 | OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
OF THE HABERDASHERY SWAG-SHOPS.
By this name the street-sellers have long distin-
guished the warehouses, or rather shops, where
they purchase their goods. The term Swag, or
Swack, or Sweg, is, as was before stated, a Scotch
word, meaning a large collection, a "lot." The
haberdashery, however, supplied by these esta-
blishments is of a very miscellaneous character;
which, perhaps, can best be shown by describing
a "haberdashery swag," to which a street-seller,
who made his purchases there, conducted me, and
which, he informed me, was one of the most fre-
quented by his fraternity, if not the most frequented,
in the metropolis.
The window was neither dingy, nor, as my
companion expressed it, "gay." It was in size,
as well as in "dressing," or "show" — for I heard
the arrangement of the window goods called by
both those names by street people — half-way
between the quiet plainness of a really wholesale
warehouse, and the gorgeousness of a retail drapery
concern, when a "tremendous sacrifice" befools the
public. Not a quarter of an inch of space was
lost, and the announcements and prices were
written many of them in a bungling school-boy-
like hand, while others were the work of a pro-
fessional "ticket writer," and show the eagerness
of so many of this class of trade to obtain custom.
In one corner was this announcement: "To boot-
makers. Boot fronts cut to any size or quality."
There was neither boot nor shoe visible, but how
a boot front can be cut "to any quality," is beyond
my trade knowledge. Half hidden, and read
through laces, was another announcement, suffi-
ciently odd, in a window decorated with a variety
of combustible commodities: "Hawkers supplied
with fuzees cheaper than any house in London." On
the "ledge," or the part shelving from the bottom
of the window, within the shop, were paper boxes
of steel purses with the price marked so loosely
as to leave it an open question whether 1s. 0¾d.
or 10¾d. was the cost. There was also a good store
of silk purses, marked 2½d.; bright-coloured
ribbons, in a paper box, and done up in small rolls,
1½d.; cotton reels, four a penny; worsted balls,
three a penny; girls' night-caps, 1¾d.; women's
caps, from 2¾d. to 7¾d.; (the ¾d. was always in
small indistinct characters, but it was a very favour-
ite adjunct); diamond patent mixed pins — London
and Birmingham — 1d. an oz. My companion
directed my attention to the little packets of pins:
"They're well done up, sir, as you can see, and
in very good and thick and strong pink papers,
with ornamental printers' borders, and plenty of
paper for three cunces. The paper's weighed with
the pins, and the price is 1d. an oz.; so the paper
fetches 1s. 4d. a pound." There were also many
papers of combs, and one tied outside the packet
as a specimen, without a price marked upon them.
"The price varies, sir;" said my guide and in-
formant, and I heard the same account from others;
"it varies from 1d. a pair to such as me; up to
6d. or perhaps 1s. to a servant-maid what looks
innocent."
From what appeared to be slender rods fitted
higher up to the breadth of the window depended
"black lace handkerchiefs, 4¾d.;" and cap fronts,
some being a round wreath of gauze ornamented
with light rose-coloured artificial flowers, and
marked "only 5½d.;" together with lace (or
edgings) which hung in festoons, and filled every
vacancy. Higher up were braces marked 5d.;
and more lace; and to the back of all was a sort
of screen — for it shuts out all view of the inside of
the shop — of big-figured shawls (the figures in
purple, orange, and crimson) and of silk handker-
chiefs: "They're regular duffers," I was told,
"and very tidy duffers too — very, for it's a re-
spectable house."
In the centre of the window ledge was a hand-
some wreath of artificial flowers, marked 2½d.
"If a young woman was to go in to buy it at
2½d., I've seen it myself, sir," said the street-
seller, "she's told that the ticket has got out of
its place, for it belonged to the lace beneath, but
as she'd made a mistake without thinking of the
value, the flowers was 1s. 6d. to her, though they
was cheap at 2s. 6d."
From this account it will be seen that the swag
or wholesale haberdashers are now very general
traders; and that they trade "retail" as well as
"wholesale." Twenty or twenty-five years ago,
I am informed, the greater part of these establish-
ments were really haberdashery swags; but so
fierce became the competition in the trade, so keen
the desire "to do business," that gradually, and
more especially within these four or five years,
they became "all kinds of swags."
A highly respectable draper told me that he
never could thoroughly understand where hosiery,
haberdashery, or drapery, began or ended; for
hosiers now were always glovers, and often shirt-
makers; haberdashers were always hosiers (at
the least), and drapers were everything; so that
the change in the character of the shops from
which the street-sellers of textile fabrics procure
their supplies, is but in accordance with the change
in the general drapery trade. The literal mean-
ing of the word haberdashery is unknown to
etymologists.
There are now about fifty haberdashery swags
[Description: 915EAF. Page 374.]
of them make the trade to street-sellers a princi-
pal, while none make it a sole feature of their
business. In the enumeration of the fifty haber-
dashery "swags," five are large and handsome
shops carried on by "cutting" drapers. Some of
these — one in the borough, especially — do not
"serve" the street-sellers, except at certain hours,
generally from four to six.
There is another description of shops from
which a class of street traders derive their sup-
plies of stock. These are the "print-brokers,"
who sell "gown-pieces" to the hawkers or street-
traders. Only about a dozen of such shops, and
those principally in the borough and in Worm-
wood-street, Bishopsgate, are frequented by the
London street-sellers. One man showed me a
draper's shop, at which hawkers were "supplied,"
but without an announcement of such a thing, as
it might affect the character of the concern for
gentility. The gown-pieces were rolled loosely
together, and to each was attached a ticket,
2s. 11d. or 3s. 11d., with intermediate prices, but
those here mentioned were the most frequent. The
11d. was in pencil, so that it could be altered at
any time, without the expense of a new ticket
being incurred. "That one marked 2s. 11d.,"
said the street-seller, "would be charged to me
2s. 2d., and the 3s. 11d. in the same way 3s. 2d.,
or I might get it at 3s. If those gown-pieces don't
take — and they are almost as thin as silver-paper,
— they'll be marked down to 2s. 2d. and 3s. 2d.,
just by degrees, as you see them shown in the
window." The regular "print-brokers" make no
display in their windows or premises.
The "duffers" and "lumpers" are supplied almost
entirely at one shop in the east end. The pro-
prietor has the sham, or inferior, silk handkerchiefs
manufactured for the purpose; and for the supply
of his other silk-goods, he purchases any silk
"miscoloured" in the dyeing, or faded from time.
"A faded lavender," one of his customers told
me, "he'll get dyed black, and made to look
quite new and fresh. Sometimes it's good silk,
but it's mostly very dicky." This tradesman is
also a retailer.
Such things as braces and garters are sold to
the street people at the general as well as the
haberdashery swag-shops; and are more frequently
sold wholesale than other goods; indeed the
general swag-shop keepers sell them by no other
way; but the "wholesale haberdashers" will sell a
single pair, though not, of course, at wholesale
price. Some houses again supply the more petty
street-sellers, solely with such articles as are
known in Manchester by the name of small-ware,
including thread, cotton, tapes, laces, &c.
| OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |