“I have been in the sand business, man and boy, for 40 years. I was
at it when I was 12 years old, and am now 52. I used to have two carts
hawking sand, but it wouldn’t pay, so I have just that one you see
there. Hawking sand is a poor job now. I send two men with that ’ere
cart, and pay one of ’em 3_s._ 4_d._ and the other 3_s._ a day. Now,
with beer-money, 2_s._ a week, to the man at the heath, and turnpike
gates, I reckon every load of sand to cost me 5_s._ Add to that 6_s._
4_d._ for the two men, the wear and tear, and horse’s keep (and, to do
a horse justice, you cannot in these cheap times keep him at less than
10_s._ a week, in dear seasons, it will cost 15_s._), and you will find
each load of sand stands me in a good sum. So suppose we get a guinea a
load, you see we have no great pull. Then there’s the licence, 8_l._ a
year. Many years ago we resisted this, and got Mr. Humphreys to defend
us before the magistrates at Clerkenwell; but we were ‘cast,’ several
hawkers were fined 10_l._, and I was brought up before old Sir Richard
Birnie, at Bow-street, and had to find bail that I would not sell
another bushel of sand till I took out a licence. Soon after that Sir
Thomas Wilson shut up the heath from us; he said he would not have it
cut about any more, for that a poor animal could not pick up a crumb
without being in danger of breaking its leg. This was just after we
took out our licences, and, as we’d paid dearly for being allowed to
sell the sand, some of us, and I was one, we waited upon Sir Thomas,
and asked to be allowed to work out our licences, which was granted,
and we have gone on ever since. My men work very hard for their money,
sir; they are up at 3 o’clock of the morning, and are knocking about
the streets, perhaps till 5 or 6 o’clock in the evening.”
The yellow house-sand is also found at Kingsland, and at the Kensington
Gravel-pits; but at the latter place street-sellers are not supplied.
The sand here is very fine, and mostly disposed of to plasterers. There
is also some of this kind of sand at Wandsworth. In the street-selling
of house-sand, there are now not above 30 men employed, and few of
these trade on their own account. Reckoning the horses and carts
employed in the trade at the same price as our Camden-town informant
sets on his stock, we have 20 horses, at 10_l._ each, and 20 carts,
at 3_l._ each, with 3 baskets to each, at 2_s._ apiece, making a
total of 236_l._ of capital employed in the carrying machinery of the
street-selling of sand. Allowing 3_s._ a day for each man, the wages
would amount for 30 men to 27_l._ weekly; and the expenses for horses’
keep, at 10_s._ a head, would give, for 20 horses, 10_l._ weekly,
making a total of 38_l._ weekly, or an annual expenditure for man and
horse of 2496_l._ Calculating the sale at a load per day, for each
horse and cart, at 21_s._ a load, we have 6573_l._ annually expended in
the purchase of house or floor-sand.
_Bird-sand_, or the fine and dry sand required for the use of
cage-birds, is now obtained altogether of a market gardener in Hackney.
It is sold at 8_d._ the barrow-load; as much being shovelled on to
a coster’s barrow “as it will carry.” A good-sized barrow holds
3-1/2 bushels; a smaller size, 3 bushels, and the buyer is also the
shoveller. Three-fourths of the quantity conveyed by the street-sellers
from Hackney is sold to the bird-shop keepers at 6_d._ for 3 pecks.
The remainder is disposed of to such customers as purchase it in the
street, or is delivered at private houses, which receive a regular
supply. The usual charge to the general public is a halfpenny or a
penny for sand to fill any vessel brought to contain it. A penny a
gallon is perhaps an average price in this retail trade.
A man, “in a good way of business,” disposes of a barrow-load once
a week; the others once a fortnight. In wet or windy weather great
care is necessary, and much trouble incurred in supplying this sand
to the street-sellers, and again in their vending it in the streets.
The street-vendors are the same men as supply the turf, &c., for
cage-birds, of whom I have treated, p. 156, vol. i. They are 40 in
number, and although they do not all supply sand, a matter beyond
the strength of the old and infirm, a few costermongers convey a
barrow-load of sand now and then to the bird-sellers, and this addition
ensures the weekly supply of 40 barrow-loads. Calculating these at
the wholesale, or bird-dealer’s price--2_s._ 3_d._ a barrow being an
average--we find 234_l._ yearly expended in this sand. What is vended
at 2_s._ 3_d._ costs but 8_d._ at the wholesale price; but the profit
is hardly earned considering the labour of wheeling a heavy barrow of
sand for miles, and the trouble of keeping over night what is unsold
during the day.