London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1

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.

These are severally:

I. Street-sellers.
II. Street-buyers.
III. Street-Finders.
IV. Street-Performers, Artists, and
Showmen.
V. Street-Artizans, or Working
Pedlars; and
VI. Street-Labourers.

The first of these divisions — the Street-
Sellers — includes many varieties; viz. —

1. The Street-sellers of Fish, &c. — "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 water-
cresses, chickweed and grun'sel, 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,
peas'-soup, hot green peas, penny pies, plum
"duff," meat-puddings, baked potatoes, spice-
cakes, muffins and crumpets, Chelsea buns,
sweetmeats, brandy-balls, cough drops, and cat
and dog's meat — such constituting the principal
eatables sold in the street; while under the head
of street-drinkables 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 play-
bills, second editions of newspapers, back num-
bers of periodicals and old books, almanacks,
pocket books, memorandum books, note paper,
sealing-wax, pens, pencils, stenographic cards,
valentines, engravings, manuscript music,
images, and gelatine poetry cards.
5. The Street-sellers of Manufactured Articles, which class comprises a large number of indi-
viduals, 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,
tea-trays, dog-collars, and key-rings, hardware,
bird-cages, small coins, medals, jewellery, tin-
ware, tools, card-counters, red-herring-toasters,
trivets, gridirons, and Dutch ovens. (c) The
vendors of china and stone articles of manufac-
ture — as cups and saucers, jugs, vases, chimney
ornaments, and stone fruit. (d) The vendors of
linen, cotton, and silken articles of manufacture
— as sheeting, table-covers, cotton, tapes and
thread, boot and stay-laces, haberdashery, pre-
tended 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, tin-ware, 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, &c.; and (d) those who sell old miscel-
laneous articles — as old shoes, old clothes, old
saucepan lids, &c., &c.
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 gather-
ing 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
mud-larks, the bone-grubbers; and the sewer-
hunters.

Under the fourth division, or that of the
Street-Performers, Artists, and Show-
men, 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 fan-

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toccini, and the Chinese shades. (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," and
others.
2. The Street Showmen, including shows of
(a) extraordinary persons — as giants, dwarfs,
Albinoes, spotted boys, and pig-faced ladies.
(b) Extraordinary animals — as alligators, calves,
horses and pigs with six legs or two heads, in-
dustrious fleas, and happy families. (c) Philo-
sophic instruments — as the microscope, telescope,
thaumascope. (d) Measuring-machines — as
weighing, lifting, measuring, and striking ma-
chines; and (e) miscellaneous shows — such as
peep-shows, glass ships, mechanical figures,
wax-work shows, pugilistic shows, and fortune-
telling apparatus.
3. The Street-Artists — as black profile-cutters,
blind paper-cutters, "screevers" or draughts-
men 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, tom-tom, &c.
6. The Street Singers, as the singers of glees,
ballads, comic songs, nigger melodies, psalms,
serenaders, 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-Artizans, or Working
Pedlars;

These may be severally arranged into three
distinct groups — (1) Those who make things in
the streets; (2) Those who mend things in the
streets; and (3) Those who make things at home and sell them in the streets.

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, cab-
bage-net makers, night-cap 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, glaziers, 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, work-boxes, 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, night-caps, straw bonnets, children's
dresses, watch-pockets, bonnet shapes, silk
bonnets, and gaiters. (e) The metal workers, —
as the makers of fire-guards, bird-cages, the
wire workers. (f) The miscellaneous workers
— or makers of ornaments for stoves, chimney
ornaments, artificial flowers in pots and in nose-
gays, 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, night-
men, flushermen, chimney-sweeps, dustmen,
crossing-sweepers, "street-orderlies," labourers
to sweeping-machines and to watering-carts.
2. The Lighters and Waterers — or the turn-
cocks and the lamplighters.
3. The Street-Advertisers — viz., the bill-
stickers, bill-deliverers, boardmen, men to adver-
tising vans, and wall and pavement stencillers.
4. The Street-Servants — as horse holders, link-
men, coach-hirers, street-porters, shoe-blacks.

University of Virginia Library

OF THE LONDON STREET-FOLK.