University of Virginia Library

OF THE DIET, DRINK, AND EXPENSE OF
LIVING OF THE STREET-IRISH.

The diet of the Irish men, women, and children,
who obtain a livelihood (or what is so designated)
by street-sale in London, has, I am told, on good
authority, experienced a change. In the lodg-
ing-houses that they resorted to, their breakfast,
two or three years ago, was a dish of potatoes —
two, three, or four lbs., or more, in weight — for a
family. Now half an ounce of coffee (half chi-
cory) costs ½d., and that, with the half or quarter
of a loaf, according to the number in family, is
almost always their breakfast at the present time.
When their constant diet was potatoes, there
were frequent squabbles at the lodging-houses
— to which many of the poor Irish on their
first arrival resort — as to whether the potato-
pot or the tea-kettle should have the prefer-
ence on the fire. A man of superior intelli-
gence, who had been driven to sleep and eat
occasionally in lodging-houses, told me of some
dialogues he had heard on these occasions: —
"It's about three years ago," he said, "since I
heard a bitter old Englishwoman say, `To —
with your 'taty-pot; they're only meat for pigs.'
`Sure, thin,' said a young Irishman — he was
a nice 'cute fellow — `sure, thin, ma'am, I
should be afther offering you a taste.' I heard
that myself, sir. You may have noticed, that
when an Irishman doesn't get out of temper, he
never loses his politeness, or rather his blarney."

The dinner, or second meal of the day —
assuming that there has been a breakfast —
ordinarily consists of cheap fish and potatoes.
Of the diet of the poor street-Irish I had
an account from a little Irishman, then keep-
ing an oyster-stall, though he generally sold
fruit. In all such details I have found the
Irish far more communicative than the English.
Many a poor untaught Englishman will shrink
from speaking of his spare diet, and his trouble
to procure that; a reserve, too, much more
noticeable among the men than the women.
My Irish informant told me he usually had his
breakfast at a lodging-house — he preferred a
lodging-house, he said, on account of the
warmth and the society. Here he boiled half
an ounce of coffee, costing a ½d. He pur-
chased of his landlady the fourth of a quartern
loaf (1¼d. or 1½d.), for she generally cut a
quartern loaf into four for her single men
lodgers, such as himself, clearing sometimes a
farthing or two thereby. For dinner, my
informant boiled at the lodging-house two or
three lbs. of potatoes, costing usually 1d. or 1¼d., and fried three, or four herrings, or as many
as cost a penny. He sometimes mashed his
potatoes, and spread over them the herrings, the
fatty portion of which flavoured the potatoes,
which were further flavoured by the roes of the
herrings being crushed into them. He drank
water to this meal, and the cost of the whole
was 2d. or 2½d. A neighbouring stall-keeper
attended to this man's stock in his absence at
dinner, and my informant did the same for
him in his turn. For "tea" he expended 1d. on coffee, or 1½d. on tea, being a "cup" of
tea, or "half-pint of coffee," at a coffee-shop.
Sometimes he had a halfpenny-worth of butter,
and with his tea he ate the bread he had saved
from his breakfast, and which he had carried in
his pocket. He had no butter to his breakfast,
he said, for he could not buy less than a penny-
worth about where he lodged, and this was too
dear for one meal. On a Sunday morning how-
ever he generally had butter, sometimes joining
with a fellow-lodger for a pennyworth; for his
Sunday dinner he had a piece of meat, which
cost him 2d. on the Saturday night. Supper
he dispensed with, but if he felt much tired
he had a half-pint of beer, which was three
farthings "in his own jug," before he went to
bed, about nine or ten, as he did little or
nothing late at night, except on Saturday.
He thus spent 4½d. a day for food, and reckon-
ing 2½d. extra for somewhat better fare on a
Sunday, his board was 2s. 10d. a week. His
earnings he computed at 5s., and thus he had
2s. 2d. weekly for other expenses. Of these
there was 1s. for lodging; 2d. or 3d. for
washing (but this not every week); ½d. for a
Sunday morning's shave; 1d. "for his reli-
gion" (as he worded it); and 6d. for "odds
and ends," such as thread to mend his clothes,
a piece of leather to patch his shoes, worsted
to darn his stockings, &c. He was subject to
rheumatism, or "he might have saved a trifle
of money." Judging by his methodical habits,
it was probable he had done so. He had
nothing of the eloquence of his countrymen,
and seemed indeed of rather a morose turn.

A family boarding together live even cheaper
than this man, for more potatoes and less fish
fall to the share of the children. A meal too is

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not unfrequently saved in this manner: —
If a man, his wife, and two children, all go
out in the streets selling, they breakfast before
starting, and perhaps agree to re-assemble at
four o'clock. Then the wife prepares the dinner
of fish and potatoes, and so tea is dispensed with.
In that case the husband's and wife's board
would be 4d. or 4½d. a day each, the children's
3d. or 3½d. each, and giving 1½d. extra to each
for Sunday, the weekly cost is 10s. 3d. Sup-
posing the husband and wife cleared 5s. a week
each, and the children each 3s., their earnings
would be 16s. The balance is the surplus left
to pay rent, washing, firing, and clothing.

From what I can ascertain, the Irish street-
seller can always live at about half the cost
of the English costermonger; the Englishman
must have butter for his bread, and meat at no
long intervals, for he "hates fish more than
once a week." It is by this spareness of
living, as well as by frequently importunate
and mendacious begging, that the street-Irish
manage to save money.

The diet I have spoken of is generally, but
not universally, that of the poor street-Irish;
those who live differently, do not, as a rule,
incur greater expense.

It is difficult to ascertain in what proportion
the Irish street-sellers consume strong drink,
when compared with the consumption of the
English costers; as a poor Irishman, if ques-
tioned on that or any subject, will far more
frequently shape his reply to what he thinks will
please his querist and induce a trifle for himself,
than answer according to the truth. The land-
lord of a large public-house, after inquiring of
his assistants, that his opinions might be checked
by theirs, told me that in one respect there was
a marked difference between the beer-drinking
of the two people. He considered that in the
poor streets near his house there were residing
quite as many Irish street-sellers and labourers
as English, but the instances in which the Irish
conveyed beer to their own rooms, as a portion
of their meals, was not as 1 in 20 compared
with the English: "I have read your work,
sir," he said, "and I know that you are quite
right in saying that the costermongers go for a
good Sunday dinner. I don't know what my
customers are except by their appearance, but I
do know that many are costermongers, and by the
best of all proofs, for I have bought fish, fruit,
and vegetables of them. Well, now, we'll take
a fine Sunday in spring or summer, when times
are pretty good with them; and, perhaps, in the
ten minutes after my doors are opened at one on
the Sunday, there are 100 customers for their
dinner-beer. Nearly three-quarters of these are
working men and their wives, working either in
the streets, or at their indoor trades, such as
tailoring. But among the number, I'm satis-
fied, there are not more than two Irishmen.
There may be three or four Irishwomen, but one
of my barmen tells me he knows that two of
them — very well-behaved and good-looking
women — are married to Englishmen. In my
opinion the proportion, as to Sunday dinner-
beer, between English and Irish, may be two
or three in 70."

An Irish gentleman and his wife, who are
both well acquainted with the habits and con-
dition of the people in their own country, in-
formed me, that among the classes who,
though earning only scant incomes, could
not well be called "impoverished," the use
of beer, or even of small ale — known, now
or recently — as "Thunder's thruppeny," was
very unfrequent. Even in many "independ-
ent" families, only water is drunk at din-
ner, with punch to follow. This shows the
accuracy of the information I derived from
Mr. — (the innkeeper), for persons unused to
the drinking of malt liquor in their own coun-
try are not likely to resort to it afterwards,
when their means are limited. I was further
informed, that reckoning the teetotallers among
the English street-sellers at 300, there are 600
among the Irish, — teetotallers too, who, having
taken the pledge, under the sanction of their
priests, and looking upon it as a religious ob-
ligation, keep it rigidly.

The Irish street-sellers who frequent the gin-
palaces or public-houses, drink a pot of beer, in
a company of three or four, but far more fre-
quently, a quartern of gin (very seldom whisky)
oftener than do the English. Indeed, from all
I could ascertain, the Irish street-sellers, whe-
ther from inferior earnings, their early training,
or the restraints of their priests, drink less beer,
by one-fourth, than their English brethren, but
a larger proportion of gin. "And you must bear
this in mind, sir," I was told by an innkeeper,
"I had rather have twenty poor Englishmen
drunk in my tap-room than a couple of poor
Irishmen. They'll quarrel with anybody —
the Irish will — and sometimes clear the room
by swearing they'll `use their knives, by Jasus;'
and if there's a scuffle they'll kick like devils,
and scratch, and bite, like women or cats, in-
stead of using their fists. I wish all the drunk-
ards were teetotallers, if it were only to be rid
of them."

Whiskey, I was told, would be drunk by the
Irish, in preference to gin, were it not that gin
was about half the price. One old Irish fruit-
seller — who admitted that he was fond of a
glass of gin — told me that he had not tasted
whiskey for fourteen years, "becase of the
price." The Irish, moreover, as I have shown,
live on stronger and coarser food than the
English, buying all the rough (bad) fish, for, to
use the words of one of my informants, they
look to quantity more than quality; this may
account for their preferring a stronger and fiercer
stimulant by way of drink.