University of Virginia Library

OF PERIWINKLE SELLING IN THE STREETS.

There are some street people who, nearly all
the year through, sell nothing but periwinkles,
and go regular rounds, where they are well
known. The "wink" men, as these periwinkle
sellers are called, generally live in the lowest
parts, and many in lodging-houses. They are
forced to live in low localities, they say, because
of the smell of the fish, which is objected to.
The city district is ordinarily the best for winkle-
sellers, for there are not so many cheap shops
there as in other parts. The summer is the best
season, and the sellers then make, upon the
average, 12s. a week clear profit; in the winter,
they get upon the average, 5s. a week clear, by
selling mussels and whelks — for, as winkles last
only from March till October, they are then
obliged to do what they can in the whelk and
mussel way. "I buy my winks," said one, "at
Billingsgate, at 3s. and 4s. the wash. A wash
is about a bushel. There's some at 2s., and
some sometimes as low as 1s. the wash, but they
wouldn't do for me, as I serve very respectable
people. If we choose we can boil our winkles
at Billingsgate by paying 4d. a week for boiling,
and ½d. for salt, to salt them after they are boiled.
Tradesmen's families buy them for a relish to
their tea. It's reckoned a nice present from a
young man to his sweetheart, is winks. Servant
girls are pretty good customers, and want them
cheaper when they say it's for themselves; but
I have only one price."

One man told me he could make as much as
12s. a week — sometimes more and sometimes less.
He made no speeches, but sung — "Winketty-
winketty-wink-wink-wink — wink-wink — wick-
etty-wicketty-wink — fine fresh winketty-winks
wink wink." He was often so sore in the stomach
and hoarse with hallooing that he could hardly
speak. He had no child, only himself and
wife to keep out of his earnings. His room
was 2s. a week rent. He managed to get a bit
of meat every day, he said, "somehow or
'nother."

Another, more communicative and far more
intelligent man, said to me concerning the
character of his customers: "They're people
I think that like to daddle" (dawdle, I presume)
"over their teas or such like; or when a young
woman's young man takes tea with her mother
and her, then they've winks; and then there's
joking, and helping to pick winks, between
Thomas and Betsy, while the mother's busy
with her tea, or is wiping her specs, 'cause she
can't see. Why, sir, I've known it! I was
a Thomas that way myself when I was a
tradesman. I was a patten-maker once, but
pattens is no go now, and hasn't been for fifteen
year or more. Old people, I think, that lives
by themselves, and has perhaps an annuity or
the like of that, and nothing to do pertickler,
loves winks, for they likes a pleasant way of
making time long over a meal. They're the
people as reads a newspaper, when it's a week
old, all through. The other buyers, I think, are
tradespeople or working-people what wants a
relish. But winks is a bad trade now, and so
is many that depends on relishes."

One man who "works" the New Cut, has
the "best wink business of all." He sells
only a little dry fish with his winks, never wet
fish, and has "got his name up," for the
superiority of that shell-fish — a superiority
which he is careful to ensure. He pays 8s. a week for a stand by a grocer's window. On
an ordinary afternoon he sells from 7s. to 10s. worth of periwinkles. On a Monday after-
noon he often takes 20s.; and on the Sunday
afternoon 3l. and 4l. He has two coster lads
to help him, and sometimes on a Sunday from
twenty to thirty customers about him. He
wraps each parcel sold in a neat brown paper
bag, which, I am assured, is of itself, an in-
ducement to buy of him. The "unfortunate"
women who live in the streets contiguous to the
Waterloo, Blackfriars, and Borough-roads, are
among his best customers, on Sundays espe-
cially. He is rather a public character, getting
up dances and the like. "He aint bothered —
not he — with ha'p'orths or penn'orths of a Sun-
day," said a person who had assisted him. "It's
the top of the tree with his customers; 3d. or
6d. at a go." The receipts are one-half profit.
I heard from several that he was "the best man
for winks a-going."

The quantity of periwinkles disposed of by the
London street-sellers is 3,600,000 pints, which,
at 1d. per pint, gives the large sum of 15,000l. expended annually in this street luxury. It
should be remembered, that a very large con-

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sumption of periwinkles takes place in public-
houses and suburban tea-gardens.