on the river, in the neighbourhood of Millwall, picking up pieces of
coal and iron, and copper, and bits of canvas on the bed of the river,
or of wood floating on the surface. I commenced this work with a little
boy of the name of Fitzgerald. When the bargemen heave coals to be
carried from their barge to the shore, pieces drop into the water among
the mud, which we afterwards pick up. Sometimes we wade in the mud to
the ancle, at other times to the knee. Sometimes pieces of coal do not
sink, but remain on the surface of the mud; at other times we seek for
them with our hands and feet.
“Sometimes we get as many coals about one barge as sell for 6_d._ On
other occasions we work for days, and only get perhaps as much as
sells for 6_d._ The most I ever gathered in one day, or saw any of my
companions gather, was about a shilling’s worth. We generally have a
bag or a basket to put the articles we gather into. I have sometimes
got so much at one time, that it filled my basket twice--before
the tide went back. I sell the coals to the poor people in the
neighbourhood, such as in Mary Street and Charles Street, and return
again and fill my bag or basket and take them home or sell them to the
neighbours. I generally manage to get as many a day as sell for 8_d._
“In addition to this, I often gather a basket of wood on the banks of
the river, consisting of small pieces chipped off planks to build the
ships or barges, which are carried down with the current and driven
ashore. Sometimes I gather four or five baskets of these in a day. When
I get a small quantity they are always taken home to my mother. When
successful in finding several basketfuls, I generally sell part of them
and take the rest home. These chips or stray pieces of wood are often
lying on the shore or among the mud, or about the floating logs; and
at other times I seize pieces of wood floating down the river a small
distance off; I take a boat lying near and row out to the spot and pick
them up. In this way I sometimes get pretty large beams of timber. On
an average I get 4_d._ or 6_d._ a-day by finding and selling pieces of
wood; some days only making 2_d._, and at other times 3_d._ We sell the
wood to the same persons who buy the coals.
“We often find among the mud, in the bed of the river, pieces of iron;
such as rivets out of ships, and what is termed washers and other
articles cast away or dropped in the iron-yards in building ships and
barges. We get these in the neighbourhood of Limehouse, where they
build boats and vessels. I generally get some pieces of iron every day,
which sells at 1/4_d._ a pound, and often make 1_d._ or 2_d._ a-day,
sometimes 3_d._, at other times only a farthing. We sell these to the
different marine store dealers in the locality.
“We occasionally get copper outside Young’s dock. Sometimes it is new
and at other times it is old. It is cut from the side of the ship when
it is being repaired, and falls down into the mud. When the pieces are
large they are generally picked up by the workmen; when small they do
not put themselves to the trouble of picking them up. The mudlarks wade
into the bed of the river and gather up these and sell them to the
marine store dealer. The old copper sells at 1-1/2_d._ a pound, the new
copper at a higher price. I only get copper occasionally, though I go
every day to seek for it.
“Pieces of rope are occasionally dropped or thrown overboard from the
ships or barges and are found embedded in the mud We do not find much
of this, but sometimes get small pieces. Rope is sold to the marine
store dealers at 1/2_d._ a pound. We also get pieces of canvas, which
sells at 1/2_d._ a pound. I have on some occasions got as much as three
pounds.
“We also pick up pieces of fat along the river-side. Sometimes we
get four or five pounds and sell it at 3/4_d._ a pound at the marine
stores; these are thrown overboard by the cooks in the ships, and after
floating on the river are driven on shore.
“I generally rise in the morning at six o’clock, and go down to the
river-side with my youngest brother you saw beside me at the barges.
When the tide is out we pick up pieces of coal, iron, copper, rope and
canvas. When the tide is in we pick up chips of wood. We go upon logs,
such as those you saw me upon with my basket, and gather them there.
“In the winter time we do not work so many hours as in the summer;
yet in winter we generally are more successful than in the long days
of summer. A good number of boys wade in summer who do not come in
winter on account of the cold. There are generally thirteen or fourteen
mudlarks about Limehouse in the summer, and about six boys steadily
there in the winter, who are strong and hardy, and well able to endure
the cold.
“The old men do not make so much as the boys because they are not so
active; they often do not make more than 6_d._ a day while we make
1_s._ or 1_s._ 6_d._
“Some of the mudlarks are orphan boys and have no home. In the
summer time they often sleep in the barges or in sheds or stables or
cow-houses, with their clothes on. Some of them have not a shirt,
others have a tattered shirt which is never washed, as they have no
father nor mother, nor friend to care for them. Some of these orphan
lads have good warm clothing; others are ragged and dirty, and covered
with vermin.
“The mudlarks generally have a pound of bread to breakfast, and a pint
of beer when they can afford it. They do not go to coffee-shops, not
being allowed to go in, as they are apt to steal the men’s ‘grub.’ They
often have no dinner, but when they are able they have a pound of bread
and 1_d._ worth of cheese. I never saw any of them take supper.
“The boys who are out all night lie down to sleep when it is dark, and
rise as early as daylight. Sometimes they buy an article of dress, a
jacket, cap, or pair of trousers from a dolly or rag-shop. They got a
pair of trousers for 3_d._ or 4_d._, an old jacket for 2_d._, and an
old cap for 1/2_d._ or 1_d._ When they have money they take a bed in a low
lodging-house for 2_d._ or 3_d._ a night.
“We are often chased by the Thames’ police and the watermen, as the
mudlarks are generally known to be thieves. I take what I can get as
well as the rest when I get an opportunity.
“We often go on board of coal barges and knock or throw pieces of coal
over into the mud, and afterwards come and take them away. We also
carry off pieces of rope, or iron, or anything we can lay our hands on
and easily carry off. We often take a boat and row on board of empty
barges and steal small articles, such as pieces of canvas or iron,
and go down into the cabins of the barges for this purpose, and are
frequently driven off by the police and bargemen. The Thames’ police
often come upon us and carry off our bags and baskets with the contents.
“The mudlarks are generally good swimmers. When a bargeman gets hold of
them in his barge on the river, he often throws them into the river,
when they swim ashore and then take off their wet clothes and dry them.
They are often seized by the police in boats, in the middle of the
river, and thrown overboard, when they swim to the shore. I have been
chased twice by a police galley.
“On one occasion I was swimming a considerable way out in the river
when I saw two or three barges near me, and no one in them. I leaped
on board of one and went down into the cabin, when some of the Thames’
police in a galley rowed up to me. I ran down naked beneath the deck
of the barge and closed the hatches, and fastened the staple with a
piece of iron lying near, so that they could not get in to take me.
They tried to open the hatch, but could not do it. After remaining for
half-an-hour I heard the boat move off. On leaving the barge they rowed
ashore to get my clothes, but a person on the shore took them away, so
that they could not find them. After I saw them proceed a considerable
distance up the river I swam ashore and got my clothes again.
“One day, about three o’clock in the afternoon, as I was at Young’s
Dock, I saw a large piece of copper drop down the side of a vessel
which was being repaired. On the same evening, as a ship was coming out
of the docks, I stripped off my clothes and dived down several feet,
seized the sheet of copper and carried it away, swimming by the side of
the vessel. As it was dark, I was not observed by the crew nor by any
of the men who opened the gates of the dock. I fetched it to the shore,
and sold it that night to a marine store dealer.
“I have been in the habit of stealing pieces of rope, lumps of coal,
and other articles for the last two years; but my parents do not know
of this. I have never been tried before the police court for any
felony.
“It is my intention to go to sea, as my brothers have done, so soon as
I can find a captain to take me on board his ship. I would like this
much better than to be a coal-heaver on the river.”
RECEIVERS OF STOLEN PROPERTY.
When we look to the number of common thieves prowling over the
metropolis--the thousands living daily on beggary, prostitution, and
crime--we naturally expect to find extensive machineries for the
receiving of stolen property. These receivers are to be found in
different grades of society, from the keeper of the miserable low
lodging-houses and dolly shops in Petticoat Lane, Rosemary Lane, and
Spitalfields, in the East-end, and Dudley Street and Drury Lane in the
West-end of the metropolis, to the pawnbroker in Cheapside, the Strand,
and Fleet Street, and the opulent Jews of Houndsditch and its vicinity,
whose coffers are said to be overflowing with gold.
* * * * *
_Dolly Shops._--As we walk along Dudley Street, near the Seven
Dials,--the Petticoat Lane of the West-end,--a curious scene presents
itself to our notice. There we do not find a colony of Jews, as in
the East-end, but a colony of Irish shopkeepers, with a few cockneys
and Jews intermingled among them. Dudley Street is a noted mart for
old clothes, consisting principally of male and female apparel, and
second-hand boots and shoes.
We pass by several shops without sign boards--which by the way is
a characteristic of this strange by-street--where boots and shoes,
in general sadly worn, are exposed on shelves under the window, or
carefully ranged in rows on the pavement before the shop. We find a
middle-aged or elderly Irishman with his leathern apron, or a young
Irish girl brushing shoes at the door, in Irish accent inviting
customers to enter their shop.
We also observe old clothes stores, where male apparel is suspended
on wooden rods before the door, and trousers, vests, and coats of
different descriptions, piled on chairs in front of the shop, or
exposed in the dirty unwashed windows, while the shopmen loiter before
the door, hailing the customers as they pass by.
Alongside of these we see what is more strictly called dolly or leaving
shops,--the fertile hot-beds of crime. The dolly shop is often
termed an unlicensed pawn-shop. Around the doorway, in some cases of
ordinary size, in others more spacious, we see a great assortment of
articles, chiefly of female dress, suspended on the wall,--petticoats,
skirts, stays, gowns, shawls, and bonnets of all patterns and sizes,
the gowns being mostly of dirty cotton, spotted and striped; also
children’s petticoats of different kinds, shirt-fronts, collars,
handkerchiefs, and neckerchiefs exposed in the window. As we look into
these suspicious-looking shops we see large piles of female apparel,
with articles of men’s dress heaped around the walls, or deposited in
bundles and paper packages on shelves around the shop, with strings of
clothes hung across the apartment to dry, or offered for sale. We find
in some of the back-rooms, stores of shabby old clothes, and one or
more women of various ages loitering about.
In the evening these dolly shops are dimly lighted, and look still more
gloomy and forbidding than during the day.
Many of these people buy other articles besides clothes. They are
in the habit of receiving articles left with them, and charge 2_d._
or 3_d._ a shilling on the articles, if redeemed in a week. If not
redeemed for a week, or other specified time, they sell the articles,
and dispose of them, having given the party a miserably small sum,
perhaps only a sixth or eighth part of their value. These shops are
frequented by common thieves, and by poor dissipated creatures living
in the dark slums and alleys in the vicinity, or residing in low
lodging-houses. The persons who keep them often conceal the articles
deposited with them from the knowledge of the police, and get punished
as receivers of stolen property. Numbers of such cases occur over the
metropolis in low neighbourhoods. For this reason the keepers of these
shops are often compelled to remove to other localities.
The articles they receive, such as old male and female wearing apparel,
are also resetted by keepers of low coffee-houses and lodging-houses,
and are occasionally bought by chandlers, low hairdressers, and others.
They also receive workmen’s tools of an inferior quality, and cheap
articles of household furniture, books, &c., from poor dissipated
people, beggars, and thieves; many of which would be rejected by the
licensed pawnbrokers.
They are frequently visited by the wives and daughters of the poorest
labouring people, and others, who deposit wearing apparel, or
bed-linen, with them for a small piece of money when they are in want
of food, or when they wish to get some intoxicating liquor, in which
many of them indulge too freely. They are also haunted by the lowest
prostitutes on like errands. The keepers of dolly shops give more
indulgence to their regular customers than they do to strangers. They
charge a less sum from them, and keep their articles longer before
disposing of them.
It frequently occurs that these low traders are very unscrupulous, and
sell the property deposited with them, when they can make a small piece
of money thereby.
There is a pretty extensive traffic carried on in the numerous
dolly-shops scattered over the metropolis, as we may find from the
extensive stores heaped up in their apartments, in many cases in such
dense piles as almost to exclude the light of day, and from the groups
of wretched creatures who frequent them--particularly in the evenings.
The principal trade in old clothes is in the East-end of the
metropolis--in Rosemary Lane, Petticoat Lane, and the dark by-streets
and alleys in the neighbourhood, but chiefly at the Old Clothes
Exchange, where huge bales are sold in small quantities to crowds
of traders, and sent off to various parts of Scotland, England, and
Ireland, and exported abroad. The average weekly trade has been
estimated at about 1,500_l._
_Pawnbrokers, &c._--A great amount of valuable stolen property passes
into the hands of pawnbrokers and private receivers. The pawnbrokers
often give only a third or fourth of the value of the article deposited
with them, which lies secure in their hands for twelve months.
A good many of them deal honestly in their way, and are termed
respectable dealers; but some of them deal in an illegal manner, and
are punished as receivers. Many of those who are reputed as the most
respectable pawnbrokers, receive stolen plate, jewellery, watches, &c.
When _plate_ is stolen, it is sometimes carried away on the night
of the robbery in a cab, or other conveyance, to the house of the
burglars. Some thieves take it to a low beershop, where they lodge for
the night; others to coffee-shops; others to persons living in private
houses, pretending possibly to be bootmakers, watchmakers, copper-plate
printers, tailors, marine store-dealers, &c. Such parties are private
receivers well-known to the burglars. The doors of their houses are
opened at any time of the night.
Burglars frequently let them know previously when they are going to
work, and what they expect to get, and the crucible or silver pot
is kept ready on a slow fire to receive the silver plate, sometimes
marked with the crest of the owner. Within a quarter of an hour a large
quantity is melted down. The burglar does not stay to see the plate
melted, but makes his bargain, gets his money, and goes away.
These private receivers have generally an ounce and a quarter for
their ounce of silver, and the thief is obliged to submit, after he
has gone into the house. The former are understood in many cases to
keep quantities of silver on hand before they sell it to some of the
refiners, or other dealers, who give them a higher price for it,
generally 4_s._ 10_d._ per ounce. The burglar himself obtains only from
3_s._ 6_d._ to 4_s._ an ounce.
The receivers we refer to--well-known to the cracksmen of the
metropolis--live at White Hart Yard, Catharine Street, Strand; Vinegar
Yard, Catharine Street, Strand; Russell Street, Covent Garden; Gravel
Lane; Union Street; Friars Street, Blackfriars’ Road; Oakley Street,
Westminster Road; Eagle Street, Holborn; King Street, Seven Dials;
Wardour Street, Oxford Street; Tottenham Place, Tottenham Court Road;
Upper Afton Place, Newport Market; George’s Street, Hampstead Road;
Clarendon Street, Somers Town; Philip’s Buildings, Somers Town;
New North-Place and Judd Street, Gray’s Inn Road; Red Lion Street,
Clerkenwell; Wilderness Row, Clerkenwell; Golden Lane; Banner Street;
Banner Row; Long Alley; Tim Street; Middlesex Street, Whitechapel;
Brick Lane, Whitechapel; Halfmoon Passage, Union Street, Spitalfields;
Whitechapel Road; Commercial Road; Rosemary Lane, and other localities.
These persons receive plate, silk, satins, and other valuable booty.
There are also several refiners in different parts of the metropolis
who generally have silver pots or crucibles on the fire ready to melt
whatever plate may be taken in. Some of them are German Jews, others
are English people.
These furnaces are generally in a small workshop or parlour at the back
of the shop. These receivers profess to sell jewellery, lace, and other
articles, which are exposed in the shop windows. They are licensed to
buy gold and silver, and offer to give fair value for precious stones.
The _jewellery_ stolen is taken to these same fences and sold at
less than a third of its value. The names are then erased, and the
articles are taken to pieces, and sold to different jewellers over the
metropolis. Stolen bank notes and jewellery are often sent abroad by
these fences to avoid detection.
The following prices are generally received from the fences for stolen
bank-notes:--
For a £5 bank-note, from £4 to £4 10_s._
„ 10 do. „ £8 15_s._ to £9.
„ 20 do. about £16 10_s._
„ 50 do. „ £35.
As the notes rise in value they give a smaller proportionate sum for
them, as they may have more trouble in getting them exchanged.
_Silks and satins_, and such like goods, are often conveyed to the
fence in a cab on the night or morning the robbery is effected; the
dealer generally gets previous notice, and expects to receive them.
In addition to the watch set at the house where the robbery is to be
committed, there is often a watch stationed near the house of the
receiver to look after the movements of the policeman in his locality.
One of the burglars goes in the cab direct from the shop or warehouse
where the robbery has been committed to the house of the receiver, and
possibly at a short distance from the house gets a quiet signal from
the watch as to whether it is safe to approach. If not, he can make a
detour with the cab, and come back a little afterwards when the coast
is clear. The burglar and the cabman remove the bags of goods into the
house of the receiver, when the vehicle drives off. The driver of the
cab is generally paid according to the value of the booty.
Sometimes these goods are taken to a coffee-house, where the people are
acquainted with the burglars, and where one of the burglars remains
till the booty is sold and removed, or otherwise disposed of. The
fence, who has got notice of the plunder from some of the thieves,
often comes and takes it away himself. The keeper of the coffee-house
is well paid for his trouble.
Silks and satins are generally sold to the fence at 1_s._ a yard,
whatever the quality of the fabric. Silk handkerchiefs of excellent
quality are sold at 1_s._ each; good broadcloth from 4_s._ to 5_s._ a
yard, possibly worth from 1_l._ 1_s._ to 1_l._ 5_s._; neckties, sold
in the shops from 1_s._ 6_d._ to 2_s._ each, are given away for 4_d._
to 6_d._ each; kid-gloves, worth from 2_s._ to 3_s._ 6_d._, are sold
at 6_d._ a pair; and women’s boots, worth from 6_s._ 6_d._ to 10_s._
6_d._, are given for 2_s._
Silks and satins of the value of 4,500_l._ have been sold for 515_l._,
the chief proportion of the spoil thus coming into the hands of the
unprincipled receiver.
Numerous cases of receiving stolen property are tried at our
police-courts and sessions, as well as at the Old Bailey. We shall only
adduce one illustration.
Some time ago a bale of goods was stolen from a passage in a warehouse
in the City. The case was put in the hands of the police. They were
a peculiar class of goods. Information was given to persons in that
line of business. A few weeks after it was ascertained that the stolen
property had been offered for sale by a person who produced a sample.
They were ultimately traced to a place in the City, not far distant
from where they had been stolen. They were seized by two officers of
police. The man who was selling them was an agent, and had no hand in
the robbery. He would not give up the name of the person who had sent
them to him. He was taken into custody, and he and the goods were sent
to the police station.
Seeing the dilemma in which he was placed, this man, when in custody,
stated that he had received the goods from a well-known Jewish dealer,
who was thereupon arrested. On searching his premises the officers
found a great part of the booty of twelve burglaries, and of three
other robberies, one of them being a quantity of jewellery of great
value, the whole of the property amounting to from 2000_l._ to 3000_l._
He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to fourteen years’
transportation.
From the statistics of the metropolitan police we find the number of
houses of bad character, which may be used to receive stolen property,
to be as follows:--
163 houses of receivers of stolen goods.
255 public-houses. }
103 beer-shops. } The resort of thieves
154 coffee-shops. } and prostitutes.
101 other suspected }
houses. }
1,706 brothels and houses of ill-fame.
361 tramps’ lodging-houses.
-----
2,843
NARRATIVE OF A RETURNED CONVICT.
We give the following brief autobiography of a person who has recently
returned from one of our penal settlements, having been transported
for life. In character he is very different from the generality of
our London thieves, having hot African blood in his veins and being
a man of passionate, unbridled character. He was formerly a daring
highway robber. He was introduced to us accidentally in Drury-lane, by
a Bow-street police officer, who occasionally acts as a detective. On
this occasion the latter displayed very little tact and discretion,
which made it exceedingly difficult for us to get from him even the
following brief tale:--
“I was born in a tent at Southampton, on the skirts of a forest, among
the gipsies, my father and mother being of that stock of people. We
had generally about seven or eight tents in our encampment, and were
frequently in the forest between Surrey and Southampton. The chief
of our gang, termed the gipsey king, had great influence among us.
He was then a very old, silver-headed man, and had a great number of
children. I learned when a boy to play the violin, and was tolerably
expert at it. I went to the public-houses and other dwellings in the
neighbourhood, with three or four other gipsey boys, who played the
triangle and drum, as some of the Italian minstrels do. We went during
the day and often in the evening. At other times we had amusement
beside the tents, jumping, running, and single-stick, and begged from
the people passing by in the vehicles or on foot.