“When I am come in this country I had nine or ten year old, so I know
the English language better than mine. At that time there was no organ
about but the old-fashioned one made in Bristol, with gold organ-pipe
in front. Then come the one with figure-dolls in front; and then next
come the piano one, made at Bristol too; and now the flute one, which
come from Paris, where they make them. He is an Italian man that make
them, and he is the only man dat can make them, because he paid for
them to the government (patented them), and now he is the only one.
“I belong to Parma,--to the small village in the duchy. My father keep
a farm, but I had three year old, I think, when he died. There was ten
of us altogeder; but one of us he was died, and one he drown in the
water. I was very poor, and I was go out begging there; and my uncle
said I should go to Paris to get my living. I was so poor I was afraid
to die, for I get nothing to eat. My uncle say, I will take one of them
to try to keep him. So I go along with him. Mother was crying when I
went away. She was very poor. I went with my uncle to Paris, and we
walk all the way. I had some white mice there, and he had a organ. I
did middling. The French people is more kind to the charity than the
English. There are not so many beggar there as in England. The first
time the Italian come over here we was took a good bit of money, but
now----!
“When I was in Paris my uncle had to go home again on business. He ask
me too if I would go with him. But I was afraid to be hungry again, for
you see I was feel hungry again, and I wouldn’t, for I got a piece of
bread in France.
“My uncle was along with another man, who was a master like, you know;
for he had a few instrument, but common thing. I don’t know if he have
some word wid my uncle, but they part. Den dis man say ‘Come to England
with me,’ and he said ‘you shall have five franc the month, and your
victual.’ We walk as far as Calais, and then we come in the boat. I was
very sick, and I thought that I die then. I say to him plenty times ‘I
wish I never come,’ for I never thought to get over.
“When we got to London, we go to a little court there, in Saffron-hill;
and I was live there in the little public-house. I go out, sometime
white mice, sometime monkey, sometime with organ--small one. I dare say
I make 10_s._ a-week for him; but he wor very kind to me, and give me
to eat what I like. He was take care of me, of course. I was very young
at dat time.
“After I was in London a-year, I go back to Paris with my master. There
I could have made my fortune, but I was so young I did not know what I
do. There was an old lady who ask me to come as her servant. My master
did not like very well to let me go. She say to me, ‘You shall not
have no hard work, only to go behind the carriage, or follow with the
umbrella.’ But I was so young I did not know my chance. I tell her I
have my parent in Italy; and she say she go to Italy all the years, and
I shall have two months to visit my mother. I did not go with this old
lady, and I lose the chance; but I had only thirteen years, and I was
foolish.
“Then I come to England again, and stop here three years. Where my
master go, I was obliged to go too. Then I go to Italy, and I saw my
moder. The most part of my family never know me when I went home, for I
was grown much, and older. I stop there six weeks, and then I come back
to England with anoder man. He give me 12 franc a-month, and very kind
indeed he was. He had some broder in this country, so he take me along
wid him. There was only me and him. My other master have two beside me.
“The master of organs send to Italy for boys to come here. Suppose I
have a broder in Italy, I write to him to send me two boys, and he look
out for them. They send money for the boy to come. Sometimes he send
3_l._, sometimes 3_l._ 10_s._ or 4_l._ Then they walk, and live on
the pear or the grape, or what is cheap; and if they put by any, then
they keep what they put by. They generally tell them they shall have
12 francs a-month. But sometime they was cheap; but now they are dear,
and it is sometime a pound a-month. They’d sooner have one who have
been here before, because den they know the way to take care of the
instrument, you know.
“I stop in England two year and six month, when I come over with my
second master. He paid me like a bank, and I saved it up, and I take
it over to Italy with me. When I had a bit of money I was obliged to
send it home to my broder in Italy, for to keep him, you know. When I
go home again I had a bit of money with me. I give it to the gentleman
what support my mother and sister; but it was not enough, you know, not
three part, so I was obliged to give him a good bit more.
“Then I came back to England again, to the same master. It take about
a month to make the voyage. I was walk it all the way. I was cross
the Alps. You must to come over here. I dare say I walk thirty miles
a-day, sometime more dan that. I sleep at the public-house; but when
you not get to the public-house, then when it begins dark, then I go
to the farm-house and ask for a bit of straw to lodge. But I generally
goes to the public-house when I get one. They charge 3_d._ or 2_d._,
or sometimes 1_d._ I never play anything on the road, or take de white
mice. I never take nothing.
“After that time I have been to Italy and back three or four times;
but I never been with no master, not after the second one. I bought an
organ of my master. I think I give him 13_l._ No, sir, I not give the
money down, but so much the week, and he trust me. It was according
what I took, I paid him. I was trying to make up 1_l._ and bring him
down. It take me about eighteen months to pay him, because I was
obliged to keep me and one things and another. It was a middling organ.
It was one was a piano, you know. I take about 1_s._ 3_d._ or 1_s._
6_d._ a-day regularly with it.
“I have now an organ--a flute organ they call it--and it is my own. It
cost me 20_l._ A man make it come from France. He knows an organ-maker
in France, and he write for me, and make it come over for me. I suppose
he had a pound profit for to make it come for me; for I think it cost
less than 20_l._ in Paris.
“I have this organ this twelve months. It has worn out a little, but
not much. It is not so good as when it come from France. An organ will
wear twenty year, but some of them break. Then you must have it always
repaired and tuned. You see, the music of it must be tuned every five
or six months. Mine has never been tuned yet, the time I have it. It is
the trumpet part that get out of tune sooner. I know a man who goes out
with de big organ on the wheels, and he tune the organ for me. I go to
him, and I say, ‘My organ wants de repair;’ and he come, and he never
charge me anything. He make the base and tenor agree. He tune the first
one to the base, you know, and then the second one to the second base.
When the organ out of tune the pipe rattle.
“The organ fills with dust a good deal in the summer time, and then
you must take it all to pieces. In London they can tune and repair it.
They charge 10_s._ to clean and tune it. Sometime he have something to
do with the pipes, and then it come to more. In winter the smoke get
inside, and make it come all black. I am obliged to keep it all covered
up when I am playing.
“My organ play eight tunes. Two are from opera, one is a song, one a
waltz, one is hornpipe, one is a polka, and the other two is dancing
tunes. One is from ‘Il Lombardi,’ of Verdi. All the organs play that
piece. I have sold that music to gentlemens. They say to me, ‘What is
that you play?’ and I say, ‘From Il Lombardi.’ Then they ask me if I
have the music; and I say ‘Yes;’ and I sell it to them for 4_s._ I did
not do this with my little organ; but when I went out with a big organ
on two wheels. My little flute organ play the same piece. The other
opera piece is ‘Il Trovatore.’ I have heard ‘Il Lombardi’ in Italy.
It is very nice music; but never hear ‘Il Trovatore.’ It is very nice
music, too. It go very low. My gentlemens like it very much. I don’t
understand music at all. The other piece is English piece, which we
call the ‘Liverpool Hornpipe.’ There is two Liverpool Hornpipe. I
know one these twenty years. Then come ‘The Ratcatcher’s Daughter;’
he is a English song. It’s get a little old; but when it’s first come
out the poor people do like it, but the gentlemens they like more the
opera, you know. After that is what you call ‘Minnie,’ another English
song. He is middling popular. He is not one of the new tune, but they
do like it. The next one is a Scotch contre-danse. It is good tunes,
but I don’t know the name of it. The next one is, I think, a polka;
but I think he’s made from part of ‘Scotische.’ There is two or three
tunes belongs to the ‘Scotische.’ The next one is, I think, a valtz of
Vienna. I don’t know which one, but I say to the organ-man, ‘I want a
valtz of Vienna;’ and he say, ‘Which one? because there is plenty of
valtz of Vienna.’ Of course, there is nine of them. After the opera
music, the valtz and the polka is the best music in the organ.
“For doing a barrel of eight tune it come very near 14_l._, one thing
and another. You can have a fresh tune put into an old barrel. But then
he charge 10_s._ He’s more trouble than to put only one. I have my
tune changed once a-year. You see most of the people gets very tired
of one tune, and I’m obliged to change them. You can have the new tune
in three or four days, or a week’s time, if he has nothing to do; but
sometime it is three or four weeks, if he has plenty to do. It is a
man who is called John Hicks who does the new tunes. He was born in
Bristol. He has a father in Bristol. He live in Crockenwell, just at
the back of the House of Correction. You know the prison? then it is
just at the back, on the other side.
“It won’t do to have all opera music in my organ. You must have some
opera tunes for the gentlemen, and some for the poor people, and they
like the dancing tune. Dere is some for the gentlemens, and some for
the poor peoples.
“I have often been into the houses of gentlemens to play tunes for
dancing. I have been to a gentleman’s near Golden-square, where he
have a shop for to make the things for the horse--a saddler, you call
it. He have plenty customers; them what gets the things for the horse.
There was carriage outside. It was large room, where you could dance
thirty-two altogether. I think it’s the boxing-day I go there. I have
10_s._ for that night. He have a farm in the country, and I go there
too. He have the little children there--like a school, and there was
two policemen at the door, and you couldn’t get in without the paper to
show. He had Punch and Judy. He has a English band as well.
“I have some two or three place where I go regular at Christmas-time,
to play all night to the children. Sometime I go for an hour or two.
When they are tired of dancing they sit down and have a rest, and
I play the opera tune. I go to schools, too, and play to the little
children. They come and fetch me, and say, ‘You come such a time and
play to the little children,’ and I say, ‘Very well,’ and that’s all
right.
“My organ is like the organ, but he’s got another part, and that is
like a flute. Some organ is called de trompet, and that one he’s called
the flute-organ, because he’s got de flute in it. When they first come
out they make a great deal of money. I take 2_s._ 6_d._ or 3_s._,
and sometimes 1_s._ 6_d._ You see, in our business, some has got his
regular customer, and some they go up the street and down the street,
and they don’t take nothing. I have not got any regular customers much,
sir.
“On the Monday when I goes out, I goes over the water up the
Clapham-road. I have two or three regular there, and they give me
plenty of beer and to eat. I know that family those twenty year. If I
say to that lady, ‘I am very ill,’ he give me his card and say, ‘Go to
the doctor,’ and I have nothing to pay. There was three sister, but
one he died. They is very old, and one he can only come to the window.
I dare say I have six houses in that neighbourhood where they give me
some 1_d._ and some 2_d._ every time I go there. In the summer-time,
when it is hot, I walk to Greenwich on the Monday. I have, I dare say,
fifteen houses there where I go regular. I can make up 1_s._ I pay
4_d._ sometime to ride home in the boat. My organ weight more than
fifty pounds, and that tire me. The first time when I’m not used to it,
you know, I feel it more tired than when I’m used to it.
“On the Tuesday I go to Greenwich, now that it is cold, instead of the
Monday. On Wednesday I ain’t got no way to go. I try sometime down at
Whitechapel, or some other way. On Thursday I goes out Islington way,
and I go as far as Highbury Barn, but not further. There is a bill
of the railway and a station there. I’ve got three or four regular
customers there. The most I get at once is 2_d._ I never get 6_d._ One
gentleman at Greenwich give me 6_d._, but only once. On the Friday I’ve
got no way to go; I go where I like. On Saturday I go to Regent-street.
I go to Leicester-square and the foreign hotels, where the foreign
gentlemen is. Sometime I get the chance to get a few shilling; sometime
not a halfpenny. The most I make is sometime at the fair-time. Sometime
at Greenwich-fair I make 5_s._ all in copper, and that is the most I
ever make; and the lowest is sometime 6_d._ When I see I can’t make
nothing, I go home. It is very bad in wet weather. I must sit at home,
for the rain spoil the instrument. There is nothing like summer-times,
for the regular money that I make for the year it come to between 9_s._
and 10_s._ the week. Sometimes it is 6_d._, sometimes 1_s._, or 1_s._
6_d._ or 2_s._ the day. For 12_s._ the week it must be 2_s._ the day,
and that is more than I take. I wish somebody pay me 12_s._; there is
no such chance.
“I live in a room by myself with three others, and we pay 1_s._ each,
and there is two bed. If I go to lodging-house I pay 1_s._ 6_d._ the
week. In the Italian lodging-house they give you clean shirt on the
Sunday for the 1_s._ 6_d._ It is my own shirt, but they clean it. This
is only in Italian house. In English house it is 1_s._ 6_d._ and no
shirt. I have breakfast of coffee or what I like, and we club together.
We have bread and butter, sometime herring, sometime bacon, what we
likes. In the day I buy a pen’orth of bread and a pen’orth of cheese,
and some beer, and at night I have supper. I make maccarone--what you
call it?--or rice and cabbage, or I make soup or bile some taters; with
all four together it come to about 9_d._ or 10_d._ a-day for living.
“In the house where I live they are all Italians. They are nearly all
Italians that live about Leather-lane and Saffron-hill. There is a good
bit of them live there. I should say 200: I dare say there is. The
house where I live is my own. I let empty room; they bring their own
things, you know. It is my lease, and I pay the rent.
“It is only the people say that the Italian boys are badly used: they
are not so, the masters are very kind to them. If he make 1_s._ he
bring it home; if 3_s._ or 4_s._ or 6_d._ he bring it home. He is not
commandé to bring home so much; that is what the people say. I was with
the magistrate of police in Marlborough-street four days ago, about a
little Italian boy that the policemen take for asking money. Some one
ask to buy his monkey and talk with him, and then he ask for a penny,
and the police take him. A gentleman ask me about the boys. I tell him
it is all nonsense what the people say. There is no more boys sent here
now. If a boy comes over, and he is bad boys, he goes and play in the
street instead of working; then, after paying so much for his coming to
England, it is a loss. It does not pay the boys. If I was a master I
would not have the boys, if they come here for nothing.
“Suppose I have two organs, then one is in the house doing nothing.
Then some one come and say, ‘Lend me the organ for to-day.’ Then I say,
‘Yes,’ and charge him, some 4_d._, some 6_d._; or if somebody ill and
he cannot go out, then he’s organ doing nothing, and he lend it out for
4_d._ or 6_d._ There is two or three in London who sends out men with
organs, but I don’t know who has got the most of us. Then they pay the
men 1_l._ a-month and their keep, or some 15_s._ Then, some goes half
and keep him: then, it’s more profits to the man than the master.
“Christmas-time is nothing like the summer-time. Sometimes they give
you a Christmas-box, but it’s not the time for Christmas-box now.
Sometimes it’s a glass of beer: ‘Here’s a Christmas-box for you.’
Sometimes it’s a glass of gin, or rum, or a piece of pudding: ‘Here’s
a Christmas-box for you.’ I have had 6_d._, but never 1_s._ for a
Christmas-box. Sometimes on a boxing-day it is 3_s._, or 2_s._ 6_d._
for the day.
“I have never travelled in the country with my organ, only once when
I was young, as far as Liverpool, but no further. Many has got his
regular time out in the country. When I go out with the organ I should
say it make altogether that I walk ten miles. I want two new pairs
of boots every year. I start off in the morning, sometimes eight,
sometimes nine or ten, whether I have far to go. I never stop out after
seven o’clock at night. Some do, but I don’t.
“I don’t know music at all. I am middling fond of it. There is none of
the Italians that I know that sings. The French is very fond of singing.
“When first you begins, it tries the wrist, turning the handle of the
organ; but you soon gets accustomed to it. At first, the arm was sore
with the work all day. When I am playing I turn the handle regularly.
Sometimes there are people who say, ‘Go a little quick,’ but not often.
“If the silk in front of the organ is bad, I get new and put it in
myself; the rain spoil it very much. It depend upon what sort of organ
he is, as to the sort of silk he gets: sometimes 2_s._ 6_d._ a-yard,
and he take about a yard and a half. Some like to do this once a-year;
but some when he see it get a little dirty, like fresh things, you
know, and then it is twice a-year.
“The police are very quiet to us. When anybody throw up a window and
say, ‘Go on,’ I go. Sometime they say there is sick in the house, when
there is none, but I go just the same. If I did not, then the policeman
come, and I get into trouble. I have heard of the noise in the papers
about the organs in the street, but we never talk of it in our quarter.
They pay no attention to the subject, for they know if anybody say,
‘Go,’ then we must depart. That is what we do.”