University of Virginia Library

OF RUNNING PATTERERS.

Few of the residents in London — but chiefly
those in the quieter streets — have not been
aroused, and most frequently in the evening, by
a hurly-burly on each side of the street. An
attentive listening will not lead any one to an
accurate knowledge of what the clamour is
about. It is from a "mob" or "school" of
the running patterers (for both those words are

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used), and consists of two, three, or four men.
All these men state that the greater the noise
they make, the better is the chance of sale, and
better still when the noise is on each side of a
street, for it appears as if the vendors were
proclaiming such interesting or important intel-
ligence, that they were vieing with one another
who should supply the demand which must
ensue. It is not possible to ascertain with any
certitude what the patterers are so anxious to
sell, for only a few leading words are audible.
One of the cleverest of running patterers re-
peated to me, in a subdued tone, his announce-
ments of murders. The words "Murder,"
"Horrible," "Barbarous," "Love," "Mys-
terious," "Former Crimes," and the like,
could only be caught by the ear, but there
was no announcement of anything like "par-
ticulars." If, however, the "paper" relate
to any well-known criminal, such as Rush,
the name is given distinctly enough, and so
is any new or pretended fact. The running
patterers describe, or profess to describe, the
contents of their papers as they go rapidly
along, and they seldom or ever stand still.
They usually deal in murders, seductions,
crim.-cons., explosions, alarming accidents,
"assassinations," deaths of public characters,
duels, and love-letters. But popular, or noto-
rious, murders are the "great goes." The
running patterer cares less than other street-
sellers for bad weather, for if he "work" on
a wet and gloomy evening, and if the work be
"a cock," which is a fictitious statement or
even a pretended fictitious statement, there is
the less chance of any one detecting the ruse. But of late years no new "cocks" have
been printed, excepting for temporary pur-
poses, such as I have specified as under its
appropriate head in my account of "Death
and Fire-Hunters." Among the old stereo-
typed "cocks" are love-letters. One is well
known as "The Husband caught in a Trap,"
and being in an epistolary form subserves any
purpose: whether it be the patterer's aim to
sell the "Love Letters" of any well-known
person, such as Lola Montes, or to fit them
for a local (pretended) scandal, as the "Let-
ters from a Lady in this neighbourhood to a
Gentleman not 100 miles off."

Of running patterers there are now in Lon-
don from 80 to 100. They reside — some in their
own rooms, but the majority in lodging-houses
— in or near Westminster, St. Giles's, White-
chapel, Stratford, Deptford, Wandsworth, and
the Seven Dials. The "Dials," however, is
their chief locality, being the residence of the
longest-established printers, and is the "head
meet" of the fraternity.

It is not easy to specify with exactitude the
number of running or flying patterers at any
one time in London. Some of these men become,
occasionally, standing patterers, chaunters, or
ballad-singers — classes I shall subsequently de-
scribe — and all of them resort at intervals to
country rounds. I heard, also, many complaints
of boys having of late "taken to the running
patter" when anything attractive was before the
public, and of ignorant fellows — that wouldn't
have thought of it at one time — "trying their
hands at it." Waiving these exceptional aug-
mentations of the number, I will take the body
of running patterers, generally employed in their
peculiar craft in London, at 90. To ascertain
their earnings presents about the same difficul-
ties as to ascertain their number; for as all they
earn is spent — no patterer ever saving money —
they themselves are hardly able to tell their
incomes. If any new and exciting fact be before
the public, these men may each clear 20s. a
week; when there is no such fact, they may not
earn 5s. The profit is contingent, moreover, upon
their being able to obtain 1d., or only ½d., for
their paper. Some represented their average
weekly earnings at 12s. 6d. the year through;
some at 10s. 6d.; and others at less than half of
12s. 6d. Reckoning, however, that only 9s. weekly is an average profit per individual, and
that 14s. be taken to realise that profit, we find
3,276l. expended yearly on running patterers in
London; but in that sum the takings of the
chaunters must be included, as they are mem-
bers of the same fraternity, and work with the
patterers.

The capital required to commence as a running
patterer is but the price of a few papers — from
2d. to 1s. The men have no distinctive dress:
"our togs," said one of them, "is in the latest
fashion of Petticoat-lane;" unless on the very
rare occasions, when some character has to be
personated, and then coloured papers and glazed
calicoes are made available. But this is only a
venture of the old hands.