THE CADGING HOUSE.
As this is the first attempt that has been made to describe a Cadging
House, we perhaps may be excused in being somewhat particular. The
outside of this dwelling was more cleanly and decent than we had been
led to expect. The window of the low front room, which was large and
rather bowed, still retained the remains of its former shop-like
appearance, was modestly screened in the inside by a green curtain;
and the step of the door was nicely scoured and sanded.
On entering, we were struck with the establishment-like appearance of
the room. Rows of common tin tea-pots were ranged along the dresser.
As for the shelves, they literally lined the walls, well filled with
plates, dishes, and tea-ware. The landlady came forward to meet us, a
tall, genteel woman, with the manners of one apparently used to
better society. After putting down our groat, and giving into her hand
a certain garment wrapped in a handkerchief, in case of accidents, we
were told that the men's kitchen was in the next house, the first door
on the right hand side, in the entry. By this, we found that the
threshold on which we then stood, was no less than the high quarters
set apart for the barrack-master himself. Accordingly, we sallied out
for No. 12: but, before going in, we took the liberty to make a survey
of this "Vagabond's Home!" and, in troth, it did well deserve that
name.
[Illustration]
The low front room or parlour, whose fate it was now to be the
Cadger's Kitchen, had certainly the same shop-like appearance as that
of No. 13--but there the likeness ended. The door, which led into the
street, instead of having the clean, welcome, and open look of its
neighbour, was fast nailed up, and bore evident marks that many a sick
man had leaned against it. The door-light--the window above the
door--had been taken out, or what is more likely, knocked out, and its
place supplied with a wooden shutter, which was raised up during the
day, to let in the light, and air: and as for the window itself, with
the exception of a few panes of glass in the centre, here and there
patched with brown paper, it was almost wholly made up with squares of
wood--giving ocular proof that glass was of a very brittle nature in
St. Giles's.
After satisfying ourselves thus far, we proceeded to explore the
interior. A narrow passage ran between the houses, and led into a
tolerably large court, which, with those two, contained the number of
houses already stated. At the foot of this entry stood two or three
Moll Flanders looking husseys, who, it may be supposed, did not
neglect a passing salute. Farther up the yard, were some half-dozen
fellows, in parti-coloured dresses, (and not over particular about
shoes and stockings) smoking their cutties, and gambling at
pitch-penny.
We next proceeded to the kitchen--and a den-like retreat it was--dark
and gloomy from the partial light let in by the few remnants of glass,
it seemed well calculated to harbour felon thoughts. The room itself
was moderate enough in size--a good fire, and an excellent grate,
containing a copper of boiling water, always kept full by a pipe
conveyed to it from a cask raised on one side of the fire-place, was
all that we could see that approached to anything like luxury or
comfort. Beneath this cask lay a heap of coke and coal, and a
coal-heaver's shovel leaned against the wall, at the service of any
one who loved a cheerful hearth. The floor and walls did not differ
much in colour, the former being of a dusky hue, that knew of no other
purifier save the birchen broom; and the latter, a dirty red--a daub
long since and clumsily made. A cuckoo-clock ticked on one side of an
old cupboard, and before the window was spread a large deal table, at
which sat the landlord playing at cards with a couple of ruffian-like
fellows. A small table (whose old-fashioned, crooked, mahogany legs,
showed that it had once been in a more honoured place; but the rough
deal covering with which it had been repaired, denoted that it was now
only fit for _cadger's plate_)--stood at the other end of the room,
behind the door. A man, in a decent but faded suit of clothes, sat on
one side--his arms were stretched over the table, and his head
half-buried within them--he was, apparently, asleep. The white apron,
that was wrapped round his waist, clearly proclaimed to what class he
belonged--the "Begging Tradesmen." A few things, tied to a blue
handkerchief, rested on one side of his head; and a parcel of ballads,
his whole stock-in-trade, lay on the other. Before the fire, warming
his back, stood a short, thick-set man, humming the air of a vulgar
ditty; his hands were thrust into the pockets of a velvet
shooting-jacket, ornamented with large ivory buttons, such as are
commonly worn by cabmen and other tap-room blackguards. His
countenance was by far too dark and sinister-looking to be honest,
and, as he occasionally favoured us with a few oblique and
professional glances from beneath a white _castor_, half-pulled over
his brow, it instinctively, as it were, reminded us of "my lord--the
prisoner at the bar."
[Illustration]
On a form against the wall, sat a tall and aged man, with a beard
like a hermit, all fluttering in rags--the very emblem of
wretchedness. He was relieving his uneasiness by giving his back every
now and then, a comfortable rub against the wall. A little on one side
of this forlorn being, at the head of the table where the landlord
sat, was a character that could hardly escape the notice of the most
obtuse observer, a stout active young man, in the very perfect costume
of a cadger. The upper part of his person was decorated with a piece
of a garment that had once been a coat, and of which there yet
remained a sleeve and a half; the rest was suspended over his
shoulders in shreds. A few tatters were arranged around his nether
parts, but they could scarcely be said to cover his nakedness; and as
for shoes, stockings, and shirt, they doubtless had been neglected, as
being of no professional use. A kind of a hat (which, from a piece of
the flap still remaining, showed that it had once possessed a brim)
ornamented as villanous a looking head as ever sat upon a pair of
shoulders--carrotty hair, that had as much pliancy as a stubble
field--a low receding forehead--light grey eyes, rolling about, with
as much roguery in them as if each contained a thief--a broad, snubby
nose--a projecting chin, with a beard of at least a month's
growth--the whole forming no bad resemblance to a rough, red,
wiry-haired, vicious terrier dog, whose face had been half-bitten off
by hard fighting. He was the very type of a hedge ruffian, and a most
proper person to meet any one "by moonlight alone."
----"He looked as if his blood
Had crept thro' scoundrels ever since the flood."
The very sight of this model of his tribe brought vagrancy, with all
her train, before our eyes, mugger's-carts, tinker's wives, bull dogs,
donkeys, creels, kail pots, and all the trumpery of a gipsey's camp.
This elegant individual, we found afterwards, answered to the very
proper appellation of "Cadger Jack." He was leaning over the table,
resting his arms on a bundle of matches, and grumbling heavily about
the times, "Cadging," he said, "was gone to the devil! He had been
out ever since the morning, and had not yet broke his fast; but if he
lived till Monday, he would go to the lord mayor." Here he used some
emphatic language, and swore he would not stir until he got relief.
"You will get three months to the tread-mill," observed a woman,
sitting opposite (the only one in the room, and a happy compound
between the slut and the sot).
He d----d the tread-mill, declared he had played at up and down before
now--and would go--they were compelled to give him something--the law
did not suffer any man to starve, and so on.
He was rattling on in his way, without any one paying the least
attention to what he said, when a lad about fourteen, decently
dressed, came in, carrying a box. He placed himself beside the window,
and began to display the contents of his trunk, offering for sale
several respectable articles of clothing for mere trifles.
"Go home, boy," (said a man who had just come in, with his arms
loaded with good things). "What brought you here? do you want to be
ruined? you have run away, you young rascal, and stole them things."
The younker, who was the very image of a spoiled child and natural
vagabond, replied with all the pertness and insolence of one that had
been over indulged, "that the things were his--he had paid for his
lodgings, and nobody had anything to do with him."
"When did he come here?" enquired the man, (the landlord by this time
had gone out).
"On Thursday," he was answered.
"It is a shame," he said, "to take in so young a boy; he should have a
stick laid across his back, and sent home again."
In defence of the landlord, it was argued, that if he did not take him
in, others would; and that his things were safe here, which might not
be the case elsewhere. This was admitted by our moralizer to be very
true.
"Howsomever," observed he, "all I know is this--that if the young dog
is not already a thief, I know that he has come to the right place to
become one."
"Aye, that he has," drawled out a half naked lusty young fellow,
raising himself slowly up from the form where he had been stretched
his full length, laying upon his face, the sluggard's favourite
position. Hogarth, or Joe Lisle, or any other character hunter, might
have taken this youth for the very Son of Idleness. There might
alternately be traced in his heavy features sluggard, loon, fool, and
rascal. "Aye, that's very true," he observed, "it was coming to St.
Giles's that was the ruin of me; and them there lasses," pointing to a
ruddy-faced girl, who had just popped her brazen front in at the door,
and who, in return for his salutation, politely placed her finger on
one side of her nose, then raising the hinder part of her body touched
it, in a style that would scarcely be tolerated at St. James's.
"Ah, you imp of Satan!" he bellowed out, as the young vixen scampered
away between a dance and a run, and again commenced his story:
"It was coming to St. Giles's, I was saying, was the ruin of me. I
robbed my father, but I got clear of that; then I robbed my mother, I
got turned away for that; my sisters took me in, I robbed them, and
was first to cut; at last, my aunt pitied and took care of me, I
robbed her too. But I got three month for that, and--"
"Hold your tongue, you ass," exclaimed half-a-dozen voices, "the
booby's mad, and should be sent to St. Luke's."
At this rebuff the hopeful youth grinned a grin something like the
triumph of a fool glorying in his shame; then thrusting his hand into
his bosom, was for a few moments lost in heavenly bliss, enjoying that
most ecstatic of enjoyments, which King Jamie, of clawing memory,
says, ought always to be reserved for kings--scratching; then rolled
himself down again, to have a little more folding of the arms, and a
little more slumber.
[Illustration]