University of Virginia Library

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

In this traffic are engaged about 20 men,
"when the days are light until eight o'clock;"
from 10 to 15, if the winter be a hard winter;
and if the river steamers are unable to run —
none at all. This winter, however, there has
been no cessation in the running of the "boats,"
except on a few foggy days. The steam-boat
paper-sellers are generally traders on their own
account (all, I believe, have been connected
with the newsvendors' trade); some few are the
servants of newsvendors, sent out to deal at
the wharfs and on board the boats.

The trade is not so remunerative that any
payment is made to the proprietors of the boats
or wharfs for the privilege of selling papers
there (as in the case of the railways), but it is
necessary to "obtain leave," from those who
have authority to give it.

The steam-boat paper-seller steps on board a
few minutes before the boat starts, when there
are a sufficient number of voyagers assembled.
He traverses the deck and dives into the cabins,
offering his "papers," the titles of which he

[Description: 915EAF. Page 291.]

announces: "Punch, penny Punch, real Punch,
last number for 3d. — comic sheets, a penny —
all the London periodicals — Guide to the
Thames."

From one of these frequenters of steam-boats
for the purposes of his business, I had the
following account:

"I was a news-agent's boy, sir, near a pier,
for three or four year, then I got a start for
myself, and now I serve a pier. It's not such
a trade as you might think, still it's bread and
cheese and a drop of beer. I go on board to
sell my papers. It's seldom I sell a news-
paper; there's no call for it on the river, ex-
cept at the foreign-going ships — a few as is
sold to them — but I don't serve none on 'em.
People reads the news for nothing at the cof-
fee-shops when they breakfasts, I s'pose, and
goes on as if they took in the Times, Chron, and
'Tiser — pubs. we calls the 'Tiser — all to their
own cheek. It's penny works I sell the most
of; indeed, it's very seldom I offer anything
else, 'cause it's little use. Penny Punches is
fair sale, and I calls it `Punch' — just Punch.
It's dead now, I believe, but there's old num-
bers; still they'll be done in time. The real
Punch — I sell from six to twelve a week — I
call that there as the reel Punch. Galleries
of Comicalities is a middling sale; people
take them home with them, I think. Guides to
the Thames is good in summer. They're illus-
trated; but people sometimes grumbles and
calls them catchpennies. It ain't my fault if
they're not all that's expected, but people ex-
pects everything for 1d. Joe Millers and 'Sto-
phelees" (Mephistopheles) "I've sold, and said
they was oppositions to Punch; that's a year or
more back, but they was old, and to be had
cheap. I sell Lloyd's and Reynolds's pennies
— fairish, both of them; so's the Family He-
rald and the London Journal — very fair. I
don't venture on any three-halfpenny books on
anything like a spec., acause people says at
once: `A penny — I'll give you a penny.' I
sell seven out of eight of what I do sell
to gents.; more than that, perhaps; for you'll
not often see a woman buy nothing wots in-
tended to improve her mind. A young woman,
like a maid of all work, buys sometimes
and looks hard at the paper; but I some-
times thinks it's to show she can read. A
summer Sunday's my best time, out and out.
There's new faces then, and one goes on bolder.
I've known young gents. buy, just to offer to
young women, I'm pretty well satisfied. It's a
introduction. I have met with real gentlemen.
They've looked over all I offered for sale and
then said: `Nothing I want, my good fellow,
but here's a penny for your trouble.' I wish
there was more of them. I do sincerely.
Sometimes I've gone on board and not sold one
paper. I buy in the regular way, 9d. for a dozen
(sometimes thirteen to the dozen) of penny
pubs. I don't know what I make, for I keep
no count; perhaps a sov. in a good week and a
half in another."

I am informed that the average earnings of
these traders, altogether, may be taken at 15s. weekly; calculating that twelve carry on the
trade the year through, we find that (assuming
each man to sell at thirty-three per cent. pro-
fit — though in the case of old works it will be
cent. per cent.) upwards of 1,500l. are ex-
pended annually in steam-boat papers.