paid.—I
now want a second-hand chariot.—One that
has waited upon a lady divers years, and
understands all affairs belonging to house-
keeping and the needle, desires some such
place.  She seems a discreet, staid body.—I
have divers manuscript sermons to sell.—I
can help to any parcel of flower of brimstone.
—If any justice of peace wants a clerk,
I can help to one that has been so seven
years, understands accounts, to be a butler,
also to receive money.  He also can shave,
and buckle wiggs."

This curious collection, picked out
indiscriminately, will afford some idea of John
Houghton's commission agency during the
first five years of his folio publication; and
by another paragraph of similar bits, it will
be seen that the commercial activity
did not in anywise lessen during the
second and concluding period of five years.
"I want an impropriation worth seven
or eight hundred pounds.—I would buy
any parcel of buck's bones.—If any
bricklayer, carpenter, or such like, will go to the
American plantations, I can direct him how,
with his interest.—If any want an apothecary's
shop well furnished, within the city, I
can help.—I want a mate and apprentice fit
for a chirurgion of a great East India ship.—
If any can help to a place worth six hundred
pounds, I can help to a customer.—If any
shopkeeper in London will lett the best of his
house up stayers, I can help to a customer.—
If I can meet with a sober man that has a
counter-tenor voice, I can help him to a
place worth thirty pound the year or more.—
If any noble or other gentleman want a porter
that is very lusty, comely, and six foot high
and two inches, I can help.—The cook shop
in St. Bartholomew Lane, behind the
Exchange, is to be lett; I can tell further.—If
any want a wet-nurse, I can help them, as I
am inform'd, to a very good one.  I have a
large parcel of excellent Diapalma-plaster.—
Within four miles of London, in a very
pleasant place, is an ancient Grammar School,
with the scholars, to be disposed of.—I want
a neat and fashionable coach, with glasses
before.—If any decay'd gentleman has a
pretty son about twelve year old, I can help
him to be a page to a person of honor.—I
know of a house worth £2000, with a door
into St. James's Park, to be sold or lett.—I
sell lozenges for sixpence the ounce, which
several commend against heart-burning.—I
want a clerk for a valuable Attorney in the
Common Pleas.—If any want a maid to wait
on them, I can help to one that is
extraordinarily well recommended, and in all
likelihood will prove well.—I know of a single
gentleman within twelve miles of London,
and pleasant air, that has a very good house