 | OF THE STREET-IRISH. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
OF THE RESOURCES OF THE STREET-IRISH
AS REGARDS "STOCK-MONEY," SICKNESS,
BURIALS, &c.
It is not easy to ascertain from the poor Irish
themselves how they raise their stock-money,
for their command of money is a subject on
[Description: 915EAF. Page 115.]
municative, not truthful. "My opinion is,"
said an Irish gentleman to me, "that some of
these poor fellows would declare to God that
they hadn't the value of a halfpenny, even if
you heard the silver chink in their pockets."
It is certain that they never, or very rarely,
borrow of the usurers like their English
brethren.
The more usual custom is, that if a poor Irish
street-seller be in want of 5s., it is lent to him
by the more prosperous people of his court —
bricklayers' labourers, or other working-men —
who club 1s. a piece. This is always repaid.
An Irish bricklayer, when in full work, will
trust a needy countryman with some article to
pledge, on the understanding that it is to be
redeemed and returned when the borrower is
able. Sometimes, if a poor Irishwoman need 1s.
to buy oranges, four others — only less poor than
herself, because not utterly penniless — will
readily advance 3d. each. Money is also ad-
vanced to the deserving Irish through the
agency of the Roman Catholic priests, who are
the medium through whom charitable persons
of their own faith exercise good offices. Money,
too, there is no doubt, is often advanced out of
the priest's own pocket.
On all the kinds of loans with which the poor
Irish are aided by their countrymen no interest
is over charged. "I don't like the Irish,"
said an English costermonger to me; "but they
do stick to one another far more than we do."
The Irish costers hire barrows and shallows
like the English, but, if they "get on" at
all, they will possess themselves of their own
vehicles much sooner than an English coster-
monger. A quick-witted Irishman will begin
to ponder on his paying 1s. 6d. a week for
the hire of a barrow worth 20s., and he will
save and hoard until a pound is at his com-
mand to purchase one for himself; while an
obtuse English coster (who will yet buy cheaper
than an Irishman) will probably pride himself
on his cleverness in having got the charge for
his barrow reduced, in the third year of its hire,
to 1s. a week the twelvemonth round!
In cases of sickness the mode of relief
adopted is similar to that of the English. A
raffle is got up for the benefit of the Irish
sufferer, and, if it be a bad case, the subscribers
pay their money without caring what trifle they
throw for, or whether they throw at all. If
sickness continue and such means as raffles
cannot be persevered in, there is one resource
from which a poor Irishman never shrinks — the
parish. He will apply for and accept paro-
chial relief without the least sense of shame,
a sense which rarely deserts an English-
man who has been reared apart from pau-
pers. The English costers appear to have a
horror of the Union. If the Irishman be
taken into the workhouse, his friends do not
lose sight of him. In case of his death, they
apply for, and generally receive his body,
from the parochial authorities, undertaking the
expence of the funeral, when the body is duly
"waked." "I think there's a family contract
among the Irish," said a costermonger to me;
"that's where it is."
The Irish street-folk are, generally speaking,
a far more provident body of people than the
English street-sellers. To save, the Irish will
often sacrifice what many Englishmen consider
a necessary, and undergo many a hardship.
From all I could ascertain, the saving of
an Irish street-seller does not arise from any
wish to establish himself more prosperously in
his business, but for the attainment of some
cherished project, such as emigration. Some
of the objects, however, for which these strug-
gling men hoard money, are of the most praise-
worthy character. They will treasure up half-
penny after halfpenny, and continue to do so
for years, in order to send money to enable their
wives and children, and even their brothers and
sisters, when in the depth of distress in Ireland,
to take shipping for England. They will save
to be able to remit money for the relief of their
aged parents in Ireland. They will save to
defray the expense of their marriage, an expense
the English costermonger so frequently dispenses
with — but they will not save to preserve either
themselves or their children from the degra-
dation of a workhouse; indeed they often,
with the means of independence secreted on
their persons, apply for parish relief, and that
principally to save the expenditure of their
own money. Even when detected in such an
attempt at extortion an Irishman betrays no
passion, and hardly manifests any emotion — he
has speculated and failed. Not one of them
but has a positive genius for begging — both the
taste and the faculty for alms-seeking developed
to an extraordinary extent.
Of the amount "saved" by the patience of
the poor Irishmen, I can form no conjecture.
| OF THE STREET-IRISH. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |