THIS body of traders cannot be classed as street-buyers, so that only a
brief account is here necessary. The buyers are not now chance people,
itinerant on any round, as at one period they were to a great extent,
but they are the proprietors of the rag and bottle and marine-store
shops, or those they employ.
In this business there has been a considerable change. Until of late
years women, often wearing suspiciously large cloaks and carrying
baskets, ventured into perhaps every area in London, and asked for
the cook at every house where they thought a cook might be kept, and
this often at early morning. If the well-cloaked woman was known,
business could be transacted without delay: if she were a stranger, she
recommended herself by offering very liberal terms for “kitchen-stuff.”
The cook’s, or kitchen-maid’s, or servant-of-all-work’s “perquisites,”
were then generally disposed of to these collectors, some of whom
were charwomen in the houses they resorted to for the purchase of the
kitchen-stuff. They were often satisfied to purchase the dripping, &c.,
by the lump, estimating the weight and the value by the eye. In this
traffic was frequently mixed up a good deal of pilfering, directly or
indirectly. Silver spoons were thus disposed of. Candles, purposely
broken and crushed, were often part of the grease; in the dripping,
butter occasionally added to the weight; in the “stock” (the remains
of meat boiled down for the making of soup) were sometimes portions of
excellent meat fresh from the joints which had been carved at table;
and among the broken bread, might be frequently seen small loaves,
unbroken.
There is no doubt that this mode of traffic by itinerant charwomen,
&c., is still carried on, but to a much smaller extent than formerly.
The cook’s perquisites are in many cases sold under the inspection of
the mistress, according to agreement; or taken to the shop by the cook
or some fellow-servant; or else sent for by the shopkeeper. This is
done to check the confidential, direct, and immediate trade-intercourse
between merely two individuals, the buyer and seller, by making the
transaction more open and regular. I did not hear of any persons who
merely purchase the kitchen-stuff, as street-buyers, and sell it at
once to the tallow-melter or the soap-boiler; it appears all to find
its way to the shops I have described, even when bought by charwomen;
while the shopkeepers send for it or receive it in the way I have
stated, so that there is but little of street traffic in the matter.
One of these shopkeepers told me that in this trading, as far as his
own opinion went, there was as much trickery as ever, and that many
gentlefolk quietly made up their minds to submit to it, while others,
he said, “kept the house in hot water” by resisting it. I found,
however, the general opinion to be, that when servants could only
dispose of these things to known people, the responsibility of the
buyer as well as the seller was increased, and acted as a preventive
check.
The price for kitchen-stuff is 1_d._ and 1-1/2_d._ the pound; for
dripping--used by the poor as a substitute for butter--3-1/2_d._ to
5_d._