[_From a Daguerreotype by_ BEARD.]]
In an inquiry into the condition of the old-clothes dealers a year and
a half ago, a Jew gave me the following account. He told me, at the
commencement of his statement, that he was of opinion that his people
were far more speculative than the Gentiles, and therefore the English
liked better to deal with them. “Our people,” he said, “will be out all
day in the wet, and begrudge themselves a bit of anything to eat till
they go home, and then, may be, they’ll gamble away their crown, just
for the love of speculation.” My informant, who could write or speak
several languages, and had been 50 years in the business, then said, “I
am no bigot; indeed I do not care where I buy my meat, so long as I can
get it. I often go into the Minories and buy some, without looking to
how it has been killed, or whether it has a seal on it or not.”
He then gave me some account of the Jewish children, and the number
of men in the trade, which I have embodied under the proper heads.
The itinerant Jew clothes man, he told me, was generally the son of a
former old-clothes man, but some were cigar-makers, or pencil-makers,
taking to the clothes business when those trades were slack; but that
nineteen out of twenty had been born to it. If the parents of the
Jew boy are poor, and the boy a sharp lad, he generally commences
business at ten years of age, by selling lemons, or some trifle in
the streets, and so, as he expressed it, the boy “gets a round,” or
street-connection, by becoming known to the neighbourhoods he visits.
If he sees a servant, he will, when selling his lemons, ask if she
have any old shoes or old clothes, and offer to be a purchaser. If the
clothes should come to more than the Jew boy has in his pocket, he
leaves what silver he has as “an earnest upon them,” and then seeks
some regular Jew clothes man, who will advance the purchase money.
This the old Jew agrees to do upon the understanding that he is to
have “half Rybeck,” that is, a moiety of the profit, and then he will
accompany the boy to the house, to pass his judgment on the goods, and
satisfy himself that the stripling has not made a blind bargain, an
error into which he very rarely falls. After this he goes with the lad
to Petticoat-lane, and there they share whatever money the clothes may
bring over and above what has been paid for them. By such means the
Jew boy gets his knowledge of the old-clothes business; and so quick
are these lads generally, that in the course of two months they will
acquire sufficient experience in connection with the trade to begin
dealing on their own account. There are some, he told me, as sharp at
15 as men of 50.
“It is very seldom,” my informant stated, “very seldom indeed, that
a Jew clothes man takes away any of the property of the house he may
be called into. I expect there’s a good many of ’em,” he continued,
for he sometimes spoke of his co-traders, as if they were not of his
own class, “is fond of cheating--that is, they won’t mind giving only
2_s._ for a thing that’s worth 5_s._ They are fond of money, and will
do almost anything to get it. Jews are perhaps the most money-loving
people in all England. There are certainly some old-clothes men who
will buy articles at such a price that they must know them to have
been stolen. Their rule, however, is to ask no questions, and to get
as cheap an article as possible. A Jew clothes man is seldom or never
seen in liquor. They gamble for money, either at their own homes or at
public-houses. The favourite games are tossing, dominoes, and cards.
I was informed, by one of the people, that he had seen as much as
30_l._ in silver and gold lying upon the ground when two parties had
been playing at throwing three halfpence in the air. On a Saturday,
some gamble away the morning and the greater part of the afternoon.”
[Saturday, I need hardly say, is the Hebrew Sabbath.] “They meet
in some secret back place, about ten, and begin playing for ‘one a
time’--that is, tossing up three halfpence, and staking 1_s._ on the
result. Other Jews, and a few Christians, will gather round and bet.
Sometimes the bets laid by the Jew bystanders are as high as 2_l._
each; and on more than one occasion the old-clothes men have wagered as
much as 50_l._, but only after great gains at gambling. Some, if they
_can_, will cheat, by means of a halfpenny with a head or a tail on
both sides, called a ‘gray.’ The play lasts till the Sabbath is nearly
over, and then they go to business or the theatre. They seldom or never
say a word while they are losing, but merely stamp on the ground; it
is dangerous, though, to interfere when luck runs against them. The
rule is, when a man is losing to let him alone. I have known them play
for three hours together, and nothing be said all that time but ‘head’
or ‘tail.’ They seldom go to synagogue, and on a Sunday evening have
card parties at their own houses. They seldom eat anything on their
rounds. The reason is, not because they object to eat meat killed by
a Christian, but because they are afraid of losing a ‘deal,’ or the
chance of buying a lot of old clothes by delay. They are generally
too lazy to light their own fires before they start of a morning, and
nineteen out of twenty obtain their breakfasts at the coffee-shops
about Houndsditch.
“When they return from their day’s work they have mostly some stew
ready, prepared by their parents or wife. If they are not family men
they go to an eating-house. This is sometimes a Jewish house, but if
no one is looking they creep into a Christian ‘cook-shop,’ not being
particular about eating ‘tryfer’--that is, meat which has been killed
by a Christian. Those that are single generally go to a neighbour and
agree with him to be boarded on the Sabbath; and for this the charge
is generally about 2_s._ 6_d._ On a Saturday there’s cold fish for
breakfast and supper; indeed, a Jew would pawn the shirt off his back
sooner than go without fish then; and in holiday-time he _will_ have
it, if he has to get it out of the stones. It is not reckoned a holiday
unless there’s fish.”
“Forty years ago I have made as much as 5_l._ in a week by the purchase
of old clothes in the streets,” said a Jew informant. “Upon an average
then, I could earn weekly about 2_l._ But now things are different.
People are more wide awake. Every one knows the value of an old coat
now-a-days. The women know more than the men. The general average, I
think, take the good weeks with the bad throughout the year, is about
1_l._ a week; some weeks we get 2_l._, and some scarcely nothing.”
I was told by a Jewish professional gentleman that the account of the
_spirit_ of gambling prevalent among his people was correct, but the
amounts said to be staked, he thought, rare or exaggerated.
The Jew old-clothes men are generally far more cleanly in their habits
than the poorer classes of English people. Their hands they always wash
before their meals, and this is done whether the party be a strict Jew
or “Meshumet,” a convert, or apostate from Judaism. Neither will the
Israelite ever use the same knife to cut his meat that he previously
used to spread his butter, and he will not even put his meat on a plate
that has had butter on it; nor will he use for his soup the spoon that
has had melted butter in it. This objection to mix butter with meat is
carried so far, that, after partaking of the one, Jews will not eat
of the other for the space of two hours. The Jews are generally, when
married, most exemplary family men. There are few fonder fathers than
they are, and they will starve themselves sooner than their wives and
children should want. Whatever their faults may be, they are good
fathers, husbands, and sons. Their principal characteristic is their
extreme love of money; and, though the strict Jew does not trade
himself on the Sabbath, he may not object to employ either one of his
tribe, or a Gentile, to do so for him.
The capital required for commencing in the old-clothes line is
generally about 1_l._ This the Jew frequently borrows, especially after
holiday-time, for then he has generally spent all his earnings, unless
he be a provident man. When his stock-money is exhausted, he goes
either to a neighbour or to a publican in the vicinity, and borrows
1_l._ on the Monday morning, “to strike a light with,” as he calls it,
and agrees to return it on the Friday evening, with 1_s._ interest for
the loan. This he always pays back. If he was to sell the coat off his
back he would do this, I am told, because to fail in so doing would
be to prevent his obtaining any stock-money for the future. With this
capital he starts on his rounds about eight in the morning, and I am
assured he will frequently begin his work without tasting food, rather
than break into the borrowed stock-money. Each man has his particular
walk, and never interferes with that of his neighbour; indeed, while
upon another’s beat he will seldom cry for clothes. Sometimes they go
half “Rybeck” together--that is, they will share the profits of the
day’s business, and when they agree to do this the one will take one
street, and the other another. The lower the neighbourhood the more
old clothes are there for sale. At the east end of the town they like
the neighbourhoods frequented by sailors, and there they purchase
of the girls and the women the sailors’ jackets and trowsers. But
they buy most of the Petticoat-lane, the Old-Clothes Exchange, and
the marine-store dealers; for as the Jew clothes man never travels
the streets by night-time, the parties who then have old clothes to
dispose of usually sell them to the marine-store or second-hand dealers
over-night, and the Jew buys them in the morning. The first thing that
he does on his rounds is to seek out these shops, and see what he can
pick up there. A very great amount of business is done by the Jew
clothes man at the marine-store shops at the west as well as at the
east end of London.
At the West-end the itinerant clothes men prefer the mews at the back
of gentlemen’s houses to all other places, or else the streets where
the little tradesmen and small genteel families reside. My informant
assured me that he had once bought a Bishop’s hat of his lordship’s
servant for 1_s._ 6_d._ on a Sunday morning.
These traders, as I have elsewhere stated, live at the East-end of the
town. The greater number of them reside in Portsoken Ward, Houndsditch;
and their favourite localities in this district are either Cobb’s-yard,
Roper’s-building, or Wentworth-street. They mostly occupy small houses,
about 4_s._ 6_d._ a week rent, and live with their families. They are
generally sober men. It is seldom that a Jew leaves his house and owes
his landlord money; and if his goods should be seized the rest of his
tribe will go round and collect what is owing.
The rooms occupied by the old-clothes men are far from being so
comfortable as those of the English artizans whose earnings are not
superior to the gains of these clothes men. Those which I saw had all
a littered look; the furniture was old and scant, and the apartment
seemed neither shop, parlour, nor bed-room. For domestic and family
men, as some of the Jew old-clothes men are, they seem very indifferent
to the comforts of a home.
I have spoken of “Tryfer,” or meat killed in the Christian fashion.
Now, the meat killed according to the Jewish law is known as “Coshar,”
and a strict Jew will eat none other. In one of my letters in the
_Morning Chronicle_ on the meat markets of London, there appeared the
following statement, respecting the Jew butchers in Whitechapel-market.
“To a portion of the meat here exposed for sale, may be seen attached
the peculiar seal which shows that the animal was killed conformably
to the Jewish rites. According to the injunctions of this religion the
beast must die from its throat being cut, instead of being knocked
on the head. The slaughterer of the cattle for Jewish consumption,
moreover, must be a Jew. Two slaughterers are appointed by the Jewish
authorities of the synagogue, and they can employ others, who must be
likewise Jews, as assistants. The slaughterers I saw were quiet-looking
and quiet-mannered men. When the animal is slaughtered and skinned,
an examiner (also appointed by the synagogue) carefully inspects the
‘inside.’ ‘If the lights be grown to the ribs,’ said my informant, who
had had many years’ experience in this branch of the meat trade, ‘or if
the lungs have any disease, or if there be any disease anywhere, the
meat is pronounced unfit for the food of the Jews, and is sent entire
to a carcase butcher to be sold to the Christians. This, however,
does not happen once in 20 times.’ To the parts exposed for sale,
when the slaughtering has been according to the Jewish law, there is
attached a leaden seal, stamped in Hebrew characters with the name of
the examining party sealing. In this way, as I ascertained from the
slaughterers, are killed weekly from 120 to 140 bullocks, from 400 to
500 sheep and lambs, and about 30 calves. All the parts of the animal
thus slaughtered may be and are eaten by the Jews, but three-fourths
of the purchase of this meat is confined, as regards the Jews, to the
fore-quarters of the respective animals; the hind-quarters, being the
choicer parts, are sent to Newgate or Leadenhall-markets for sale on
commission.” The Hebrew butchers consider that the Christian mode of
slaughter is a far less painful death to the ox than was the Jewish.
I am informed that of the Jew Old-Clothes Men there are now only from
500 to 600 in London; at one time there might have been 1000. Their
average earnings may be something short of 20_s._ a week in second-hand
clothes alone; but the gains are difficult to estimate.