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University of Virginia Library

London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1.

LONDON LABOUR AND THE LONDON POOR. — THE STREET-FOLK.

2.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF FISH.

3.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES.

4.

OF THE STATIONARY STREET-SELLERS OF FISH, FRUIT, AND VEGETABLES.

5.

OF THE STREET-IRISH.

6.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF GAME, POULTRY (LIVE AND DEAD), RABBITS, BUTTER, CHEESE, AND EGGS.

7.

OF THE SELLERS OF TREES, SHRUBS, FLOWERS (CUT AND IN POTS), ROOTS, SEEDS, AND BRANCHES.

8.

STREET-SELLERS OF GREEN STUFF.

9.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES.

10.

OF THE CAPITAL AND INCOME OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES.

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11.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF STATIONERY, LITERATURE, AND THE FINE ARTS.

OF THE FORMER AND PRESENT STREET- PATTERERS.

OF THE HABITS, OPINIONS, MORALS, AND RELIGION OF PATTERERS GENERALLY.

OF THE PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS OF STREET-LITERATURE.

OF LONG SONG-SELLERS.

OF RUNNING PATTERERS.

EXPERIENCE OF A RUNNING PATTERER.

OF THE RECENT EXPERIENCE OF A RUNNING PATTERER.

OF THE CHAUNTERS.

OF THE EXPERIENCE OF A CHAUNTER.

OF THE DEATH AND FIRE HUNTERS.

OF THE SELLERS OF SECOND EDITIONS.

OF THE STANDING PATTERERS.

EXPERIENCE OF A STANDING PATTERER.

OF POLITICAL LITANIES, DIALOGUES, ETC.

OF " COCKS," ETC.

OF " STRAWING."

OF THE SHAM INDECENT STREET-TRADE.

OF RELIGIOUS TRACT SELLERS.

OF A BENEFIT SOCIETY OF PATTERERS.

OF THE ABODES, TRICKS, MARRIAGE, CHARACTER, AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIFFERENT GRADES OF PATTERERS.

OF THE LOW LODGING-HOUSES OF LONDON.

OF THE FILTH, DISHONESTY, AND IMMORALITY OF LOW LODGING-HOUSES.

OF THE CHILDREN IN LOW LODGING- HOUSES.

OF THE LOW LODGING-HOUSES THROUGH- OUT THE COUNTRY.

OF THE STREET STATIONERS, AND THE STREET CARD-SELLERS.

OF THE SELLER OF THE PENNY SHORT-HAND CARDS.

OF THE SELLERS OF RACE CARDS AND LISTS.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF GELATINE, OF ENGRAVED, AND OF PLAYING CARDS, &c.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF STATIONERY.

OF THE EXPERIENCE OF A STREET- STATIONER.

OF A "REDUCED" GENTLEWOMAN, AND A "REDUCED" TRADESMAN, AS STREET-SELLERS OF STATIONERY.

OF THE STREET-SALE OF MEMORANDUM- BOOKS AND ALMANACKS.

OF THE STREET-SALE OF POCKET-BOOKS AND DIARIES.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF SONGS.

OF THE STREET "PINNERS-UP," OR WALL SONG-SELLERS.

OF ANCIENT AND MODERN STREET BALLAD MINSTRELSY.

OF STREET "BALLADS ON A SUBJECT."

OF THE STREET POETS AND AUTHORS.

OF THE EXPERIENCE OF A STREET AUTHOR, OR POET.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF BROAD-SHEETS.

OF THE "GALLOWS" LITERATURE OF THE STREETS.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF CONUNDRUMS.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF COMIC EXHIBITIONS, MAGICAL DELUSIONS, &c.

OF THE STREET SELLERS OF PLAY-BILLS.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF PERIODICALS, PAMPHLETS, TRACTS, BOOKS, ETC.

OF THE STREET-SALE OF BACK NUMBERS.

OF THE SALE OF WASTE NEWSPAPERS AT BILLINGSGATE.

OF THE SALE OF PERIODICALS ON THE STEAM- BOATS AND STEAM-BOAT PIERS.

OF THE SALE OF NEWSPAPERS, BOOKS, &c., AT THE RAILWAY STATIONS.

OF THE STREET BOOKSELLERS.

OF THE CHARACTER OF BOOKS OF THE STREET-SALE.

OF THE EXPERIENCE OF A STREET BOOK- SELLER.

OF STREET BOOK-AUCTIONEERS.

OF THE STREET-SALE OF SONG-BOOKS, AND OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF ACCOUNT-BOOKS.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF GUIDE-BOOKS, &c.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF FINE ARTS.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF ENGRAVINGS, ETC., IN UMBRELLAS, ETC.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF PICTURES IN FRAMES.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUSCRIPT AND OTHER MUSIC.

12.

OF THE CAPITAL AND INCOME OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF STATIONERY, LITERATURE, AND THE FINE ARTS.

13.

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES.

14.

OF THE WOMEN STREET-SELLERS.

15.

OF THE CAPITAL AND INCOME OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES.

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OF THE STREET-SALE OF POCKET-BOOKS
AND DIARIES.

The sale of pocket-books, in the streets, is not,
I was told by several persons, "a living for a
man now-a-days." Ten years ago it was com-
mon to find men in the streets offering "half-
crown pocket-books" for 1s., and holding them
open so as to display the engravings, if there

272

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were any. The street-sale usually takes place
in March, when the demand for the regular
trade has ceased, and the publishers dispose of
their unsold stock. The trade is now, I am
assured, only about a tenth of its former extent.
The reason assigned for the decline is that
almanacks, diaries, &c., are so cheap that people
look upon 1s. as an enormous price, even for a
"beautiful morocco-bound pocket-book," as the
street-seller proclaims it. The binding is roan
(a dressed sheep-skin, morocco being a goat-
skin), an imitation of morocco, but the pocket-
books are really those which in the October
preceding have been published in the regular
way of trade. Some few of them may, how-
ever, have been damaged, and these are bought
by the street-people as a "job lot," and at a
lower price than that paid in the regular way;
which is 4s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. the dozen, thirteen to
the dozen. The "job lot" is sometimes bought
for 2s. 6d. a dozen, and sold at 6d. each, or as low
as 4d., — for street-sellers generally bewail their
having often to come down to "fourpenny-bits,
as they're going so much now." One man told
me that he was four days last March in selling
a dozen pocket-books, though the weather was
not unfavourable, and that his profit was 5s.
Engravings of the "fashions," the same man
told me, were "no go now." Even poorly-
dressed women (but they might, he thought, be
dress-makers) had said to him the last time he
displayed a pocket-book with fashions — "They're
out now." The principal supplier of pocket-
books, &c., to the street-trade is in Bride-lane,
Fleet-street. Commercial diaries are bought and
sold at the same rate as pocket-books; but the
sale becomes smaller and smaller.

I am informed that "last season" there were
twenty men, all street-traders in "paper," or
"anything that was up," at other times, selling
pocket-books and diaries. For this trade Lei-
cester-square is a favourite place. Calculating,
from the best data I can command, that each of
those men took 15s. weekly for a month (half of
it their profit), we find 60l. expended in the
streets in this purchase. Ledgers are some-
times sold in the streets; but as the sale is more
a hawker's than a regular street-seller's, an ac-
count of the traffic is not required by my present
subject.