People often ask, how do the poor live in London. This a question I
don't intend answering on the present occasion. But if you ask how they
clothe themselves, my answer is, at Rag Fair. Do my readers remember
Dickens's sketch of Field-lane? In "Oliver Twist," he writes, "Near to
the spot at which Snow-hill and Holborn meet there opens, on the right
hand as you come out of the city, a dark and dismal alley, leading to
Saffron-hill. In its filthy shops are exposed for sale huge bunches of
pocket handkerchiefs of all sizes and patterns, for here reside the
traders who purchase them from pickpockets; hundreds of these
handkerchiefs hang dangling from pegs outside the windows, or flaunting
from the door-posts, and the shelves within are filled with them.
Confined as the limits of Field-lane are, it has its barber, its
coffee-shop, its beer-shop, and its fried fish warehouse. It is a
commercial colony of itself--the emporium of petty larceny, visited at
early morning and setting in of dusk by silent merchants, who traffic in
dark back parlours, and go as strangely as they come. Here the
clothes-man, the shoe vamper, and the rag merchant display their goods as
signboards to the petty thief, and stores of old iron and bones, and
heaps of mildewy fragments of woollen, stuff, and linen rust and rot in
the grimy cellars." Expand this picture. Instead of one street have
several--make it the resort of all the dealers in old clo', old iron, old
rags, old tools, old bones, old anything that a human creature can sell
or buy; fill it with a miscellaneous crowd of Jews, Irish, navvies,
artisans, pickpockets, and thieves, bargaining with all the energy of
which their natures are susceptible; make it damp and warm with their
vapour, and a very Babel with their discordant sounds, and you get a dim
idea of Rag Fair and its guests, unwashed as they appear every day from
twelve to two, but especially on a Sunday, to the great scandal of the
devout and respectable in that locality, who are too apt to quarrel with
the effect and forget the cause.
Let us enter Houndsditch, a place where the Jews collected together long
before the royal house of Guelph occupied its present pleasant position
on the English throne. Poverty and wretchedness, it may be, are bashful
at the West End, but they are not so here,
"Where no contiguous palace rears its head,
To mark the meanness of their humble shed."
In a little court on our left, a little way down, we come to a building
known as the Old Clothes Exchange. The building was erected some dozen
years ago by one of the leading merchants in the old clothes line. A
small entrance fee is demanded. You had better pay, as otherwise
admission will be denied you. You had better not attempt to pass in
without paying, as the toll-collector is an ex-prize-fighter; and the
chances are, in a set-to, you would come off second best. If it be
Sunday you had better not, especially if the weather be warm, attempt a
passage at all. The scrambling, and wedging, and pushing, and driving
are dreadful. A man must have some nerve who forces his way in. In the
week day, and you are a seller, you are soon pounced on by the Jews
hungering and thirsting after bargains. In that peculiar dialect
affected by the ancient people you have the most magnificent offers made.
"My coot friend, have you cot any preakage?" says one. "Cot any old
boots?" says another. "I alvays gives a coot prishe," says a third. And
the seller is surrounded by an eager crowd, as if he had the Koh-i-noor,
and was going to part with it dirt cheap. If you are a buyer, you are
quite as quickly attacked. "Want a new hat?" says one. "Shall I sell
you a coot coat?" says another; and whichever way you turn, you see the
same buying and selling. The cheap jewellery, the china ornaments, the
general wares, are not of the most _recherche_, but of the most popular
character. You may buy a stock close by that will set up all the fairs
in England. Here a seller of crockery ware has come back, and is
disposing of the treasures he has acquired in the course of his travels.
There a woman is discharging a similar miscellaneous cargo. All round
are buyers, examining their goods. Everything here will be made useful.
That bit of old iron will become new; those boots, ruined, as you deemed
them, will be vamped up, and shall dance merrily to accompanying
shillalaghs at Donnybrook fair; that resplendent vest, once the delight
of Belgravia, in a few weeks will adorn Quashie as he serenades his Mary
Blane beneath West Indian moons. Even those bits of waste leather will
be carefully treasured up and converted into a dye that may tint the rich
man's costly robe. Now, you need not wonder why you find
suspicious-looking men and women bargaining with your servants for
left-off clothes, or rags, or plunder of any kind, and you are not
surprised when you hear even out of this dirty trade riches are made, and
the gains are great.
A wit was once asked what he thought of Ireland. "Why," was his answer,
"I never knew before what the people of England did with their cast-off
clothes." A similar remark might be made with regard to Rag Fair. But
we have not yet described the locality. Very dark and very dismal, but
very much inclined to do business, the Exchange, as it is termed, is not
a building of a very gorgeous style of architecture. In its erection the
useful and the economical evidently was considered more than the
beautiful. It seems destitute alike of shape and substance. Mr. Mayhew
says it consists of a plot of ground about an acre in extent; but Mr.
Mayhew has certainly fallen into error here. The place is scarcely
fenced in; and here and there you come to a hoarding, in the inside of
which are some stalls and benches, scarce covered from the rain--others
not so. Some of these benches, all looking very dirty and greasy, are
ranged back to back, and here sit the sellers of old clothes, with their
unsightly and unsavoury store of garments strewn or piled on the ground
at their feet, while between the rows of petty dealers pass the merchant
buyers on the look-out for bargains, or the workman, equally inclined to
get as much as possible for his penny. But the curious spectator must
not stop here. Near is the "City Clothes Emporium," and all the streets
and alleys in the neighbourhood are similarly occupied. The place has
the appearance of a foreign colony. They are not Saxon names you see,
nor Saxon eyes that look wistfully at you, nor Saxon dialects you hear,
but Hebrew. Every street around is part and parcel of the fair, the
bazaar is but one section of the immense market which is here carried on;
but let the anxious inquirer not be too curious or too lost in wonder,
else some prying hand may be inserted into his pocket, and the loss of a
handkerchief, or even of something else more valuable, may be the result
of a visit to Rag Fair, a place unparalleled in this vast city for rags,
and dirt, and seeming wretchedness. It is true that part of the nuisance
is done away with. The police keep a close look-out on a Sunday, and a
great portion of the traffic on that day is very properly stopped. But
there are greater nuisances in the neighbourhood on the Sabbath which the
police do not look after, but which they might.
THE COMMERCIAL ROAD
AND THE COAL-WHIPPERS.
The Commercial Road, abutting on the Docks and Whitechapel, is the
residence of the London coal whippers--a race of men singularly
unfortunate--the complete slaves of the publicans of that quarter, and
deserving universal sympathy. I have been down in their wretched homes;
I have seen father, mother, children all sleeping, eating, living in one
small apartment, ill-ventilated, inconvenient, and unhealthy; and I
believe no class of labourers in this great metropolis, where so many
thousands are ill-paid and hard-worked, and are reduced almost to the
condition of brutes, suffer more than the coal-whippers you meet in that
busy street of traffic and toil--the Commercial Road.
The coal-whippers are men employed to _whip_ the coals out of the
colliers into the barges, which latter bring them up for the supply of
the inhabitants of London. Theirs is a precarious and laborious life,
and therefore they have special claims upon the consideration of the
public. Mr. Deering tells us "it may possibly serve to bespeak interest
in the subject if it be known that it is one which affects for weal or
for woe no fewer than 10,000 persons, there being nearly 2,000
coal-whippers, together with their wives and families." From the opening
of the coal-whippers' office in 1843 to the close of 1850, the quantity
of coals delivered through it was 16,864,613.25 tons, and the amount of
wages paid to the men during that time was 589,180 pounds 11s. 5.75d. At
times these men have to wait long without employment, sometimes a ship
only breaks bulk, and a small quantity of coal is taken out, sometimes
the whole cargo is worked right out. Thus the men's remuneration varies.
In some cases a coal-whipper earns but 8s. 9d. a week, and in none more
than 16s. Let us now speak of the work. As we have already intimated,
that is very hard. It is carried on by gangs of nine, four work in the
hold of the ship and fill the basket, four work on the ways, and whip the
coal--that is, raise the basket to the top--and one, the basket man,
turns it into the meter's box. The four on the whip have very hard work,
and after twelve or fourteen tons have been raised go down into the hold,
where they are choked with coal dust, but have not quite so difficult a
task. Men who are employed in this labour describe it as most laborious
and irksome. Nor from their description can we well conceive it to be
otherwise.
Under the old system these men got all their work through the
public-house. That was a fearful system. We have heard coal-whippers
speak of it as "slavery, tyranny, and degradation;" and well they might.
"The only coves who got the work," as one man told us, "were the
Lushingtons." If a man did not spend his money at the public-house he
got no employment; and actually we heard in one case of a _landlady_ who
turned off a gang in the middle of their work because they would not
spend so much money in her public-house as she thought desirable. One
publican who had several of these gangs under his thumb, by various
exactions, we were positively assured, made as much as 35 pounds per week
by them. The publicans, says Mr. Deering, the able and intelligent
secretary to the commissioners, compelled every man to pay on an average
to the amount of eight shillings, and in some instances ten shillings,
per week for liquor on shore and on board, whether drunk by him or not.
The plan was to compel the coal-whippers to visit their houses previous
to obtaining employment, and on the night before obtaining a ship to
commence the score, and at six o'clock in the morning, before going to
work, to drink a pot of beer, or spirits to an equal amount of value;
then to take on board for each gang nine pots of beer, to be repeated on
delivering every forty-nine tons during the day; after which they were
compelled to pay nine or ten shillings per man for each ship for gear.
The evil effects of such a system it is unnecessary to point out. After
a week's hard work, a man had nothing to take home. The coal-whippers
became a drunken and degraded class, the family were starved, the boys
early learned to thieve, and the girls were too often thrown upon the
streets. No wonder the men rebelled against this cruel tyranny. For
long they bore it, but at length they plucked up courage, and demanded
deliverance.
Generation after generation had struggled for their rights, and numerous
Acts were passed to redress their grievances; but no sooner was an Act
passed than ways and means were found to evade it. Then four brave men,
Robert Newell, Henry Barthorpe, George Applegate, and Daniel Brown,
created amongst their oppressed fellow-labourers an excitement which
never subsided till the Corporation of London took their case in hand.
Lieutenant Arnold, with a view to benefit them, established an office,
but the publicans combined against him and drove him out of the field.
The London Corporation appointed a committee to examine into the whole
matter. Government was besieged, but Mr. Labouchere told the
coal-whippers that they could not interfere, "as it would be too great an
interference with the rights of labour." The coal-whippers, however,
were not to be daunted, and after years of unremitting toil, in which
their claims had become increasingly appreciated, Mr. Gladstone prevailed
upon the House of Commons to pass the Act which on the 22nd of August,
1843, received the royal assent. The Act simply provided that an office
should be established where the coal-whippers should assemble, and that
owners and captains of vessels discharging their cargoes by hired men and
by the process of whipping should make to them the first offer to
discharge their cargoes. It in no way interfered with or attempted to
fix the price of the labour. This was left as a matter of contract
between employers and employed. As there were conflicting interests to
be consulted, the bill provided that the proposed office should be placed
under the management of nine commissioners, four of whom should be
appointed by the Board of Trade, and four by the Corporation of the City
of London, the chairman to be the chairman for the time being of the
Shipowners' Society of London. To show how the Act has worked, we make
the following extract from an appeal to the House of Commons by the
Committee of the Registered Coal-whippers in the Port of London,
published in May of the present year, and which bears the names of John
Farrow, John Doyle, William Brown, Michael Barry, John Cronin. They
say:--"The object contemplated by the Legislature in the establishment of
the office was to secure to the men the full amount of their earnings
_immediately_ after their labour was completed, with the exception of one
farthing in the shilling, which is required to be left in the office to
defray necessary expenses. At first the office was fiercely opposed by
interested parties, because it broke up a system of vile, degrading, and
unjust extortion, by which these men derived their profits; but this
opposition soon subsided, the price of labour became equalised by an
understanding between the employers and the employed, the former being at
liberty to offer any price they were willing to give, and the latter to
accept or refuse as they thought proper; and the only compulsory clause
in the Act, in favour of the coal-whippers, is that, an office being
established at which they assemble for the purpose of being hired, the
shipowners _shall first make an offer to the coal-whippers_ registered at
the office, and if refused by them at the price offered, a discharge is
given, empowering the captains to obtain any other labourers elsewhere,
at not a greater price than that offered to the registered men. The good
effects resulting from the establishment of the office are--relief to the
men from extortion and a demoralising system, ruinous alike to both body
and soul--a fair turn of work in rotation--immediate payment of their
wages in money--and an opportunity of disposing of their labour (if any
is to be had elsewhere) in the interim of their clearing one ship and
obtaining another. The advantage to the trade has been the regularity
and certainty with which they obtain their coals from on board ship,
instead of the injurious delay which occurred before the office was
established, while the men (goaded by oppression) and the captains were
contending about the price of the labour; and the advantage to the
shipowner has been--the prevention of delay in the delivery of his
cargoes--by always finding a sufficient number of men in attendance at
the office, for the delivery of the ships--steadiness in the price of
labour, and avoidance of detention through 'strikes' for higher wages,
_and on the whole_, _a lower price for labour than prevailed before the
office was established_. In some years, nearly 100,000 pounds has passed
through the office for wages earned, but of late that amount has been
greatly reduced in consequence of the introduction of machinery in docks
and other places; the decrease in importation coastwise; the employment
of '_bona fide_' servants by some gas companies, and by a few coal
merchants; and _by frequent evasions of the Act through the interference
of persons who have nothing whatever to do with the payment of wages_,
_and who derive pecuniary advantage to themselves by so doing_. The
retention of the word 'purchaser' in the Act gives them power to do
this."
In August, 1856, the Act which did so much good expired. Parliament
refused to continue it on the express promise of parties connected with
the coal trade, that a model office should be created, which should be
conducted in such a manner that the publicans should not be able to renew
the hideous evil of the old system. THIS CONTRACT WITH PARLIAMENT HAS
BEEN BROKEN, and at this moment the coal-whippers are suffering from a
return to the fearful slavery and tyranny of old times. Already
one-third of the trade is again in the hands of the publicans. The first
thing the model office did was immediately to throw 252 coal-whippers out
of employment. Of course these men were necessitated to go to the
publicans. Another complaint against the model office is, that in two
cases the men were paid 2d. a ton, and in another case 3d. a ton, less
than the price paid to the office. Another grievance is, instead of the
persons connected with the coal trade going to the model office, the
_bona fide_ offices created by the Act, and by means of which it was
abused, still exist, and we were informed one of the largest merchants
has still his office with a gang of eighty-one men. Of course the
publicans are delighted. They have the whole trade in their own hands
again; but this must not be. The righteous feeling of the country must
be interposed between the publican and his victims--a body of
hard-working men are not to be forced into drunkenness and poverty and
crime merely that a few publicans may increase their ill-gotten gains.
Reason, morality, religion, all protest against such a damnable doctrine.
Almost immediately after the Act had ceased, the Rev. Mr. Sangar, the
rector of Shadwell, presided over a meeting of coal-whippers "because the
coal-whipped office was established in his parish, and because the
Coal-whippers' Act had put down drunkenness, prevented the exactions of
middlemen, induced morality, and benefited a large number of industrious
men." Meetings for a similar purpose are held almost every month. On
similar grounds we have taken up the case of the coal-whippers--and for
the same reasons we ask the aid of the charitable, and religious, and
humane. Especially do we ask the temperance societies of the metropolis
to interfere in this matter. Many of the coal-whippers are total
abstainers. Now that Mr. Gladstone's Act is obsolete, they have some of
them been forced back into the public-house. We must save them ere they
be lost for ever. The coal-whippers are in earnest in this matter. They
want very little. Simply a renewal of Mr. Gladstone's Act, with the
proviso that there shall be only one office. It was the absence of that
proviso that enabled interested parties to evade the provisions of the
Act to a certain extent. Surely this is no great boon for Parliament to
grant.