University of Virginia Library

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF WASH-LEATHERS.

The wash-leathers, sometimes called "shammys"
(chamois), now sold extensively in the streets, are
for the most part the half of a sheep-skin, or of
a larger lamb-skin. The skin is "split" by ma-
chinery, and to a perfect nicety, into two portions.
That known as the "grain" (the part to which
the fleece of the animal is attached) is very thin,
and is dressed into a "skiver," a kind of leather
used in the commoner requirements of book-
binding, and for such purposes as the lining of
hats. The other portion, the "flesh," is dressed
as wash-leather. These skins are bought at the
leather-sellers and the leather-dressers, at from
2s. to 20s. the dozen. The higher priced, or
those from 12s. are often entire, and not "split"
skins. The great majority of the street-sellers
of wash-leathers are women, and principally
Irishwomen. They offer their wash-leathers in
all parts of town, calling at shops and inns;
and at private houses offering them through
the area rails, or knocking at the door when
it is accessible. Many of these street-sellers
are the wives of Irish labourers, employed by
bricklayers and others, who are either childless,
or able to leave their younger children under

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the care of an older brother or sister, or when the
poverty of the parents, or their culpable neglect,
is extreme, allow them to run at large in the
court or street, untended. The wives by this
street-trade add to the husbands' earnings. In
the respects of honesty and chastity, these women
bear good characters.

The wash-leathers are sold for the cleaning of
windows, and of plate and metal goods. Six-
pence is a common price for a leather, the higher
priced being sold at the mews and at gentlemen's
houses. The "chamois" sold at the mews,
however, are not often sold by the Irishwomen,
but by the class I have described as selling scis-
sors, &c., there. The leathers are also cut into
pennyworths, and these pennyworths are some-
times sold on Saturday evenings in the street-
markets.

There are, I am assured, 100 individuals
selling little or nothing else but wash-leathers
(for these traders are found in all the suburbs) in
London, and that they take 10s. weekly, with a
profit of from 4s. to 5s. There are, also, 100
other persons selling them occasionally, along with
other goods, and as they vend the higher-priced
articles, they probably receive nearly an equal
amount. Hence it would appear that upwards of
5000l. is annually expended in the streets in
this purchase.