University of Virginia Library

OF THE EXPERIENCE OF A STREET BOOK-
SELLER.

I now give a statement, furnished to me by an
experienced man, as to the nature of his trade,
and the class of his customers. Most readers
will remember having seen an account in the
life of some poor scholar, having read — and oc-
casionally, in spite of the remonstrances of
the stall-keeper — some work which he was too
needy to purchase, and even of his having read
it through at intervals. That something of this
kind is still to be met with will be found from
the following account:

"My customers, sir, are of all sorts," my
informant said. "They're gentlemen on their
way from the City, that have to pass along
here by the City-road. Bankers' clerks, very
likely, or insurance-office clerks, or such like.
They're customers, but they often screw
me. Why only last month a gentleman I know
very well by sight, and I see him pass in his
brougham in bad weather, took up an old Latin
book — if I remember right it was an odd volume

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of a French edition of Horace — and though it
was marked only 8d., it was long before he
would consent to give more than 6d. And I
should never have got my price if I hadn't heard
him say quite hastily, when he took up the book,
`The very thing I've long been looking for!'
Mechanics are capital customers for scientific or
trade books, such as suit their business; and so
they often are for geography and history, and
some for poetry; but they're not so screwy. I
know a many such who are rare ones for search-
ing into knowledge. Women buy very little of
me in comparison to men; sometimes an odd
novel, in one volume, when its cheap, such as
`The Pilot,' or `The Spy,' or `The Farmer of
Inglewood Forest,' or `The Monk.' No doubt
some buy `The Monk,' not knowing exactly what
sort of a book it is, but just because it's a ro-
mance; but some young men buy it, I know,
because they have learned what sort it's like.
Old three vol. novels won't sell at all, if they're
ever so cheap. Boys very seldom buy of me,
unless it's a work about pigeons, or something
that way.

"I can't say that odd vols. of Annual Regis-
ters are anything but a bad sale, but odd vols.
of old Mags. (magazines), a year or half-year
bound together, are capital. Old London Mags.,
or Ladies', or Oxford and Cambridges, or Town
and Countrys, or Universals, or Monthly Re-
views, or Humourists, or Ramblers, or Europe-
ans, or any of any sort, that's from 40 to 100
years old, no matter what they are, go off rapidly
at from 1s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. each, according to size,
and binding, and condition. Odd numbers of
Mags. are good for little at a stall. The old Mags.
in vols. are a sort of reading a great many
are very fond of. Lives of the Princess Char-
lotte are a ready penny enough. So are Queen
Carolines, but not so good. Dictionaries of all
kinds are nearly as selling as the old Mags.,
and so are good Latin books. French are only
middling; not so well as you might think."

My informant then gave me a similar account
to what I had previously received concerning
English classics, and proceeded: "Old religious
books, they're a fair trade enough, but they're
not so plentiful on the stalls now, and if they're
black-letter they don't find their way from the
auctions or anywhere to any places but the shops
or to private purchasers. Mrs. Rowe's `Know-
ledge of the Heart' goes off, if old. Bibles, and
Prayer-books, and Hymn-books, are very bad."
[This may be accounted for by the cheapness
of these publications, when new, and by the
facilities afforded to obtain them gratuitously.]
"Annuals are dull in going off; very much so,
though one might expect different. I can hardly
sell `Keepsakes' at all. Children's books, such
as are out one year at 2s. 6d. apiece, very nicely
got up, sell finely next year at the stalls for
from 6d. to 10d. Genteel people buy them of
us for presents at holiday times. They'll give
an extra penny quite cheerfully if there's `Price
2s. 6d.' or `Price 3s. 6d.' lettered on the back
or part of the title-page. School-books in good
condition don't stay long on hand, especially
Pinnock's. There's not a few people who
stand and read and read for half an hour or
an hour at a time. It's very trying to the
temper when they take up room that way, and
prevent others seeing the works, and never lay
out a penny theirselves. But they seem quite
lost in a book. Well, I'm sure I don't know
what they are. Some seem very poor, judging
by their dress, and some seem shabby genteels.
I can't help telling them, when I see them
going, that I'm much obliged, and I hope that
perhaps next time they'll manage to say `thank
ye,' for they don't open their lips once in twenty
times. I know a man in the trade that goes
dancing mad when he has customers of this
sort, who aren't customers. I dare say, one day
with another, I earn 3s. the year through; wet
days are greatly against us, for if we have a
cover people won't stop to look at a stall. Per-
haps the rest of my trade earn the same." This
man told me that he was not unfrequently asked,
and by respectable people, for indecent works,
but he recommended them to go to Holywell-
street themselves. He believed that some of
his fellow-traders did supply such works, but
to no great extent.

An elderly man, who had known the street
book-trade for many years, but was not con-
cerned in it when I saw him, told me that he
was satisfied he had sold old books, old plays
often, to Charles Lamb, whom he described as
a stuttering man, who, when a book suited him,
sometimes laid down the price, and smiled and
nodded, and then walked away with it in his
pocket or under his arm, without a word having
been exchanged. When we came to speak of
dates, I found that my informant — who had only
conjectured that this was Lamb — was unques-
tionably mistaken. One of the best customers
he ever had for anything old or curious, and in
Italian, if he remembered rightly, as well as
in English, was the late Rev. Mr. Scott, who
was chaplain on board the Victory, at the time
of Nelson's death at Trafalgar. "He had a
living in Yorkshire, I believe it was," said the
man, "and used to come up every now and then
to town. I was always glad to see his white
head and rosy face, and to have a little talk with
him about books and trade, though it wasn't
always easy to catch what he said, for he spoke
quick, and not very distinct. But he was a
pleasant old gentleman, and talked to a poor
man as politely as he might to an admiral. He
was very well known in my trade, as I was then
employed."

The same man once sold to a gentleman, he
told me, and he believed it was somewhere about
twenty-five years ago, if not more, a Spanish or
Portuguese work, but what it was he did not
know. It was marked 1s. 9d., being a good-
sized book, but the stall-keeper was tired of
having had it a long time, so that he gladly
would have taken 9d. for it. The gentleman in
question handed him half-a-crown, and, as he
had not the change, the purchaser said: "O,

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don't mind; it's worth far more than half-a-
crown to me." When this liberal customer had
walked away, a gentleman who had been stand-
ing at the stall all the time, and who was an
occasional buyer, said, "Do you know him?"
and, on receiving an answer in the negative, he
rejoined, "That's Southey."

Another stall-keeper told me that his cus-
tomers — some of whom he supplied with any
periodical in the same way as a newsvendor —
had now and then asked him, especially "the
ladies of the family," who glanced, when they
passed, at the contents of his stall, why he had
not newer works? "I tell them," said the
stall-keeper, "that they haven't become cheap
enough yet for the streets, but that they would
come to it in time." After some conversation
about his trade, which only confirmed the state-
ments I have given, he said laughingly, "Yes,
indeed, you all come to such as me at last.
Why, last night I heard a song about all the
stateliest buildings coming to the ivy, and I
thought, as I listened, it was the same with
authors. The best that the best can do is the
book-stall's food at last. And no harm, for he's
in the best of company, with Shakespeare, and
all the great people."

Calculating 15s. weekly as the average earn-
ings of the street book-stall keepers — for further
information induces me to think that the street
bookseller who earned 18s. a week regularly,
cleared it by having a "tidy pitch" — and reckon-
ing that, to clear such an amount, the book-
seller takes, at least, 1l. 11s. 6d. weekly, we find
5,460 guineas yearly expended in the purchase
of books at the purely street-stalls, indepen-
dently of what is laid out at the open-air stalls
connected with book-shops.