University of Virginia Library

OF THE STREET SELLERS OF PLAY-BILLS.

The sellers of play-bills carry on a trade which
is exceedingly uncertain, and is little remune-
rative. There are now rather more than 200
people selling play-bills in London, but the
number has sometimes been as high as 400.
"Yes, indeed," a theatrical gentleman said to
me, "and if a dozen more theatres were opened
to-morrow, why each would have more than its
twenty bill-sellers the very first night. Where
they come from, or what they are, I haven't a
notion."

The majority of the play-bill sellers are either
old or young, the sexes being about equally
engaged in this traffic. Some of them have
followed the business from their childhood. I
met with very few indeed who knew anything of

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theatres beyond the names of the managers and
of the principal performers, while some do not
even enjoy that small modicum of knowledge,
and some can neither read nor write. The boys
often run recklessly alongside the cabs which
are conveying persons to the theatre, and so offer
their bills for sale. One of these youths said to
me, when I spoke of the danger incurred, "The
cabman knows how to do it, sir, when I runs
and patters; and so does his hoss." An intel-
ligent cabman, however, who was in the habit
of driving parties to the Lyceum, told me that
these lads clung to his cab as he drove down to
Wellington-street in such a way, for they seemed
never to look before them, that he was in con-
stant fear lest they should be run over. Ladies
are often startled by a face appearing suddenly
at the cab window, "and thro' my glass," said
my informant, "a face would look dirtier than
it really is." And certainly a face gliding along
with the cab, as it were, no accompanying body
being visible, on a winter's night, while the sound
of the runner's footsteps is lost in the noise of
the cab, has much the effect of an apparition.

I did not hear of one person who had been in
any way connected with the stage, even as a
supernumerary, resorting to play-bill selling
when he could not earn a shilling within the walls
of a theatre. These bill-sellers, for the most
part, confine themselves, as far as I could ascer-
tain, to that particular trade. The youths say
that they sometimes get a job in errand-going
in the daytime, but the old men and women
generally aver they can do nothing else. An
officer, who, some years back, had been on duty
at a large theatre, told me that at that time the
women bill-sellers earned a trifle in running
errands for the women of the town who attended
the theatres; but, as they were not permitted to
send any communication into the interior of the
house, their earnings that way were insignificant,
for they could only send in messages by any
other "dress woman" entering the theatre sub-
sequently.

In the course of my inquiries last year, I met
with a lame woman of sixty-eight, who had been
selling play-bills for the last twelve years. She
had been, for six or eight months before she
adopted that trade, the widow of a poor mecha-
nic, a carpenter. She had first thought of resort-
ing to that means of a livelihood owing to a
neighbouring old woman having been obliged to
relinquish her post from sickness, when my
informant "succeeded her." In this way, she
said, many persons "succeeded" to the business,
as the recognised old hands were jealous of and
uncivil to any additional new comers, but did
not object to a "successor." These parties
generally know each other; they murmur if the
Haymarket hands, for instance, resort to the
Lyceum for any cause, or vice versâ, thus over-
stocking the business, but they offer no other
opposition. The old woman further informed me
that she commenced selling play-bills at Ast-
ley's, and then realized a profit of 4s. per week.
When the old Amphitheatre was burnt down,
she went to the Victoria; but "business was
not what it was," and her earnings were from
6d. to 1s. a week less; and this, she said, al-
though the Victoria was considered one of the
most profitable stations for the play-bill seller,
the box-keeper there seldom selling any bill in
the theatre. "The boxes," too, at this house,
more frequently buy them outside. Another
reason why "business" was better at the Vic-
toria than elsewhere was represented to me, by
a person familar with the theatres, to be this:
many go to the Victoria who cannot read, or who
can read but imperfectly, and they love to
"make-believe" they are "good scholards" by
parading the consulting of a play-bill!

On my visit the bill-sellers at the Victoria
were two old women (each a widow for many
years), two young men, besides two or three,
though there are sometimes as many as six or
seven children. The old women "fell into the
business" as successors by virtue of their pre-
decessors' leaving it on account of sickness. The
children were generally connected with the older
dealers. The young men had been in this busi-
ness from boyhood; some sticking to the practice
of their childhood unto manhood, or towards old
age. The number at the Victoria is now, I am
informed, two or three more, as the theatre is
often crowded. The old woman told me that
she had known two and even four visitors to the
theatre club for the purchase of a bill, and then
she had sometimes to get farthings for them.

A young fellow — who said he believed he was
only eighteen, but certainly looked older — told
me that he was in the habit of selling play-bills,
but not regularly, as he sometimes had a job in
carrying a board, or delivering bills at a corner,
"or the likes o' that;" — he favoured me with
his opinion of the merits of the theatres he was
practically acquainted with as regarded their
construction for the purposes of the bill-seller.
His mother, who had been dead a few years, had
sold bills, and had put him into the business.
His ambition seemed to be to become a general
bill-sticker. He could not write but could read
very imperfectly.

"Vy, you see, sir," he said, "there's sets off.
At the Market (Haymarket), now, there's this:
there's only one front, so you may look sharp
about for there goes, boxes, pit, and gallery.
The 'Delphis as good that way, and so is the
Surrey, but them one's crowded too much.
The Lyceum's built shocking orkered. Vy,
the boxes is in one street, and the pit in an-
other, and the gallery in another! It's true,
sir. The pit's the best customer in most
theatres, I think. Ashley's and the Wick is both
spoiled that way — Ashley's perticler — as the
gallery's a good step from the pit and boxes;
at the Wick it's round the corner. But the
shilling gallery aint so bad at Ashley's. Sad-
ler's Wells I never tried, it's out of the way,
and I can't tell you much about the 'Lympic
or the Strand. The Lane is middling. I don't
know that either plays or actors makes much
difference to me. Perhaps it's rather vorser

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ven it's anything werry prime, as everybody
seems to know every think about it aforehand.
No, sir, I can't say, sir, that Mr. Macready did
me much good. I sometimes runs along by a
cab because I've got a sixpence from a swell
for doing it stunnin', but werry seldom, and I
don't much like it; though ven you're at it you
don't think of no fear. I makes 3s. or rather
more a week at bill-selling, and as much other
vays. I never saw a play but once at the Wick.
I'd rather be at a Free and Heasy. I don't
know as I knows any of the actors or actresses,
either hes or shes."

The sellers of play-bills purchase their stock
of the printer, at 3s. 4d. the hundred, or in
that proportion for half or quarter-hundreds.
If a smaller quantity be purchased, the charge
is usually thirteen for 6d.; though they used to
be only twelve for 6d. These sellers are among
the poorest of the poor; after they have had one
meal, they do not know how to get another.
They reside in the lowest localities, and some
few are abandoned and profligate in character.
They reckon it a good night to earn 1s. clear,
but upon an average they clear but 3s. per week.
They lose sometimes by not selling out their
nightly stock. What they have left, they are
obliged to sell for waste-paper at 2d. per 1b.
Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide are gene-
rally their best times — they will then make 9d. per night clear. The printer of the play-bills
prints but a certain number, the demand being
nearly ascertained week by week. These
are all sold (by the printer or some person
appointed) to the regular customers, in prefer-
ence to others, but the "irregulars" can get sup-
plied, though often not without trouble. The
profit on all sold is rather more than cent. per
cent. As I have intimated, when some theatres
are closed, the bill-sellers are driven to others;
and as the demand is necessarily limited,
a superflux of sellers affects the profits, and
then 2s. 6d. is considered a good week's work.
During the opera season, I am told, a few me-
chanics, out of work, will sell bills there and
books of the opera, making about 6s. a week,
and doing better than the regular hands, as they
have a better address and are better clad.

Taking the profits at 3s. a week at cent. per
cent. on the outlay, and reckoning 200 sellers,
including those at the saloons, concert-rooms,
&c., we find that 60l. is now expended weekly
on play-bills purchased in the streets of London.