Industrious beggars are sometimes confounded with sturdy impostors. Of
the latter description is the man whose figure is given in the next
plate. His employment is to cut a chain out of a piece of ash, which
chain he calls "Turkish Moorings."
After this fellow had agreed to accept two shillings for half an hour's
sitting for the present work, he had not been seated in the kitchen ten
minutes before he began to nestle, and growled a hope that he might not
be detained long, adding that he could get twice the money in less time
either at Charing Cross or Hyde Park Corner. In order to soften the
brute, he had the offer of bread, cheese, and small beer. He said he
never took any. At this moment the servant being employed in making a
veal pie, he was asked whether he would accept of a steak, and take it
to a public-house for his lunch. After slowly turning his head, without
giving the least motion of his body, he sneeringly observed, that the
veal had no fat.
It was then determined to keep him the full time; and after a few close
questions, he observed, that no one dared to keep him in prison; that he
worked with tools, and was not a beggar. True it was, indeed, that his
hat was on the ground; and if people would put money into it, surely it
was not for him to turn it out. As to his chains, few persons would give
him his price; they were five shillings a yard; nor did he care much to
sell them, for if he did he should have nothing to show. After turning
his money over several times, and for which he did not condescend to
make the least acknowledgement, he exclaimed on leaving the house, "_Now
that you have draughted me off, I suppose you'll make a fine deal of
money of it_."
[Illustration: PLATE XI.
Chain maker, who said he was not a beggar; and if people would put money
into his hat, surely it was not for him to turn it out.]
[Illustration]
The annexed representation is of a fellow whose figure was recently
copied in Holborn, and although he was so scandalously intoxicated in
the middle of the day that it was with the greatest difficulty he could
stand, yet many people followed to give him money, because the
inscription on his hat declared him to be "OUT OF EMPLOYMENT." Such are
the effects of imposture, and the mischief of ill-directed benevolence.
As a contrast to the two preceding characters, see the next plate, which
affords the portraits of two truly industrious persons, Joseph Thake and
his son. These people are natives of Watford, in Hertfordshire, who
finding it impossible to procure work, and being determined not to beg,
employed themselves in making puzzles. The boy learned the art when
under a shepherd in Cambridgeshire. These specimens of ingenuity are
made of pieces of willow, which contain small stones, serving for
children's rattles, or as an amusement for grown persons who,
unacquainted with the key, after taking them to pieces are puzzled to
put them together again. When honest Thake and his son had filled a
sack, they trudged to the great City, where they took their station in
St Paul's Churchyard, vending their toys at the moderate price of
sixpence a piece.
Their rustic simplicity quickly procured them customers; among whom the
author's friend, Mr Henry Pocknell, after purchasing a few specimens of
their handy-work, procured for him the pleasure of imitating his example.
The worthy parent transferred the money to his son, who requested that
he might have the satisfaction of presenting his benefactor with a bird.
[Illustration: PLATE XII.
Joseph Thake and his son, who made rattle puzzles, and sold them in St
Paul's Churchyard at sixpence a piece.]
The succeeding plate displays the effigy of Joseph Johnson, a black, who
in consequence of his having been employed in the merchant service only,
is not entitled to the provision of Greenwich. His wounds rendering him
incapable of doing further duty on the ocean, and having no claim to
relief in any parish, he is obliged to gain a living on shore; and in
order to elude the vigilance of the parochial beadles, he first started
on Tower Hill, where he amused the idlers by singing George Alexander
Stevenson's "Storm." By degrees he ventured into the public streets, and
at length became what is called a "Regular Chaunter." But novelty, the
grand secret of all exhibitions, from the Magic Lantern to the Panorama,
induced Black Joe to build a model of the ship Nelson, to which, when
placed on his cap, he can, by a bow of thanks, or a supplicating
inclination to a drawing-room window, give the appearance of sea-motion.
Johnson is as frequently to be seen in the rural village as in great
cities; and when he takes a journey, the kindhearted waggoner will often
enable him in a few hours to visit the marketplaces of Staines, Romford,
or St Albans, where he never fails to gain the farmer's penny, either by
singing "The British Seaman's Praise," or Green's more popular song of
"The Wooden Walls of Old England."
[Illustration: PLATE XIII.
Joseph Johnson, a black sailor, with a model of the ship _Nelson_ on his
cap.]
The following plate presents the portrait of another black man of great
notoriety, Charles M'Gee, a native of Ribon, in Jamaica, born in 1744,
and whose father died at the great age of 108. This singular man usually
stands at the Obelisk, at the foot of Ludgate Hill. He has lost an eye,
and his woolly hair, which is almost white, is tied up behind in a tail,
with a large tuft at the end, horizontally resting upon the cape of his
coat. Charles is supposed to be worth money. His stand is certainly
above all others the most popular, many thousands of persons crossing it
in the course of the day. He has of late on the working-days sported a
smart coat, presented to him by a city pastry-cook. On a Sunday he is a
constant attendant at Rowland Hill's meeting-house, and on that occasion
his apparel is appropriately varied.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.
Charles M'Gee, a notorious black man, whose father died at the age of
108. He usually stood at the Obelisk, at the foot of Ludgate Hill.]
This man's portrait, when in his 73d year, was drawn on the 9th of
October 1815, in the parlour of a public-house, the sign of the Twelve
Bells, opposite to the famous well of St Brigit, which gave name to the
ancient palace of our kings, Bridewell; but which has, ever since the
grant of Edward VI., been a house of correction for vagabonds, &c. It is
a truly curious circumstance, that this establishment gave name to other
prisons of a similar kind; for instance, Clerkenwell Bridewell, and
Tothill-fields' Bridewell. Over the entrance of the latter, the
following inscription has been placed:--
HERE ARE SEVERAL SORTS OF WORK
FOR THE POOR OF THIS PARISH OF ST.
MARGARET'S, WESTMINSTER;
AS ALSO THE COUNTY, ACCORDING TO
LAW, AND FOR SUCH AS WILL BEG, AND
LIVE IDLE IN THIS CITY AND LIBERTY
OF WESTMINSTER, ANNO 1655.
Black people, as well as those destitute of sight, seldom fail to excite
compassion. Few persons, however humble their situation, can withhold
charity from the infant smiling upon features necessarily dead to its
supplications, and deeply shrouded from the prying eyes of the vulgar by
the bonnet, placarded with