 | OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF COUGH DROPS
AND OF MEDICAL CONFECTIONARY.
Mr. Strutt, in his "Sports and Pastimes of
the People of England" (1800), says of the
Mountebank: "It is uncertain at what period
this vagrant dealer in physic made his appear-
ance in England; it is clear, however, that he
figured away with much success in this country
during the last two centuries... The
mountebanks usually preface the vending of
their medicines with pompous orations, in which
they pay as little regard to truth as to pro-
priety." I am informed by a gentleman ob-
servant of the matter, that within his knowledge,
which extends to the commencement of the
present century, no mountebank (proper) had
appeared in the streets of London proclaiming
the virtues of his medicines; neither with nor
without his "fool." The last seen by my in-
formant, perhaps the latest mountebank in Eng-
land, was about twenty years ago, in the vicinity
of Yarmouth. He was selling "cough drops"
and infallible cures for asthma, and was dressed
in a and an embroidered coat, with ruf-
fles at his wrist, a sword to his side, and was a
representation, in shabby genteel, of the fine
gentleman of the reign of Queen Anne. The
mountebank's most legitimate successor in the
street cajolery of London, as regards his "ora-
tions," is the "Patterer," as I shall show in
my account of the street trade in stationery
literature. His successor in the vending of
curative confectionaries and (in a small degree)
of nostrums, salves, ointments, &c., are the
sellers of "cough drops" and "horehound
candy," and of the corn salves, and cures for
bruises, sprains, burns, &c., &c., &c.
The street-traders in cough drops and their
accompaniments, however, do not now exceed
six, and of them only two — who are near relatives
— manufacture their own stock-in-trade. I here
treat of the street trade in "cough drops," as a
branch of the itinerant sweet-stuff trade. The
"mountebank" part of the business — that is to
say, "the prefacing the vending of the medicines
with pompous orations," I shall reserve till its
proper place — viz. the "pattering" part of the
street trade, of which an account will be given
in the next Chapter.
The two principal vendors of cough drops
wheel their stalls, which are fixed upon barrows,
to different parts of town, but one principal
stand is in Holborn. On their boards are dis-
played the cough cures, both in the form of
"sticks" and "drops," and a model of a small
distillery. The portion inclosing the still is
painted to resemble brick-work, and a tin tube,
or worm, appears to carry the distillation to a
receiver. Horehound, colts-foot, and some
other herbs lie in a dried state on the stall, but
principally horehound, to which popular (street)
opinion seems to attach the most and the greatest
virtues. There are also on the stalls a few bottles,
tied up in the way they are dispensed from a
regular practitioner, while the cough drops are
in the form of sticks (½d. each), also neatly
wrapped in paper. The cry is both expressive
and simply descriptive — "Long life candy!
Candy from herbs!"
From the most experienced person in this
curious trade, I had the following statement.
He entertained a full assurance, as far as I
could perceive, of the excellence of his reme-
dies, and of the high art and mystery of his
calling. In persons of his class, professing to
heal, no matter in what capacity, or what may
be the disease, this is an important element of
success. My informant, whether answering my
questions or speaking of his own accord, always
took time to consider, and sometimes, as will be
seen, declined replying to my inquiries. From
him I received the following account: —
"The cough drop and herb trade is nothing
now to what it was long ago. Thirty or forty
years ago, it was as good as 3l. or 4l. a week to
a person, and was carried on by respectable men.
I know nothing of any `humbugs' in the re-
spectable part of the trade. What's done by
those who are ignorant, and not respectable, is
nothing to me. I don't know how many there
were in the trade thirty or forty years ago; but
I know that, ten or eleven years since, I supplied
seven persons who sold cough drops, and such
like, in the streets, and now I supply only myself
and another. I sell only four or five months in
the year — the cold months, in course; for, in
the summer, people are not so subject to coughs
and colds. I am the `original' maker of my
goods. I will cure any child of the hooping-
[Description: 915EAF. Page 206.]
man to dispute it, and I'll do it — `no cure, no
pay.' I never profess to cure asthma. Nobody
but a gravedigger can put an end to that there;
but I can relieve it. It's the same with con-
sumption; it may be relieved, but the grave-
digger is the only man as can put a stop to it.
Many have tried to do it, but they've all failed.
I sell to very respectable people, and to educated
people, too; and, what's more, a good deal (of
cough drops) to medical men. In course, they
can analyse it, if they please. They can taste
the bitter, and judge for themselves, just as they
can taste wine in the Docks. Perhaps the wives
of mechanics are among my best customers.
They are the most numerous, but they buy only
ha'porths and penn'orths. Very likely, they
would think more of the remedy if they had to
pay 13½d. for it, instead of the 1½d. The Govern-
ment stamp makes many a stuff sell. Oh! I
know nothing about quackery: you must inquire
at the Stamp-office, if you want to know about
them kind of medicines. They're the people
that help to sell them. Respectable people will
pay me 1s. or 2s. at a time; and those who buy
once, buy again. I'm sent to from as far off
as Woolwich. I'll undertake to cure, or afford
relief, in coughs, colds, or wind in the chest, or
forfeit 1s. I can dispel wind in two minutes. I
sell bottles, too, for those cures (as well as the
candy from herbs): I manufacture them myself.
They're decoctions of herbs, and the way to pre-
pare them is my secret. I sell them at from 2d. to 1s. Why, I use one article that costs 24s. a
pound, foreign, and twice that English. I've
sold hundred weights. The decoctions are my
secret. I will instruct any person — and have
instructed a good many — when I'm paid for it.
In course, it would never do to publish it in
your work, for thousands would then learn it for
2d. My secret was never given to any person —
only with what you may call a fee — except one,
and only to him when he got married, and
started in the line. He's a connection of mine.
All we sell is genuine.
"I sell herbs, too, but it's not a street sale: I
supply them to orders from my connection. It's
not a large trade. I sell horehound, for tea or
decoctions; coltsfoot, for smoking as herb to-
bacco (I gather the coltsfoot myself, but buy the
horehound of a shopkeeper, as it's cultivated);
ground-ivy is sold only for the blood (but little
of it); hyssop for wind; and Irish moss for
consumption. I'm never asked for anything
improper. They won't ask me for — or — .
And I'm never asked for washes or cosmetics;
but a few nettles are ordered of me for com-
plexions.
"Well, sir, I'd rather not state the quantities
I sell, or my profits, or prices. I make what
keeps myself, my wife, and seven children, and
that's all I need say about it. I'd rather say no
more on that part of the business: and so, I'm
sure you won't press me. I don't know what
others in the trade make. They buy of confec-
tioners, and are only imitators of me. They buy
coltsfoot-candy, and such like; how it's made
so cheap, I don't know. In the summer, I give
up cough-drop selling, and take to gold fish."
I am told that the cough-drop-makers, who
are also street-sellers, prepare their sticks, &c.,
much in the same method as the manufacturers
of the ordinary sweet-stuff (which I have de-
scribed), using the decoction, generally of hore-
hound or coltsfoot, as the "scents" are used.
In the old times, it would appear that the pre-
paration of a medicinal confection was a much
more elaborate matter, if we may judge by the
following extract from an obsolete medical work
treating of the matter. The author styles such
preparations "lohochs," which is an Arabic
word, he says, and signifies "a thing to be
licked." It would appear that the lohoch was
not so hard as the present cough-drop. The
following is one of the receipts, "used generally
against diseases in the breast and lungs:" —
"Lohoch de farfara," the Lohoch of Coltsfoot.
Take of coltsfoot roots creansed 8 ozs., marsh-mallow
roots 4 ozs., boil them in a sufficient quantity of water,
and press the pulp through a sieve, dissolve it again
in the decoction, and let it boil once or twice; then
take it from the fire, and add 2 lbs. of white sugar,
honey of raisins 14 ozs., juice of liquorice 2½ drams,
stir them well with a wooden pestle, sprinkling in of
saffron and cloves in powder, of each 1 scruple, cinna-
mon and mace, of each 2 scruples; make them into
a lohoch according to art. It is good for a cough and
roughness of the windpipe.
Without wishing to infringe upon professional
secrets, I may mention that the earnings of the
principal man in the trade may be taken at 30s.
a week for 20 weeks; that of another at 15s. for
the same period; and those of the remaining four
at 5s. each, weekly; but the latter sell acid
drops, and other things bought of the chemists.
Allowing the usual cent. per cent., we then find
130l. expended by street-buyers on cough-drops.
The best cough-drop stall seen in the streets
is a kind of barrow, which can be shut up like a
piano: it cost 3l. 10s. complete with the dis-
tilling apparatus before described. Scales and
weights cost 5s., and the stock-money for the
supply of such a stall need not exceed 10s.; or,
in all, about 4l. 10s. For an ordinary trade —
ready-made articles forming the stock — the
capital would be, stall and trestle, 7s.; scales
and weights (which are not always used),
3s. 6d., and stock-money, 2s. 6d.; in all, 13s
| OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |