2. The holeman, who goes into the cesspool and stirs up the matter, so
as to make it as fluid as possible.
3. The outsideman, whose business it is to attend to the pipe, which
reaches from the cesspool, along the surface of the street, or other
place, to the gullyhole.
4. The ganger, who is the superintendent of the whole, and is only
sometimes present at the operation; he is not unfrequently engaged,
while one cesspool is being emptied, in making an examination or any
necessary arrangement for the opening of another. He also gives notice
(acting under the instruction of the clerk of the works) to the water
company of the district, that the pumps will be at work in this or that
place, a notice generally given a day in advance, and the water is
supplied gratuitously, from a street fire-plug, and used at discretion,
some cesspool contents requiring three times more water than others to
liquefy them sufficient for pumping.
The cesspool-pumping gangs are six in number, each consisting of five
men, although the “outsideman” is sometimes a strong youth of seventeen
or eighteen. The whole work is done by a contractor, who makes an
agreement with the Court of Sewers, and finds the necessary apparatus,
appointing his own labourers. All the present labourers, however, have
been selected as trusty men from among the flushermen, the contractor
concurring in the recommendation of the clerk of the works, or the
inspector. The cesspool-sewermen work in six districts. Two divisions
(east and west) of Westminster; Finsbury and Holborn; Surrey and Kent;
Tower Hamlets (now including Poplar); and the City. The districts
vary in size, but there is usually a gang devoted to each: in case
of emergency, however, a gang from another district (as among the
flushermen) is sent to expedite any pressing work. All the men are
paid by the job, the payment being 2_s._ each per job, to the pumpmen
and holeman, and 3_s._ to the ganger; but in addition to the 2_s._ per
job, the holeman has 6_d._ a-day extra; and the outsideman has 6_d._
a-day _deducted_ from the 4_s._ he would earn in two jobs, which is a
frequent day’s work. The men told me that they had four or four and
a-half days’ work (or eight or nine jobs) every week; but such was the
case more particularly when the householders were less cognizant of
the work, and did not think of resorting to it; now, I am assured, the
men’s average employment may be put at five days a week, or ten jobs.
The perquisites of these workmen are none, except the householder sends
them some refreshment on his own accord. There may be a perquisite, but
very rarely, occurring to the holeman, should he find anything in the
soil; but the finding is far less common than among the nightmen, with
whom the process goes through different stages. I did not hear among
cesspool-sewermen of anything being found by them or by their comrades;
of course, when the soil is once absorbed into the pipe, it is unseen
on its course of deposit down the gullyhole.
The men have no trade societies, and no arrangements of any equivalent
nature; no benefit clubs or sick clubs, for which their number, indeed,
is too small; or, as my informant sometimes wound up in a climax, “No,
nothing that way, sir.” They are sober and industrious men, chiefly
married, and with families. Into further statistics, however, of diet,
rent, &c., I need not enter, concerning so small a body; they are the
same as among other well-conducted labourers.
The men find their own dresses, which are of the same cost, form, and
material as I have described to pertain to the flushermen; also their
own “picks” and shovels, costing respectively 2_s._ 6_d._ and 2_s._
3_d._ each.
One cesspool-sewerman told me, that when he was first a member of one
of those gangs he was “awful abused” by the “regular nightmen,” if he
came across any of them “as was beery, poor fellows;” but that had all
passed over now.
The total sum paid to the six gangs of labourers in the course of the
year would, at the rate of ten cesspools emptied per week, amount to
the following:--
Yearly Total.
12 pumpmen, 10 jobs a-week each,
20_s._ per week, or 52_l._ per year, each £624
6 holemen, ditto, ditto, with 2_s._ 6_d._
a-week extra 351
6 outsidemen, 20_s._ a-week, less by
6_d._ a-day, or 2_s._ 6_d._ a-week, 45_l._
10_s._ a-year 296
6 gangers, 30_s._ a-week each, or 78_l._
per year 468
-----
£1739
Any householder, &c., who applies to the Court of Sewers, or to any
officer of the court whom he may know, has his cesspool cleansed by
the hydraulic method, in the same way as he might employ any tradesman
to do any description of work proper to his calling. The charge (by
the Court of Sewers) is 5_s._ or 6_s._ per square yard, according to
pipeage, &c. required; a cesspool emptied by this system costs from
20_s._ to 30_s._ The charges of the nightmen, who have to employ
horses, &c., are necessarily higher.
Estimating that throughout London
60 cesspools are emptied by the hydraulic
method every week, or 3120
every year, and the charge for each to
be on an average 25_s._, we have for the
gross receipts 3120 × 25_s._ = £3900
And deducting from this the sum
paid for labour 1739
-----
It shows a profit of £2161
This is upwards of 123 per cent; but out of this, interest on capital
and wear and tear of machinery have to be paid.
During the year 1851, I am credibly informed that as many as 3000
sewers were emptied by the hydraulic process; and calculating each to
have contained the average quantity of refuse, viz. five tons or loads,
or about 180 cubic feet, we have an aggregate of 540,000 cubic feet of
cesspoolage ultimately carried off by the sewers. This, however, is
only a twenty-seventh of the entire quantity.
The sum paid in wages to the men engaged in emptying these 3000
cesspools by the hydraulic process would, at the rate of 2_s._ per man
to the four members of the gang, and 3_s._ to the ganger, or 11_s._ in
all for each cesspool, amount to 1650_l._, which is 139_l._ and 250
cesspools less than the amount above given.