University of Virginia Library

AN EPITOME OF THE PATTERING CLASS.

I wish, before passing to the next subject — the
street-sellers of manufactured articles (of one
of whom the engraving here given furnishes a
well-known specimen) — I wish, I say, as I find
some mistakes have occurred on the subject, to
give the public a general view of the patterers,
as well as to offer some few observations con-
cerning the means of improving the habits of
street-people in general.

The patterers consist of three distinct classes;
viz., those who sell something, and patter to
help off their goods; those who exhibit some-
thing, and patter to help off the show; and
those who do nothing but patter, with a view
to elicit alms. Under the head of "Patterers
who sell" may be classed

             

Paper Workers,	Dealers in Razor Paste,
Quack Doctors,	Dealers in French Polish,
Cheap Jacks,	Dealers in Plating Balls,
Grease Removers,	Dealers in CandleShades,
Wager Patterers,	Dealers in Rat Poisons, &
Ring Sellers,	Dealers in Blacking,
Dealers in Corn Salve,	Book Auctioneers.

The second class of patterers includes jug-
glers, showmen, clowns, and fortune-tellers; be-
side several exhibitors who invite public notice
to the wonders of the telescope or microscope.

The third and last class of patterers are
those who neither sell nor amuse, but only
victimise those who get into their clutches.
These (to use their own words) "do it on the
bounce." Their general resort is an inferior
public-house, sometimes a brothel, or a coffee-
shop. One of the tricks of these worthies is to
group together at a window, and if a well-dressed
person pass by, to salute him with the con-
tents of a flour-bag. One of their pals — better
dressed than the rest — immediately walks out,
declares it was purely accidental, and invites
the gentleman in "to be brushed." Probably
he consents, and still more probably, if he be
"good-natured," he is plied with liquor, drugged
with snuff for the occasion, and left in some ob-
scure court, utterly stupified. When he awakes,
he finds that his watch, purse, &c., are gone.

"A casual observer, or even a stranger, may
be induced to contract a wayside acquaintance
with the parties to whom I allude," says one of
the pattering class, from whom I have received
much valuable information; "and if he be a
visitor of fairs and races, that acquaintance,
though slight, may sometimes prove expensive.

[Description: 915EAF. Page 310.]

But casual observers cannot, from the com-
plexity and varied circumstances of the charac-
ters now under notice, form anything like a
correct view of them. I am convinced that no one
can, but those who have visited their haunts and
indeed lived among them for months together.
They are not to be known, any more than the
great city was to be built, in a day. This ad-
vantage — if so it may be called — has fallen to
my lot."

The three classes of patterers above enume-
rated must not be confounded. The two first
are essentially distinct from the last — at least
they do something for their living; and though
the pattering street-tradesmen may generally
overstep the bounds of truth in their glowing
descriptions of the virtues of the goods they
sell, still it should be remembered they are no
more dishonest in their dealings than the "en-
terprising" class of shopkeepers, who resort to
the printed mode of puffing off their wares, —
indeed the street-sellers are far less reprehen-
sible than their more wealthy brother puffers of
the shops, who cannot plead want as an excuse
for their dishonesty. The recent revelations
made by the Lancet, as to the adulteration of the
articles of diet sold by the London grocers,
show that the patterers who sell, practise far
less imposition than some of our "merchant
princes."

Indeed the Lancet has demonstrated that as
regards tea, coffee, arrow-root, sugar, and
pepper sold by "pattering" shopkeepers, the
rule invariably is that those are articles which
are the most puffed, and "warranted free from
adulteration," and "to which the attention of
families and invalids is particularly directed as
being of the finest quality ever imported into
this country," are uniformly the most scanda-
lously adulterated of all.

We should, therefore, remember while vent-
ing our indignation against pattering street-
sellers, that they are not the only puffers in the
world, and that they, at least, can plead poverty
in extenuation of their offence; whereas, it
must be confessed, that shopkeepers can have
no other cause for their acts but their own
brutalizing greed of gain.

The class of patterers with whom we have
here to deal are those who patter to help off
their goods — but while describing them it has
been deemed advisable to say a few words, also,
on the class who do nothing but patter, as a
means of exciting commiseration to their as-
sumed calamities. These parties, it should be
distinctly understood, are in no way connected
with the puffing street-sellers, but in the exag-
gerated character of the orations they deliver,
they are mostly professional beggars — or bounc-
ers (that is to say cheats of the lowest kind),
and will not work or do anything for their
living. This, at least, cannot be urged against
the pattering street-sellers who, as was before
stated, do something for the bread they eat.

Further to show the extent, and system, of
the lodging and routes throughout the country
of the class of "lurkers," &c., here described —
as all resorting to those places — I got a patterer
to write me out a list, from his own knowledge,
of divers routes, and the extent of accommoda-
tion in the lodging-houses. I give it according
to the patterer's own classification.

"Brighton is a town where there is a great
many furnished cribs, let to needys (nightly
lodgers) that are molled up," [that is to say,
associated with women in the sleeping-rooms.]

SURREY AND SUSSEX.

                 

Dossing Cribs, or Lodging- houses	Beds.	Needys, or Nightly	Lodgers.
Wandsworth	6	9	108
Croydon	9	8	144
Reigate	5	6	60
Cuckfield	2	8	32
Horsham	3	7	52
Lewis	7	6	84
Kingston	12	8	192
Brighton	16	9	228

"Bristol. — A few years back an old woman
kept a padding -ken here. She was a strong
Methodist, but had a queer method. There was
thirty standing beds, besides make-shifts and
furnished rooms, which were called `cottages.'
It's not so bad now. The place was well-known
to the monkry, and you was reckoned flat if
you hadn't been there. The old woman, when any
female, old or young, who had not tin, came into
the kitchen, made up a match for her with some
men. Fellows half-drunk had the old women.
There was always a broomstick at hand, and
they was both made to jump over it, and that
was called a broomstick wedding. Without that
ceremony a couple weren't looked on as man
and wife. In course the man paid, in such
case, for the dos (bed.)

                       

Kensington	6	7	84
Brentford	12	8	192
Hounslow	6	5	60
Colebrook	2	7	20
Windsor	7	10	140
Maidenhead	4	5	40
Reading	12	9	216
Oxford	14	7	196
Banbury	10	12	240
Marlboro'	8	7	112
Bath	10	8	160
Bristol	20	11	440

"Counties of Kent and Essex. — Here is the best
places in England for `skipper-birds;' (parties
that never go to lodging-houses, but to barns or
outhouses, sometimes without a blanket.) The
Kent farmers permit it to their own travellers,
or the travellers they know. In Essex it's dif-
ferent. There a farmer will give 1s. rather than
let a traveller sleep on his premises, for fear

[Description: 915EAF. Page 311.]

of robbery. `Keyhole whistlers,' the skipper-
birds are sometimes called, but they're regular
travellers. Kent's the first county in England
for them. They start early to good houses for
victuals, when gentlefolk are not up. I've seen
them doze and sleep against the door. They
like to be there before any one cuts their cart
(exposes their tricks). Travellers are all early
risers. It's good morning in the country when
it's good night in town.

KENT.

                         

Dossing Cribs, or Lodging- houses	Beds.	Needys, or Nightly Lodgers.	Deptford #18 #9 #324
Greenwich	6	8	26
Woolwich	9	8	144
Gravesend	6	7	84
Chatham	20	10	400
Maidstone	5	7	70
Sittingbourne	3	6	36
Sheerness	4	5	40
Faversham	3	5	30
Canterbury	11	8	176
Dover	12	9	216
Ramsgate	4	5	40
Margate	6	6	72

ESSEX.

                         

Stratford	10	9	180
Ilford	3	7	52
Barking	4	6	48
Billericay	5	7	70
Orsett	2	8	32
Rayleigh	3	9	54
Rochford	3	8	48
Leigh	4	8	64
Prettywell	2	7	28
Southend	3	8	48
Maldon	5	9	90
Witham	4	8	64
Colchester	15	10	300

"Windsor. — At Ascot race -time I've paid
many 1s. just to sit up all night.

"Colchester. — Life in London at the Bugle;
called `Hell upon earth' sometimes.

                       

Barnet	5	1	80
Watford	6	8	90
Hemel-Hempstead	3	5	30
Uxbridge	6	7	84
Tring	2	6	24
Dunstable	6	5	60
Stony-Stratford	3	6	36
Northampton	13	9	234
Towcester	4	7	56
Daventry	5	9	90
Coventry	16	9	288
Birmingham	50	11	1100

HERTS AND BEDFORDSHIRE.

                         

Edmonton	14	7	196
Waltham-Abbey	3	6	36
Cheshunt-Street	2	7	28
Hoddesden	3	8	48
Hertford	9	9	162
Ware	7	10	140
Puckeridge	2	5	20
Buntingford	3	8	48
Royston	4	10	40
Hitchin	7	9	126
Luton	6	8	96
Bedford	9	7	126
St. Alban's	8	6	96

SUFFOLK AND NORFOLK.

           

Ipswich	24	8	384
Hadleigh	8	7	112
Halsted	5	6	60
Stowmarket	4	7	56
Woodbridge	6	5	60
Sudbury	4	7	56

           

Dossing Cribs, or Lodging- houses	Beds.	Needys, or Nightly Lodgers.	Bury St. Edmund's #8 #8 #128
Thetford	3	6	36
Attleboro'	2	5	20
Wymondham	1	11	22
Norwich	40	9	720
Yarmouth	16	8	256