The trade in hogs’-wash, or in the refuse of the table, is by no means
insignificant. The street-buyers are of the costermonger class, and
some of them have been costermongers, and “when not kept going regular
on wash,” I was told, are “costers still,” but with the advantage of
having donkeys, ponies, or horses and carts, and frequently shops, as
the majority of the wash-buyers have; for they are often greengrocers
as well as costermongers.
The hogs’ food obtained by these street-folk, or, as I most frequently
heard it called, the “wash,” is procured from the eating-houses, the
coffee-houses which are also eating-houses (with “hot joints from 12
to 4”), the hotels, the club-houses, the larger mansions, and the
public institutions. It is composed of the scum and lees of all broths
and soups; of the washings of cooking utensils, and of the dishes and
plates used at dinners and suppers; of small pieces of meat left on the
plates of the diners in taverns, clubs, or cook-shops; of pieces of
potato, or any remains of vegetables; of any viands, such as puddings,
left in the plates in the same manner; of gristle; of pieces of stale
bread, or bread left at table; occasionally of meat kept, whether
cooked or uncooked, until “blown,” and unfit for consumption (one man
told me that he had found whole legs of mutton in the wash he bought
from a great eating-house, but very rarely): of potato-peelings; of
old and bad potatoes; of “stock,” or the remains of meat stewed for
soup, which was not good enough for sale to be re-used by the poor; of
parings of every kind of cheese or meat; and of the many things which
are considered “only fit for pigs.”
It is not always, however, that the unconsumed food of great houses
or of public bodies (where the dinners are a part of the institution)
goes to the wash-tub. At Buckingham-palace, I am told, it is given to
poor people who have tickets for the receipt of it. At Lincoln’s-inn
the refuse or leavings of the bar dinners are sold to men who retail
them, usually small chandlers, and the poor people, who have the means,
buy this broken meat very readily at 4_d._, 6_d._, and 8_d._ the
pound, which is cheap for good cooked meat. Pie-crust, obtained by its
purveyors in the same way, is sold, perhaps with a small portion of
the contents of the pie, in penny and twopenny-worths. A man familiar
with this trade told me that among the best customers for this kind of
second-hand food were women of the town of the poorer class, who were
always ready, whenever they had a few pence at command, to buy what was
tasty, cheap, and ready-cooked, because “they hadn’t no trouble with
it, but only just to eat it.”
One of the principal sources of the “wash” supply is the cook-shops,
or eating-houses, where the “leavings” on the plates are either the
perquisites of the waiters or waitresses, or looked sharply after by
master or mistress. There are also in these places the remains of
soups, and the potato-peelings, &c., of which I have spoken, together
with the keen appropriation to a profitable use of every crumb and
scrap--when it is a portion of the gains of a servant, or when it adds
to the receipts of the proprietor. In calculating the purchase-value of
the good-will of an eating-house, the “wash” is as carefully considered
as is the number of daily guests.
One of the principal street-buyers from the eating-houses, and in
several parts of town, is Jemmy Divine, of Lambeth. He is a pig-dealer,
but also sells his wash to others who keep pigs. He sends round a
cart and horse under the care of a boy, or of a man, whom he may have
employed, or drives it himself, and he often has more carts than one.
In his cart are two or three tubs, well secured, so that they may not
be jostled out, into which the wash is deposited. He contracts by the
week, month, or quarter, with hotel-keepers and others, for their wash,
paying from 10_l._ to as high as 50_l._ a year, about 20_l._ being an
average for well-frequented taverns and “dining-rooms.” The wash-tubs
on the premises of these buyers are often offensive, sometimes sending
forth very sour smells.
In Sharp’s-alley, Smithfield, is another man buying quantities of
wash, and buying fat and grease extensively. There is one also in
Prince’s-street, Lambeth, who makes it his sole business to collect
hogs’-wash; he was formerly a coal-heaver and wretchedly poor, but is
now able to make a decent livelihood in this trade, keeping a pony
and cart. He generally keeps about 30 pigs, but also sells hogs’ food
retail to any pig-keeper, the price being 4_d._ to 6_d._ a pail-full,
according to the quality, as the collectors are always anxious to
have the wash “rich,” and will not buy it if cabbage-leaves or the
parings of green vegetables form a part of it. This man and the others
often employ lads to go round for wash, paying them 2_s._ a week,
and finding them in board. They are the same class of boys as those
I have described as coster-boys, and are often strong young fellows.
These lads--or men hired for the purpose--are sometimes sent round
to the smaller cook-shops and to private houses, where the wash is
given to them for the trouble of carrying it away, in preference to
its being thrown down the drain. Sometimes only 1_d._ a pail is paid
by the street-buyer, provided the stuff be taken away punctually and
regularly. These youths or men carry pails after the fashion of a
milkman.
The supply from the workhouses is very large. It is often that the
paupers do not eat all the rice-pudding allowed, or all the bread,
while soup is frequently left, and potatoes; and these leavings are
worthless, except for pig-meat, as they would soon turn sour. It is the
same, though not to the same extent, in the prisons.
What I have said of some of the larger eating-houses relates also to
the club-houses.
There are a number of wash-buyers in the suburbs, who purchase, or
obtain their stock gratuitously, at gentlemen’s houses, and retail it
either to those who feed pigs as a business, or else to the many, I was
told, who live a little way out of town, and “like to grow their own
bacon.” Many of these men perform the work themselves, without a horse
and cart, and are on their feet every day and all day long, except on
Sundays, carrying hogs’-wash from the seller, or to the buyer. One man,
who had been in this trade at Woolwich, told me that he kept pigs at
one time, but ceased to do so, as his customers often murmured at the
thin quality of the wash, declaring that he gave all the best to his
own animals.
If it be estimated that there are 200 men daily buying hogs’-wash in
London and the suburbs, within 15 miles, and that each collects only
20 pails per day, paying 2_d._ per pail (thus allowing for what is
collected without purchase), we find 10,400_l._ expended annually in
buying hogs’-wash.