University of Virginia Library

STATEMENT OF TWO POULTRY HAWKERS.

Two brothers, both good-looking and well-
spoken young men — one I might characterise
as handsome — gave me the following account.
I found them unwilling to speak of their youth,
and did not press them. I was afterwards in-
formed that their parents died within the same
month, and that the family was taken into the
workhouse; but the two boys left it in a little
time, and before they could benefit by any
schooling. Neither of them could read or write.
They left, I believe, with some little sum in
hand, to "start theirselves." An intelligent
costermonger, who was with me when I saw the
two brothers, told me that "a costermonger
would rather be thought to have come out of
prison than out of a workhouse," for his
"mates" would say, if they heard he had been
locked up, "O, he's only been quodded for
pitching into a crusher." The two brothers
wore clean smock country frocks over their
dress, and made a liberal display of their clean,

[Description: 915EAF. Page 126.]

but coarse, shirts. It was on a Monday that
I saw them. What one brother said, the other
confirmed: so I use the plural "we."

"We sell poultry and game, but stick most
to poultry, which suits our connection best. We
buy at Leadenhall. We're never cheated in
the things we buy; indeed, perhaps, we could'nt
be. A salesman will say — Mr. H — will —
`Buy, if you like, I can't recommend them.
Use your own judgment. They're cheap.' He
has only one price, and that's often a low one.
We give from 1s. to 1s. 9d. for good chickens,
and from 2s. 6d. mostly for geese and turkeys.
Pigeons is 1s. 9d. to 3s. a dozen. We aim at
6d. profit on chickens; and 1s., if we can get it,
or 6d. if we can do no better, on geese and
turkeys. Ducks are the same as chickens. All
the year through, we may make 12s. a week a
piece. We work together, one on one side of
the street and the other on the other. It
answers best that way. People find we can't
undersell one another. We buy the poultry,
whenever we can, undressed, and dress them
ourselves; pull the feathers off and make them
ready for cooking. We sell cheaper than the
shops, or we couldn't sell at all. But you
must be known, to do any trade, or people will
think your poultry's bad. We work game as
well, but mostly poultry. We've been on
hares to-day, mostly, and have made about
2s. 6d. a piece, but that's an extra day. Our
best customers are tradesmen in a big way, and
people in the houses a little way out of town.
Working people don't buy of us now. We're
going to a penny gaff to-night" (it was then
between four and five); "we've no better way of
spending our time when our day's work is done."

From the returns before given, the street-sale
of poultry amounts yearly to

• 500,000 fowls.

• 80,000 ducks.

• 20,000 geese.

• 30,000 turkeys.