University of Virginia Library

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF TEXTILE FABRICS.

These street-folk present perhaps as great a di-
versity of character as any of which I have been
called upon to treat.

Among them are the strong persevering men,
who carry rolls of linen or cotton manufacture in
packs on their backs, and trudge along holding a
yard-wand by the middle, which — it is a not un-
common joke against them — is always worn down
an inch or two, by being used as a walking-stick
in their long pedestrian journeys. Such, however,
is not the case, for the packman — when measuring
is resorted to — generally shows the justice of his
measure, or invites the purchaser to use her own
yard-wand (for women are now their most fre-
quent customers). Some of these men love to tell
of the many hundreds of miles they have walked in
their time, and in the three kingdoms. The most
of those who make London, or any large town their
head-quarters, and take regular journeys into the
country, are licensed hawkers; those who confine
their sales exclusively to London and its immediate
vicinity, frequently conduct their business without
incurring the annual cost of a licence. The pe-
nalty for hawking without a licence is 10l., or an
imprisonment (in default of payment) not excecd-
ing three months, with a discretionary power of
mitigation to the magistrates. Some of these men
may be styled hereditary hawkers, having first
accompanied and then succeeded their parents on
a round; some were in their youth assistants to
hawkers; some had been unsuccessful as tallymen
when shopkeepers, or travellers for tally-shops,
and have resorted to hawking or street-trading,
occasionally, in their transactions with different
parties, blending the tally system with the simple
rules of sale for ready money.

In striking contrast to these sturdy and often
astute traders are the street-sellers of lace and
millinery, the majority of whom are women. A
walk through a street-market, especially on a
Saturday evening, will show any one the frequent
difference of the established street-milliner to the
other female traders surrounding her stall. The
milliner, as she is commonly called by the street-
folk, wears a clean, and often tasty cap, beneath
her closely-fitting bonnet, a cap in which artificial
flowers are not wanting, should she sell those
adornments. Her shawl is pinned beneath her
collar; her gown, if it be old or of poor material,
is clean; and she is rarely to be seen in boots
or shoes made for men's wear. Near her stall are
stout, coarse-looking Irish girls, with unstringed
bonnets, half-ragged shawls, thrown loose round
their shoulders, necks red from exposure to the
weather, coarse and never brushed, but sometimes
scraped, shoes, when shoes are worn, and a general
dirtiness of apparel. The street-milliners have
been ladies'-maids, working milliners and dress-
makers, the wives of mechanics who have been
driven to the streets, and who add to the means
of the family by conducting a street-trade them-
selves, with a sprinkling from other classes.

The street-sellers of lace are of the same class
as the milliners, but with perhaps less smartness,
and carrying on an inferior trade both as regards
profit and display.

The street-sellers of boot and stay-laces and of
such things as sewing cotton, threads and tapes,
when sold separately from more valuable articles, are
children and old people, some of whom are infirm,
and some blind. The children have, in some in-
stances, been bred to the streets; the old people
probably are worn out in street-trades requiring
health and strength, and so adopt a less laborious
calling, or else they have been driven to it, either
from comparatively better circumstances, or by
some privation or affliction, in order to avoid the
workhouse.

The sale of belts, stockings, braces, straps and
garters, is mostly in the hands of men, who, from
all that I can learn, are regular street-sellers, who
"turn their hands first to this and then to that,"
but this portion of street-traffic is often combined
with the sale of dog-collars, chains, &c. The trade
is more a public-house than a distinct traffic in
the street. The landlord of a well-frequented inn
in Lambeth told me that every day at least 100 of
such street-sellers — not including match-girls and

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women — entered his house to offer their wares;
the greatest number of such sellers was in the
evening.

I have so far described what may be called the
fair traders, but to them the street-sellers of textile
fabrics are not confined. There are besides these,
two other classes known as "Duffers" and as "Lum-
pers," and sometimes the same man is both "Duffer"
and "Lumper." The two names are often con-
founded, but an intelligent street-seller, versed in
all the arts and mysteries of this trade, told me that
he understood by a "Duffer," a man who sold goods
under false pretences, making out that they were
smuggled, or even stolen, so as to enhance the idea
of their cheapness; whereas a "Lumper" would
sell linens, cottons, or silks, which might be really
the commodities represented; but which, by some
management or other, were made to appear new
when they were old, or solid when they were
flimsy.