University of Virginia Library

OF THE STANDING PATTERERS.

The standing patterer I have already described
in his resemblance to the mountebank of old,
and how, like his predecessor, he required a
" pitch" and an audience. I need but iterate
that these standing patterers are men who re-
main in one place, until they think they have
exhausted the custom likely to accrue there, or
until they are removed by the police; and who
endeavour to attract attention to their papers,
or more commonly pamphlets, either by means
of a board with coloured pictures upon it, illus-
trative of the contents of what they sell, or else
by gathering a crowd round about them, in
giving a lively or horrible description of the
papers or books they are " working." The
former is what is usually denominated in street
technology, " board work." A few of the stand-
ing patterers give street recitations or dialogues.

Some of the " illustrations" most " in vogue"
of late for the boards of the standing patteres
were, — the flogging of the nuns of Minsk, the
blood streaming from their naked shoulders,
(anything against the Emperor of Russia, I was
told, was a good street subject for a painting);
the young girl, Sarah Thomas, who murdered
her mistress in Bristol, dragged to the gallows
by the turnkeys and Calcraft, the hangman;
Calcraft himself, when charged with " starving
his mother;" Haynau, in the hands of the
draymen; the Mannings, and afterwards the
Sloanes. The two last-mentioned were among
the most elaborate, each having a series of
" compartments," representing the different
stages of the events in which those heroes and
heroines flourished. I shall speak afterwards
of street-artists who are the painters of these
boards, and then describe the pictures more
fully. There are also, as before alluded to,
what may be called " cocks" in street paint-
ings, as well as street literature.

Two of the most favourite themes of the
standing patterers were, however, the " Annals
of the White House in Soho-square," and the

[Description: 915EAF. Page 233.]

" Mysteries of Mesmerism." Both supplied
subjects to the boards.

The White House was a notorious place of ill
fame. Some of the apartments, it is said, were
furnished in a style of costly luxury; while
others were fitted up with springs, traps, and
other contrivances, so as to present no appear-
ance other than that of an ordinary room, until
the machinery was set in motion. In one room,
into which some wretched girl might be intro-
duced, on her drawing a curtain as she would be
desired, a skeleton, grinning horribly, was pre-
cipitated forward, and caught the terrified
creature in his, to all appearance, bony arms.
In another chamber the lights grew dim, and
then seemed gradually to go out. In a little
time some candles, apparently self-ignited, re-
vealed to a horror stricken woman, a black
coffin, on the lid of which might be seen, in
brass letters, Anne, or whatever name it had
been ascertand the poor wretch was known by.
A sofa, in another part of the mansion, was
made to descend into some place of utter dark-
ness; or, it was alleged, into a room in which
was a store of soot or ashes.

Into the truth or exaggeration of these and
similar statements, it is not my business to
inquire; but the standing patterer made the
most of them. Although the house in question
has been either rebuilt or altered — I was told
that each was the case — and its abominable
character has ceased to apply to it for some
years, the patterer did not scruple to represent it
as still in existence (though he might change
the venue as to the square at discretion) and
that all the atrocities perpetrated — to which I
have not ventured even to allude — were still the
ordinary procedures of " high life." Neither
did the standing patterer scruple, as one man
assured me, to " name names;" to attribute vile
deeds to any nobleman or gentleman whose
name was before the public; and to embellish
his story by an allusion to a recent event. He
not unfrequently ended with a moral exhorta-
tion to all ladies present to avoid this " abode of
iniquity for the rich." The board was illus-
trated with skeletons, coffins, and other horrors;
but neither on it, nor in a hardly intelligible
narrative which the patterer sold, was there
anything indecent.

The " Mysteries of Mesmerism" was an ac-
count of the marvels of that " newly-discovered
and most wonderful power in natur and art."
With it Dr. Elliotson's, or some well-known
name, was usually associated, and any marvel
was " pattered," according to the patterer's taste
and judgment. The illustrations were of persons,
generally women, in a state of coma, but in this
also there was no indecency; nor was there in
the narrative sold.

Of these two popular exhibitions there are,
I am informed, none now in town, and both, I
was told, was more the speculations of a printer,
who sent out men, than in the hands of the
regular patterers.

It may tend somewhat to elucidate the cha-
racter of the patterers, if I here state, that in
my conversation with the whole of them, I
heard from their lips strong expressions of
disgust at Sloane, — far stronger than were
uttered in abhorrence of any murderer. Rush,
indeed, was, and is, a popular man among
them. One of them told me, that not long
before Madame Tussaud's death, he thought of
calling upon that " wenerable lady," and asking
her, he said, " to treat me to something to drink
the immortal memory of Mr. Rush, my friend
and her'n."

It is admitted by all concerned in the exercise
of street elocution, that " the stander" must
have "the best of patter." He usually works
alone, — there are very rarely two at standing
patter, — and beyond his board he has no adven-
titious aids, as in the running patter, so that he
must be all the more effective; but the board is
pronounced " as good as a man." When the
standing patterer visits the country, he is ac-
companied by a mate, and the " copy of werses"
is then announced as being written by an " under-
paid curate" within a day's walk. " It tells
mostly, sir," said one man; " for it's a blessing
to us that there always is a journeyman parson
what the people knows, and what the patter
fits." Sometimes the poetry is attributed to a
sister of mercy, or to a popular poetess; very
frequently, by the patterers who best under-
stand the labouring classes, to Miss Eliza
Cook. Sometimes the verses are written by
" a sympathising gent. in that parish," but his
name wasn't to be mentioned. Another intel-
ligent patterer whom I questioned on the sub-
ject, told me that my information was correct.
"It's just the same in the newspapers," he
continued; " why the ` sympathising gent.' is
the same with us as what in the newspapers
is called " other intelligence (about any crime),
to publish which might defeat the ends of
justice." That means, they know nothing at
all about it, and can't so much as venture on
a guess. I've known a little about it for the
papers, sir, — it doesn't matter in what line."

Some standing patterers are brought up to the
business from childhood. Some take to it
through loss of character, or through their in-
ability to obtain a situation from intemperate
habits, and some because "a free life suits me
best." In a former inquiry into a portion of
this subject, I sought a standing patterer, whom
I found in a threepenny lodging-house in Mint-
street, Southwark. On my inquiring what in-
duced him to adopt, or pursue, that line of life,
he said: —

" It was distress that first drove me to it. I
had learnt to make willow bonnets, but that
branch of trade went entirely out. So, having a
wife and children, I was drove to write out a
paper that I called `The People's Address to
the King on the Present State of the Nation.'
I got it printed, and took it into the streets and
sold it. I did very well with it, and made 5s. a
day while it lasted. I never was brought up to
any mechanical trade. My father was a cler-

[Description: 915EAF. Page 234.]

gyman" [here he cried bitterly]. " It breaks
my heart when I think of it. I have as good a
wife as ever lived, and I would give the world to
get out of my present life. It would be heaven
to get away from the place where I am. I am
obliged to cheer up my spirits. If I was to give
way to it, I shouldn't live long. It's like a little
hell to be in the place where we live" [crying],
" associated with the ruffians that we are. My
distress of mind is awful, but it won't do to show
it at my lodgings — they'd only laugh to see me
down-hearted; so I keep my trouble all to
myself. Oh, I am heartily sick of this street
work — the insults I have to put up with — the
drunken men swearing at me. Yes, indeed, I
am heartily sick of it."

This poor man had some assistance forwarded
to him by benevolent persons, after his case had
appeared in my letter in the Morning Chronicle.
This was the means of his leaving the streets,
and starting in the " cloth-cap trade." He
seemed a deserving man.