fairs and races are a more fitting ground for the ring-seller’s
operations. One man of this class told me that he had been selling
rings, and occasionally medals, for wagers for this last fifteen years.
“It’s only a so-so game just now,” he said; “the people get so fly
to it. A many hold out their penny for a ring, and just as I suppose
I’m a going to receive it, they put the penny into their pockets, and
their thumb upon their nose. I wish I had some other game, for this
is a very dickey one. I gives 3_d._ a-dozen for the rings at the swag
shop; and sometimes sells a couple of dozen in a day, but seldom more.
Saturday is no better day than any other. Country people are my best
customers. I know them by their appearance. Sometimes a person in the
crowd whispers to others that he bought one the other day and went and
pawned it for 5_s._, and he’d buy another, but he’s got no money. I
don’t ask for such assistance; I suppose it’s done for a lark, and to
laugh at others if they buy. Women buy more frequently than any one
else. Several times since I have been on this dodge, women have come
back and abused me because the ring they bought for a penny was not
gold. Some had been to the pawn shop, and was quite astonished that
the pawnbroker wouldn’t take the ring in. I do best in the summer at
races: people think it more likely that two sporting gents would lay
an out of the way wager (as you know I always make out) then than at
any other time. I have been interfered with at races before now for
being an impostor, and yet at the same time the gamblers was allowed
to keep their tables; but of course theirs was all fair--no imposition
about them--oh no! I am considered one of the best patterers among our
lot. I dare say there may be twenty on us all together, in town and
country, on rings and sovereigns. Sometimes, when travelling on foot to
a race or fair, I do a little in the _Fawney dropping_ line;” (fawneys
are rings;) “but that is a dangerous game, I never did it but two or
three times. There were some got lagged for it, and that frightened
me. In ring-dropping we pretend to have found a ring, and ask some
simple-looking fellow if it’s good gold, as it’s only just picked up.
Sometimes it is immediately pronounced _gold_: ‘Well it’s no use to
me,’ we’ll say, ‘will you buy it?’ Often they are foolish enough to
buy, and it’s some satisfaction to one’s conscience to know that they
think they are a taking you in, for they give you only a shilling or
two for an article which if really gold would be worth eight or ten.
Some ring-droppers write out an account and make a little parcel of
jewellery, and when they pick out their man, they say, ‘If you please,
sir, will you read this for me, and tell me what I should do with these
things, as I’ve just found them?’ Some people advise they should be
taken to the police office--but very few say that; some, that they
should be taken to the address; others, that they should be sold, and
the money shared; others offer a price for them, stating that they’re
not gold, they’re only trumpery they say, but they’ll give half-a-crown
for them. It’s pleasant to take such people in. Sometimes the finder
says he’s in haste, and will sell them for anything to attend to other
business, and he then transfers his interest at perhaps 200 per cent.
profit. This game won’t friz now, sir, it’s very dangerous. I’ve left
it off long since. I don’t like the idea of quod. I’ve been there
once.” Another plan of dropping rings is to write a letter. This is the
style:--
“My dear Anne,
“I have sent you the ring, and hope it will fit.--Excuse me not
bringing it. John will leave it with you.--You know I have so much
to attend to.--I shall think every minute a year until the happy day
arrives.
“Yours devotedly,
“JAMES BROWN.”
This love epistle containing the wedding-ring was most successful when
it first came up, but the public now are too wide awake. According to
another informant, the ring-dropping “lurk” is now carried on this
way, for the old style is “coopered.” “A woman” he says, “is made up
so as to appear in the family-way--pretty far gone--and generally
with a face as long as a boy’s kite. Up she goes to any likely ken,
where she knows there are women that are married or expect to get
married, and commences begging. Then comes the tale of woe, if she can
get them to listen--‘I’m in the family-way,’ she says, ‘as you can
plainly see _young ladies_ (this she says to the _servants_, and that
prides them you know). My husband has left me after serving me in this
way. I don’t know where he is, and am forced to solicit the ladies’
charity.’ Well, the servants will bring broken victuals and make a
little collection among themselves for the ‘unprotected female;’ for
which in return, with many thanks for their kindness, she offers her
gold wedding-ring for sale, as she wants to get back to her suffering
kids to give them something to eat, poor things, and they shall have
the gold ring, she says, for half what it’s worth; or if they won’t buy
it, will they lend 2_s._ or 3_s._ on it till she can redeem it, as she
hasn’t been in the habit of pledging! The girls are taken off their
guard (she not being in the habit of pledging is a choker for them) by
the woman’s seeming simplicity, and there’s a consultation. One says
to the other--‘Oh, you’ll want it, Mary, for John;’ and another, ‘No,
you’ll want it first, Sally, for William.’ But the woman has her eye
on the one as says the least, as the likeliest of all to want it, and
so she says to the John and William girls, ‘Oh, you don’t want it;
but _here_ (touching the silent one), here’s a _young lady_ as does,’
(that sweetens the servant girl up directly.) She says, ‘I don’t want
it, bless you (with a giggle), but I’ll lend you a trifle, as you
are in this state, and have a family, and are left like this by your
husband--aint he cruel, Sally (she adds to her fellow-servant)?’ The
money the ring-woman gets, sir, depends upon the servant’s funds; if it
is just after quarter-day, she generally gets a tidy tip--if not, 4 or
5 bob. I’ve known one woman get 10_s._ and even 12_s._ this way. The
ring is made out of brass gilt buttons, and stunning well: it’s faked
up to rights, and takes a good judge even at this day to detect it
without a test.”
“The best sort of rings for _fawney dropping_ is the Belchers. They are
a good thick looking ring, and have the crown and V. R. stamped upon
them. They are 7_d._ a dozen. I takes my stand now, in my ring-selling,
as if I was in a great hurry, and pulls out my watch. I used to have
a real one, but now it’s a dummy. ‘Now, ladies and gentlemen,’ says
I, ‘I am not permitted to remain more than ten minutes in one spot. I
have rings to sell to decide a wager recently made between two sporting
noblemen, to the effect that I do not sell a certain quantity of these
rings in a given time, at a penny a piece. I can recommend the article
as being well worth the money I ask for it, perhaps something more. I
do not say they are gold; in fact, I must not say too much, as there
is a person in this company watching my proceedings, and seeing that
I do not remain more than ten minutes in this spot,’--here I always
looks very hard at the most respectable and gentlemanly-looking person
among my hearers, and sometimes gives him a wink, and sometimes a
nod,--‘but if you should hear anything more about these rings, and you
want to purchase, don’t be vexed if I am gone when you want me. The ten
minutes has nearly expired; three minutes more; any more buyers? It
makes no difference to me whether I sell or not--I get my pay all the
same; but, if you take my advice, buy; and perhaps if you was to call
at the sign of the Three Balls, as you go home, you may be agreeably
surprised, and hear something to your advantage. Perhaps I have said
too much. I have one minute more, before I close the establishment.
After shutting the box, I dare not sell another in this spot, if you
were to offer me 5_l._ for it; therefore, if you wish to purchase, now
is your time.’ I make many a pitch, and do not sell a single ring; and
the insults I receive used to aggravate me very much, but I do not mind
them now, I’m used to it. The flyest cove among all us ring-sellers
is little Ikey, the Jew. There were two used to work the game. They
had a real gold ring, just like the ones they were selling, and they
always used to pitch near a pawnbroker’s shop. Ikey’s pal would buy
a ring for a penny, of the street-seller, and would then say, loud
enough to be heard by the bystanders, ‘There’s a pawn shop--I’ll go and
ask them to take it in.’ A crowd would follow him. He would enter the
pawnbroker’s--present a real gold ring--obtain a loan of 5_s._, and
would present the ticket to the bystanders, who would then buy very
fast. When the pitch was over, Ikey’s pal would take the ring out of
pawn, and away the two would go to work near some other pawnbroker’s.
I have heard Ikey say they have pawned the ring thirty-five times in
a day. I tried the same caper; but my pal cut with the gold ring the
first day, and I’ve never had another go at that _fake_ since.
“Before I commenced the jewellery line,” continued my candid informant,
“a good many years ago, I used to hold horses about Bond-street.
Afterwards I was taken as an errand boy at a druggist’s, was out of an
errand one day and got 6_d._ for holding a gentleman’s horse, which
kept me nearly an hour; when I went back to my master’s I was told I
wasn’t wanted any more. I had been cautioned about stopping of errands
two or three times before; however I didn’t like the situation, it was
too confining. I next got a place as pot-boy, in Brick Lane. Here I
was out one day gathering in the pots. I hung the strap of pots to a
railing to have a game at chances (pitch and toss), somebody prigged
my strap of pots, and I cut. A few weeks after I was grabbed for this,
and got a month at the mill; but I was quite innocent of prigging--I
was only careless. When I came out of prison, I went to Epsom races,
thinking to get a job there at something or other. A man engaged me to
assist him in ‘pitching the hunters.’ Pitching the hunters is the three
sticks a penny, with the snuffboxes stuck upon sticks; if you throw
your stick, and they fall out of the hole, you are entitled to what you
knock off. I came to London with my master the pitcher-hunter, he went
to a swag shop in Kent-street, in the Borough, to purchase a new stock.
I saw a man there purchasing rings, this was little Ikey, the Jew;
some days afterwards I saw him making a pitch, and selling very fast.
I had fourpence in my pocket; went to Kent-street, to the swag shops,
bought a dozen rings, and commenced selling them. I sold that day three
dozen; that wasn’t bad considering that my toggery was very queer, and
I looked anything but like one who would be trusted with ten pounds’
worth of gold rings. This wager between the two sporting noblemen has
been a long time settling. I’ve been at it more than fifteen years. The
origin of it was this here: when sovereigns were first coined, the Jew
boys and others used to sell medals and card-counters upon particular
occasions, the same as they do now, and shove them in a saucepan lid,
with silver paper under them. Captain Barclay, and another of the
same sort, bet a wager, that one of these Jew-boys could not dispose
of a certain number of real sovereigns in a given time, supposing the
Jew-boy cried out nothing more than ‘here’s sovereigns, only a penny a
piece.’ The number he was to sell was 50 within the hour, and to take
his station at London Bridge. The wager was made, the Jew-boy procured,
and the sovereigns put into the pot lid. ‘Here are real sovereigns
a penny a piece, who’ll buy?’ he cried; but he sold only a few. The
number disposed of, within the hour, I have heard, was seventeen. Those
who purchased, when they found that they had really bought sovereigns
at a penny a piece, returned for more, but the salesman was gone. A
good harvest was afterwards reaped among the Jews, who got up a medal
something like a sovereign, and sold them in every quarter of London,
for the Captain’s wager soon spread about everywhere. It’s a stale game
now; it was so before my time, but I’ve heard the Jews talk about it.
The second day I tried the ring dodge, I was a little more successful;
indeed every day for some time exceeded the day before, for, as I
improved in patter, my sales increased. My appearance, too, was
improving. At one time I was a regular swell, sported white kid gloves,
white choker, white waistcoat, black ribbon, and a quizzing glass. Some
people used to chaff me, and cry out ‘there’s a swell.’ I never was
saving, always spent my money as fast as I got it. I might have saved a
goodish bit, and I wish I had now. I never had a wife, but I have had
two or three broomstick matches, though they never turned out happy. I
never got hold of one but what was fond of lush. I live in Westminster,
at a padding-ken. I’d rather not tell you where, not that I’ve anything
to fear, but people might think I was a _nose_, if anybody came after
me, and they would crab me. I’d rather get something else to do if I
could, but I think this is the best street game I could follow. I don’t
believe any of the ring-sellers dispose of more than myself, except
little Ikey; he now adds other articles, a silver thimble (he calls
it), some conundrums, a song-book and a seal, and all for a penny. I
tried the same thing, but found I could do just as well with the rings
alone. We all expects to do great things during the Exhibition. I think
all on us ought to be allowed to sell in the parks. Foreigners are
invited to witness specimens of British Industry, and it’s my opinion
they should see all, from the highest to the lowest. We _did_ intend
petitioning the Prince on the subject, but I don’t suppose it would be
any go, seeing as how the slang coves” (the showmen), “have done so,
and been refused.”
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF CHILDREN’S GILT WATCHES.
These articles were first introduced into general street sale about 10
years ago. They were then German made. The size was not much larger
than that of a shilling, and to this tiny watch was appended as tiny
a chain and seal. The street-price was only 1_d._, and the wholesale
price was 8_s._ the gross. They were sold at eight of the swag-shops,
all “English and foreign,” or “English and German” establishments. From
the price it would appear that the profit was 4_d._ a dozen, but as the
street-sellers had to “take the watches as they came,” the profit was
but 3_d._, as a dozen watches in a gross had broken glasses, or were
otherwise damaged and unsaleable. The supply of these watches was not
equal to the demand, for when a case of them was received, “it could
have been sold twice over.” One street-seller told me that he had sold
15 and even 16 dozen of these watches on a day, and that once on a
Saturday night, and early on Sunday morning, he had sold 2 gross, or
24 dozen. Such, however, was not the regular sale; a “good week” was a
profit of 15_s._
About six years ago gilt watches of a very superior kind were sold
in the streets in a different way. They were French made, and were
at first vended at 1_s._ each. Some were displayed in case-boxes,
fitted up with divisions, in which were placed the watches with the
guard-chains, about three-quarters of a yard long, coiled round them.
There were also two or three keys, one in the form of a pistol. The
others were hung from a small pole, sometimes a dozen, and sometimes
two, being so suspended, and they had a good glittering appearance in a
bright light; this street fashion still continues. The street-sellers,
however, are anxious not to expose these watches too much, as they are
easily injured by the weather, and any stain or injury is irreparable.
The shilling sale continued prosperously for about six weeks, and
then the wholesale price--owing, the street-sellers were told at the
swag-shops, to “an opposition in the trade in Paris,”--was reduced to
4_s._ 6_d._ the dozen, and the retail street-price to 6_d._ each. When
the trade was “at its best” there were thirty men and twenty women
selling these watches, all May, June, and July, and each clearing from
12_s._ to 20_s._ (but rarely the latter sum) a week. Last “season”
there were for the same period about half the number of sellers
mentioned, averaging a profit of about 15_d._ a day each, or 9_s._ a
week. The cry is--“Handsome present for 6_d._ Beautiful child’s watch
and chain, made of Peruvian metal, by working jewellers out of employ.
Only 6_d._ for a handsome present.”
The vendors of these watches are the regular street-sellers, some of
them being tolerably good patterers. One of these men, in the second
year of the street-sale of watches, appeared one morning in an apron
and sleeves, to which brass and copper filings were made to adhere,
and he announced himself as an English working jeweller unemployed,
offering his own manufactures for sale, “better finished and more
solider nor the French.” The man’s sale was greatly increased. On the
following day, however, four other English working jewellers appeared
in Leicester-square and its approaches, each in besprinkled apron and
sleeves, and each offering the productions of his own handicraft! The
apron and sleeves were therefore soon abandoned.
Among the best “pitches,”--for the watch-sellers are not itinerant,
though they walk to and fro--are the Regent’s-park, Leicester-square,
the foot of London-bridge, and of Blackfriars-bridge, and at the
several railway stations.
The principal purchasers, I was told by an intelligent patterer, who
sometimes “turned his hand to the watches,” were “fathers and mothers,”
he thought, “and them as wished to please such parties.”
Calculating that twenty-five persons now vend watches for twelve weeks
in the year, and--as they are 10 per cent. cheaper than they were at
the swag-shops--that each clears 8_s._ weekly, we find 360_l._ yearly
expended in London streets in these toy watches.
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF TINWARE.
The sellers of tins, who carry them under their arms, or in any way on
a round, apart from the use of a vehicle, are known as hand-sellers.
The word hand-seller is construed by the street-traders as meaning
literally _hand-seller_, that is to say, a _seller_ of things held or
carried in the _hand_; but the term is clearly derived from the Scotch
_handsell_, as in “handsell penny.” Handsell, according to Jamieson,
the Scotch etymologist, means, (1) “The first money that a trader
receives for goods; also a gift conferred at a particular season. (2) A
piece of bread given before breakfast.” Ihre, the Gothic lexicographer,
views the term handsell as having sprung from the Mæso-Gothic _hunsla_
(sacrifice or offering). This is the same as the Anglo-Sax _husl_ (the
Eucharist), whence comes the English _housel_ and _unhouseled_; and he
considers the word to have originally meant a gift or offering of any
kind. Hence, the hand-sellers of tin and other wares in the street,
would mean simply those who _offered_ such tin or other wares for sale.
The goods they dispose of are dripping-pans (sometimes called “square
pans”), sold at from 3_d._ to 18_d._, the 3_d._ pans being “6 inch,”
and the 18_d._ “15 inch;” cullenders, 6_d._ to 9_d._; hand-bowls,
for washerwomen, 1_s._ (now a very small portion of the trade);
roasting-jacks, with tin bodies, 6_d._ to 1_s._ 6_d._ (this used to be
the best article for profit and ready sale in the trade, but “they are
going out of date”); and the smaller articles of graters, &c.
The hand-sellers also trade in other articles which are less portable;
the principal sale, however, is at “stands,” and there chiefly on a
Saturday night, the greatest business-time of street-commerce! These
less portable articles are tea-kettles, 10_d._ to 18_d._; saucepans of
all sizes, the smallest being the “open pints” at 2_d._ or 2-1/2_d._
each (they cost them 20_d._ a dozen; it’s a bargain to get them at
18_d._), and the largest the “nine quart;” but the kinds most in demand
are the “three pints” and “two quarts,” sold at 6_d._ and 8_d._ There
are also fish-kettles in this street-traffic, though to a very limited
extent--“one fish-kettle,” I was told, “to four-and-twenty saucepans;”
the selling price for the fish-kettles is 5_s._ and 3_s._ 6_d._ each;
candlesticks are sold at 4_d._ to 1_s._; and shaving-pots, 4_d._ A few
tin things used to be sold at the mews, but the trade is now almost
entirely abandoned. These were tins for singeing horses, 2_s._ 6_d._
each when first introduced, ten or twelve years ago, but now 1_s._, and
stable lanterns, of punched tin, which cannot be sold now for more than
1_s._ each, though they cost 10_s._ per dozen at a tin-shop.
There are other tin articles vended in the streets, but they will be
more properly detailed in my account of street-artisans, as the maker
and the street-seller are the same individual. Among these are Dutch
ovens, which are rarely offered now by those who purchase their goods
at the tin-shops, as the charge there is 6_d._ “Why,” said a working
tinman to me, “I’ve had 10_d._ many a week for making ovens, and the
stuff found. It takes two plates of tin to make an oven, that’s 3_d._
at any tin-shop, before a minute’s labour is given to it, and yet the
men who hawk their own goods sell their ovens regularly enough at 4_d._
It’s the ruin of the trade.” The tin-shops, I may observe, supply the
artisans with the materials they require, as well as the ready-made
articles, to the street-seller.
One of the largest street-stands “in tin” is in St. John-street,
Clerkenwell, on Saturday evenings, but the proprietor pertains to the
artisan class, though he buys some of his goods at the tin-shops.
The hand-sellers of tin are about 100 in number, and 60 of that
number may be said to be wives and children of the remaining 40; as
the majority of the itinerant vendors of tinware are married men with
families. “Tins” are not a heavy carriage, and can very well be borne
from house to house by women, while children sell such things as
nutmeg-graters, pepper-boxes, extinguishers, and save-alls. Those who
sell the larger tin articles in the streets are generally the makers of
them. “A dozen years back or more, perhaps, there was,” I was informed,
“some prime block-tin tea-pots sold in the streets; there’s none now.
Metal’s druv out tin.”
Among the street tin-sellers I heard many complaints of the smallness,
and the constantly diminishing rate of their earnings. “Our people
has bad luck, too,” said one man, “or they isn’t wide awake. You may
remember, sir, that a few weeks back, a new save-all came in, and
was called candle-wedges, and went off well. It was a tin thing, and
ought by rights to have been started by the tin-shops for us. But it
was first put out by the swag-men at 3_s._ the gross. The first and
second days the men were soon sold out. Them as could patter tidy did
the best--I tried, but you see, sir, I’m no scholar. Well, they went
at night to Mr. ----’s, in Houndsditch, I think it is, and he says,
‘I’m out of them, but I’ll have some in the morning.’ They goes in the
morning, and the swag says: ‘O, I can’t afford ’em at three shillings,
you can have ’em at four.’ He put 1_s._ exter on the gross, cause
they sold, nothing else, sir; and a relation of mine heard the swag
shopkeeper say, ‘Why, they’re cheap at four; Jim (the street-seller)
there made 3_s._ 3_d._ on ’em yesterday. I ain’t a going to slave,
and pay rent, and rates, and taxes, to make _your_ fortens; it ain’t
likely.’ You see, sir, they was sold at 1/2_d._ each, and cost 1/4_d._,
which is 3_d._ a dozen, and so the swag got a higher profit, while the
poor fellows had to sell for less profit.”
From the most reliable information which I could acquire, it appears
that these tin-sellers, taken altogether, do not earn above 6_s._
a week each, as regards the adult men, and half that as regards
the children and women. To realize this amount, the adults must
take 13_s._, and the women and children 7_s._, for the latter are
less “priced down.” Thus, if we calculate an average receipt, per
individual, of 10_s._ weekly, reckoning 100 sellers, we find a yearly
expenditure on tins, bought in the street, of 2500_l._ The trade is
greatest in the suburbs, and some men, who have become “known on their
rounds,” supply houses, by order, with all the tins they require.
There is a branch of the tin-trade carried on in a way which I have
shown prevailed occasionally among the costermongers, viz., the selling
of goods on commission. This system is now carried on among all the
parties who trade “from” swag-barrows.
The word “_swag_” which has been so often used in this work of
late, is, like many other of the street-terms, of Scotch origin (as
_handseller_, and _busker_). The Scotch word is _sweg_ or _swack_, and
means, according to Jamieson, a quantity, a considerable number, a
large collection of any kind. (The root appears to be an ancient German
term, _sweig_--a flock, a herd.) Hence a Swag Warehouse is a warehouse
containing a large collection of miscellaneous goods; and a Swag
Barrow, a barrow laden with a considerable assortment of articles. The
slang term _swag_ means booty, plunder--that is to say, the collection
of goods--the “lot,” the “heap” stolen.