Joint stock street [graphic]

"Simple-minded people gaze up at placards inviting subscriptions to unsound companies. A high wall runs from a house partly visible on the extreme left, to the street corner, enclosing a large building placarded Hospital for Incurables Supported by Voluntary Subscribers [i.e. for victims of speculation mania]. On the right are old-fashioned houses, one of which is alined with a church, the scene suggesting one of the older parts of the City of London with seventeenth-century houses. The high wall on the left is covered with large bills at which the gullible are gazing: [1] Doctors Company--Capital One Million divided into Shares at -- Pr Share--the Advantages incalculable No Charge for Emetics opening draughts Injections &c-- [signed] Sam Sexton Clerk, [2] Patent Coffins provided on the shortest notice --No Surgeons Admitted--. [3] Genuine Milk Company free from Chalk Poison Water &--. [4] Company of Menders--Open to both Sxes in shares at--pr Share. None to be Admitted but who can give undeniable proofs of mending either their wives or Husbands Neighbours or Friends and lastly but most particularly Themselves. [5] Company of Scavengers Nightman [sic] and all imposters to be sent to the House of Correction. [6] Company of White Washers NB No Lawyers admitted [cf. British Museum Satires Nos. 11269, 11272]. [7] More Advantages-- A New Cabbage and Potatoe Compy Warrented Genuine No cooking required saves time and trouble 5s each Share. [8] Match and Tinder Compy Capital 2 Millions five farthings each Share. [9] Blacking Company. On the opposite side of the wide irregular street is a low-grade barber's shop, with the barber shaving a customer in the doorway. Outside the door his dwarfish assistant sharpens a razor on a grindstone. Above the door is a large tilted board: Tim, Slashem Barber and Perriwig Maker--begs leave to inform the patronizers of Merit--that he means to form a New Company of Mowers of Beards having discovered a New Machine to Shave 60 men in a minute, to comb oil and powder their wigs in the Bargain. NB. Bleeding and Teeth drawn gratis. The striped pole slants forward above the board. At a casement window under the roof a woman is washing; a cat prowls on the tiles. This is a corner-house, its (invisible) side facing Bubble Alley, where the corner-house has a large placard: Peter Puff--Manufacturer of Deal Boards--without Knots from genuine Saw dust &c. At right angles to this is a narrow street receding towards the church. On this are more bills and a projecting lantern: Subscri[bers or ptions] taken in here. Spectators gaze at the bills in the foreground, middle distance, and background. On the left a fat 'cit' and his taller and more fashionable wife walk purposefully; she dangles a reticule, his hand is deep in a pocket, they are clearly deluded subscribers. A yokel and his wife gaze up at the 'Milk Company' advertisement. On the right a countryman on horseback followed by his dog stares up at the barber's notice, as does a bearded Jew carrying a sack (of old clothes)."--British Museum online catalogue