University of Virginia Library

THE PUBLIC-HOUSE HAWKERS OF METAL
SPOONS, ETC.

The public-house hawkers are never so pros-
perous as those who confine their calling to private
houses; they are often invited to partake of
drink; are not the most industrious class of
hawkers, and, to use their own language, are more
frequently hard up than those who keep away
from tap-room selling. The profits of the small
hawkers in public-houses vary considerably. Some
of them, when they have earned a shilling or two,

[Description: 915EAF. Page 345.]

are content to spend it before they leave the tap-
room, and so they lose both their stock and profit.
I do not mean to infer that this is the case with the
whole of the public-house hawkers, for some among
them strive hard to better their condition, and
occasionally succeed; but there are too many who
are content to drawl out their existence by always
suffering to-morrow to provide for itself. The
man who gave me the routine of small hawkers'
business I found in a tap-room in Ratcliffe
Highway. He was hawking tea-spoons, and all
the stock he possessed was half-a-dozen. These
he importuned me to purchase with great earnest-
ness. He prayed of me to lay out a trifle with
him. He had not taken a penny the whole day he
said, and had nothing to eat. "What's much worse
for such as me," he added, "I'm dying for a glass
of rum." I might have his tea-spoons, he told me,
at any price. If I would but pay for a glass of rum
for him they should be mine. I assured him some
bread and cheese would do him more good, as
he had not eaten anything that day; but still he
would have the rum. With a trembling hand he
threw the liquor down his throat, smacked his
lips, and said "that there dram has saved my life."
A few minutes afterwards he sold his spoons to a
customer for sixpence; and he had another glass
of rum. "Now," said he, "I'm all right for
business; if I'd twopence more I could buy a
dozen tea-spoons, and I should earn a `bob' or
two yet before I went to bed." After this he
grew communicative, and told me he was as good
a hawker as there was in London, and he thought
he could do more than any other man with a
small stock. He had two or three times resolved
to better himself, and had `put in the pin,' mean-
ing he had made a vow to refrain from drink-
ing; but he had broken out again and gone on
in his old course until he had melted the whole of
his stock, though twice it had, during his sobriety,
amounted to 5l., and was often worth between
2l. and 3l. It was almost maddening when he
came to his senses, he said, to find he had acted so
foolishly; indeed, it was so disheartening to discover
all the result of his good resolutions dissipated in a
moment, that he declared he never intended to try
again. After having drunk out his stock, he would
if possible commence with half-a-dozen Britannia
metal tea-spoons; these cost him 6d., and would
sell for 9d. or 1s. When one half-dozen were dis-
posed of he would procure another, adding a knife,
or a comb or two. If entirely destitute, he would
stick a needle in a cork, and request to know of
"the parties" assembled in some tap-room, if they
wanted anything in the ironmongery line, though
the needle was all the stock he had. This was
done for the purpose of "raising the wind;" and
by it he would be sure to obtain a glass or two of
ale if he introduced himself with his "iron-
mongery establishment" among the sailors. Some-
times he would manage to beg a few pence,
and then he would purchase a knife, pair of
braces, or half-a-dozen tea-spoons, and begin to
practise his trade in a legitimate manner. In an-
swer to my inquiry he said he had not always
been a hawker. His father had been a soldier,
and he had worked in the armoury. His father
had been discharged upon a pension, and he (the
hawker) left the army with his parents. He had
never enlisted while his father was a soldier, but
he had since. His mother adopted the business
of a hawker upon the receipt of his father's first
quarter's pension; and then he used to accompany
her on her rounds. With the pension and the
mother's exertions they managed to subsist tolera-
bly well. "Being the only child, I was foolishly
spoilt by my parents," he said; "and when I
was a very young man — 15 or 16 — I became a
great trouble to them. At 18 I enlisted in
the 7th Fusileers, remained in the regiment three
months, and then, at my own request, was
bought off. My mother sold off most of her
stock of goods to raise the money (twenty pounds).
When I returned home I could not think of
trudging by my mother's side, as I had been used
to do when carrying the goods; nor did I feel
inclined to exert myself in any way for my own
support. I considered my mother had a right to
keep me without my working, and she, poor thing,
thought so too. I was not only supported in idle-
ness, but my mother would give me many a
shilling, though she could ill afford it, for me to
spend with my companions. I passed most of my
time in a skittle ground. I was not what you
might term a skittle sharp, for I never entered
into a plot to victimise any person, although I
confess I have often bet upon the `greenness' of
those who were silly enough to make wagers that
they could not possibly win. Sometimes, after I had
lost the trifle supplied me by my mother, I would
return, and be blackguard enough to assume the
bully unless my demands on her for a further
supply were attended to. Poor thing, she was
very meek, and with tears in her eyes she would
grant my request. I often weep when I think
how I treated her" (here the tears trickled down
the man's cheek), "and yet, badly as I used her,
in my heart I loved her very much. I got
tired of the skittle grounds in consequence
of getting into a hobble relative to a skittle
swindle: some sharpers had obtained a flat; I
was speculating in a small way, betting pennies
and twopences in such a manner as always
to win; I was practising upon the flat upon my
own account, without having any connection with
the others; they fleeced their dupe out of several
pounds, and he made a row about it. The police
interfered, and I was signled out as one of the
gang; the principals were also apprehended; they
got six months each, and I was accommodated
with a month's board and lodging at the expense
of the nation. I thought this at the time unjust,
but I was as culpable as any of them, for at
the time I only regretted I had not more money to
stake larger wagers, and envied the other parties
who were making a better thing of the business
than I was. When I came out of jail, my
poor mother treated me as a martyr. She thought
I was as innocent as a child. Shortly after my
release from prison my father died, and with him
went the pension of course. I was then obligated
to do something for myself. A few shillings' worth

[Description: 915EAF. Page 346.]

of goods only were procured — for my father's fune-
ral and my extravagances had sadly crippled my
mother's means. I behaved very well for a short
time. My mother then was often ill, and she
never recovered the death of my father. In
about a year after my father died I lost my
mother; our stock of goods had dwindled down
to a very poor lot, and I was obligated to ask relief
of the parish towards her funeral expenses. When
all was over, the value of my goods and cash
did not amount to 20s. Ten years have elapsed
since my mother's death, and I don't think I have
ever been, during the whole period, sober for a
month together."

While I sat in this tap-room, I counted in the
course of an hour and a quarter, — 4 hawkers of
sheep's trotters, who visited the place; 3 sellers
of shrimps, pickled whelks, and periwinkles;
2 baked potato-sellers; 8 song-hawkers; the same
number with lucifer matches; and 3 with braces,
&c. Not one of these effected a sale.