A wild-looking man, with long straggling grey hair, which stood out
from his head as if he brushed it the wrong way; and whiskers so thick
and curling that they reminded one of the wool round a sheep’s face,
gave me the accompanying history.
He was very fond of making use of the term “honest crust,” and each
time he did so, he, Irish-like, pronounced it “currust.” He seemed a
kind-hearted, innocent creature, half scared by want and old age.
“I’m blest if I can tell which is the best crossing in London; but
mine ain’t no great shakes, for I don’t take three shilling a-week not
with persons going across, take one week with another, but I thought
I could get a honest currust (crust) at it, for I’ve got a crippled
hand, which comed of its own accord, and I was in St. George’s Hospital
seven weeks. When I comed out it was a cripple with me, and I thought
the crossing was better than going into the workhouse--for I likes my
liberty.
“I’ve been on this crossing since last Christmas was a twelvemonth.
Before that I was a bricklayer and plasterer. I’ve been thirty-two
years in London. I can get as good a character as any one anywhere,
please God; for as to drunkards, and all that, I was none of them. I
was earning eighteen shilling a-week, and sometimes with my overtime
I’ve had twenty shilling, or even twenty-three shilling. Bricklayers is
paid according to all the hours they works beyond ten, for that’s the
bricklayer’s day.
“I was among the lime, and the sand, and the bricks, and then my hand
come like this (he held out a hand with all the fingers drawn up
towards the middle, like the claw of a dead bird). All the sinews have
gone, as you see yourself, sir, so that I can’t bend it or straighten
it, for the fingers are like bits of stick, and you can’t bend ’em
without breaking them.
“When I couldn’t lay hold of anything, nor lift it up, I showed it to
master, and he sent me to his doctor, who gived me something to rub
over it, for it was swelled up like, and then I went to St. George’s
Hospital, and they cut it over, and asked me if I could come in doors
as in-door patient? and I said Yes, for I wanted to get it over sooner,
and go back to my work, and earn an honest currust. Then they scarred
it again, cut it seven times, and I was there many long weeks; and
when I comed out I could not hold any tool, so I was forced to keep
on pawning and pledging to keep an honest currust in my mouth, and
sometimes I’d only just be with a morsel to eat, and sometimes I’d be
hungry, and that’s the truth.
“What put me up to crossing-sweeping was this--I had no other thing
open to me but the workhouse; but of course I’d sooner be out on my
liberty, though I was entitled to go into the house, of course, but I’d
sooner keep out of it if I could earn an honest currust.
“One of my neighbours persuaded me that I should pick up a good currust
at a crossing. The man who had been on my crossing was gone dead, and
as it was empty, I went down to the police-office, in Marylebone Lane,
and they told me I might take it, and give me liberty to stop. I was
told the man who had been there before me had been on it fourteen
years, and them was good times for gentle and simple and all--and it
was reported that this man had made a good bit of money, at least so it
was said.
“I thought I could make a living out of it, or an honest currust, but
it’s a very poor living, I can assure you. When I went to it first, I
done pretty fair for a currust; but it’s only three shillings to me
now. My missus has such bad health, or she used to help me with her
needle. I can assure you, sir, it’s only one day a week as I have a bit
of dinner, and I often go without breakfast and supper, too.
“I haven’t got any regular customers that allow me anything. When the
families is in town sometimes they give me half-a-crown, or sixpence,
now and then, perhaps once a fortnight, or a month. They’ve got footmen
and servant-maids, so they never wants no parcels taken--they make
_them_ do it; but sometimes I get a penny for posting a letter from one
of the maids, or something like that.
“The best day for us is Sunday. Sometimes I get a shilling, and when
the families is in town eighteen pence. But when the families is away,
and the weather so fine there’s no mud, and only working-people going
to the chapels, they never looks at me, and then I’ll only get a
shilling.”