I had two shildren by my first, but both of dem die very young; one was
about five year old and de oder about tree. When I travel the countree,
my first wife she go wid me everywhere. I been to all parts--to
Scotland, to Wales, but not Ireland. I see enough of dem Irish in dis
countree, I do no want no more of dem dere. Not one of my countree I
tink ever been to Ireland, and only one beside myself been to Scotland;
but dat no use, de Scotsh don’t know wat de spice is. All de time I am
in Scotland I can’t get no bread, only barley and pea meal, and dat as
sour as de winegar--and I can’t get no flour to make none too--so I
begin to say, by God I come to wrong countree here. When I go across
de countree of England I never live in no lodging-houses--always in de
public--because you see I do business dere; de missus perhaps dere buy
my spices of me. I lodge once in Taunton, at a house where a woman keep
a lodging-house for de Jewish people wat go about wid de gold tings--de
jewellery. At oder towns I stop at de public, for dere is de company,
and I sell my tings.
“I buy my rhubarb and my spice of de large warehouse for de drugs;
sometime I buy it of my countreemen. We all of us know de good spice
from de bad. You look! I will show you how to tell de good nutmeg from
de bad. Here is some in de shell: you see, I put de strong pin in one
and de oil run out; dat is because dey has not been put in de spirit
to take away de oil for to make de extract. Now, in de bad nutmeg all
de oil been took out by de spirit, and den dere is no flavour, like
dose you buy in de sheep sops (cheap shops). I sell de Rhubarb, East
Indy and Turkey, de Cloves, Cinnamons, Mace, Cayenne Pepper, White
Pepper--a little of all sorts when I get de money to buy it wid. I take
my solemn oat I never sheat in scales nor weight; because de law is,
‘take weight and give weight,’ dat is judge and justice. Dere is no
luck in de sort weight--no luck at all. Never in my life I put no tings
wid my goods. I tell you de troot, I grind my white pepper wid my own
hands, but I buy me ginger ground, and _dat_ is mixed I know. I tink
it is pea flour dey put wid it, dere is no smell in dat, but it is de
same colour--two ounces of ginger will give de smell to one pound of
pea flour. De public-houses _will_ have de sheap ginger and dat I buy.
I tell you de troot. How am I tell what will become of me. Dat is de
Almighty’s work” (here he pointed to Heaven). “De Jews is very good to
deir old people. If it was not for my old woman I be like a gentleman
now in de hospital at Mile End; but you see, I marry de Christian
woman, and dat is against our people--and I would never leave her--no
not for all de good in de world to come to myself. If I am poor, I not
de only one. In de holiday times I send a petition, and perhaps dere
is five shillings for me from de hospital. In de Jews’ Hospital dere
is only ten--what you call de Portuguese Jews. We have hospital to our
ownselves. Dere de old people--dey are all above sixty--are all like
noblemen, wid good clothes, plenty to eat, go where you like, and pipe
of tobacco when you want. But I wont go in no hospital away from my old
woman. I will get a bit of crust for her as long as I can stand--but I
can hardly do that now. Every one got his feeling, and I will feel for
her as long as I live. When dere is de weather I have de rheumatis--oh!
very bad--sometime I can scarcely stand or walk. I am seventy-tree, and
it is a sad time for me now. I am merry sometime tho’. Everyting wid de
pocket. When de pocket is merry, den I am merry too. Sometime I go home
wid one shilling, and den I tink all gets worse and worse, and what
will become of me I say--but dat is de Almighty’s work, and I trust in
him. Can I trust any better one? Sometime I say I wish I was back in
my countree--and I tink of my poor moder wat is dead now, and den I am
very sad. Oh yes, bless your heart, very sad indeed!”
The old man appears to sell excellent articles, and to be a very
truthful, fair-dealing man.
OF THE HAWKING OF TEA.
“Persons hawking tea without a licence” (_see_ Chitty’s Edition of
“Burn’s Justice,” vol. ii. p. 1113) “are liable to a penalty, under 50
Geo. III., cap. 41.; and, even though they had a licence, they would be
liable to a penalty for selling tea in an unentered place.” The penalty
under this act is 10_l._, but the prohibition in question has long been
commonly, if not very directly, evaded.
The hawking of tea in London cannot be considered as immediately a
street-trade, but it is in some respects blended with street callings
and street traffic, so that a brief account is necessary.
I will first give a short history of what is, or was, more intimately a
portion of the street-trade.
Until about eight or ten years ago, tea was extensively hawked--from
house to house almost--“on tally.” The tally system is, that wherein
“weekly payments” are taken in liquidation of the cost of the article
purchased, and the trade is one embodying much of evil and much of
trickery. At the present time the tallymen are very numerous in London,
and in the tally trade there are now not less than 1000 hawkers of,
or travellers in, tea; but they carry on their business principally
in the suburbs. When I come to treat of the class whom I have called
“distributors,” I shall devote an especial inquiry to the tally
trade, including, of course, the tea trade. Mr. M’Culloch mentions
that a Scotchman’s “tally-walk”--and the majority of the tallymen are
Scotchmen--is worth 15 per cent. more than an Englishman’s.
The branch of the tea trade closely connected with the street business
is that in tea-leaves. The exhausted leaves of the tea-pot are
purchased of servants or of poor women, and they are made into “new”
tea. One gentleman--to whose information, and to the care he took
to test the accuracy of his every statement, I am bound to express
my acknowledgments--told me that it would be fair to reckon that in
London 1500 lbs. of tea-leaves were weekly converted into new tea, or
78,000 lbs. in the year! One house is known to be very extensively
and profitably concerned in this trade, or rather _manufacture_, and
on my asking the gentleman who gave me the information if the house
in question (he told me the name) was accounted respectable by their
fellow-citizens, the answer was at once, “_Highly_ respectable.”
The _old_ tea-leaves, to be converted into _new_, are placed by the
manufacturers on hot plates, and are re-dried and _re-dyed_. To give
the “green” hue, a preparation of copper is used. For the “black” no
dye is necessary in the generality of cases. This tea-manufacture is
sold to “cheap” or “slop” shopkeepers, both in town and country, and
especially for hawking in the country, and is almost always sold ready
mixed.
The admixture of sloe-leaves, &c., which used to be gathered for the
adulteration of tea, is now unknown, and has been unknown since tea
became cheaper, but the old tea-leaf trade, I am assured, carried on
so quietly and cleverly, that the most vigilant excise-officers are
completely in the dark; a smaller “tea-maker” was, however, fined for
tea-leaf conversion last year.
Into this curious question, concerning the purposes for which the old
tea-leaves are now purchased by parties in the street, I shall enter
searchingly when I treat of the _street-buyers_. The information I
have already received is of great curiosity and importance, nor shall
I suppress the names of those dishonest traders who purchase the old
dried tea-leaves, as a means of cheating their customers.
Into the statistics of this strange trade I will not now enter, but
I am informed that great quantities of tea-leaves are sent from the
country to London. Perhaps of the 1500 lbs. weekly manufactured, three
quarters may be collected in the metropolis.
I may here add, that the great bulk of the tea _now_ hawked throughout
the metropolis is supplied from the handsome cars, or vans, of
well-known grocers and tea-dealers. Of these--it was computed for
me--there are, on no day, fewer than 100 in the streets of London, and
of its contiguous and its more remote suburbs, such as Woolwich, and
even Barnet. One tradesman has six such cars. The tea is put up in bags
of 7, 14, and 21 lbs., duly apportioned in quarter, half, and whole
pounds; a quarter of a pound being the smallest quantity vended in
this manner. The van and its contents are then entrusted to a driver,
who has his regular round, and very often his regular customers. The
customers purchase the tea from their faith in the respectability of
the firm--generally well known through extensive advertising. The teas
_are_ supplied by the house which is pronounced to supply them; for the
tradesman is the capitalist in the matter, his carman is the labourer,
and the house is responsible for the quality of the article. When a new
connection has to be formed, or an “old connection” to be extended,
circulars (_bonâ fide_) are sent round, and the carman afterwards
calls: and, “in some genteel streets,” I was told, “calls, oft enough,
at every house, and, in many districts, at every decent-looking house
in every street.” So far, then, even this part of the traffic may be
considered one of the streets. The remuneration of the street-traveller
in, or hawker of, tea, is usually 1_d._ per lb. on the lower-priced
kinds, 2_d._ on the higher (but more often 1_d._) and, very rarely
indeed, 3_d._ on the highest. The trade is one peculiar to great
cities--and most peculiar, I am assured, to London--for the tradesman
does not know so much as the name of his customer; nor, perhaps, does
the carman, but merely as “Number such-an-one.” The supply is for ready
money, or, if credit be given, it is at the risk of the carman, who
has a weekly wage in addition to his perquisites. Every evening, when
the vehicle is driven back to the premises of its owner, “stock is
taken,” and the money taken by the carman--minus what may be called
the “poundage”--is paid over to the proper party.
A man who had driven, or, as he called it, “managed,” one of these
vans, told me that he made this way, 2_s._ to 2_s._ 6_d._ a day; “but,”
he added, “if you make a good thing of it that way, you have all the
less salary.” These carmen are men of good character and good address,
and were described to me, by a gentleman familiar with the trade, as
“of the very best class of porters.”
As this vehicular-itinerant business has now become an integral part of
the general tea-trade, I need not further dwell upon it, but reserve
it until I come to treat of the shopmen of grocers and tea-dealers,
and thence of the tea-trade in general. I may add, however, that the
tea thus hawked is, as regards, perhaps, three-fourths of the quantity
sold, known as “mixed,” and sold at 4_s._ per lb.--costing, at a
tea-broker’s, from 2_s._ 11_d._ to 3_s._ 3_d._ It is announced, as to
its staple or entire compound, to be “congou,” but is in reality a tea
known as “pouchong.” Some old ladies are still anxious, I was told, for
a cup of good strong bohea; and though bohea has been unknown to the
tea-trade since the expiration of the East India Company’s Charter in
1834, the accommodating street-traveller will undertake to supply the
genuine leaf to which the old lady had been so long accustomed. The
green teas thus sold (and they are not above a fiftieth part of the
other) are common twankays and common young hysons, neither of them--I
can state on excellent authority--accounted in the trade to be “true
teas,” but, as in the case of some other green tea, “Canton made.” The
“green” is sold from the vans generally at 4_s._ 6_d._; sometimes, but
rarely, as high as 5_s._ 6_d._ What is sold at 4_s._ 6_d._ may cost, on
the average, 3_s._ 5_d._ I may add, also, that when a _good_ article
is supplied, such profits in the tea-trade are not accounted at all
excessive.
But the more usual mode of tea hawking is by itinerant dealers who have
a less direct connection with the shop whereat they purchase their
goods. To this mode of obtaining a livelihood, the hawkers are invited
by all the persuasive powers of advertising eloquence: “To persons in
want of a genteel and lucrative employment”--“To Gentlemen of good
address and business habits,” &c., &c. The genteel and lucrative
employment is to hawk tea under the auspices of this “company” or
the other. The nature of this business, and of the street tea-trade
generally, is shown in the following statement:--“About twelve years
ago I came to London in expectation of a situation as tide-waiter;
I did not succeed, however, and not being able to obtain any other
employment, and trusting to the promises of gentlemen M.P.s for too
long a time, my means were exhausted, and I was at length induced to
embark in the tea business. To this I was persuaded by a few friends
who advanced me some money, considering that it would suit me well,
while my friends would endeavour to get me a connection, that is,
procure me customers. I accordingly went to a well-known Tea Company in
the City, a firm bearing a great name. Their advertisements put forth
extraordinary statements, of so many persons realizing independencies
from selling their teas, and in very short spaces of time. I was quite
pleased at the prospect presented to me in such glowing terms, and,
depending not a little on my own industry and perseverance, I embraced
the opportunity and introduced myself forthwith to the Company. They
advised me in the first place to take out a licence for selling teas,
to secure me against any risk of fines or forfeitures. The cost of a
licence, after payment of 2_s._ 11-1/2_d._ preliminary expenses, is
11_s._ per annum, to be paid quarterly, as it becomes due, and it is
paid by the Company for their agents. The licence is granted for the
place of abode of the ‘traveller,’ and strictly prohibits him from
hawking or exposing his wares for sale at places other than at such
place of abode, but he may of course supply his customers where he
will, and serve them at their places of abode respectively. Everything
thus prepared, I commenced operations, but soon found that this tea
dealing was not so advantageous as I had anticipated. I found that
the commission allowed by the Company on cheap teas was very low. For
those generally used by the working people, ‘4_s._ tea,’ for instance,
or that at 4_s._ per pound, I had to pay to the Company 3_s._ 6_d._
per pound, thus allowing the travelling dealer or agent for commission
only 6_d._ in the pound, or 1-1/2_d._ per quarter. Now 80 or 100
customers is considered a fair connection for a dealer, and allowing
each customer to take a quarter of a pound at an average, 80 good
customers at that rate would bring him 10_s._, or 100 customers 12_s._
6_d._ clear profit weekly. But many customers do not require so much as
a quarter of a pound weekly, while others require more, so that I find
it rather awkward to subdivide it in portions to suit each customer, as
the smallest quantity made at the warehouse is a quarter of a pound,
and every quarter is done up in a labelled wrapper, with the price
marked on it. So that to break or disturb the package in any way might
cause some customers to suspect that it had been meddled with unfairly.
“Another disadvantage was in dealing with the ‘Tea Company.’ No
sugars are supplied by them, which makes it more inconvenient for the
travelling dealer, as his customers find it difficult to get sugars,
most retail grocers having an objection to sell sugars to any but those
who are purchasers of teas as well. However, I was not confined to deal
with this Company, and so I tried other places, and found a City house,
whose terms were preferable. Here I could get tea for 3_s._ 3_d._,
as good as that for which the Company charged 3_s._ 6_d._, besides
getting it done up to order in plain paper, and in quantities to suit
every variety of customer. There were also sugars, which must be had
to accommodate the customers, at whatever trouble or inconvenience to
the traveller; for it is very lumbersome to carry about, and leaves
scarcely any profit at all.
“The trade is anything but agreeable, and the customers are often
exacting. They seem to fancy, however cheaply and well they may be
supplied, that the tea-seller is under obligations to them; that their
custom will be the making of him, and, therefore, they expect some
compliment in return. The consequence is, that very often, unless he
be willing to be accounted a ‘shabby man,’ the tea-dealer is obliged,
of a Saturday night, to treat his customers, to ensure a continuance
of their custom. Other customers take care to be absent at the time
he calls. Those who are anxious to run up bills, perhaps, keep out of
the way purposely for two or more successive nights of the dealer’s
calling, who, notwithstanding, cannot very well avoid serving such
customers. This is another evil, and if the tea-man’s capital be not
sufficient to enable him to carry on the business in this manner,
giving credit (for it is unavoidable), he is very soon insolvent, and
compelled to give up the business. I had to give it up at last, after
having carried it on for four years, leaving 8_l._ or 9_l._ due to me,
in small sums, varying from 1_s._ to 10_s._, one shilling of which I
never expect to be paid. I could not have continued it so long, for my
means would not allow me to give credit; but getting partial employment
at the last-mentioned house, where I dealt, enabled me to do so. When,
however, I got permanently employed, I grew tired of tea-dealing, and
gave it up.
“In my opinion the business would best suit persons casually employed,
such as dockmen and others, who might have leisure to go about; those
also who get other commissions and hawk about other commodities, such
as soft wares, might do very well by it; otherwise, in most cases, ’t
is only resorted to as a make-shift where no other employment can be
obtained.
“I do not know how many persons are in the trade. I have, however,
heard it asserted, that there were between 4000 and 5000 persons in
London engaged in the business, who are, with but few exceptions,
Scotchmen; they, of all others, manage to do the best _in this_ line.
“A man, to undertake the tea business, requires a double capital,
because in the first place, he has to purchase the tea, then he must
give credit, and be able to support himself till such time as he can
get in his money. Some of the tea-dealers manage to eke out their
profits by mixing tea-leaves, which have been used, with the genuine
commodity. They spread the old tea-leaves on tins which they have for
the purpose, and, by exposing them either to the action of the air or
the heat of the fire, the leaves crisp up as they had been before they
were used, and are not distinguishable from the rest. I never vended
such an article, and that may be one reason why I could not succeed in
the business.”
I believe the career thus detailed is a common one among the hawkers
of tea, or rather the “travellers” in the tea trade. Many sell it on
tally.
OF THE WOMEN STREET-SELLERS.
AS the volume is now fast drawing to a close, and a specific account
has been furnished of almost every description of street-_seller_ (with
the exception of those who are the _makers_ of the articles they vend),
I purpose giving a more full and general history and classification
than I have yet done of the feminine portion of the traders in the
streets.
The women engaged in street-sale are of all ages and of nearly all
classes. They are, however, chiefly of two countries, England and
Ireland. There are (comparatively) a few Jewesses, and a very few
Scotchwomen and Welchwomen who are street-traders; and they are so, as
it were, accidentally, from their connection, by marriage or otherwise,
with male street-sellers. Of foreigners there are German broom-women,
and a few Italians with musical instruments.
The first broad and distinctive view of the female street-sellers, is
regarding them _nationally_, that is to say, either English or Irish
women--two classes separated by definite characteristics from each
other.
The Irishwomen--to avoid burthening the reader with an excess of
subdivisions--I shall speak of generally; that is to say, as one
homogeneous class, referring those who require a more specific account
to the description before given of the street-sellers.
The Englishwomen selling in the streets appear to admit of being
arranged into four distinct groups, viz.:--
1. The Wives of Street-Sellers.
2. Mechanics’ or Labourers’ Wives, who go out Street-Selling (while
their husbands are at work) as a means of helping out the family income.
3. Widows of former Street-Sellers.
4. Single Women.
I do not know of any street-trade carried on _exclusively_ by
women. The sales in which they are principally concerned are in
fish (including shrimps and oysters), fruit and vegetables (widows
selling on their own account), fire-screens and ornaments, laces,
millinery, artificial flowers (but not in any great majority over
the male traders), cut flowers, boot and stay-laces and small wares,
wash-leathers, towels, burnt linen, combs, bonnets, pin-cushions, tea
and coffee, rice-milk, curds and whey, sheeps’-trotters, and dressed
and undressed dolls.
What may be called the “heavier” trades, those necessitating the
carrying of heavy weights, or the pushing of heavily-laden barrows,
are in the hands of men; and so are, even more exclusively, what may
be classed as the more skilled trades of the streets, viz. the sale of
stationery, of books, of the most popular eatables and drinkables (the
coffee-stalls excepted), and in every branch dependent upon the use of
patter. In such callings as root-selling, crock-bartering, table-cover
selling, mats, game, and poultry, the wife is the helpmate of her
husband; if she trade separately in these things, it is because there
is a full stock to dispose of, which requires the exertions of two
persons, perhaps with some hired help just for the occasion.
The difference in the street-traffic, as carried on by Englishwomen and
Irishwomen, is marked enough. The Irishwoman’s avocations are the least
skilled, and the least remunerative, but as regards mere toil, such
as the carrying of a heavy burthen, are by far the most laborious. An
Irishwoman, though not reared to the streets, will carry heavy baskets
of oranges or apples, principally when those fruits are cheap, along
the streets while her English co-trader (if not a costermonger) may
be vending laces, millinery, artificial flowers, or other commodities
of a “light,” and in some degree of street estimation a “genteel”
trade. Some of the less laborious callings, however, such as that in
wash-leathers, are principally in the hands of young and middle-aged
Irishwomen, while that in sheeps’-trotters, which does not entail heavy
labour, are in the hands mostly of elderly Irishwomen. The sale of such
things as lucifer-matches and water-cresses, and any “stock” of general
use, and attainable for a few pence, is resorted to by the very poor of
every class. The Irishwoman more readily unites begging with selling
than the Englishwoman, and is far more fluent and even eloquent;
perhaps she pays less regard to truth, but she unquestionably pays a
greater regard to chastity. When the uneducated Irishwoman, however,
has fallen into licentious ways, she is, as I once heard it expressed,
the most “savagely wicked” of any.
After these broad distinctions I proceed to details.
1. From the best information at my command it may be affirmed that
about one-half of the women employed in the diverse trades of the
streets, are the wives or concubines (permanently or temporarily)
of the men who pursue a similar mode of livelihood--the male
street-sellers. I may here observe that I was informed by an
experienced police-officer--who judged from his personal observation,
without any official or even systematic investigation--that the women
of the town, who survived their youth or their middle age, did not
resort to the sale of any commodity in the streets, but sought the
shelter of the workhouse, or died, he could not tell where or under
what circumstances. Of the verity of this statement I have no doubt, as
a street-sale entails some degree of industry or of exertion, for which
the life of those wretched women may have altogether unfitted them.