1, in money;
2, partly in money and partly in kind; and
3, by perquisites.
The great majority of the masters pay the men they employ from 2_s._ to
3_s._, and a few 4_s._ and 6_s._ per week, together with their board
and lodging. It may seem that 3_s._ per week is a small sum, but it was
remarked to me that there are few working men who, after supporting
themselves, are able to save that sum weekly, while the sweepers
have many perquisites of one sort or other, which sometimes bring
them in 1_s._, 2_s._, 3_s._, 4_s._, and occasionally 5_s._ or 6_s._,
a week additional--a sufficient sum to pay for clothes and washing.
The journeymen, when lodged in the house of the master, are single
men, and if constantly employed might, perhaps, do well, but they are
often unemployed, especially in the summer, when there are not so many
fires kept burning. As soon as one of them gets married, or what among
them is synonymous, “takes up with a woman,” which they commonly do
when they are able to purchase some sort of a machine, they set up
for themselves, and thus a great number of the men get to be masters
on their own account, without being able to employ any extra hands.
These are generally reckoned among the “knullers;” they do but little
business at first, for the masters long established in a neighbourhood,
who are known to the people, and have some standing, are almost always
preferred to those who are strangers or mere beginners.
It was very common, but perhaps more common in country towns than in
London, for the journeymen, as well as apprentices, in this and many
other trades to live at the master’s table. But the board and lodging
supplied, in lieu of money-wages, to the journeymen sweepers, seems
to be one of the few existing instances of such a practice in London.
Among slop-working tailors and shoemakers, some unfortunate workmen are
boarded and lodged by their employers, but these employers are merely
middlemen, who gain their living by serving such masters as “do not
like to drive their negroes themselves.” But among the sweepers there
are no middlemen.
It is not all the journeymen sweepers, however, who are remunerated
after this manner, for many receive 12_s._, and some 14_s._, and not a
few 18_s._ weekly, besides perquisites, but reside at their own homes.
_Apprenticeship_ is now not at all common among the sweepers, as no
training to the business is needed. Lord Shaftesbury, however, in
July last, gave notice of his intention to bring in a bill to prevent
persons who had not been duly apprenticed to the business establishing
themselves as sweepers.
_The Perquisites_ of the journeymen sweepers are for measuring,
arranging, and putting the soot sold into the purchasers’ sacks,
or carts; for this is considered extra work. The payment of this
perquisite seems to be on no fixed scale, some having 1_s._ for 50,
and some for 100 bushels. When a chimney is on fire and a journeyman
sweeper is employed to extinguish it, he receives from 1_s._ 6_d._
to 5_s._ according to the extent of time consumed and the risk of
being injured. “Chance sweeping,” or the sweeping of a chimney not
belonging to a customer, when a journeyman has completed his regular
round, ensures him 3_d._ in some employments, but in fewer than was
once the case. The beer-money given by any customer to a journeyman is
also his perquisite. Where a foreman is kept, the “brieze,” or cinders
collected from the grate, belong to him, and the ashes belong to the
journeyman; but where there is no foreman, the brieze and ashes belong
to the journeyman solely. These they sell to the poor at the rate of
6_d._ a bushel. I am told by experienced men that, all these matters
considered, it may be stated that one-half of the journeymen in London
have perquisites of 1_s._ 6_d._, the other half of 2_s._ 6_d._ a week.
_The Nominal Wages_ to the journeymen, then, are from 12_s._ to 18_s._
weekly, without board and lodging, or from 2_s._ to 6_s._ in money,
with board and lodging, represented as equal to 7_s._
_The Actual Wages_ are 2_s._ 6_d._ a week more in the form of
perquisites, and perhaps 4_d._ daily in beer or gin.
The wages to the boys are mostly 1_s._ a week, but many masters pay
1_s._ 6_d._ to 2_s._, with board and lodging. These boys have no
perquisites, except such bits of broken victuals as are given to them
at houses where they go to sweep.
The wages of the foreman are generally 18_s._ per week, but some
receive 14_s._ and some 20_s._ without board and lodging. In one case,
where the foreman is kept by the master, only 2_s._ 6_d._ in money is
given to him weekly. The perquisites of these men average from 4_s._ to
5_s._ a week.
_The work in the chimney-sweeping trade is more regular than might
at first be supposed._ The sweepers whose circumstances enable them
to employ journeymen send them on regular rounds, and do not engage
“chance” hands. If business is brisk, the men and the master, when a
working man himself, work later than ordinary, and sometimes another
hand is put on and paid the customary amount, by the week, until the
briskness ceases; but this is a rare occurrence. There are, however,
strong lads, or journeymen out of work, who are _occasionally_ employed
in “_jobbing_,” helping to carry the soot and such like.
The labour of the journeymen, as regards the payment by their masters,
is _continuous_, but the men are often discharged for drunkenness,
or for endeavouring to “form a connection of their own” among their
employers’ customers, and new hands are then put on. “Chimneys won’t
wait, you know, sir,” was said to me, “and if I quit a hand this week,
there’s another in his place next. If I discharge a hand for three
months in a slack time, I have two on when it’s a busy time.” Perhaps
the average employment of the whole body of operatives may be taken
at nine months’ work in the year. When out of employment the chief
resource of these men is in night-work; some turn street-sellers and
bricklayers’ labourers.
I am told that a considerable sum of money was left for the purpose
of supplying every climbing-boy who called on the first of May at
a certain place, with a shilling and some refreshment, but I have
not been able to ascertain by whom it was left, or where it was
distributed; none of the sweepers with whom I conversed knew anything
about it. I also heard, that since the passing of the Act, the money
has been invested in some securities or other, and is now accumulating,
but to what purpose it is intended to be applied I have no means of
learning.
Let us now endeavour to estimate the gross yearly income of the
operative sweepers.
There are, then, 399 men employed as journeymen, and of them 147
receive a money wage weekly from their masters, and reside with their
parents or at their own places. The remaining 252 are boarded and
lodged. This board and lodging are generally computed, as under the
old system, to represent 8_s._, being 1_s._ a day for board and 1_s._
a week for lodging. But, on the average, the board does not cost the
masters 7_s._ a week, but, as I shall afterwards show, barely 6_s._
The men and boys may be said to be all fully employed for nine months
in the year; some, of course, are at work all the year through, but
others get only six months’ employment in the twelve months; so that
taking nine months as the average, we have the following table of