 | OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
OF THE PACKMEN, OR HAWKERS OF SOFT
WARES.
The packman, as he is termed, derives his name
from carrying his merchandise or pack upon his
back. These itinerant distributors are far less
numerous than they were twenty or twenty-five
years since. A few years since, they were mostly
Irishmen, and their principal merchandise, Irish
linens — a fabric not so generally worn now as it
was formerly.
The packmen are sometimes called Manchester-
men. These are the men whom I have described
as the sellers of shirtings, sheetings, &c. One
man, who was lately an assistant in the trade,
could reckon twenty men who were possessed of
good stocks, good connections, and who had saved
money. They traded in an honourable manner,
were well known, and much respected. The ma-
jority of them were natives of the north of Ire-
land, and two had been linen manufacturers. It
is common, indeed, for all the Irishmen in this
trade to represent themselves as having been con-
nected with the linen manufacture in Belfast.
This trade is now becoming almost entirely a
country trade. There are at present, I am told,
only five pursuing it in London, none of them
having a very extensive connection, so that only a
brief notice is necessary. Their sale is of both
cottons and linens for shirts. They carry them in
rolls of 36 yards, or in smaller rolls, each of a
dozen yards, and purchase them at the haber-
dashery swag-shops, at from 9d. to 18d. a yard.
I now speak of good articles. Their profits are
not very large — as for the dozen yards, which
cost them 9s., they often have a difficulty in get-
ting 12s. — while in street-sale, or in hawking
from house to house, there is great delay. A well-
furnished pack weighs about one cwt., and so
necessitates frequent stoppages. Cotton, for sheet-
ings, is sold in the same manner, costing the ven-
dors from 6d. to 1s. 3d. a yard.
Of the tricks of the trade, and of the tally
system of one of these chapmen, I had the fol-
lowing account from a man who had been, both as
principal and assistant, a travelling packman, but
was best acquainted with the trade in and about
London.
"My master," he said, "was an Irishman, and
told everybody he had been a manager of a linen
factory in Belfast. I believe he was brought up
to be a shoemaker, and was never in the north of
Ireland. Anyhow, he was very shy of talking
about Irish factories to Irish gentlemen. I heard
one say to him, `Don't tell me, you have the Cork
brogue.' I know he'd got some knowledge of
linen weaving at Dundee, and could talk about it
very clever; indeed he was a clever fellow.
Sometimes, to hear him talk, you'd think he was
quite a religious man, and at others that he was a
big blackguard. It wasn't drink that made the
difference, for he was no drinker. It's a great
thing on a round to get a man or woman into a
cheerful talk, and put in a joke or two; and that
he could do, to rights. I had 12s. a week, stand-
ing wages, from him, and bits of commissions on
[Description: 915EAF. Page 378.]
was a buyer of damaged goods, and we used to
`doctor' them. In some there was perhaps da-
mages by two or three threads being out all the
way, so the manufacturers wouldn't send them
to their regular customers. My master pretended
it was a secret where he got them, but, lord, I
knew; it was at a swag-shop. We used to cut up
these in twelves (twelve yards), sometimes less if
they was very bad, and take a Congreve, and just
scorch them here and there, where the flaws was
worst, and plaster over other flaws with a little
flour and dust, to look like a stain from street
water from the fire-engine. Then they were from
the stock of Mr. Anybody, the great draper, that
had his premises burnt down — in Manchester or
Glasgow, or London — if there'd been a good fire at
a draper's — or anywhere; we wasn't particular.
They was fine or strong shirtings, he'd say — and
so they was, the sound parts of them — and he'd sell
as cheap as common calico. I've heard him say,
`Why, marm, sure marm, with your eyes and
scissors and needle, them burns — ah! fire's a dread-
ful judgment on a man — isn't the least morsel of
matter in life. The stains is cured in a wash-tub
in no time. It's only touched by the fire, and
you can humour it, I know, in cutting out as a
shirt ought to be cut; it should be as carefully
done as a coat.' Then we had an Irish linen, an
imitation, you know, a kind of `Union,' which we
call double twist. It is made, I believe, in
Manchester, and is a mixture of linen and cotton.
Some of it's so good that it takes a judge to tell
the difference between it and real Irish. He got
some beautiful stuff at one time, and once sold to
a fine-dressed young woman in Brompton, a dozen
yards, at 2s. 6d. a yard, and the dozen only cost
him 14s. Then we did something on tally, but
he was dropping that trade. The shopkeepers
undersold him. `If you get 60l. out of 100l., in
tally scores,' he often said, `it's good money, and
a fair living profit; but he got far more than that.
What was worth 8s. was 18s. on tally, pay 1s. a
week. He did most that way with the masters of
coffee-shops and the landlords of little public-
houses. Sometimes, if they couldn't pay, we'd
have dinner, and that went to account, and he'd
quarrel with me after it for what was my share.
There's not much of this sort of trade now, sir.
I believe my old master got his money together
and emigrated."
"Do you want any ginuine Irish linin, ma'am?"
uttered in unmistakable brogue, seemed to au-
thenticate the fact, that the inquirer (being an
Irishman) in all likelihood possessed the legitimate
article; but as to their obtaining their goods from
Coleraine and other places in the Emerald Isle,
famed for the manufacture of linen, it was and
is as pure fiction as the Travels of Baron Mun-
chausen.
The majority of these packmen have discon-
tinued dealing in linens exclusively, and have
added silks, ladies' dresses, shawls and various
articles connected with the drapery business. The
country, and small towns and villages, remote
from the neighbourhood of large and showy shops,
are the likeliest markets for the sale of their
goods. In London the Irish packmen have been
completely driven out by the Scotch tallymen,
who indeed are the only class of packmen likely to
succeed in London. If the persevering Scotch
tallyman can but set foot in a decent-looking
residence, and be permitted to display his tempt-
ing finery to the "lady of the house," he
generally manages to talk her into purchasing
articles that perhaps she has no great occasion
for, and which serve often to involve her in diffi-
culties for a considerable period — causing her no
little perplexity, and requiring much artifice to
keep the tallyman's weekly visits a secret from
her husband — to say nothing of paying an enor-
mous price for the goods; for the many risks
which the tallyman incurs, necessitates of course
an exorbitant rate of profit.
"The number of packmen or hawkers of shawls,
silks, &c., I think" (says one of their own body)
"must have decreased full one-half within the last
few years. The itinerant haberdashery trade is
far from the profitable business that it used to be,
and not unfrequently do I travel a whole day
without taking a shilling: still, perhaps, one day's
good work will make up for half a dozen bad ones.
All the packmen have hawkers' licences, as they
have mostly too valuable a stock to incur the risk
of losing it for want of such a privilege. Some of
the fraternity" (says my informant) "do not always
deal `upon the square;' they profess to have just
come from India or China, and to have invested
all their capital in silks of a superior description
manufactured in those countries, and to have got
them on shore `unbeknown to the Custom-
house authorities.' This is told in confidence to
the servant-man or woman who opens the door —
`be so good as tell the lady as much,' says the
hawker, `for really I'm afraid to carry the goods
much longer, and I have already sold enough to
pay me well enough for my spec — go, there's a
good girl, tell your missus I have splendid goods,
and am willing almost to give them away, and if we
makes a deal of it, why I don't mind giving you a
handsome present for yourself.' " This is a bait not
to be resisted. Should the salesman succed with
the mistress, he carries out his promise to the
maid by presenting her with a cap ribbon, or a
cheap neckerchief.
The most primitive kind of packmen, or hawkers
of soft-wares, who still form part of the distributing
machinery of the country, traverse the highlands
of Scotland. They have their regular rounds, and
regular days of visiting their customers; their
arrival is looked for with interest by the country
people; and the inmates of the farm-house where
they locate for the night consider themselves for-
tunate in having to entertain the packman; for he
is their newsmonger, their story-teller, their friend,
and their acquaintance, and is always made wel-
come. His wares consist of hose — linsey wolsey,
for making petticoats — muslins for caps — ribbons
— an assortment of needles, pins, and netting-pins
— and all sorts of small wares. He always travels
on foot. It is suspected that he likewise does
a little in the "jigger line," for many of these
[Description: 915EAF. Page 379.]
illicit distilleries; and the packmen are suspected
of trafficking without excise interference. Glasgow,
Dundee, Galashiels, and Harwick are the principal
manufacturing towns where the packman replen-
ishes his stock. "My own opinion," says an
informant of considerable experience, "is that
these men seldom grow rich; but the prevailing
idea in the country part of Scotland is, that the
pedlar has an unco lang stockin wi' an awfu'
amount o goden guineas in it, and that his pocket
buik is plumped out wi' a thick roll of bank
notes. Indeed there are many instances upon
record of poor packmen having been murdered —
the assassins, doubtlessly, expecting a rich booty."
It scarcely ever costs the packman of Scotland
anything for his bed and board. The Highlanders
are a most hospitable people with acquaintances —
although with strangers at first they are invariably
shy and distant. In Ireland there is also the
travelling pedlar, whose habits and style of doing
business are nearly similar to that of the Scotch-
man. Some of the packmen of Scotland have
risen to eminence and distinction. A quondam
lord provost of Glasgow, a gentleman still living,
and upon whom the honour of knighthood has
been conferred, was, according to common report,
in his earlier days a packman; and rumour also
does the gentleman the credit to acknowledge that
he is not ashamed to own it.
I am told by a London hawker of soft goods, or
packman, that the number of his craft, hawking
London and its vicinity, as far as he can judge, is
about 120 (the census of 1841 makes the London
hawkers, hucksters and pedlars amount to 2041).
In the 120 are included the Irish linen hawkers. I
am also informed that the fair trader's profits amount
to about 20 per cent., while those of the not over-
particular trader range from 80 to 200 per cent.
In a fair way of business it is said the hawker's
taking will amount, upon an average, to 7l. or 8l.
per week; whereas the receipts of the "duffer," or
unfair hawker, will sometimes reach to 50l. per
week. Many, however, travel days, and do not
turn a penny.
| OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |