 | OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MISCELLANEOUS
MANUFACTURED ARTICLES.
In addition to the more staple wares which form
the street trade in manufactured articles of a
miscellaneous character, are many, as I said before,
which have been popular for a while and are now
entirely disused. In the course of my inquiry it
was remarkable how oblivious I found many of
the street-sellers as to what they had sold at
various periods. "O dear, yes sir, I've sold
all sorts of things in the streets besides what
I'm on now; first one and then another as
promised a few pence," was the substance of a re-
mark I frequently heard; but what was meant by
the one and the other thing thus sold they had a
difficulty to call to mind, but on a hint being
thrown out they could usually give the necessary
details. From the information I acquired I select
the following curious matter.
Six or seven years ago Galvanic Rings were
sold extensively by the street-folk. These were
clumsy lead-coloured things, which were described
by the puffing shop-keepers, and in due course by
the street-sellers, as a perfect amulet; a thing
which by its mere contact with the finger would
not only cure but prevent "fits, rheumatics, and
cramps." On my asking a man who had sold
them if these were all the ailments of which he
and the others proclaimed the galvanic rings an
infallible cure, he answered: "Like the quack
medicines you read about, sir, in 'vertisements, we
said they was good for anything anybody com-
plained of or was afraid was coming on them, but
we went mostly for rheumatics. A sight of tin
some of the shopkeepers must have made, for
what we sold at 1d. they got 6d. a piece for.
Then for gold galvanics — and I've been told they
was gilt — they had 10s. 6d. each. The streets is
nothing to the shops on a dodge. I've been told
by people as I'd sold galvanics to, that they'd had
benefit from them. I suppose that was just su-
perstitious. I think Hyams did the most of any
house in galvanics."
The men selling these rings — for the business
was carried on almost entirely by men — were the
regular street-traders, who sell "first one thing
and then another." They were carried in boxes,
as I have shown medals are now, and they gene-
rally formed a portion of the street-jeweller's stock,
whether he were itinerant or stationary. The
purchasers were labourers in the open air, such as
those employed about buildings, whose exposure
to the alternations of heat and cold render them
desirous of a cure for, or preventive against rheu-
matism. The costermongers were also purchasers,
and in the course of my inquiries among that
numerous body, I occasionally saw a galvanic ring
still worn by a few, and those chiefly, I think,
fish-sellers.
Nor was the street or shop trade in these gal-
vanic rings confined to amulets for the finger. I
heard of one elderly woman, then a prosperous
street-seller in the New Cut, who slept with a
galvanic ring on every toe, she suffered so much
from cramp and rheumatism! There were also
galvanic shields, which were to be tied round the
waist, and warranted "to cure all over." They
were retailed at 6d. each. Galvanic earrings were
likewise a portion of this manufacture. They
were not "drops" from the ear, but filled behind
and around it as regards the back of the skull,
and were to avert rheumatic attacks, and even
aching from the head. The street price was 1s.
the pair. Galvanic bracelets, handsomely gilt,
were 2s. 6d. the pair. But the sale of all these
highter-priced charms was a mere nonentity com-
pared to that of the penny rings.
Another trade — if it may be classed under this
head — carried on by great numbers and with
great success for a while, was that of cards with
the Lord's Prayer in the compass of a sixpence.
This was an engraving — now and then offered in
the streets still — strictly fulfilling the announce-
ment as to the compass in which the Prayer was
contained, with the addition of a drawing of the
Bible, as part of the engraving, "within the six-
[Description: 915EAF. Page 437.]
in the hands of the patterers: "Grand novelty!"
they said; "splendid engraving! The Lord's
Prayer, with a beautiful picture of the Bible, all
legible to the naked eye, in the compass of a six-
pence. Five hundred letters, all clear, on a six-
pence." One man said to me: "I knew very
well there wasn't 500, but it was a neat number
to cry. A schoolmaster said to me once — `Why,
there isn't above half that number of letters.' He
was wrong though; for I believe there's 280."
This card was published six or seven years ago,
and the success attending the sale of the Lord's
Prayer, led to the publication of the Belief in the
same form. "When the trade was new," said
one man, "I could sell a gross in a day without
any very great trouble; but in a little time there
was hundreds in the trade, and one might patter
hard to sell four dozen."
The wholesale price was 8s. the gross, and as
thirteen cards went to the dozen, the day's profit
when a gross was sold was 5s. When the sale
did not extend to beyond four dozen the profit was
1s. 8d. A few cards "in letters of gold" were
vended in the streets at 6d. each. They had
large margins and presented a handsome appear-
ance. The wholesale price was 3s. 6d. the dozen.
When this trade was at its height, there were,
I am told, from 500 to 700 men, women and
children engaged in it; selling the cards both
with and without other articles. The cards had
also a very extensive sale in the country.
Pen-holders with glass or china handles are an-
other commodity which appeared suddenly, about
six months ago, in street commerce, and at once be-
came the staple of a considerable traffic. These pens
are eight or nine inches long, the "body," so to
speak, being of solid round glass, of almost all
colours, green, blue, and black predominating, with
a seal (lacquered white or yellow) at the top, and a
holder of the usual kind, with a steel pen at the
bottom. Some are made of white pot and called
"China pens," and of these some are ornamented
with small paintings of flowers and leaves. These
wares are German, and were first charged 9s. 6d.
the gross, without pens, which were an additional
3d. at the swag-shops. The price is now 5s. the
gross, the pens being the same. The street-
sellers who were fortunate enough to "get a good
start" with these articles did exceedingly well.
The pen-holders, when new, are handsome-looking,
and at 1d. each were cheap; some few were at
first retailed at 2d. One man, I am told, sold
two-and-a-half gross in one day in the neighbour-
hood of the Bank, purchasers not seldom taking
a dozen or more. As the demand continued,
some men connected with the supply of goods for
street sale, purchased all the stock in the swag-
shops, expending about 170l., and at once raised
the price to 10s. 6d. the gross. This amount the
poorer street-sellers demurred to give, as they
could rarely obtain a higher price than 1d. each,
and 2d. for the ornamented holders, but the street-
stationers (who bought, however, very sparingly)
and the small shopkeepers gave the advance "as
they found the glass-holders asked for." On the
whole, I am told, this forestalling was not very
profitable to the speculators, as when fresh sup-
plies were received at the "swags," the price fell.
At first this street business was carried on by
men, but it was soon resorted to by numbers of
poor women and children. One gentleman in-
formed me that in consequence of reading "Lon-
don Labour and the London Poor," he usually
had a little talk with the street-sellers of whom he
purchased any trifle; he bought these pen-holders
of ten or twelve different women and girls; all of
them could answer correctly his inquiry as to the
uses of the pens; but only one girl, of fifteen or
sixteen, and she hesitatingly, ventured to assert
that she could write her own name with the pen
she offered for sale. The street-trade still con-
tinues, but instead of being in the hands of 400
individuals — as it was, at the very least, I am
assured, at one period — there are now only about
fifty carrying it on itinerantly, while with the
"pitched" sales-people, the glass-holders are
merely a portion of the stock, and with the itine-
rants ten dozen a week (a receipt of 10s., and a
profit of 4s. 9d.) is now an average sale. The
former glass-holder sellers of the poorer sort are
now vending oranges.
Shirt Buttons form another of the articles —
(generally either "useful things" or with such
recommendation to street-buyers as the galvanic
amulets possessed) — which every now and then
are disposed of in great quantities in the streets.
If an attempt be made by a manufacturer to es-
tablish a cheaper shirt button, for instance, of
horn, or pot, or glass, and if it prove unsuccessful,
or if an improvement be effected and the old stock
becomes a sort of dead stock, the superseded goods
have to be disposed of, and I am informed by a
person familiar with those establishments, that
the swag-shopkeepers can always find customers,
"for anything likely," with the indispensable
proviso that it be cheap. In this way shirt but-
tons have lately been sold in the streets, not only
by the vendors of small wares in their regular
trade, but by men, lads, and girls, some of the
males shirtless themselves, who sell them solely,
with a continuous and monotonous cry of "Half-
penny a dozen; halfpenny a dozen." The whole-
sale price of the last "street lot," was 3d. the
gross, or ¼d. the dozen. To clear 6d. a day in
shirt buttons is "good work;" it is more fre-
quently 4d.
| OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |