 | OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
OF THE EXPERIENCE OF A HOT-EEL AND
PEA-SOUP MAN.
"I was a coalheaver," said one of the class
to me, as I sat in his attic up a close court,
watching his wife "thicken the liquor;" "I
was a-going along the plank, from one barge
to another, when the swell of some steamers
throwed the plank off the `horse,' and chucked
me down, and broke my knee agin the side of
the barge. Before that I was yarning upon an
average my 20s. to 30s. a week. I was seven
months and four days in King's College Hos-
pital after this. I found they was a-doing me
no good there, so I come out and went over to
Bartholemy's Hospital. I was in there nine-
teen months altogether, and after that I was a
month in Middlesex Hospital, and all on 'em
turned me out oncurable. You see, the bone's
decayed — four bits of bone have been taken
from it. The doctor turned me out three
times 'cause I wouldn't have it off. He asked
my wife if she would give consent, but neither
she nor my daughter would listen to it, so I
was turned out on 'em all. How my family
lived all this time it's hard to tell. My eldest
boy did a little — got 3s. 6d. a week as an
errand-boy, and my daughter was in service,
and did a little for me; but that was all we had
to live upon. There was six children on my
hands, and however they did manage I can't
say. After I came out of the hospital I applied
to the parish, and was allowed 2s. 6d. a week
and four loaves. But I was anxious to do
something, so a master butcher, as I knowed,
said he would get me `a pitch' (the right to
fix a stall), if I thought I could sit at a stall
and sell a few things. I told him I thought
I could, and would be very thankful for it.
Well, I had heard how the man up in the
market was making a fortune at the hot-eel and
pea-soup line. [A paviour as left his barrow
and two shovels with me told me to-day, said
the man, by way of parenthesis — `that he
knowed for a fact he was clearing 6l. a week
regular.'] So I thought I'd have a touch at
the same thing. But you see, I never could
rise money enough to get sufficient stock to
make a do of it, and never shall, I expect — it
don't seem like it, however. I ought to have
5s. to go to market with to-morrow, and I ain't
got above 1s. 6d.; and what's that for stock-
money, I'd like to know? Well, as I was
saying, the master butcher lent me 10s. to
[Description: 915EAF. Page 163.]
ever had. But I've never been able to do
anything at it — not to say to get a living."
"He can't carry anything now, sir," said his
wife, as the old man strove to get the bellows
to warm up the large kettle of pea-soup that
was on the fire. "Aye, I can't go without my
crutch. My daughter goes to Billingsgate for
me. I've got nobody else; and she cuts up
the eels. If it warn't for her I must give it
up altogether, and go into the workhouse out-
right. I couldn't fetch 'em. I ought to have
been out to-night by rights till ten, if I'd had
anything to have sold. My wife can't do
much; she's troubled with the rheumatics in
her head and limbs." "Yes," said the old
body, with a sigh, "I'm never well, and never
shall be again, I know." "Would you accept
on a drop of soup, sir?" asked the man;
"you're very welcome, I can assure you.
You'll find it very good, sir." I told him I
had just dined, and the poor old fellow pro-
ceeded with his tale. "Last week I earned
clear about 8s., and that's to keep six on us.
I didn't pay no rent last week nor yet this, and
I don't know when I shall again, if things goes
on in this way. The week before there was a
fast-day, and I didn't earn above 6s. that week,
if I did that. My boy can't go to school.
He's got no shoes nor nothing to go in. The
girls go to the ragged-school, but we can't send
them of a Sunday nowhere." "Other people
can go," said one of the young girls nestling
round the fire, and with a piece of sacking over
her shoulders for a shawl — "them as has got
things to go in; but mother don't like to let us
go as we are." "She slips her mother's shoes
on when she goes out. It would take 1l. to
start me well. With that I could go to market,
and buy my draught of eels a shilling cheaper,
and I could afford to cut my pieces a little
bigger; and people where they gets used well
comes again — don't you see? I could have
sold more eels if I'd had 'em to-day, and soup
too. Why, there's four hours of about the best
time to-night that I'm losing now 'cause I've
nothing to sell. The man in the market can
give more than we can. He gives what is
called the lumping ha'p'orth — that is, seven or
eight pieces; ah, that I daresay he does;
indeed, some of the boys has told me he gives
as many as eight pieces. And then the more
eels you biles up, you see, the richer the liquor
is, and in our little tin-pot way it's like biling
up a great jint of meat in a hocean of water.
In course we can't compete agin the man in
the market, and so we're being ruined entirely.
The boys very often comes and asks me if I've
got a farden's-worth of heads. The woman at
Broadway, they tells me, sells 'em at four a
farden and a drop of liquor, but we chucks 'em
away, there's nothing to eat on them; the boys
though will eat anything."
In the hot-eel trade are now 140 vendors,
each selling 6 lb. of eels daily at their stands;
60 sell 40 lb. daily; and 100 are itinerant,
selling 5 lb. nightly at the public-houses. The
first mentioned take 2s. daily; the second 16s.;
and the third 1s. 8d. This gives a street ex-
penditure in the trade in hot eels of 19,448l. for
the year.
To start in this business a capital is required
after this rate: — stall 6s.; basket 1s.; eel-ket-
tle 3s. 6d.; jar 6d.; ladle 4d.; 12 cups 1s.;
12 spoons 1s.; stew-pan 2s.; chafing-dish 6d.;
strainer 1s.; 8 cloths 2s. 8d.; a pair sleeves
4d.; apron 4d.; charcoal 2s. (4d. being an
average daily consumption); ¼ cwt. coal 3½d.;
½ lb. butter (the weekly average) 4d.; 1 quar-
tern flour 5d.; 4 oz. pepper 4d.; I quart
vinegar 10d.; 1 lb. salt ½d.; 1 lb. candles for
stall 6d.; parsley 3d.; stock-money 10s. In
all 1l. 15s. In the course of a year the pro-
perty which may be described as fixed, as in
the stall, &c., and the expenditure daily occur-
ring as for stock, butter, coal, according to
the foregoing statement, amounts to 15,750l.
The eels purchased for this trade at Billings-
gate are 1,166,880 lb., costing, at 3d. per lb.,
12,102l.
In the pea-soup trade there are now one half
of the whole number of the hot-eel vendors;
of whom 100 will sell, each 4 gallons daily;
and of the remaining 50 vendors, each will sell
upon an average 10 gallons daily. The first
mentioned take 3s. daily; and the last 7s. 6d.
This gives a street expenditure of 4,050l. during
the winter season of five months.
To commence business in the street sale of
pea-soup a capital is required after this rate:
soup-kettle 4s.; peas 2s.; soup-ladle 6d.;
pepper-box 1d.; mint-box 3d.; chafing-dish
6d.; 12 basons 1s.; 12 spoons 1s.; bones,
celery, mint, carrots, and onions, 1s. 6d. In
all 10s. 10d. The hot-eel trade being in con-
junction with the pea-soup, the same stall,
candles, towels, sleeves, and aprons, does for
both, and the quantity of extra coal and char-
coal; pepper and salt given in the summary
of hot-eels serves in cooking, &c., both eels and
pea-soup.
| OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |