Dickens's England (26 page)

A bustling and active girl will always find time to do a little needlework for herself, if she lives with consistent and reasonable people. In the summer evenings, she should manage to sit down for two or three hours, and for a short time in the afternoon in leisure days.

Isabel Beeton,
Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management
(1861)

DELIVERY

Black Beauty
: It often went to my heart to see how the little ponies were used, straining along with heavy loads, or staggering under heavy blows from some low cruel boy. Once I saw a little grey pony with a thick mane and a pretty head, and so much like Merrylegs that if I had not been in harness, I should have neighed to him. He was doing his best to pull a heavy cart, while a strong rough boy was cutting him under his belly with his whip, and chucking cruelly at his little mouth. . . .

I often noticed the great speed at which butchers' horses were made to go, though I did not know why it was so, till one day when we had to wait some time in ‘St John's Wood'. There was a butcher's shop next door, and, as we were standing, a butcher's cart came dashing up at a great pace. The horse was hot, and much exhausted; he hung his head down, while his heaving sides and trembling legs showed how hard he had been driven. The lad jumped out of the cart and was getting the basket, when the master came out of the shop much displeased. After looking at the horse, he turned angrily to the lad:

‘How many times shall I tell you not to drive in this way? You ruined the last horse and broke his wind, and you are going to ruin this in the same way. If you were not my own son, I would dismiss you on the spot; it is a disgrace to have a horse brought to the shop in a condition like that; you are liable to be taken up by the police for such driving, and if you are, you need not look to me for bail, for I have spoken to you till I am tired; you must look out for yourself.'

During this speech, the boy had stood by, sullen and dogged, but when his father ceased, he broke out angrily. It wasn't his fault, and he wouldn't take the blame, he was only going by orders all the time.

‘You always say, “Now be quick; now look sharp!” and when I go to the houses, one wants a leg of mutton for an early dinner, and I must be back with it in a quarter of an hour. Another cook had forgotten to order the beef; I must go and fetch it and be back in no time, or the mistress will scold; and the housekeeper says they have company coming unexpectedly and must have some chops sent up directly; and the lady at No. 4, in the Crescent,
never
orders her dinner till the meat comes in for lunch, and it's nothing but hurry, hurry, all the time. If the gentry would think of what they want, and order their meat the day before, there need not be this blow up!'

‘I wish to goodness they would,' said the butcher; ‘'twould save me a wonderful deal of harass, and I could suit my customers much better if I knew beforehand – but there – what's the use of talking – who ever thinks of a butcher's convenience, or a butcher's horse? Now then, take him in, and look to him well; mind, he does not go out again today, and if anything else is wanted, you must carry it yourself in the basket.' With that he went in, and the horse was led away.

Anna Sewell,
Black Beauty
(1877)

WORKING THE STREET

Those who obtain their living in the streets of the metropolis are a very large and varied class; indeed, the means resorted to in order ‘to pick up a crust', as the people call it, in the public thoroughfares (and such in many instances it
literally
is) are so multifarious that the mind is long baffled in its attempts to reduce them to scientific order or classification. It would appear, however, that the street-people may be all arranged under six distinct genera or kinds. . . .

1. Street-sellers

1.
The street-sellers of fish, etc.
– ‘wet', ‘dry' and shell-fish – and poultry, game and cheese.

2.
The street-sellers of vegetables,
fruit (both ‘green' and ‘dry'), flowers, trees, shrubs, seeds and roots, and ‘green stuff' (as watercresses, chickweed and groundsel, and turf).

3.
The street-sellers of eatables and drinkables
– including the vendors of fried fish, hot eels, pickled whelks, sheep's trotters, ham sandwiches, pea soup, hot green peas, penny pies, plum duff, meat puddings, baked potatoes, spice-cakes, muffins and crumpets, Chelsea buns, sweetmeats, brandyballs, coughdrops, and cat and dogs' meat – such constituting the principal eatables sold in the street; while under the head of streetdrinkables may be specified tea and coffee, ginger beer, lemonade, hot wine, new milk from the cow, asses' milk, curds and whey, and occasionally water.

4.
The street-sellers of stationery, literature and the fine arts
– among whom are comprised the flying-stationers, or standing and running patterers; the long-song-sellers; the wall-song-sellers (or ‘pinners-up' as they are technically termed); the ballad sellers; the vendors of playbills, second editions of newspapers, back numbers of periodicals and old books, almanacs, pocket books, memorandum books, note paper, sealing-wax, pens, pencils, stenographic cards, valentines, engravings, manuscript music, images and gelatine cards.

5.
The street-sellers of manufactured articles,
which class comprises a large number of individuals, as (a) the vendors of chemical articles of manufacture –
viz.,
blacking, lucifers, corn-salves, grease-removing compositions, plating-balls, poison for rats, crackers, detonating-balls, and cigar-lights. (b) The vendors of metal articles of manufacture – razors and pen-knives, teatrays, dog-collars, and key-rings, hardware, birdcages, small coins, medals, jewellery, tinware, tools, card-counters, red-herring-toasters, trivets, gridirons and Dutch ovens. (c) The vendors of china and stone articles of manufacture – as cups and saucers, jugs, vases, chimney ornaments, and stone fruit. (d) The vendors of linen, cotton, tapes and thread, boot and stay-laces, haberdashery, pretended smuggled goods, shirt-buttons, etc., etc.; and (e) the vendors of miscellaneous articles of manufacture – as cigars, pipes and snuff-boxes, spectacles, combs, ‘lots', rhubarb, sponges, wash-leather, paper-hangings, dolls, Bristol toys, sawdust and pin-cushions.

6.
The street-sellers of second-hand articles
– of whom there are again four separate classes; as (a) those who sell old metal articles –
viz.
old knives and forks, keys, tinware, tools, and marine stores generally; (b) those who sell old linen articles – as old sheeting for towels; (c) those who sell old glass and crockery – including bottles, old pans and pitchers, old looking-glasses, etc.; and (d) those who sell old miscellaneous articles – as old shoes, old clothes, old saucepan lids, etc., etc.

7.
The street-sellers of live animals
– including the dealers in dogs, squirrels, birds, gold and silver fish, and tortoises.

8.
The street-sellers of mineral productions and curiosities
– as red and white sand, silver sand, coals, coke, salt, spar ornaments, and shells.

These, so far as my experience goes, exhaust the whole class of street-sellers, and they appear to constitute nearly three-fourths of the entire number of individuals obtaining a subsistence in the streets of London.

The next class are the Street Buyers, under which denomination come the purchasers of hare-skins, old clothes, old umbrellas, bottles, glass, broken metal, rags, waste paper, and dripping.

After these we have the Street Finders, or those who, as I said before, literally ‘pick up' their living in the public thoroughfares. They are the ‘pure' pickers, or those who live by gathering dogs' dung; the cigar-end finders, or ‘hard-ups' as they are called, who collect the refuse pieces of smoked cigars from the gutters, and, having dried them, sell them as tobacco to the very poor; the dredgermen or coal-finders; the mudlarks; the bone-grubbers; and the sewer-hunters.

Under the fourth division, or that of the Street Performers, Artists and Showmen, are likewise many distinct callings.

1.
The street-performers,
who admit of being classified into (a) mountebanks – or those who enact puppet-shows, as Punch and Judy, the fantoccini [marionettes] and the Chinese shades [shadow or silhouette puppets]. (b) The street-performers of feats of strength and dexterity – as ‘acrobats' or posturers, ‘equilibrists' or balancers, stiff and bending tumblers, jugglers, conjurors, sword-swallowers, ‘salamanders' or fire-eaters, swordsmen, etc. (c) The street-performers with trained animals – as dancing dogs, performing monkeys, trained birds and mice, cats and hares, sapient pigs, dancing bears, and tame camels. (d) The street-actors – as clowns, ‘Billy Barlows', ‘Jim Crows' [both street clowns], and others.

2.
The street showmen,
including shows of extraordinary persons – as giants, dwarfs, albinos, spotted boys and pig-faced ladies. (b) Extraordinary animals – as alligators, calves, horses and pigs with six legs or two heads, industrious fleas, and happy families. (c) Philosophic instruments – as the microscope, telescope, thaumascope [optical toy]. (d) Measuring-machines – as weighing, lifting, measuring and striking machines; and (e) Miscellaneous shows – such as peepshows, glass ships, mechanical figures, waxwork shows, pugilistic shows and fortune-telling apparatus.

3.
The street artists
– as black profile-cutters, blind paper-cutters, ‘screevers' or draughtsmen in coloured chalks on the pavement, writers without hands, and readers without eyes.

4.
The street dancers
– as street Scotch girls, sailors, slack and tight-rope dancers, dancers on stilts, and comic dancers.

5.
The street musicians
– as the street bands (English and German), players of the guitar, harp, bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, dulcimer, musical bells, cornet, tomtom, etc.

6.
The street singers,
– as the singers of glees, ballads, comic songs, nigger melodies, psalms, serenades, reciters and improvisatori.

7.
The proprietors of street games,
as swings, highflyers, roundabouts, puff-and-darts, rifle shooting, down the dolly, spin-'em-rounds, prick the garter, thimble-rig, etc.

Then comes the Fifth Division of the Street-folk, viz., the Street Artisans, or Working Pedlars . . .

1. Of
those who make things in the streets
there are the following varieties: (a) the metal workers – such as toasting-fork makers, pin-makers, engravers, tobacco-stopper makers. (b) The textile workers – stocking-weavers, cabbage-net makers, nightcap knitters, doll-dress knitters. (c) The miscellaneous workers – the wooden spoon makers, the leather brace and garter makers, the printers and the glass-blowers.

2.
Those who mend things in the streets
consist of broken china and glass menders, clock menders, umbrella menders, kettle menders, chair menders, grease removers, hat cleaners, razor and knife grinders, travelling bell hangers and knife cleaners.

3.
Those who make things at home and sell them in the streets
are (a) the wood workers – as the makers of clothes-pegs, clothes-props, skewers, needle-cases, foot-stools and clothes-horses, chairs and tables, tea-caddies, writing-desks, drawers, workboxes, dressing-cases, pails and tubs. (b) The trunk, hat and bonnet-box makers, and the cane and rush basket makers. (c) The toy makers – such as Chinese roarers, children's windmills, flying birds and fishes, feathered cocks, black velvet cats and sweeps, paper houses, cardboard carriages, little copper pans and kettles, tiny tin fireplaces, children's watches, Dutch dolls, buy-a-brooms, and gutta-percha heads. (d) The apparel makers –
viz.,
the makers of women's caps, boys' and men's cloth caps, nightcaps, straw bonnets, children's dresses, watch-pockets, bonnet shapes, silk bonnets and gaiters. (e) The metal workers – as the makers of fire-guards, birdcages, the wire workers. (f) The miscellaneous workers – or makers of ornaments for stoves, chimney ornaments, artificial flowers in pots and in nosegays, plaster-of-Paris night-shades, brooms, brushes, mats, rugs, hearthstones, firewood, rush matting and hassocks.

Of the last division, or Street Labourers, there are four classes:

1.
The cleansers
– such as scavengers, nightmen [removers of ‘nightsoil'], flushermen [sewer-cleaners], chimney-sweeps, dustmen, crossing-sweepers, ‘street-orderlies', labourers to sweeping-machines and to watering-carts.

2.
The lighters and waterers
– or the turncocks and the lamplighters.

3.
The street-advertisers
–
viz.,
the bill-stickers, bill-deliverers, boardmen, men to advertising vans, and wall and pavement stencillers.

4.
The street-servants
– as horse holders, linkmen, coach-hirers, street-porters, shoeblacks. . . .

STREET PIEMEN

The itinerant trade in pies is one of the most ancient of the street callings of London. The meat pies are made of beef or mutton; the fish pies of eels; the fruit of apples, currants, gooseberries, plums, damsons, cherries, raspberries or rhubarb, according to the season – and occasionally of mincemeat. A few years ago the street pie-trade was very profitable, but it has been almost destroyed by the ‘pie-shops', and further, the few remaining street-dealers say ‘the people now haven't the pennies to spare'. Summer fairs and races are the best places for the piemen. In London the best times are during any grand sight or holiday-making, such as a review in Hyde Park, the Lord Mayor's show, the opening of Parliament, Greenwich fair, etc. . . .

The London piemen, who may number about forty in winter, and twice that number in summer, are seldom stationary. They go along with their pie-cans in their arms, crying, ‘Pies all 'ot! eel, beef or mutton pies! Penny pies, all 'ot – all 'ot!' The can has been before described. The pies are kept hot by means of a charcoal fire beneath, and there is a partition in the body of the can to separate the hot and cold pies. The can has two tin drawers, one at the bottom, where the hot pies are kept, and above these are the cold pies. As fast as the hot dainties are sold, their place is supplied by the cold from the upper drawer. . . .