University of Virginia Library

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF RICE-MILK.

To make rice -milk, the street-seller usually
boils four quarts, of the regular measure, of
"skim" with one pound of rice, which has been
previously boiled in water. An hour suffices
for the boiling of the milk; and the addition of
the rice, swollen by the boiling water, increases
the quantity to six quarts. No other process is
observed, except that some sweeten their rice-
milk before they offer it for sale; the majority,
however, sweeten it to the customer's liking
when he is "served," unless — to use the words
of one informant — "he have a werry, werry
sweet tooth indeed, sir; and that can't be
stood." For the sweetening of six quarts, half
a pound of sugar is used; for the "spicing,"
half an ounce of allspice, dashed over the milk
freely enough from a pepper-castor. Rice-milk
is always sold at stalls arranged for the pur-
pose, and is kept in a tin pan fitted upon a
charcoal brazier, so that the "drinkable" is
always hot. This apparatus generally stands
on the ground alongside the stall, and is
elevated only by the feet of the brazier. The
"rice-milk woman," — for the street-sellers are
generally females, — dips a large breakfast-cup,
holding half a pint, into the pan, puts a tea-
spoonful of sugar into it, browns the whole with
allspice, and receives 1d.; a halfpennyworth is,
of course, half the quantity. The rice-milk
women are also sellers of oranges, chestnuts,
apples, or some other fruit, as well as the rice-
milk; but, sometimes, when the weather is
very cold and frosty, they sell rice-milk alone.
There are fifty street-sellers of rice-milk in
London. Saturday night is the best time of
sale, when it is not uncommon for a rice-
milk woman to sell six quarts; but, in a
good trade, four quarts a day for six days of
the week is an average. The purchasers are
poor people; and a fourth of the milk is sold to
boys and girls, to whom it is often a meal. "Ah,
sir," said one woman, "you should have seen
how a poor man, last winter, swallowed a pen-
n'orth. He'd been a-wandering all night, he
said, and he looked it, and a gentleman gave
him 2d., for he took pity on his hungry look, and
he spent 1d. with me, and I gave him another

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cup for charity. `God bless the gentleman and
you!' says he, `it's saved my life; if I'd bought
a penny loaf, I'd have choked on it.' He wasn't
a beggar, for I never saw him before, and I've
never seen him again from that day to this."
The same informant told me, that she believed
no rice-milk was bought by the women of the
town: "it didn't suit the likes of them."
Neither is it bought by those who are engaged
in noisome trades. If there be any of the rice-
milk left at night, and the saleswoman have
doubts of its "keeping," it is re-boiled with
fresh rice and milk. The profit is consider-
able; for the ingredients, which cost less than
1s. 6d., are made into 96 pennyworths, and so
to realize 8s. In some of the poorer localities,
however, such as Rosemary-lane, only ½d. the
half-pint can be obtained, and 4s. is then
the amount received for six quarts, instead
of 8s.

To start "in rice-milk" requires 13s. capital,
which includes a pan for boiling the milk,
2s.; a kettle, with brazier, for stall, 4s.; stall
or stand, 5s.; six cups, 9d.; for stock-money
15½d., with which is bought 4 quarts of skim-
milk, 9d.; 1 lb. of rice, 3d.; ½ lb. of sugar,
2d.; allspice, 1d.

The season continues for four months; and
calculating — a calculation within the mark —
that one half of the 50 sellers have as good a
trade as my informant — 24 quarts weekly — and
that, of the remaining 25, one half sell 12 quarts
each weekly, at 1d. the half-pint, and the other
half vend 24 quarts at ½d. the half-pint, we find
that 320l. is annually spent in rice-milk and
about 3,000 gallons of it yearly consumed in
the streets of London.