Cries of the Streets

 This plate "Bruxelles cri-de-rue" ('Brussels, cries of the streets') from the Belgian "L'illustration européenne" (1888-89) shows 14 different types of street vendors in Brussels and their accesories (push carts, bags, etc). They are all in silhouette, because not the individual traits are important, just the idea of a certain type of vendor. 

The only link between the 14 drawings is that they belong to a particular category of professions. Nevertheless, this plate is more than a dry enumeration; in various instances humor is seeping from the silhouettes, especially if we consider them in relation to the captions. The texts are both descriptive (stating the profession) and direct speech (the shoutings of the depicted persons). Since the title situates all these vendors in Brussels, the direct speech uses the languages of the concerned persons, which is in most cases a local Flemish dialect. The descriptive text is always in French, because this plate is published in a French language weekly. 

I've tried to translate the captions, but some parts were not clearly legible for me. The direct speech is set in italics, and I have indicated with parts are in French or in Dutch (or at least the local Brussels dialect):

1. Bone merchant (F): 'Rags and bones!' (D)
   
2. 'Candles, matches, two boxes for ten cents' (F)
   
3. Seller of clothes (F), 'Clothes sale! Clothes purchase.' (D)
   
4. Eel merchant (F), 'Eel' (D)
   
5. illegible (F)
   
6. Holder of bouquets (F)
   
7. The egg lady (F), 'Eggs, illegible, mastels, chesnuts' (D)
   
8. 'Chair to weave with tule!' (D)
   
9. 'Shrimps and crabes' (both in F and D) 
10. Sandman (F), 'Sand!' (D)
    
11. Pear seller (F), 'Half a pound of good tender pears for five cents!' (D)
    
12. 'Vanilla cream' (F)
    
13. The star and his supplement
14. 'Le Soir (title of a daily) for tomorrow morning' (F), illegible
    

At the bottom we find a name "E. Drot". For the moment, I do not have more information about this creator. Nevertheless since he can write both in French and a Flemish dialect, he must have lived in Brussels itself.