weather eight. Eight or ten years ago there were twenty. The fruit is
principally made at Chesterfield in Derbyshire, and is disposed of to
the London street-sellers in the swag-shops in Houndsditch. Some of the
articles, both as regards form and colour, are well executed; others
are far too red or too green; but that, I was told, pleased children
best. The most saleable fruits are apples, pears, peaches, apricots,
oranges, lemons and cucumbers. The cucumbers, which are sometimes of
pot as well as of stone, are often hollow, and are sometimes made to
serve for gin-bottles, holding about a quartern.
The price at the swag-shops is 4_s._ 3_d._ for a gross of fruit of
all kinds in equal quantities; for a better quality the price is
7_s._ 6_d._ The street-seller endeavours to get 1_d._ each for the
lower priced, and 2_d._ for the higher, but has most frequently to
be content with 1/2_d._ and 1_d._ The stone fruitmen are itinerant
during the week and stationary in the street markets on Saturday, and
sometimes other evenings. They carry their stock both in baskets and
barrows. One man told me that he always cried, “Pick ’em out! pick ’em
out! Half-penny each! Cheapest fruit ever seen! As good to-morrow as
last week! Never lose flavour! Ever-lasting fruit.”
Supposing that there are six persons selling stone fruit in the streets
through the year, and that each earns--and I am assured that is the
full amount--9_s._ weekly (one man said 7_s._ 6_d._ was the limit of
his weekly profits in fruit), we find 140_l._ received as profit on
these articles, and calculating the gains at 33 per cent., an outlay of
420_l._
The trade in China ornaments somewhat differs from the others I
have described under the present head. It is both a street and a
public-house trade, and is carried on both in the regular way and by
means of raffles. At some public-houses, indeed, the China ornament
dealers are called “rafflers.”
The “ornaments” now most generally sold or raffled are Joy and Grief
(two figures, one laughing and the other crying); dancing Highlanders;
mustard pots in the form of cottages, &c.; grotesque heads, one
especially of an old man, which serves as a pepper-box, the grains
being thrown through the eyes, nose, and mouth; Queen and Alberts (but
not half so well as the others); and, until of late, Smith O’Briens.
There are others, also, such as I have mentioned in my account of the
general swag-shops, to the windows of many of which they form the
principal furniture. Some of these “ornaments” sold “on the sly” can
hardly be called obscene, but they are dirty, and cannot be further
described.
The most lucrative part of the trade is in the raffling. A
street-seller after doing what business he can, on a round or at a
stand, during the day, will in the evening resort to public-houses,
where he is known, and is allowed to offer his wares to the guests.
The ornaments, in public-house sale, are hardly ever offered for less
than 6_d._ each, or 6_d._ a pair. The raffling is carried on rapidly
and simply. Dice are very rarely used new, and when used, provoke many
murmurs from the landlords. The raffler of the China ornaments produces
a portable roulette box or table--these tables becoming an established
part of the street traffic--eight or ten inches in diameter. What
may be called “the board” of some of these “roulettes” is numbered
to thirty-two. It is set rapidly spinning on a pivot, a pea is then
slipped through a hole in the lid of the box, and, when the motion
has ceased, the pea is found in one of the numbered partitions. “Now,
gentlemen,” a raffler told me he would say, “try your luck for this
beautiful pair of ornaments; six of you at 1_d._ a piece. If you go
home rather how came you so, show what you’ve bought for the old lady,
and it’ll be all right and peaceful.” If six persons contribute 1_d._
each, the one “spinning” the highest number gains the prize, and is
congratulated by the ornament seller on having gained for 1_d._ what
was only too cheap at 6_d._ “Why, sir,” said a man who had recently
left the trade for another calling, and who was anxious that I should
not give any particular description of him, “in case he went back
to the raffling,”--“Why, sir, I remember one Monday evening four or
five months back, going into a parlour, not a tap-room, mind, where
was respectable mechanics. They got to play with me, and got keen,
and played until my stock was all gone. If one man stopped raffling,
another took his place. I can’t recollect how many ornaments I
raffled, but I cleared rather better than 3_s._ 6_d._ When there was
no ornaments left they gave me 1_d._ a piece--there was eleven of them
then--and a pint of beer to let them have the roulette till 12 o’clock;
and away they went at it for beer and screws, and bets of 1_d._ and
2_d._ One young man that had been lucky in winning the ornaments got
cleaned out, and staked his ornaments for 2_d._, or for a 1_d._ rather
than not play. That sort of thing only happened to me once, to the same
extent. If the landlord came into the room, of course they was only
playing for drink, or he might have begun about his licence.”
The ornaments are bought at the swag shops I have described, and are
nearly all of German make. They are retailed from 1_d._ and sometimes
1/2_d._ to 1_s._ each, and the profit is from 25 to 75 per cent. There
are, I am informed, about thirty persons in this trade, two-thirds
of them being rafflers, and their receipts being from 25_s._ to
30_s._ weekly. Most of them mix “fancy glass” goods and spars, and
other articles, with their “ornament” trade, so that it is not easy
to ascertain what is expended upon the china ornaments independently
of other wares. If we calculate it at 10_s._ weekly (a low average
considering the success of some of the raffles), we find 780_l._
expended in the streets in these ornamental productions.
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF TEXTILE FABRICS.
These street-folk present perhaps as great a diversity of character as
any of which I have been called upon to treat.
Among them are the strong persevering men, who carry rolls of linen
or cotton manufacture in packs on their backs, and trudge along
holding a yard-wand by the middle, which--it is a not uncommon joke
against them--is always worn down an inch or two, by being used as a
walking-stick in their long pedestrian journeys. Such, however, is not
the case, for the packman--when measuring is resorted to--generally
shows the justice of his measure, or invites the purchaser to use her
own yard-wand (for women are now their most frequent customers). Some
of these men love to tell of the many hundreds of miles they have
walked in their time, and in the three kingdoms. The most of those
who make London, or any large town their head-quarters, and take
regular journeys into the country, are licensed hawkers; those who
confine their sales exclusively to London and its immediate vicinity,
frequently conduct their business without incurring the annual cost of
a licence. The penalty for hawking without a licence is 10_l._, or an
imprisonment (in default of payment) not exceeding three months, with
a discretionary power of mitigation to the magistrates. Some of these
men may be styled hereditary hawkers, having first accompanied and then
succeeded their parents on a round; some were in their youth assistants
to hawkers; some had been unsuccessful as tallymen when shopkeepers,
or travellers for tally-shops, and have resorted to hawking or
street-trading, occasionally, in their transactions with different
parties, blending the tally system with the simple rules of sale for
ready money.
In striking contrast to these sturdy and often astute traders are the
street-sellers of lace and millinery, the majority of whom are women.
A walk through a street-market, especially on a Saturday evening, will
show any one the frequent difference of the established street-milliner
to the other female traders surrounding her stall. The milliner,
as she is commonly called by the street-folk, wears a clean, and
often tasty cap, beneath her closely-fitting bonnet, a cap in which
artificial flowers are not wanting, should she sell those adornments.
Her shawl is pinned beneath her collar; her gown, if it be old or of
poor material, is clean; and she is rarely to be seen in boots or
shoes made for men’s wear. Near her stall are stout, coarse-looking
Irish girls, with unstringed bonnets, half-ragged shawls, thrown
loose round their shoulders, necks red from exposure to the weather,
coarse and never brushed, but sometimes scraped, shoes, when shoes
are worn, and a general dirtiness of apparel. The street-milliners
have been ladies’-maids, working milliners and dress-makers, the wives
of mechanics who have been driven to the streets, and who add to the
means of the family by conducting a street-trade themselves, with a
sprinkling from other classes.
The street-sellers of lace are of the same class as the milliners, but
with perhaps less smartness, and carrying on an inferior trade both as
regards profit and display.
The street-sellers of boot and stay-laces and of such things as sewing
cotton, threads and tapes, when sold separately from more valuable
articles, are children and old people, some of whom are infirm,
and some blind. The children have, in some instances, been bred to
the streets; the old people probably are worn out in street-trades
requiring health and strength, and so adopt a less laborious calling,
or else they have been driven to it, either from comparatively better
circumstances, or by some privation or affliction, in order to avoid
the workhouse.
The sale of belts, stockings, braces, straps and garters, is mostly
in the hands of men, who, from all that I can learn, are regular
street-sellers, who “turn their hands first to this and then to that,”
but this portion of street-traffic is often combined with the sale
of dog-collars, chains, &c. The trade is more a public-house than a
distinct traffic in the street. The landlord of a well-frequented
inn in Lambeth told me that every day at least 100 of such
street-sellers--not including match-girls and women--entered his house
to offer their wares; the greatest number of such sellers was in the
evening.
I have so far described what may be called the fair traders, but to
them the street-sellers of textile fabrics are not confined. There are
besides these, two other classes known as “Duffers” and as “Lumpers,”
and sometimes the same man is both “Duffer” and “Lumper.” The two names
are often confounded, but an intelligent street-seller, versed in all
the arts and mysteries of this trade, told me that he understood by a
“Duffer,” a man who sold goods under false pretences, making out that
they were smuggled, or even stolen, so as to enhance the idea of their
cheapness; whereas a “Lumper” would sell linens, cottons, or silks,
which might be really the commodities represented; but which, by some
management or other, were made to appear new when they were old, or
solid when they were flimsy.
OF THE HABERDASHERY SWAG-SHOPS.
By this name the street-sellers have long distinguished the warehouses,
or rather shops, where they purchase their goods. The term _Swag_, or
_Swack_, or _Sweg_, is, as was before stated, a Scotch word, meaning a
large collection, a “lot.” The haberdashery, however, supplied by these
establishments is of a very miscellaneous character; which, perhaps,
can best be shown by describing a “haberdashery swag,” to which a
street-seller, who made his purchases there, conducted me, and which,
he informed me, was one of the most frequented by his fraternity, if
not _the_ most frequented, in the metropolis.
The window was neither dingy, nor, as my companion expressed it, “gay.”
It was in size, as well as in “dressing,” or “show”--for I heard the
arrangement of the window goods called by both those names by street
people--half-way between the quiet plainness of a really wholesale
warehouse, and the gorgeousness of a retail drapery concern, when a
“tremendous sacrifice” befools the public. Not a quarter of an inch
of space was lost, and the announcements and prices were written many
of them in a bungling school-boy-like hand, while others were the
work of a professional “ticket writer,” and show the eagerness of so
many of this class of trade to obtain custom. In one corner was this
announcement: “To boot-makers. Boot fronts cut to any size or quality.”
There was neither boot nor shoe visible, but how a boot front _can be_
cut “to any quality,” is beyond my trade knowledge. Half hidden, and
read through laces, was another announcement, sufficiently odd, in a
window decorated with a variety of combustible commodities: “Hawkers
supplied with fuzees cheaper than any house in London.” On the “ledge,”
or the part shelving from the bottom of the window, within the shop,
were paper boxes of steel purses with the price marked so loosely as
to leave it an open question whether 1_s._ 0-3/4_d._ or 10-3/4_d._ was
the cost. There was also a good store of silk purses, marked 2-1/2_d._;
bright-coloured ribbons, in a paper box, and done up in small rolls,
1-1/2_d._; cotton reels, four a penny; worsted balls, three a
penny; girls’ night-caps, 1-3/4_d._; women’s caps, from 2-3/4_d._ to
7-3/4_d._; (the 3/4_d._ was always in small indistinct characters, but
it was a very favourite adjunct); diamond patent mixed pins--London
and Birmingham--1_d._ an oz. My companion directed my attention to the
little packets of pins: “They’re well done up, sir, as you can see,
and in very good and thick and strong pink papers, with ornamental
printers’ borders, and plenty of paper for three ounces. The paper’s
weighed with the pins, and the price is 1_d._ an oz.; so the paper
fetches 1_s._ 4_d._ a pound.” There were also many papers of combs, and
one tied outside the packet as a specimen, without a price marked upon
them. “The price varies, sir;” said my guide and informant, and I heard
the same account from others; “it varies from 1_d._ a pair to such as
me; up to 6_d._ or perhaps 1_s._ to a servant-maid what looks innocent.”
From what appeared to be slender rods fitted higher up to the breadth
of the window depended “black lace handkerchiefs, 4-3/4_d._;” and
cap fronts, some being a round wreath of gauze ornamented with light
rose-coloured artificial flowers, and marked “only 5-1/2_d._;” together
with lace (or edgings) which hung in festoons, and filled every
vacancy. Higher up were braces marked 5_d._; and more lace; and to
the back of all was a sort of screen--for it shuts out all view of
the inside of the shop--of big-figured shawls (the figures in purple,
orange, and crimson) and of silk handkerchiefs: “They’re regular
duffers,” I was told, “and very tidy duffers too--very, for it’s a
respectable house.”
In the centre of the window ledge was a handsome wreath of artificial
flowers, marked 2-1/2_d._ “If a young woman was to go in to buy it at
2-1/2_d._, I’ve seen it myself, sir,” said the street-seller “she’s
told that the ticket has got out of its place, for it belonged to the
lace beneath, but as she’d made a mistake without thinking of the
value, the flowers was 1_s._ 6_d._ to her, though they was cheap at
2_s._ 6_d._”
From this account it will be seen that the swag or wholesale
haberdashers are now very general traders; and that they trade “retail”
as well as “wholesale.” Twenty or twenty-five years ago, I am informed,
the greater part of these establishments were really haberdashery
swags; but so fierce became the competition in the trade, so keen the
desire “to do business,” that gradually, and more especially within
these four or five years, they became “all kinds of swags.”
A highly respectable draper told me that he never could thoroughly
understand where hosiery, haberdashery, or drapery, began or ended; for
hosiers now were always glovers, and often shirt-makers; haberdashers
were always hosiers (at the least), and drapers were everything;
so that the change in the character of the shops from which the
street-sellers of textile fabrics procure their supplies, is but in
accordance with the change in the general drapery trade. The literal
meaning of the word haberdashery is unknown to etymologists.
There are now about fifty haberdashery swags resorted to by
street-sellers, but only a fifth part of them make the trade to
street-sellers a principal, while none make it a sole feature of
their business. In the enumeration of the fifty haberdashery “swags,”
five are large and handsome shops carried on by “cutting” drapers.
Some of these--one in the borough, especially--do not “serve” the
street-sellers, except at certain hours, generally from four to six.
There is another description of shops from which a class of street
traders derive their supplies of stock. These are the “print-brokers,”
who sell “gown-pieces” to the hawkers or street-traders. Only
about a dozen of such shops, and those principally in the borough
and in Wormwood-street, Bishopsgate, are frequented by the London
street-sellers. One man showed me a draper’s shop, at which hawkers
were “supplied,” but without an announcement of such a thing, as
it might affect the character of the concern for gentility. The
gown-pieces were rolled loosely together, and to each was attached
a ticket, 2_s._ 11_d._ or 3_s._ 11_d._, with intermediate prices,
but those here mentioned were the most frequent. The 11_d._ was in
pencil, so that it could be altered at any time, without the expense
of a new ticket being incurred. “That one marked 2_s._ 11_d._,”
said the street-seller, “would be charged to me 2_s._ 2_d._, and
the 3_s._ 11_d._ in the same way 3_s._ 2_d._, or I might get it at
3_s._ If those gown-pieces don’t take--and they are almost as thin as
silver-paper,--they’ll be marked down to 2_s._ 2_d._ and 3_s._ 2_d._,
just by degrees, as you see them shown in the window.” The regular
“print-brokers” make no display in their windows or premises.
The “duffers” and “lumpers” are supplied almost entirely at one shop
in the east end. The proprietor has the sham, or inferior, silk
handkerchiefs manufactured for the purpose; and for the supply of his
other silk-goods, he purchases any silk “miscoloured” in the dyeing,
or faded from time. “A faded lavender,” one of his customers told me,
“he’ll get dyed black, and made to look quite new and fresh. Sometimes
it’s good silk, but it’s mostly very dicky.” This tradesman is also a
retailer.
Such things as braces and garters are sold to the street people at the
general as well as the haberdashery swag-shops; and are more frequently
sold wholesale than other goods; indeed the general swag-shop keepers
sell them by no other way; but the “wholesale haberdashers” will sell
a single pair, though not, of course, at wholesale price. Some houses
again supply the more petty street-sellers, solely with such articles
as are known in Manchester by the name of small-ware, including thread,
cotton, tapes, laces, &c.
OF HAWKERS, PEDLARS, AND PETTY CHAPMEN.
The machinery for the distribution of commodities has, in this and in
all other “progressive” countries, necessarily undergone many changes;
but whether these changes have been beneficial to the community, or
not, this is not the place for me to inquire; all I have to do here is
to set forth the order of such changes, and to show the position that
the hawker and pedlar formerly occupied in the state.
The “distributor” of the produce of the country is necessarily a
kind of go-between, or middleman, introduced for the convenience of
bringing together the producer and consumer--the seller and the buyer
of commodities. The producer of a particular commodity being generally
distinct from the consumer, it follows, that either the commodity must
be carried to the consumer, or the consumer go to the commodity. To
save time and trouble to both parties, it seems to have been originally
arranged that producer and consumer should meet, periodically, at
appointed places. Such periodical meetings of buyers and sellers still
exist in this and many other countries, and are termed either fairs or
markets, according as they are held at long or short intervals--the
fair being generally an annual meeting, and the market a weekly one.
In the olden time the peculiar characteristic of these commercial
congregations was, that the producer and consumer came into immediate
contact, without the intervention of any middleman. The fair or market
seemed to be a compromise between the two, as to the inconvenience of
either finding the other when wanted. The producer brought his goods,
so to speak, half way to the consumer, while the consumer travelled
half way to the goods. “There would be a great waste of time and
trouble,” says Stewart Mill, “and an inconvenience often amounting to
impracticability, if consumers could only obtain the article they want
by treating directly with the producers. Both producers and consumers
are too much scattered, and the latter often at too great a distance
from the former.”
“To diminish this loss of time and labour,” continues Mr. Mill,
“the contrivance of fairs and markets was early had recourse to,
where consumers and producers might periodically meet, without any
intermediate agency; and this plan still answers tolerably well for
many articles, especially agricultural produce--agriculturists having
at some seasons a certain quantity of spare time on their hands.
But even in this case, attendance is often very troublesome and
inconvenient to buyers who have other occupations, and do not live in
the immediate vicinity; while, for all articles the production of which
requires continuous attention from the producers, these periodical
markets must be held at such considerable intervals, and the wants of
the consumers must either be provided for so long beforehand, or must
remain so long unsupplied, that even before the resources of society
permitted the establishment of shops, the supply of those wants fell
universally into the hands of _itinerant dealers_, the pedlars who
might appear once a month, being preferred to the fair, which only
returned once a year. In country districts, remote from towns or large
villages, the vocation of the pedlar is not yet wholly superseded.
But a dealer who has a fixed abode, and fixed customers,” continues
Mr. Mill, “is so much more to be depended on, that customers prefer
resorting to him, if he is conveniently accessible; and dealers,
therefore, find their advantage in establishing themselves in every
locality where there are sufficient consumers near at hand to afford
them remuneration.”
Thus we see that the pedlar was the original distributor of the produce
of the country--the primitive middleman, as well as the prime mover
in extending the markets of particular localities, or for particular
commodities. He was, as it were, the first “free-trader;” increasing
the facilities for the interchange of commodities, without regard
to market dues or tolls, and carrying the natural advantages of
particular districts to remote and less favoured places; thus enabling
each locality to produce that special commodity for which it had the
greatest natural convenience, and exchanging it for the peculiar
produce of other parts.