An elderly man, who, at the time I saw him, was vending spectacles, or
bartering them for old clothes, old books, or any second-hand articles,
gave me an account of his street-life, but it presented little
remarkable beyond the not unusual vicissitudes of the lives of those of
his class.
He had been in every street-trade, and had on four occasions travelled
all over England, selling quills, sealing-wax, pencils, sponges,
braces, cheap or superior jewellery, thermometers, and pictures. He
had sold barometers in the mountainous parts of Cumberland, sometimes
walking for hours without seeing man or woman. “_I liked it then_,”
he said, “_for I was young and strong, and didn’t care to sleep twice
in the same town_. I was afterwards in the old-clothes line. I buy a
few odd hats and light things still, but I’m not able to carry heavy
weights, as my breath is getting rather short.” [I find that the Jews
generally object to the more laborious kinds of street-traffic.] “Yes,
I’ve been twice to Ireland, and sold a good many quills in Dublin,
for I crossed over from Liverpool. Quills and wax were a great trade
with us once; now it’s quite different. I’ve had as much as 60_l._
of my own, and that more than half-a-dozen times, but all of it
went in speculations. Yes, some went in gambling. I had a share in
a gaming-booth at the races, for three years. O, I dare say that’s
more than 20 years back; but we did very little good. There was such
fees to pay for the tent on a race-ground, and often such delays
between the races in the different towns, and bribes to be given to
the town-officers--such as town-sergeants and chief constables, and
I hardly know who--and so many expenses altogether, that the profits
were mostly swamped. Once at Newcastle races there was a fight among
the pitmen, and our tent was in their way, and was demolished almost to
bits. A deal of the money was lost or stolen. I don’t know how much,
but not near so much as my partners wanted to make out. I wasn’t on the
spot just at the time. I got married after that, and took a shop in the
second-hand clothes line in Bristol, but my wife died in child-bed in
less than a year, and the shop didn’t answer; so I got sick of it, and
at last got rid of it. O, I work both the country and London still. I
shall take a turn into Kent in a day or two. I suppose I clear between
10_s._ and 20_s._ a week in anything, and as I’ve only myself, I do
middling, and am ready for another chance if any likely speculation
offers. I lodge with a relation, and sometimes live with his family.
No, I never touch any meat but ‘Coshar.’ I suppose my meat now costs me
6_d._ or 7_d._ a day, but it has cost me ten times that--and 2_d._ for
beer in addition.”
I am informed that there are about 50 adult Jews (besides old-clothes
men) in the streets selling fruit, cakes, pencils, spectacles, sponge,
accordions, drugs, &c.