consequence--indeed, it would be contrary to the rule of this work
to print it] “was born at Hackney, in the county of Middlesex, on
Good Friday, the 15th of April, 1808; he is, therefore, now in his
43rd year. Of his parents very little is known; he was brought up by
guardians, who were ‘well to do,’ and who gave him every indulgence and
every good instruction and example. From the earliest dawn of reason
he manifested a strong predilection for the church; and, before he was
seven years old, he had preached to an infant audience, read prayers
over a dead animal, and performed certain mimic ceremonies of the
church among his schoolfellows.
“The directors of his youthful mind were strong Dissenters, of
Antinomian sentiments. With half-a-dozen of the same denomination
he went, before he was thirteen, to the anniversary meeting of
the Countess of Huntingdon’s College, at Cheshunt. Here, with a
congregation of about forty persons, composed of the students and a few
strangers, he adjourned, while the parsons were dining at the ‘Green
Dragon,’ to the College Chapel, where, with closed doors, the future
proprietor of the ‘penny short-hand’ delivered his first public sermon.
“Before he was quite fourteen, the stenographic card-seller was
apprenticed to a draper in or near Smithfield. In this position he
remained only a few months, when the indentures were cancelled by
mutual consent, and he resumed his studies, first at his native place,
and afterwards as a day-scholar at the Charterhouse. He was now
sixteen, and it was deemed high time for him to settle to some useful
calling. He became a junior clerk in the office of a stock-broker,
and afterwards amanuensis to an ‘M.D.,’ who encouraged his thirst
for learning, and gave him much leisure and many opportunities for
improvement. While in this position he obtained two small prizes in
the state lottery, gave up his situation, and went to Cambridge with
a private tutor. As economy was never any part of his character, he
there ‘overrun the constable,’ and to prevent,” he says, “any constable
running after him. He decamped in the middle of the night, and came to
London by a waggon--all his property consisting of a Greek Prayer-book,
Dodd’s Beauties of Shakspere, two shirts, and two half-crowns.
“At this crisis a famous and worthy clergyman, forty years resident in
Hackney (the Rev. H. H. N----, lately deceased), had issued from the
press certain strictures against the Society for promoting Christianity
among the Jews. The short-hand seller wrote an appendix to this work,
under the title of the ‘Church in Danger.’ He took it to Mr. N----,
who praised the performance and submitted to the publication. The
impression cast off was limited, and the result unprofitable. It had,
however, one favourable issue; it led to the engagement of its author
as private and travelling tutor to the children of the celebrated Lady
S----, who, though (for adultery) separated from her husband, retained
the exclusive custody of her offspring. While in this employment, my
informant resided chiefly at Clifton, sometimes in Bath, and sometimes
on her ladyship’s family property in Derbyshire. While here, he took
deacon’s orders, and became a popular preacher. In whatever virtues
he might be deficient, his charities, at least, were unbounded. This
profusion ill suited a limited income, and _a forgery_ was the first
step to suspension, disgrace, and poverty. In 1832 he married; the
union was not felicitous.
“About this date my informant relates, that under disguise and
change of name he supplied the pulpits of several episcopal chapels
in Scotland with that which was most acceptable to them. Unable to
maintain a _locus standi_ in connexion with the Protestant church, he
made a virtue of necessity, and avowed himself a seceder. In this new
disguise he travelled and lectured, proving to a demonstration (always
pecuniary) that ‘the Church of England was the hospital of Incurables.’
“Always in delicate health, he found continued journeys inconvenient.
The oversight of a home missionary station, comprising five or six
villages, was advertised; the card-seller was the successful candidate,
and for several years performed Divine service four times every Sunday,
and opened and taught _gratuitously_ a school for the children of the
poor. Here report says he was much beloved, and here he ought to have
remained; but with that restlessness of spirit which is so marked
a characteristic of the class to which he now belongs, he thought
otherwise, and removed to a similar sphere of labour near Edinburgh.
The town, containing a population of 14,000, was visited to a dreadful
extent with the pestilence of cholera. The future street-seller (to his
honour be it spoken) was the only one among eight or ten ministers who
was not afraid of the contagion. He visited many hundreds of cases,
and, it is credibly asserted, added medicine, food, and nursing to
his spiritual consolations. The people of his charge here embraced
the Irving heresy; and unable, as he says, to determine the sense of
‘the unknown tongues,’ he resigned his charge, and returned to London
in 1837. After living some time upon his money, books, and clothes,
till all was expended, he tried his hand at the ‘begging-letter
trade.’ About this time, the card-seller declares that a man, also
from Scotland, and of similar history and personal appearance, lodged
with him at a house in the Mint, and stole his coat, and with it
his official and other papers. This person had been either a city
missionary or scripture-reader, having been dismissed for intemperance.
The street card-seller states that he has ‘suffered much persecution
from the officers of the Mendicity Society, and in the opinion of the
public, by the blending of his own history with that of the man who
robbed him.’ Be the truth as it may, or let his past faults have been
ever so glaring, still it furnishes no present reason why he should be
maltreated in the streets, where he is _now_ striving for an honest
living. Since the card-seller’s return to London, he has been _five_
times elected and re-elected to a temporary engagement in the Hebrew
School, Goodman’s-fields; so that, at the worst, his habits of life
cannot be _very_ outrageous.”
The “pomps and vanities of this wicked world,” have, according to his
own account, had very little share in the experience of the short-hand
parson. He states, and there is no reason for doubting him, that he
_never witnessed any sort of public amusement in his life_; that he
was a hard student when he was young, and now keeps no company, living
much in retirement. He “attends the ministry,” he says, “of the Rev.
Robert Montgomery,--reads the daily lessons at home, and receives the
communion twice every month at the early service in Westminster Abbey.”
Of course these are matters that appear utterly inconsistent with his
present mode of life. One well-known peculiarity of this extraordinary
character is his almost idolatrous love of children, to whom, if he
“makes a good Saturday night,” he is very liberal on his way home. This
is, perhaps, his “ruling passion” (an acquaintance of his, without
knowing why I inquired, fully confirmed this account); and it displays
itself sometimes in strong emotion, of which the following anecdote may
be cited as an instance:--One of his favourite spots for stenographic
demonstration is the corner of Playhouse-yard, close to the _Times_
office. Directly opposite lives a tobacconist, who has a young family.
One of his little girls used to stand and listen to him; to her he was
so strongly attached, that when he heard of her death (he had missed
her several weeks), he went home much affected, and did not return to
the spot for many months. At the death of the notorious Dr. Dillon, the
card-seller offered himself to the congregation as a successor; they,
however, declined the overture.
OF THE SELLERS OF RACE CARDS AND LISTS.
This trade is not carried on in town; but at the neighbouring races of
Epsom and Ascot Heath, and, though less numerously, at Goodwood, it is
pursued by persons concerned in the street paper-trade of London.
At Epsom I may state that the race-card sale is in the hands of two
classes (the paper or sheet-lists sale being carried on by the same
parties)--viz. those who confine themselves to “working” the races, and
those who only resort to such work occasionally. The first-mentioned
sellers usually live in the country, and the second in town.
Between these two classes, there is rather a strong distinction. The
country race-card sellers are not unfrequently “sporting characters.”
The town professor of the same calling feels little interest in the
intrigues or great “events” of the turf. Of the country traders in this
line some act also as touters, or touts; they are for the most part
men, who having been in some capacity or other, connected with racing
or with race-horses, and having fallen from their position or lost
their employment, resort to the selling of race-cards as one means of
a livelihood, and to touting, or watching race-horses, and reporting
anything concerning them to those interested, as another means. These
men, I am assured, usually “make a book” (a record and calculation of
their bets) with grooms, or such gentlemen’s servants, as will bet with
them, and sometimes one with another.
The most notorious of the race-card selling fraternity is known as
Captain Carrot. He is the successor, I am told, of Gentleman Jerry,
who was killed some time back at Goodwood races--having been run over.
Gentleman Jerry’s attire, twenty-five to thirty-five years ago, was an
exaggeration of what was then accounted a gentleman’s style. He wore a
light snuff-coloured coat, a “washing” waistcoat of any colour, cloth
trowsers, usually the same colour as his coat, and a white, or yellow
white, and ample cravat of many folds. His successor wears a military
uniform, always with a scarlet coat, Hessian boots, an old umbrella,
and a tin eye-glass. Upon the card-sellers, however, who confine their
traffic to races, I need not dwell, but proceed to the metropolitan
dealers, who are often patterers when in town.
It is common, for the smarter traders in these cards to be liberal of
titles, especially to those whom they address on the race-ground. “This
is the sort of style, sir,” said one race-card-seller to me, “and it
tells best with cockneys from their shops. ‘Ah, my lord. I hope your
lordship’s well. I’ve backed your horse, my lord. He’ll win, he’ll win.
Card, my lord, correct card, only 6_d._ I’ll drink your lordship’s
health after the race.’ Perhaps this here ‘my lord,’ may be a barber,
you see, sir, and never had so much as a donkey in his life, and he
forks out a bob; but before he can get his change, there always _is_
somebody or other to call for a man like me from a little distance,
so I’m forced to run off and cry, ‘Coming, sir, coming. Coming, your
honour, coming.’”
The mass of these sellers, however, content themselves with the
customary cry: “Here’s Dorling’s Correct Card of the Races.--Names,
weights, and colours of the Riders.--Length of Bridle, and Weight of
Saddle.”
One intelligent man computed that there were 500 men, women, and
children, of all descriptions of street-callings, who on a “Derby day”
left London for Epsom. Another considered that there could not be fewer
than 600, at the very lowest calculation. Of these, I am informed, the
female sellers may number something short of a twentieth part from
London, while a twelfth of the whole number of regular street-sellers
attending the races vend at the races cards. But card-selling is often
a cloak, for the females--and especially those connected with men
who depend solely on the races--vend improper publications (usually
at 6_d._), making the sale of cards or lists a pretext for the more
profitable traffic.
If a man sell from ten to twelve dozen cards on the “Derby day,” it is
accounted “a good day;” and so is the sale of three-fourths of that
quantity on the Oaks day. On the other, or “off” days, 2_s._ is an
average earning.
The cards are all bought of Mr. Dorling, the printer, at 2_s._ 6_d._
a dozen. The price asked is always 6_d._ each. “But those fourpenny
bits,” said one card-seller, “is the ruination of every thing. And
now that they say that the threepenny bits is coming in more, things
will be wuss and wuss.” The lists vary from 1_s._ 6_d._ to 2_s._ 6_d._
the dozen, according to size. To clear 10_s._ and 8_s._ on the two
great days is accounted “tidy doings,” but that is earned only by
those who devote themselves to the sale of the race-cards, which all
the sellers do not. Some, for instance, are ballad-singers, who sell
cards immediately before a race comes off, as at that time they could
obtain no auditory for their melodies. Ascot-heath races, I am told,
are rather better for the card seller than Epsom, as “there’s more of
the nobs there,” and fewer of the London vendors of cards. The sale of
the “lists” is less than one-eighth that of the sale of cards. They
are chiefly “return lists,” (lists with a specification of the winning
horses, &c., “returned” as they acquitted themselves in each race), and
are sold in the evening, or immediately after the conclusion of the
“sport,” for the purpose of being posted or kept.
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF GELATINE, OF ENGRAVED, AND OF PLAYING CARDS,
&C.
There are yet other cards, the sale of which is carried on in the
streets; of these, the principal traffic has lately been in “gelatines”
(gelatine cards). Those in the greatest demand contain representations
of the Crystal Palace, the outlines of the structure being given in
gold delineation on the deep purple, or mulberry, of the smooth and
shining gelatine. These cards are sold in blank envelopes, for the
convenience of posting them as a present to a country friend; or of
keeping them unsoiled, if they are retained as a memento of a visit to
so memorable a building. The principal sale was on Sunday mornings,
in Hyde Park, and to the visitors who employed that day to enjoy the
sight of the “palace.” But on the second Sunday in February--as well
as my informant could recollect, for almost all street-traders will
tell you, if not in the same words as one patterer used, that their
recollections are “not worth an old button without a neck”--the police
“put down” the sale of these Exhibition cards in the Park, as well as
that of cakes, tarts, gingerbread, and such like dainties. This was a
bitter disappointment to a host of street-sellers, who looked forward
very sanguinely to the profits they might realise when the Great
Exhibition was in full operation, and augured ill to their prospects
from this interference. I am inclined to think, that, on this occasion,
the feelings of animosity entertained by the card-sellers towards the
police and the authorities were even bitterer than I have described as
affecting the costermongers. “Why,” said one man, “when I couldn’t be
let sell my cards, I thrust my hands into my empty pockets, and went
among the crowd near the Great Exhibition place to look about me. There
was plenty of ladies and gentlemen--say about 12 o’clock at Sunday
noon, and as many as could be. Plenty of ’em had nice paper bags of
biscuits, or cakes, that, of course, they’d bought that morning at a
pastrycook’s, and they handed ’em to their party. Some had newspapers
they was reading--about the Exhibition, I dare say--papers which was
bought, and, perhaps, was printed that very blessed morning; but for us
to offer to earn a crust then--oh, it’s agen the law. In course it is.”
Some of the gelatine cards contain pieces of poetry, in letters
of gold, always--at least, I could hear of no exceptions--of a
religious or sentimental character. “A Hymn,” “The Child’s Prayer,”
“The Christian’s Hope,” “To Eliza,” “To a Daisy,” “Forget-me-not,”
and “Affection’s Tribute,” were among the titles. Some contained
love-verses, and might be used for valentines, and some a sentimental
song.
In the open-air sale, nearly all the traffic was in “Exhibition
gelatines,” and the great bulk were sold in and near Hyde Park. For two
or three months, from as soon as the glass palace had been sufficiently
elevated to command public attention, there were daily, I am told, 20
persons selling those cards in the Park and its vicinity, and more than
twice that number on Sundays. One man told me, that, on one fine bright
Sunday, the sale being principally in the morning, he had sold 10
dozen, with a profit of about 5_s._ On week-days three dozen was a good
sale; but on wet, cold, or foggy days, none at all could be disposed
of. If, therefore, we take as an average the sale of two dozen daily
per each individual, and three dozen on a Sunday, we find that 180_l._
was expended on street-sold “gelatines.” The price to the retailer is
5_d._ a dozen, with 1_d._ or 1-1/4_d._ for a dozen of the larger-sized
envelopes, so leaving the usual profit--cent. per cent. The sellers
were not a distinct class, but in the hands of the less enterprising
of the paper-workers or patterers. The “poetry gelatines” were hardly
offered at all in the streets, except by a few women and children, with
whom it was a pretext for begging.
Of “engraved” Exhibition-cards, sold under similar circumstances, there
might be one third as many sold as of the gelatines, or an expenditure
of 60_l._
The sale of playing-cards is only for a brief interval. It is most
brisk for a couple of weeks before Christmas, and is hardly ever
attempted in any season but the winter. The price varies from 1_d._
to 6_d._, but very rarely 6_d._; and seldom more than 3_d._ the pack.
The sellers for the most part announce their wares as “New cards.
New playing-cards. Two-pence a pack.” This subjects the sellers (the
cards being unstamped) to a penalty of 10_l._, a matter of which the
street-traders know and care nothing; but there is no penalty on the
sale of second-hand cards. The best of the cards are generally sold by
the street-sellers to the landlords of the public-houses and beer-shops
where the customers are fond of a “hand at cribbage,” a “cut-in at
whist,” or a “game at all fours,” or “all fives.” A man whose business
led him to public-houses told me that for some years he had not
observed any other games to be played there, but he had heard an old
tailor say that in his youth, fifty years ago, “put” was a common
public-house game. The cheaper cards are frequently imperfect packs.
If there be the full number of fifty-two, some perhaps are duplicates,
and others are consequently wanting. If there be an ace of spades, it
is unaccompanied by those flourishes which in the duly stamped cards
set off the announcement, “Duty, One Shilling;” and sometimes a blank
card supplies its place. The smaller shop-keepers usually prefer to
sell playing-cards with a piece cut off each corner, so as to give
them the character of being second-hand; but the street-sellers prefer
vending them without this precaution. The cards--which are made up from
the waste and spoiled cards of the makers--are bought chiefly, by the
retailers, at the “swag shops.”
Playing cards are more frequently sold with other articles--such as
almanacks--than otherwise. From the information I obtained, it appears
that if twenty dozen packs of cards are sold daily for fourteen days,
it is about the quantity, but rather within it. The calculation
was formed on the supposition that there might be twenty street
playing-card sellers, each disposing (allowing for the hinderances of
bad weather, &c.), of one dozen packs daily. Taking the average price
at 3_d._ a pack, we find an outlay of 42_l._ The sale used to be far
more considerable and at higher prices, and was “often a good spec. on
a country round.”
There is still another description of cards sold in the streets of
London; viz., conversation-cards; but the quantity disposed of is so
trifling as to require no special comment.
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF STATIONERY.
Of this body of street-traders there are two descriptions, the
itinerant and the “pitching.” There are some also who unite the two
qualities, so far as that they move a short distance, perhaps 200
yards, along a thoroughfare, but preserve the same locality.
Of the itinerant again, there are some who, on an evening, and more
especially a Saturday evening, take a stand in a street-market, and
pursue their regular “rounds” the other portions of the day.
The itinerant trader carries a tray, and in no few cases, as respects
the “display” of his wares, emulates the tradesman’s zeal in “dressing”
a window temptingly. The tray most in use is painted, or mahogany, with
“ledges,” front and sides; or, as one man described it, “an upright
four-inch bordering, to keep things in their places.” The back of the
tray, which rests against the bearer’s breast, is about twelve inches
high. Narrow pink tapes are generally attached to the “ledges” and
back, within which are “slipped” the articles for sale. At the bottom
of the tray are often divisions, in which are deposited steel pens,
wafers, wax, pencils, pen-holders, and, as one stationer expressed it,
“packable things that you can’t get much show out of.” One man--who
rather plumed himself on being a thorough master of his trade--said to
me: “It’s a grand point to display, sir. Now, just take it in this way.
Suppose you yourself, sir, lived in my round. Werry good. You hear me
cry as I’m a approaching your door, and suppose you was a customer, you
says to yourself: ‘Here’s Penny-a-quire,’ as I’m called oft enough. And
I’ll soon be with you, and I gives a extra emphasis at a customer’s
door. Werry good, you buys the note. _As_ you buys the note, you gives
a look over my tray, and then you says, ‘O, I want some steel pens,
and is your ink good?’ and you buys some. But for the ‘display,’ you’d
have sent to the shopkeeper’s, and I should have lost custom, ’cause it
wouldn’t have struck you.”[12]
The articles more regularly sold by the street-sellers of stationery
are note-paper, letter-paper, envelopes, steel pens, pen-holders,
sealing-wax, wafers, black-lead pencils, ink in stonebottles,
memorandum-books, almanacks, and valentines. Occasionally, they sell
India-rubber, slate-pencil, slates, copy-books, story-books, and
arithmetical tables.
The stationery is purchased, for the most part, in Budge-row and
Drury-lane. The half-quires (sold at 1_d._) contain, generally, 10
sheets; if the paper, however, be of superior quality, only 8 sheets.
In the paper-warehouses it is known as “outsides,” with no more than
10 sheets to the half quire, the price varying from 4_s._ to 6_s._ the
ream (20 quires); or, if bought by weight, from 7_d._ to 9_d._ the
pound. The envelopes are sold (wholesale) at from 6_d._ to 15_d._ the
dozen; the higher-priced being adhesive, and with impressions--now,
generally, the Crystal Palace--on the place of the seal. The commoner
are retailed in the streets at 12, and the better at 6, a penny.
Sometimes “a job-lot,” soiled, is picked up by the street-stationer
at 4_d._ a pound. The sealing, a pound, retailed at 1/2_d._ each; the
“flat” wax, however, is 1_s._ 4_d._ per lb., containing from 30 to 36
sticks, retailed at 1_d._ each. Wafers (at the same swag shops) are
3_d._ or 4_d._ the lb.--in small boxes, 9_d._ the gross; ink, 4-1/2_d._
or 5_d._ the dozen bottles; pencils, 7_d._ to 8_s._ a gross; and steel
pens from 4_d._ (waste) to 3_s._ a gross; but the street-stationers do
not go beyond 2_s._ the gross, which is for magnum bonums.
[12] I may here observe that I have rarely heard tradesmen dealing in
the same wares as street-sellers, described by those street-sellers by
any other term than that of “shopkeepers.”
OF THE EXPERIENCE OF A STREET-STATIONER.
A middle-aged man gave me the following account. He had pursued the
trade for upwards of twelve years. He was a stout, cosey-looking man,
wearing a loose great coat. The back of his tray rested against his
double-breasted waistcoat; the pattern of which had become rather
indistinct, but which was buttoned tightly up to his chin, as if to
atone for the looseness of his coat. The corner of his mouth, toward
his left ear, was slightly drawn down, for he seemed in “crying” to
pitch his voice (so that it could be heard a street off) out of the
corner of his only partially-opened mouth.