Add for sundries, as starch, &c. 50,000
----------
Total cost of washing of metropolis £2,780,000
Hence it would appear, that viewed either by the individual expense
of the great bulk of society, or else by the aggregate cost of the
materials and labour used in cleansing the clothes of the people
of London, the total sum annually expended in the washing of the
metropolis may be estimated at the outside at two millions and three
quarters sterling per annum, or about 1_l._ 3_s._ 4_d._ per head.
And yet, though the data for the calculation here given, as to the
cost and quantity of the principal materials used in cleansing the
clothes of London, are derived from the same Report as that in which
the expense of the metropolitan washing is estimated at 5,000,000_l._
per annum, the Board of Health do not hesitate in that document to
say that,--“Of the fairness of the estimate of the expense of washing
to the higher and middle classes, and to the great bulk of the
householders, and the better class of artizans, we entertain no doubt
whatever. Whatsoever deductions, if any, may be made from the above
estimate, it is, nevertheless, an _under-estimate_ for maintaining,
at the present expense of washing, a proper amount of cleanliness in
linen.”
Proceeding, however, with the calculation as to the loss from the
imperfect scavenging of the metropolis, we have the following results:--
LOSS FROM DUST AND DIRT IN THE STREETS OF THE METROPOLIS, OWING TO THE
EXTRA WASHING ENTAILED THEREBY.
According to the Board of Health,
taking the yearly amount of the washing
of the metropolis at 5,000,000_l._,
and assuming the washing to be
doubled by street-dirt, the loss will be £2,500,000
Calculating the washing, however,
for reasons above adduced, to be only
2,750,000_l._, and to be as much again
as it might be under an improved
system of scavenging, the loss will be 1,375,000
Or calculating, _as a minimum_, that
the remediable loss is less than one-half,
the cost is £1,000,000
Hence it would appear that the loss from dust and dirt is _really
enormous_.
In a work entitled “Sanatory Progress,” being the Fifth Report of the
National Philanthropic Association, I find a calculation as to the
losses sustained from dust and dirt upon our clothes. Owing to the
increased wear from daily brushing to remove the dust, and occasional
scraping to remove the mud, the loss is estimated at from 3_l._ to
7_l._ per annum for each well-dressed man and woman, and 1_l._ for
inferiorly-dressed persons, including their Sunday and holiday clothing.
I inquired of a West-end tailor, who previously to his establishment in
business had himself been an operative, and had had experience both in
town and country as to the wear of clothes, and I learned from him the
following particulars.
With regard to the clothes of the wealthy classes, of those who could
always command a carriage in bad weather, there are no means of judging
as to the loss caused by bad scavengery.
My informant, however, obliged me with the following calculations,
the results of his experience. His trade is what I may describe as a
medium business, between the low slop and the high fashionable trades.
The garments of which he spoke were those worn by clerks, shopmen,
students, tradesmen, town-travellers, and others not engaged in menial
or handicraft labour.
Altogether, and after consulting his books relative to town and country
customers, my informant thought it might be easy to substantiate the
following estimate as regards the duration and cost of clothes in town
and country among the classes I have specified.