50_s._ worth of stock, he could clear, all the year round, 15_s._ a
week. “People,” said this man, “as far as I’ve known the streets, like
to buy of what they think is a respectable man, and seemingly well
to do; they feel safe with him.” Those, however, who cannot boast so
large a stock of jewellery as 50_s._ worth, may only clear 10_s._
instead of 15_s._ weekly. One trader thought that the average earnings
of his fraternity might be taken at 12_s._ a week; another--and both
judged from their own experience--thought 10_s._ 6_d._ was high enough.
Calculating, then, at a weekly profit of 10_s._ 6_d._, and a receipt of
18_s._ per individual, we find 23,400_l._ expended in the street-trade,
including the sales at Gravesend, Woolwich, and Greenwich; where--both
places being resorted to by pleasure-seekers and seamen--the trade is
sometimes considerable; watches, which now are almost unknown in a
regular street-trade, there forming an occasional part of it.
OF THE PEDLAR-JEWELLERS.
I have heard a manufacturer of Birmingham jewellery assert, that one
pound of copper was sufficient to make 10_l._ worth of jewellery;
consequently, the material to provide the unmanufactured stock in trade
of a wholesale dealer in Birmingham jewellery, is not over expensive.
It may be imagined then that the pedlars who hawk jewellery do not
invest a very great capital in the wares they sell; there are some few,
however, who have very valuable stocks of goods, pedlars though they
be. This trade is principally pursued by Jews, and to a great extent
(especially in a small way) by foreign Jews. The Jews are, I think,
more attentive to the wants of their poorer brethren than other people;
and instead of supplying them with trifling sums of money, which must
necessarily soon be expended, they give them small quantities of
goods, so that they may immediately commence foraging for their own
support. Many of these poor Jews, when provided with their stock of
merchandise, can scarcely speak a word of English, and few of them know
but little respecting the value of the goods they sell; they always
take care to ask a good price, leaving plenty of room for abatement.
I heard one observe that they could not easily be taken in by being
overcharged, for according what they paid for the article they fixed
the price upon it. Some of these men, notwithstanding their scanty
knowledge of the trade at starting, have eventually become excellent
judges of jewellery; some of them, moreover, have acquired riches
in it; indeed from the indomitable perseverance of the Hebrew race,
success is generally the result of their untiring industry. If once you
look at the goods of a Jew pedlar, it is not an easy matter to get out
of his clutches; it is not for want of perseverance if he does not bore
and tease you, until at length you are glad to purchase some trifle
to get rid of him. One of my informants tells me he is acquainted
with several Jews, who now hold their heads high as merchants, and
are considered very excellent judges of the wares they deal in, who
originally began trading with but a small stock of jewellery, and that
a charitable donation. As well as Jews there are Irishmen who deal in
such commodities. The pedlar generally has a mahogany box bound with
brass, and which he carries with a strap hung across his shoulder; when
he calls at a house, an inquiry is made whether there is any old silver
or gold to dispose of. “I will give you a full price for any such
articles.” If the lady or gentleman accosted seems to be likely to buy,
the box is immediately opened and a tempting display of gold rings,
chains, scent-boxes, lockets, brooches, breast-pins, bracelets, silver
thimbles, &c., &c., are exposed to view. All the eloquence the pedlar
can command is now brought into play. The jewellery is arranged about
the persons of his expected customers to the best advantage. The pedlar
says all he can think of to enhance their sale: he will chop and change
for anything they may wish to dispose of--any old clothes, books, or
useless lumber may be converted into ornaments for the hair or other
parts of dress. The Irish pedlar mostly confines his visits to the
vicinity of large factories where there are many girls employed; these
he supplies with earrings, necklaces, shawl-pins, brooches, lockets,
&c., which are bought wholesale at the following prices:--Earrings and
drops at from 3_s._ 6_d._ to 12_s._ per dozen pairs; the 3_d._ earring
is a neat little article says my informant, and those sold at 1_s._
each, wholesale, are gorgeous-looking affairs; many of the latter have
been disposed of by the pedlars at 1_l._ the pair, and even a greater
price. Necklaces are from 5_s._ to 1_l._ per dozen. Lockets may be
purchased wholesale at from 2_s._ to 10_s._ per dozen; guard chains
(German silver) are 4_s._ per dozen; gilt heavy-looking waistcoat
chains 6_s._ per dozen: and all other articles are equally low in
price. The pedlar jeweller can begin business “respectably” for two
pounds. His box costs him 7_s._ 6_d._; half-a-dozen pairs of earrings
of six different sorts, 3_s._; half-a-dozen lockets (various), 1_s._
9_d._; half-a-dozen guard chains, 2_s._; half-a-dozen shawl brooches,
2_s._ 6_d._; one dozen breast-pins (different kinds), 3_s._; one
dozen finger rings of various descriptions, 3_s._ 6_d._; half-a-dozen
brooches at 4_d._ each, 2_s._; one dozen necklaces (a variety), at
6_s._; three silver pencil-cases at 1_s._ 9_d._ each, 5_s._ 3_d._;
half-a-dozen waistcoat chains, 3_s._; one silver toothpick, at 1_s._
6_d._ These make altogether two pounds. If the articles are arranged
with taste and seeming care (as if they were very valuable), with
jeweller’s wadding under each, and stuck on pink cards, &c., while
the finger rings are inserted in the long narrow velvet-lined groove
of the box, and the other “valuables” well spread about the little
portable shop--they may be made to assume a very respectable and almost
“rich” appearance. Many who now have large establishments commenced
life with much less stock than is here mentioned. The Jews, I do not
think, continues my informant, are the best salesmen; and the fact of
their being Israelites is, in many instances, a bar to their success;
country people, especially, are afraid of being taken in by them. The
importunities and appeals of the Hebrew, however, are far more urgent
than any other tradesman; and they always wait where they think there’s
the slightest chance of effecting a sale, until the door is slammed
in their face. I believe there are not, at the present time, many
(especially small traders) who deal exclusively in jewellery; they
mostly add other small and light articles--such as fancy cutlery, side
combs, &c. There may, at a rough guess, be 500 of them travelling the
country; half the number are poor foreign Jews; a quarter are Jews, who
have, perhaps, followed the same calling for years; and the remaining
quarter, a mixture of Irish and English, with a small preponderance
of Irishmen. All these “swop” their goods for old gold and silver,
and frequently realize a large sum, by changing the base metal for
the sterling article. Their goods are always sold as being gold or
silver--If asked whether a particular article be gold, they reply “It’s
jewellers’ gold;” “Is this ring gold?” inquires the customer, taking
one from the box--“No, ma’am, I wouldn’t deceive you!” is the answer,
“_that_ is not gold; but here is one,” adds the pedlar (taking up one
exactly of the same description, and which cost the same price) “which
is of a similar shape and fashion, and the best jeweller’s gold that
is made.” The profits of the pedlar-jewellers it is almost impossible
to calculate, for they will sell at any price upon which the smallest
amount of profit can be realized. The foreign Jews, especially, will do
this, and it is not an unusual circumstance for one of these men to ask
5_s._ for an article which originally cost them 3_d._, and which they
will eventually sell for 4_d._
In London there are about 200 hawkers of jewellery, who visit the
public-houses; but few of these have boxes--they invite customers by
displaying some chains in their hands, or having one or two arranged
in front of their waistcoats, while the smaller articles are carried
in their waistcoat pockets. The class of persons who patronize the
public-house hawkers are those who visit the tap-rooms of taverns, and
countrymen in the vicinity of Smithfield upon market days, (one of the
hawkers tells me, that they succeed better upon the hay-market days
than at the cattle sales, for the butchers, they say, are too “fly” for
them). Sailors are among their best customers, but the coster-girls
are very fond of drop earrings and coral beads; the sailors, however,
give the best prices of all. I am told that the quantity of old gold
and silver which the country pedlars obtain in exchange for their goods
is “astonishing;” and there have been occasions on which a pedlar has
been enriched for life by one single transaction of barter; some old
and unfashionable piece of jewellery, that they received for their
goods, has been composed of costly stones, which had lain by for years,
and of which the pedlar’s customer was unacquainted with the value.
The more respectable jewellery pedlars put up at the better class of
public-houses, and, even after their day’s travels are over, they
still have an eye to business; they open the box upon the table of the
tap-room where they are lodging, and, under the pretence of cleaning
or arranging their goods, temptingly display their glittering stock.
The bar-maid, kitchen-maid, the landlady’s daughter, or perhaps the
landlady herself, admires some ornaments, which the pedlar declares
would become them vastly. He hangs a necklace upon the neck of one of
them; holds a showy earring and drop to the ear of another; facetiously
inquires of the girls whether they are not likely to want something
of this sort shortly--as he holds up first a wedding-ring, and then
a baby’s coral; or else he exhibits a ring set with Turquoise, or
pearls and small diamonds in a cluster, to the landlady, and tries it
on her finger; and by such arts a sale that will cover his expenses
is generally effected. There is one peculiarity these men have when
bartering their goods. A worn-out ornament of jewellery is brought to
them, and, although it be brass, the pedlar never attempts to undeceive
the possessor, if he finds it is considered to be genuine. Of course
he never gives cash for such articles; but he offers a large price in
barter. “I will take 10_s._ for this ring, and allow you 5_s._ for the
old one,” says the pedlar. It would never do to say the ornament was
not gold; the customer bought it years ago for such, and no one ever
disputed its being the precious metal; should our pedlar do so, he
might as well shut up shop immediately. The lady would be angry and
suspicious; neither would she believe him, but rather suspect that he
wanted only to cheat her; consequently the pedlar barters, obtains the
old ring, or some other article, and 5_s._, for his commodity; and
though the article he has taken in exchange is worth only a few pence,
he very likely profits to the amount of 200 per cent. upon the cash
received. The pedlars of lesser consequence put up at humble private
or public-houses, and some of them at the common lodging-houses. Those
who have only small stocks confine their visits to farm-houses and
villages.
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF CARD-COUNTERS, MEDALS, ETC.
The “card-counters,” or, as I have heard them sometimes called by
street-sellers, the “small coins,” are now of a very limited sale. The
slang name for these articles is “Jacks” and “Half Jacks.” They are
sold to the street-people at only two places in London; one in Holborn,
and the other at Black Tom’s (himself formerly a street-seller, now “a
small swag”), in Clerkenwell. They are all made in Birmingham, and are
of the size and colour of the genuine sovereigns and half sovereigns;
but it is hardly possible that any one who had ever received a
sovereign in payment, could be deceived by the substitution of a Jack.
Those now sold in the streets are much thinner, and very much lighter.
Each presents a profile of the Queen; but instead of the superscription
“Victoria Dei Gratiâ” of the true sovereign, the Jack has “Victoria
Regina.” On the reverse, in the place of the “Britanniarum Regina Fid.
Def.” surrounding the royal arms and crown, is a device (intended for
an imitation of St. George and the Dragon) representing a soldier on
horseback--the horse having three legs elevated from the ground, while
a drawn sword fills the right hand of the equestrian, and a crown
adorns his head. The superscription is, “to Hanover,” and the rider
seems to be sociably accompanied by a dragon. Round the Queen’s head on
the half Jack is “Victoria, Queen of Great Britain,” and on the reverse
the Prince of Wales’s feather, with the legend, “The Prince of Wales’s
Model Half Sovereign.”
Until within these five or six years the gilt card-counters had
generally the portraiture of the monarch, and on the reverse the legend
“Keep your temper,” as a seasonable admonition to whist players.
Occasionally the card-counter was a gilt coin, closely resembling a
sovereign; but the magistracy, eight or nine years back, “put down” the
sale of these imitations.
Under another head will be found an account of the use made of these
sovereigns, in pretended wagers. A further use of them was to add to
the heaps of apparent gold at the back of the table-keeper in a race
booth, when gambling was allowed at Epsom, and the “great meetings.”
There are now only two men regularly selling Jacks in the streets.
There have been as many as twelve. One of these street-sellers is often
found in Holborn, announcing “30_s._ for 1_d._! 30_s._ for 1_d._!
cheapest bargain ever offered; 30_s._ for 1_d._!”
The Jacks cost, wholesale, 4_s._ 6_d._ the gross; the half Jacks
2_s._ 9_d._ The two are sold for 1_d._ If the sale be not brisk, the
street-seller will give a ring into the bargain. These rings cost 1_s._
the gross, or the third part of a farthing each.
If there be, on the year’s average, only two street-sellers disposing
of the Jacks, and earning 9_s._ a week--to earn which the receipts
will be about 20_s._--we find 104_l._ expended in the streets on these
trifles.
Of medals the street sale is sometimes considerable, at others a mere
nothing. When a popular subject is before the public, many of the
general patterers “go to medals.” I could not learn that any of the
present street-people vended medals in the time of the war; I believe
there are none at present among the street folk who did so. I am told
that the street sale in war medals was smaller than might reasonably
have been expected. The manufacture of those articles in the Salamanca,
Vittoria, and even Waterloo days, was greatly inferior to what it is at
present, and the street price demanded was as often 6_d._ as a smaller
sum. These medals in a little time presented a dull, leaden look, and
the knowledge that they were “poor things” seems to have prevented
the public buying them to any extent in the streets, and perhaps
deterred the street-sellers from offering them. Those who were the most
successful of the medal-sellers had been, or assumed to have been,
soldiers or seamen.
Within the last eighteen years, or more, there has hardly been any
public occurrence without a comparatively well-executed medal being
sold in the streets in commemoration of it. That sold at the opening
of London-bridge was, I am told, considered “a superior thing,” and
the improvement in this art of manufacture has progressed to the
present time. Within the last three years the most saleable medals, an
experienced man told me, were of Hungerford Suspension (bridge), the
New Houses of Parliament, the Chinese Junk, and Sir Robert Peel. The
Thames Tunnel medals were at one time “very tidy,” as were those of the
New Royal Exchange. The great sale is at present of the Crystal Palace;
and one man had heard that there were a great many persons coming to
London to sell them at the opening of the Great Exhibition. “The great
eggs and bacon, I call it,” he said; “for I hope it will bring us that
sort of grub. But I don’t know; I’m afraid there’ll be too many of us.
Besides, they say we shan’t be let sell in the park.”
The exhibition medal is as follows:--
What the street medal-sellers call the “right-side”--I speak of the
“penny” medal, which commands by far the greatest sale--presents the
Crystal Palace, raised from the surface of the medal, and whitened by
the application of aqua fortis. The superscription is “THE BUILDING FOR
THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, LONDON, 1851.” On the “wrong side” (so
called) is the following inscription, occupying the whole face of the
medal:
THE CONSTRUCTION IS OF
IRON AND OF GLASS,
1848 FEET LONG.
ABOUT HALF IS 456 WIDE.
THE REMAINDER 408 FEET WIDE,
AND 66 FEET HIGH;
SITE, UPWARDS OF 20 ACRES.
COST £150,000.
JOSH. PAXTON, ARCHT.
The size of this medal is between that of a shilling and a half-crown.
A patterer, who used to sell medals on Sunday mornings in the park,
informed me that he told his customers the Crystal Palace part was dead
silver, by a new discovery making silver cheap; but for all that he
would risk changing it for a four-penny bit!
The two-penny medal is after the same style, but the letters are more
distinct. On my stating, to a medal-seller, that it was difficult to
read the inscription on his “pennies,” he said, “Not at all, sir; but
it’s your eyes is dazzled.” This was said quietly, and with a touch of
slyness, and I have no doubt was the man’s “cut-and-dried” answer.
The patterer whom I have mentioned, told me, that encouraged by a
tolerable sale and “a gathering of the aristocrats,” on a very fine
Sunday in January or February--he could not remember which--he ventured
upon 6 “sixpenny medals,” costing him 1_s._ 9_d._ He sold them all but
one, which he showed me. It was exactly the size of a crown-piece. The
Crystal Palace was “raised,” and of “dead silver,” as in the smaller
medals. The superscription was the same as on the penny medal; but
underneath the representation of the palace were raised figures of
Mercury and of a naked personage, with a quill as long as himself, a
cornucopia, and a bee-hive: this I presume was Industry. These twin
figures are supporters to a medallion, crown-surmounted, of the Queen
and Prince Albert: being also in “dead silver.” On the reverse was an
inscription, giving the dimensions, &c., of the building.
The medals in demand for street-sale in London seem to be those
commemorative of local events only. None, for instance, were sold
relating to the opening of the Britannia Bridge.
The wholesale price of the medals retailed in the street at 1_d._
is 7_s._ the gross; those retailed at 2_d._ are 12_s._ the gross,
but more than three-fourths of those sold are penny medals. They are
all bought at the swag-shops, and are all made in Birmingham. It is
difficult to compute how many persons are engaged in this street
trade, for many resort to it only on occasions. There are, however,
from 12 to 20 generally selling medals, and at the present time about
30 are so occupied: they, however, do not sell medals exclusively,
but along with a few articles of jewellery, or occasionally of such
street stationery as letter stamps and “fancy” pens, with coloured
glass or china handles. A fourth of the number are women. The weather
greatly influences the street medal trade, as rain or damp dims their
brightness. One seller told me that the day before I saw him he had
sold only four medals. “I’ve known the trade, off and on,” he said,
“for about six years, and the greatest number as ever I sold was
half-a-gross one Saturday. I cleared rather better than 3_s._ I sold
them in Whitehall and by Westminster-bridge. There was nothing new
among them, but I had a good stock, and it was a fine day, and I was
lucky in meeting parties, and had a run for sets.” By a “run for sets,”
my informant meant that he had met with customers who bought a medal of
each of the kinds he displayed; this is called “a set.”
An intelligent man, familiar with the trade, and who was in the habit
of clubbing his stock-money with two others, that they might buy a
gross at a time, calculated that 15 medal sellers were engaged in the
traffic the year through, and earned, in medals alone, 6_d._ a day
each, to clear which they would take 6_s._ 6_d._ weekly, giving a
yearly outlay of 253_l._ 10_s._ It must be remembered, to account for
the smallness of the earnings, that the trade in medals is irregular,
and the calculation embraces all the seasons of the trade.
On occasions when medals are the sole or chief articles of traffic,
they are displayed on a tray, which is a box with a lid, and thus look
bright as silver on the faded brown velvet, with which the box is often
lined. Among the favourite pitches are Oxford-street, the approaches
to London, Blackfriars, Westminster, and Waterloo-bridges, the railway
stations, and the City-road.
Of small coins (proper) there is now no sale in the streets. When
there was an issue of half-farthings, about seven years ago, the
street-sellers drove a brisk trade, in vending them at four a penny,
urging on the sale before the coins got into circulation, which they
never did. “It’s not often,” said one patterer to me, “that _we_ has
anything to thank the Government for, but we may thank them for the
half-farthings. I dare say at least 30 of us made a tidy living on them
for a week or more; and if they wasn’t coined just to give us a spirt,
I should like to know what they _was_ coined for! I once myself, sir,
for a lark, gave one to a man that swept a capital crossing, and he was
in a thundering passion, and wanted to fight me, when I told him they
was coined to pay the likes of him!”
There was afterwards a tolerable sale of the “new silver pennies, just
issued from the Mint, three ha’pence each, or 7 for 6_d._;” also of
“genuine models of the new English florin, only 1_d._:” both of these
were fictitious.
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF RINGS AND SOVEREIGNS FOR WAGERS.