cried dolls three a shilling in the streets. Afore I began they al’ays
stood still with ’em; but I cried ’em out same as they do mackrel; that
is twenty years ago. I wasn’t originally a doll-seller. My father was
a pensioner in Greenwich College. My mother used to hawk, and had a
licence. I was put to school in St. Patrick’s-school, Lanark’s-passage,
where I remained six years, but I didn’t learn much. At thirteen years
of age I was apprenticed to a brush and broom maker’s, corner of C----
Street, Spitalfields. My master was not the honestest chap in the
world, for he bought hair illegal, was found out, and got transported
for seven years. A man who worked for my master took me to finish my
apprenticeship; this man and his wife was very old people. I used to
work four days in the week, two for them and two for myself; the other
two days I went out hawking brooms and brushes, and very often would
earn 7_s._ or 8_s._ on a Saturday, but times was better then than
they are now. Arter that, for sake of gain, I left the old people,
I was offered 20_s._ to make and hawk; and in course I took it. I
remained with this master five months; he was afflicted with rheumatic
fever--went into the hospital--and I was left to shift for myself.
When my master went to the hospital I had 7_s._ 6_d._ in my pocket;
I knew I _must_ do something, and, to tell you the truth, I didn’t
like the brush-making; I would rather have hawked something without
the trouble of making it. I think _now_ I was a little afflicted with
laziness. I was passing London-bridge and saw a man selling Marshall’s
pocket-books; I knowed him afore; I thought I should like to try the
pocket-book selling, and communicated my wishes to the man; he told
me they cost eight shillings a dozen, if I liked we would purchase a
dozen a’twixt us; we did so; I received half a dozen, but I afterwards
learned that my friend obtained seven for his share, as they were sold
thirteen to the dozen. I went to Chancery-lane with my lot and was
very lucky; I sold the six books to one gentleman for six shillings:
in course I soon obtained another supply; that day I sold four dozen,
and earned 20_s._ I was such a good seller that Marshall let me have
3_l._ or 4_l._’s worth on credit--_and I never paid him_. I know that
was wrong now; but I was such a foolish chap, and used to spend my
money as fast as I got it. I would have given Marshall a shilling the
other day if I had had one, for I see him selling penny books in the
street. I thought it was hard lines, and had been such a gentleman too.
Somerset-house corner was a capital stand for selling pocket-books.
The way I took to the dolls was this; I met a girl with a doll basket
one day as I was standing at Somerset-house corner; she and I got a
talking. ‘Will you go to the ’Delphy to night?’ says I; she consented.
They was a playing Tom and Jerry at this time, all the street-sellers
went to see it, and other people; and nice and crabbed some on ’em was.
Well, we goes to the ’Delphy--and I sees her often arter that, and at
last gets married. She used to buy her dolls ready made; I soon finds
out where to get the heads--and the profits when we made them ourselves
was much greater. We began to serve hawkers and shops; went to
Bristol--saved 47_l._--comes to London and spends it all; walks back to
Bristol, and by the time we got there we had cleared more than 20_l._
We were about a month on the journey, and visited Cheltenham and other
towns. We used to spend our money very foolishly; we were too fond of
what was called getting on the spree. You see we might have done well
if we had liked, but we hadn’t the sense. My wife got very clever at
the dolls and so did I. Then I tried my hand at the wax dolls, and got
to make them very well. I paid a guinea to learn.
“I was selling wax-dolls one day in London, and a gentleman asked me if
I could mend a wax figure whose face was broken. I replied yes, for I
had made a few wax heads, large size, for some showmen. I had made some
murderers who was hung; lately I made Rush and Mr. and Mrs. Manning;
but the showmen can’t afford to get new heads now-a-days, so they
generally makes one head do for all; sometimes they changes the dress.
Well, as I was telling you, I went with this gentleman, and proposed
that he should have a new head cast, for the face of the figure was
so much broken. It was Androcles pulling the thorn out of the lion’s
foot, and was to be exhibited. I got 20_s._ for making the new head.
The gentleman asked me if I knew the story about Androcles. Now I had
never heard on him afore, but I didn’t like to confess my ignorance,
so I says ‘yes;’ then he offers me 30_s._ a week to describe it in
the Flora Gardens, where it was to be exhibited. I at once accepted
the engagement; but I was in a bit of a fix, for I didn’t know what
to say. I inquired of a good many people, but none on ’em could tell
me; at last I was advised to go to Mr. Charles Sloman--you know who I
mean--him as makes a song and sings it directly; I was told he writes
things for people. I went, and he wrote me out a patter. I asked him
how much he charged; he said, ‘Nothing my man.’ Sartinly he wasn’t long
a-doing it, but it was very kind of him. I got what Mr. Sloman wrote
out for me printed, and this I stuck inside my hat; the people couldn’t
see it, though I dare say they wondered what I was looking in my hat
about. However, in a week or so, I got it by heart, and could speak
it well enough. After exhibiting Androcles I got an engagement with
another waxwork show--named Biancis--and afterwards at other shows. I
was considered a very good doorsman in time, but there’s very little to
be got by that now; so we keeps to the dolly business, and finds we can
get a better living at that than anything else. Me and the old woman
can earn 1_l._ a week, bad and all as things are; but we’re obliged to
hawk.”
OF THE “SWAG-BARROWMEN,” AND “LOT-SELLERS.”
The “swag” (miscellaneous) barrow is one of the objects in the
streets which attracts, perhaps more readily than any other, the
regards of the passer-by. There are so many articles and of such
various uses; they are often so closely packed, so new and clean
looking, and every here and there so tastefully arranged, that this
street-trader’s barrow really repays an examination. Here are spread
on the flat part of the barrow, pepper-cruets or boxes, tea-caddies,
nutmeg-graters, vinegar-cruets, pen-cases, glass or china-handled
pens, pot ornaments, beads, ear-rings, finger-rings (plain or with
“stones”), cases of scent-bottles, dolls, needle-cases, pincushions,
Exhibition medals and “frames” (framed pictures), watches, shawl-pins,
extinguishers, trumpets and other toys, kaleidoscopes, seals, combs,
lockets, thimbles, bone tooth-picks, small playing-cards, teetotums,
shuttle-cocks, key-rings, shirt-studs or buttons, hooks and eyes,
coat-studs, money-boxes, spoons, boxes of toys, earthenware-mugs, and
glass articles, such as salt-cellars and smelling-bottles. On one
barrow were 225 articles.
At the back and sides of the swag-barrow are generally articles which
are best displayed in an erect position. These are children’s wooden
swords, whips, climbing monkeys, and tumblers, jointed snakes twisting
to the wind from the top of a stick, kites, and such things as tin
egg-holders.
Perhaps on very few barrows or stalls are to be seen _all_ the articles
I have enumerated, but they are all “in the trade,” and, if not found
in this man’s stock, may be found in his neighbour’s. Things which
attain only a temporary sale, such as galvanic rings, the Lord’s Prayer
in the compass of a sixpence, gutta-percha heads, &c., are also to be
found, during the popular demand, in the miscellaneous trader’s stock.
Each of the articles enumerated is retailed at 1_d._ “Only a penny!”
is the cry, “pick ’em out anywhere; wherever your taste lies; only
a penny, a penny, a penny!” But on a few other barrows are goods,
mixed with the “penny” wares, of a higher price; such as knives and
forks, mustard pots, sham beer glasses (the glasses which appear to
hold beer frothing to the brim), higher-priced articles of jewellery,
skipping-ropes, drums, china ornaments, &c. At these barrows the prices
run from 1_d._ to 1_s._
The practice of selling by commission, the same as I have shown
to prevail among the costers, exists among the miscellaneous
dealers of whom I am treating, who are known among street-folk as
“swag-barrowmen,” or, in the popular ellipsis, “penny swags;” the word
“swag” meaning, as I before showed, a collection--a lot.
The “swag-men” are often confounded with the “lot-sellers”; so that I
proceed to show the difference.
The _Lot-Sellers_ proper, are those who vend a variety of small
articles, or “a lot,” all for 1_d._ A “lot” frequently consists of a
sheet of songs, a Chinese puzzle, a 5_l._ note (Bank of Elegance),
an Exhibition snuff-box (containing 6 spoons), a half jack (half
sovereign), a gold ring, a silver ring, and a chased keeper with rose,
thistle, and shamrock on it. The lots are diversified with packs of
a few cards, little pewter ornaments, boxes of small wooden toys,
shirt-buttons, baby thimbles, beads, tiny scent bottles, and such like.
The “penny apiece” or “swag” trade, as contradistinguished from the
“penny lots” vended by the lot-sellers, was originated by a man who,
some 19 years ago, sold a variety of trifles from a tea-tray in
Petticoat-lane. My informant had heard him say--for the original “penny
apiece” died four years ago--that he did it to get rid of the odds and
ends of his stock. The system, however, at once attracted popularity,
and the fortunate street-seller prospered and “died worth money.” At
that period penny goods (excepting such things as sweet-stuffs, pastry,
&c.) were far less numerous in the streets, and yet I have never met
with an old street-trader (a statement fully borne out by old and
intelligent mechanics) who did not pronounce spare pennies to be far
more abundant in those days among the poorer and even middle classes.
There were, moreover, far fewer street chapmen, so that this novel mode
of business had every chance to thrive.
The origin of “lot-selling,” or selling “penny lots” instead of penny
articles, was more curious. It was commenced by an ingenious Swiss (?)
(about a year after the “penny apiece” trade), known in the street
circles as “Swede.” He was a refugee, a Roman Catholic, and a hot
politician. He spoke and understood English well, but had no sympathy
with the liberal parties in this country. “He was a republican,”
he would say, “and the Chartists were only milk and water.” When
he established his lot-selling he used to place to his mouth an
instrument, which was described to me as “like a doubled card,” and
play upon it very finely. This would attract a crowd, and he would then
address them in good English, but with a slight foreign accent: “My
frents; come to me, and I will show you my musical instruments, which
will play Italian, Swiss, French, Scotch, Irish, or any tunes. And here
you see beautiful cheap lots of useful tings, and elegant tings. A
penny a lot, a penny a lot!” The arrangement of the “lots” was similar
to what it is at present, but the components of the pennyworth were
far less numerous. This man carried on a good trade in London for two
or three years, and then applied his industry to a country more than
a town career. He died about five or six years ago, at his abode in
Fashion-street, Spitalfields, “worth money.” At the time of his decease
he was the proprietor of two lodging-houses; one in Spitalfields, the
other in Birmingham, both I am told, well conducted; the charge was
4_d._ a night. He did not reside in either, but employed “deputies.”
I may observe that he sold his “musical instruments,” also, at 1_d._
each, but the sale was insignificant. “Only himself seemed master
of ’em,” said one man; “with other people they were no better nor a
Jew’s-harp.”
Of the “penny apiece” street-vendors, there are about 300 in London;
250 having barrows, and 50 stalls or pitches on the ground. Some even
sell at “a halfpenny apiece,” but chiefly to get rid of inferior wares,
or when “cracked up,” and unable to “spring” a better stock. The
barrows are 7 feet by 3; are well built in general, and cost 50_s._
each. These barrows, when fully stocked, are very heavy (about 4 cwt.),
so that it requires a strong man to propel one any distance, and though
occasionally the man’s wife officiates as the saleswoman, there is
always a man connected with the business. In my description of a stock
of penny goods, I have mentioned that there were 225 articles; these
were counted on a barrow in a street near the Brill--but probably on
another occasion (when there appeared a better chance of selling) there
might be 500 articles, such things as rings and the like admitting of
being stowed by the hundred in very small compass. The great display,
however, is only on the occasion of holidays, or “when a man starts
and wants to stun you with a show.” At Maidstone Fair the other day,
a London street-seller, rather well to do, sold his entire stock of
penny articles to a shopkeeper of the town, and when counted there were
exactly fifteen gross, or 2160 “pieces” as they are sometimes called.
These, vended at 1_d._ each, would realize just 9_l._, and would cost,
wholesale, about 6_l._, or for ready money, at the swag-shops, where
they may be bought, from 10_s._ to 20_s._ less, according to the
bargaining powers of the buyer. The man’s reason for selling was that
the Fair was “no good;” that is to say, the farmers had no money, and
their labourers received only 7_s._ a week, so there was no demand;
the swag-seller, therefore, rather than incur the trouble and expense
of having to carry his wares back to London, sold at a loss to a
shopkeeper in Maidstone, who wanted a stock.
The swag-barrowmen selling on commission have 3_s._ in every 20_s._
worth of goods that they sell. The commission may average from 9_s._ to
12_s._ a week in tolerable weather, but as in bad, and especially in
foggy weather, the trade cannot be prosecuted at all, 7_s._ 6_d._ may
be the highest average, or 10_s._ the year through.
The character of the penny swag-men belongs more to that of the
costermongers than to any other class of street-folk. Many of them
drink as freely as their means will permit. I was told of a match
between a teetotaller and a beer-drinker, about nine years ago. It was
for 5_s._ a side, and the “Championship.” Each man started with an
equal stock, alike in all respects, but my informant had forgotten the
precise number of articles. They pattered, twenty-five yards apart one
from another, three hours in James-street, Covent-garden; three hours
in the Blackfriars-road; and three hours in Deptford. The teetotaller
was “sold out” in seven-and-a-half hours; while his opponent--and
the contest seems to have been carried on very good-humouredly--at
the nine hours’ end, had four dozen articles left, and was rather
exhausted, or, as it was described to me, “told out.” The result,
albeit, was not looked upon, I was assured, as anything very decisive
of the relative merits of beer or water, as the source of strength or
inspiration of “patter.” The teetotaller was the smarter, though he
did not appear the stronger, man; he abandoned the championship, and
went into another trade four years ago. The patter of the swag-men has
nothing of the humour of the paper-workers; it is merely declaratory
that the extensive stock offered on such liberal terms to the public
would furnish a wholesale shop; that such another opportunity for cheap
pennyworths could never by any possibility occur again, and that it was
a duty on all who heard the patterer to buy at once.
The men having their own barrows or stalls (but the stall-trade is
small) buy their goods as they find their stock needs replenishment at
the swag-shops. “It was a good trade at first, sir,” said one man, “and
for its not being a good trade now, we may partly blame one another.
There was a cutting down trade among us. Black earrings were bought at
14_d._ the dozen, and sold at a loss at 1_d._ each. So were children’s
trap-bats, and monkeys up sticks, but they are now 9_d._ a dozen.
Sometimes, sir, as I know, the master of a swag-barrow gets served out.
You see, a man may once on a time have a good day, and take as much as
2_l._ Well, next day he’ll use part of that money, and go as a penny
swag on his own account; or else he’ll buy things he is sold out of,
and work them on his own account on his master’s barrow. All right,
sir; his master makes him a convenience for his own pocket, and so
his master may be made a convenience for the man’s. When he takes the
barrow back at the week’s end, if he’s been doing a little on his own
dodge, there’s the stock, and there’s the money. It’s all right between
a rich man and a poor man that way; turn and turn about’s fair play.”
The lot-sellers are, when the whole body are in London, about 200
in number; but they are three times as itinerant into the country
as are the traders in the heavier and little portable swag-barrows.
The lot-sellers nearly all vend their goods from trays slung from
their shoulders. The best localities for the lot-sellers are
Ratcliffe-highway, Commercial-road, Whitechapel, Minories, Tower-hill,
Tooley-street, Newington-causeway, Walworth, Blackfriars and
Westminster-roads, Long-acre, Holborn, and Oxford-street. To this
list may be added the Brill, Tottenham-court-road, and the other
street-markets, on Saturday evenings, when some of these places are
almost impassable. The best places for the swag-barrow trade are also
those I have specified. Their customers, alike for the useful and fancy
articles, are the working-classes, and the chief sale is on Saturdays
and Mondays. One swag-man told me that he thought he could sell better
if he had a less crowded barrow, but his master was so keen of money
that he _would_ make him try everything. It made selling more tiresome,
too, he said, for a poor couple who had a penny or two to lay out would
fix on half the things they saw, and change them for others, before
they parted with their money.
Of the penny-a-piece sellers trading on their own account, the receipts
may be smaller than those of the men who work the huge swag-barrows
on commission, but their profits are greater. Calculating that 100 of
these traders are, the year round, in London (some are absent all the
summer at country fairs, and on any favourable opportunity, while a
number of swag-barrowmen leave that employment for costermongering on
their own account), and that each takes 2_l._ weekly, we find no less
than 10,400_l._ thus expended in the streets of London in a year.
The lot-sellers also resort largely to the country, and frequently try
other callings, such as the sale of fruit, medals, &c. Some also sell
lots only on Saturday and Monday nights. Taking these deductions into
consideration, it may be estimated that only fifty men (there is but
one female lot-seller on her own account) carry on the trade, presuming
it to be spread over the six days of the week. Each of them may take
13_s._ weekly (with a profit of 7_s._ 6_d._), so showing the street
outlay to be 1,690_l._ The “lots” are bought at the German and English
swag-shops; the principal supply, however, is procured from Black Tom
in Clerkenwell.
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF ROULETTE BOXES.
In my account of the street-trade in “China ornaments” I had occasion
to mention a use to which a roulette box, or portable roulette table,
was put. I need only repeat in this place that the box (usually of
mahogany) contains a board, with numbered partitions, which is set
spinning, by means of a central knob, on a pivot; the lid is then
placed on the box, a pea is slipped through a hole in the lid, and
on the number of the partition in which the pea is found deposited,
when the motion has ceased, depends the result. The table, or board,
is thus adapted for the determination of that mode of raising money,
popular among costermongers and other street-folk, who in their very
charities crave some excitement; I mean a “raffle;” or it may be used
for play, by one or more persons, the highest number “spun” determining
the winner. These street-sold tables may still be put to another use:
In the smaller sort, “going no higher than fourteen,” one division
is blank. Thus any one may play against another, or several others
spinning in turns, the “blank” being a chance in the “banker’s” favour.
Some of the tables, however, are numbered as high as 36, or as a seller
of them described it, “single and double zero, bang; a French game.”
This curious street-trade has been carried on for seven years, but
with frequent interruptions, by one man, who, until within these
few weeks, was the sole trader in the article. There are now but
two selling roulette-boxes at all regularly. The long-established
salesman wears mustachios, and has a good deal the look of a foreigner.
During his seven years’ experience he has sold, he calculates, 12,000
roulette-boxes, at a profit of from 175_l._ to 200_l._ The prices
(retail) are from 1_s._ to 2_l._, at which high amount my informant
once disposed of “a roulette” in the street. He has sold, however, more
at 1_s._ than at all other rates together. The “shilling roulette” is
about three inches in diameter; the others proportionately larger.
These wares are German made, bought at a swag-shop, and retailed at a
profit of from 15 to 33 per cent. They are carried in a basket, one
being held for public examination in the vendor’s hand.
“My best customers,” said the experienced man in the business, “are
stock-brokers, travellers, and parsons; people that have spare time on
their hands. O, I mean by ‘travellers,’ gentlemen going on a railway
who pass the time away at roulette. Now and then a regular ‘leg,’ when
he’s travelling to Chester, York, or Doncaster, to the races, may draw
other passengers into play, and make a trifle, or not a trifle, by it;
or he will play with other legs; but it’s generally for amusement,
I’ve reason to believe. Friends travelling together play for a trifle
to pass away time, or who shall pay for breakfasts for two, or such
like. I supplied one gaming-house with a large roulette-table made
of a substance that if you throw it into water--and there’s always
a pail of ‘tepid’ ready--would dissolve very quickly. When it’s not
used it’s hung against the wall and is so made that it looks to be
an oil-painting framed. It cost them 10_l._ I suppose I have the
‘knock’ of almost every gaming-house in London. There’s plenty of them
still. The police can drive such as me about in the streets or out of
the streets to starve, but lords, and gentlemen, and some parsons,
I know, go to the gaming-houses, and when one’s broke into by the
officers--it’s really funny--John Smith, and Thomas Jones, and William
Brown are pulled up, but as no gaming implements are found, there’s
nothing against them. Some of these houses are never noticed for a long
time. The ‘Great Nick’ hasn’t been, nor the ‘Little Nick.’ I don’t
know why they’re called ‘Nicks,’ those two; but so they are. Perhaps
after Old Nick. At the Great Nick I dare say there’s often 1000_l._
depending. But the Little Nick is what we call only ‘brown papermen,’
low gamblers--playing for pence, and 1_s._ being a great go. I wonder
the police allow _that_.”
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF POISON FOR RATS.
The number of Vermin-Destroyers and Rat-Catchers who ply their
avocation in London has of late years become greatly diminished.
One cause which I heard assigned for this was that many ruinous old
buildings and old streets had been removed, and whole colonies of rats
had been thereby extirpated. Another was that the race of rat-catchers
had become distrusted, and had either sought some other mode of
subsistence, or had resorted to other fields for the exercise of their
professional labours.