New wants are being continually invented, and new trades are,
consequently, daily springing up. A correspondent brings to light a
novel branch of the manufacturing industry of this country, which was
revealed to him in Manchester. Lately, he observes, I was passing
through a bye-street in Manchester, when my attention was attracted by a
card placed conspicuously in the window of a decent-looking house, on
which was inscribed, in good text,
“KNOCKING UP DONE HERE AT 2D. A WEEK.”
I stopped a few moments to consider what it could mean, and chose out of
a hundred conjectures the most feasible, namely:—that it referred
perhaps to the “getting up” of some portion of a lady’s dress, or
knocking up some article of attire or convenience in a hurry. I asked
persons connected with all sorts of handicrafts and small trades, and
could get no satisfaction. I therefore determined to enquire at the
“Knocking up” establishment itself. Thither, accordingly, I bent my
steps. On asking for the master, a pale-faced asthmatic man came
forward. I politely told him the object of my visit, adding, that from
so small a return as 2d. a week, he ought to get at least half profit.
“Why, to tell you the truth, Sir,” rejoined the honest fellow, “as my
occupation requires no outlay or stock in trade, ’tis _all_ profit.”
“Admirable profession!” I ejaculated, “If it is no secret, I should like
to be initiated; for several friends of mine are very anxious to
commence business on the same terms.”
Not having the fear of rivalry before his eyes, he solved the mystery
without any stipulations as to secrecy or premium. He said that he was
employed by a number of young men and women who worked in factories, to
call them up by a certain early hour in the morning; for if they
happened to oversleep themselves and to arrive at the mill after work
had commenced, they were liable to the infliction of a fine, and
therefore, to insure being up in good time, employed him to “knock them
up” at two-pence a week.
On further enquiry, he told me that he himself earned fourteen shillings
per week, and his son—only ten years old—awoke factory people enough to
add four shillings more to his weekly income. He added, that a friend of
his did a very extensive “knocking up” business, his connexion being
worth thirty shillings per week; and one woman he knew had a circuit
that brought her in twenty-four shillings weekly.
There is an old saying, that one half the world does not know how the
other half live. I question whether ninety-nine hundredths of your
readers will have known till you permit me to inform them how our
Manchester friends, in the “Knocking up” line, get a livelihood.