chanic arts belong to a more advanced period. The
consequence was, that the first articles carried about from house to
house, were such as are manufactured by artisans--and the chief of these
was tin-ware.

The tinkers of the rural districts in older countries, were, however,
not known in this--they were not adapted to the genius of the people.
The men who sold the ware were, scarcely ever, the same who made it;
and, though the manual dexterity of most of these ready men, might
enable them to mend a broken pan, or a leaky coffeepot, their skill was
seldom put in requisition. Besides, since the mending of an old article
might interfere with the sale of a new one, inability to perform the
office was more frequently assumed than felt.

In the course of time--as the people of the country began to acquire new
ideas, and discover new wants--other articles were added to the
peddler's stock. Calicoes were often carried in the same box with tin
pans--cotton checks and ginghams were stowed away beneath tin-cups and
iron-spoons--shining coffee-pots were crammed with spools of thread,
papers of pins, cards of horn-buttons, and cakes of shaving-soap--and
bolts of gaudy riband could be drawn from pepper-boxes and
sausage-stuffers. Table-cloths, of cotton or brown linen, were displayed
before admiring eyes, which had turned away from all the brightness of
new tin plates; and knives and forks, all "warranted pure steel,"
appealed to tastes, which nothing else could excite. New razors touched
the men "in tender places," while shining scissors clipped the purses of
the women. Silk handkerchiefs and "fancy" neckcloths--things till then
unknown--could occupy the former, while the latter covetously turned
over and examined bright ribands and fresh cotton hose. The peddler was
a master of the art of pleasing all tastes: even the children were not
forgotten; for there were whips and jew's-harps for the boys, and nice
check aprons for the girls. (The taste for "playing mother" was as much
an instinct, with the female children of that day, as it is in times
more modern; but life was yet too earnest to display it in the dressing
and nursing of waxen babies.) To suit the people from whom the peddler's
income was derived, he must consult at least the appearance of utility,
in every article he offered; for, though no man could do more, to coax
the money out of one's pocket, without leaving an equivalent, even _he_
could not succeed in such an ente