 | OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF SPAR AND CHINA
ORNAMENTS, AND OF STORE FRUIT.
"Spars," as spar ornaments are called by the
street-sellers, are sold to the retailers at only four
places in London, and two in Gravesend (where
the hawkers are for the most part supplied). The
London spar-houses are — two in Westminster, one
in Shoreditch, and one on Battle-bridge. None of
them present any display of their goods which are
kept in large drawers, closets, and packages. At
Gravesend the spar-shops are handsome.
These wares are principally of Derbyshire spar,
and made in Matlock; a few are German. The
"spars" are hawked on a round, and are on fine
Saturday nights offered for sale in the street and
markets. The trade was unknown as a street, or
a hawking trade in London, I am informed, until
about twenty-five years ago, and then was not ex-
tensive, the goods, owing to the cost of carriage,
&c., being high-priced. As public conveyance
became more rapid, certain and cheap, the trade in
spars increased, and cheaper articles were pre-
pared for the London market. From ten to
fifteen years ago the vendors of spars "did well
in swop" (as street-sellers always call barters).
The articles with which they tempted housewives
were just the sort of article to which it was
difficult for inexperienced persons to attach a
value. They were massive and handsome orna-
ments, and the spar-sellers did not fail to expatiate
on their many beauties. "God rest Jack Moody's
soul," said an Irishman, now a crock-seller, to me;
"Jack Moody was only his nick-name, but that
don't matter; God rist his sowl and the hivens
be his bid. He was the boy to sell the spar-r's.
They was from the cavrents at the bottom of the
say, he towld them, or from a new island in the
frozen ocean. He did well; God rist him; but
he died young." The articles "swopped" were
such as I have described in my account of the
tradings of the crock-sellers; and if the "swop"
were in favour of the spar-seller, still the customer
became possessed of something solid, enduring,
and generally handsome.
At the outset of the street or hawking trade,
the spar-sellers carried their goods done up in
paper, in strong baskets on their heads; the man's
wife sometimes carrying a smaller basket, with
less burdensome articles, on her arm. Men have
been known to start on a round, with a basket of
spars, which would weigh from 1 cwt. to 1½ cwt.
(or 12 stone). This, it must be remembered, might
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suburbs, before its weight was diminished by a
sale. One of these traders told me that twelve
years ago he had sold spar watch-stands, weighing
above 15 lbs. These stands were generally of a
square form; the inner portion being open, except
a sort of recess for the watch. "The tick sounds
well on spar, I've often heard," said one spar-
seller.
Some of the spar ornaments are plain, white,
and smooth. Of these many have flowers, or
rims, or insects, painted upon them, and in brilliant
colours. Those which are now in demand for the
street sales, or for itinerant barterings, are —
Small microscopes, candlesticks, inkstands, pin-
cushions, mugs, paper-holders, match perfumery,
and shaving-boxes, etc. The general price of these
articles is 6d. to the street-seller or hawker, some
of the dealers being licensed hawkers. The whole-
sale price varies from 2s. 6d. to 5s. per dozen; or
an average of 3s. 9d. or 4s. Of the larger articles
the most saleable are candlesticks, at from 1s. to
2s. 6d. each; from 1s. to 1s. 6d. being the most
frequent price. Watch-stands and vases are now,
I am told, in small demand. "People's got
stocked, I think," one man said, "and there's so
much cheap glass and chaney work, that they looks
on spars as heavy and old-fashioned."
Some street-sellers have their spars in covered
barrows, the goods being displayed when the top
of the barrow is removed, so that the conveyance
is serviceable whether the owner be stationary or
itinerant. The spar-sellers, however, are reluctant
to expose their goods to the weather, as the colours
are easily affected.
In this trade I am informed that there are
now twelve men, nine of whom are assisted by
their wives, and that in the summer months there
are eighteen. Their profits are about 15s. per
week on an average of the whole year, including the
metropolis and a wide range of the suburbs. What
amount of money may be expended by the public
in the street purchase of "spars" I am unable to
state, so much being done in the way of barter;
but assuming that there are fourteen sellers
throughout the year, and that their profits are
cent. per cent., there would appear to be about
1000l. per annum thus laid out.
Of stone fruit there are now usually six street
sellers, and in fine weather eight. Eight or ten
years ago there were twenty. The fruit is prin-
cipally made at Chesterfield in Derbyshire, and is
disposed of to the London street-sellers in the
swag-shops in Houndsditch. Some of the articles,
both as regards form and colour, are well executed;
others are far too red or too green; but that, I
was told, pleased children best. The most saleable
fruits are apples, pears, peaches, apricots, oranges,
lemons and cucumbers. The cucumbers, which
are sometimes of pot as well as of stone, are often
hollow, and are sometimes made to serve for gin-
bottles, holding about a quartern.
The price at the swag-shops is 4s. 3d. for a gross
of fruit of all kinds in equal quantities; for a better
quality the price is 7s. 6d. The street-seller en-
deavours to get 1d. each for the lower priced, and
2d. for the higher, but has most frequently to be
content with ½d. and 1d. The stone fruitmen are
itinerant during the week and stationary in the
street markets on Saturday, and sometimes other
evenings. They carry their stock both in baskets
and barrows. One man told me that he always
cried, "Pick 'em out! pick 'em out! Half-penny
each! Cheapest fruit ever seen! As good to-
morrow as last week! Never lose flavour! Ever-
lasting fruit."
Supposing that there are six persons selling
stone-fruit in the streets through the year, and
that each earns — and I am assured that is the full
amount — 9s. weekly (one man said 7s. 6d. was
the limit of his weekly profits in fruit), we find
140l. received as profit on these articles, and cal-
culating the gains at 33 per cent., an outlay of
420l.
The trade in China ornaments somewhat differs
from the others I have described under the present
head. It is both a street and a public-house
trade, and is carried on both in the regular way
and by means of raffles. At some public-houses,
indeed, the China ornament dealers are called
"rafflers."
The "ornaments" now most generally sold or
raffled are Joy and Grief (two figures, one laughing
and the other crying); dancing Highlanders;
mustard pots in the form of cottages, &c.; gro-
tesque heads, one especially of an old man, which
serves as a pepper-box, the grains being thrown
through the eyes, nose, and mouth; Queen and
Alberts (but not half so well as the others); and,
until of late, Smith O'Briens. There are others,
also, such as I have mentioned in my account of
the general swag-shops, to the windows of many
of which they form the principal furniture. Some
of these "ornaments" sold "on the sly" can
hardly be called obscene, but they are dirty, and
cannot be further described.
The most lucrative part of the trade is in the
raffling. A street-seller after doing what business
he can, on a round or at a stand, during the day,
will in the evening resort to public-houses, where
he is known, and is allowed to offer his wares to
the guests. The ornaments, in public-house sale,
are hardly ever offered for less than 6d. each, or
6d. a pair. The raffling is carried on rapidly and
simply. Dice are very rarely used now, and when
used, provoke many murmurs from the landlords.
The raffler of the China ornaments produces a
portable roulette box or table — these tables be-
coming an established part of street traffic — eight
or ten inches in diameter. What may be called
"the board" of some of these "roulettes" is
numbered to thirty-two. It is set rapidly spin-
ning on a pivot, a pea is then slipped through a
hole in the lid of the box, and, when the motion
has ceased, the pea is found in one of the num-
bered partitions. "Now, gentlemen," a raffler told
me he would say, "try your luck for this beautiful
pair of ornaments; six of you at 1d. a piece. If
you go home rather how came you so, show what
you've bought for the old lady, and it'll be all
right and peaceful." If six persons contribute 1d.
each, the one "spinning" the highest number
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ment seller on having gained for 1d. what was
only too cheap at 6d. "Why, sir," said a man
who had recently left the trade for another calling,
and who was anxious that I should not give any
particular description of him, "in case he went
back to the raffling," — "Why, sir, I remember
one Monday evening four or five months back,
going into a parlour, not a tap-room, mind, where
was respectable mechanics. They got to play
with me, and got keen, and played until my stock
was all gone. If one man stopped raffling,
another took his place. I can't recollect how
many ornaments I raffled, but I cleared rather
better than 3s. 6d. When there was no ornaments
left they gave me 1d. a piece — there was eleven of
them then — and a pint of beer to let them have the
roulette till 12 o'clock; and away they went
at it for beer and screws, and bets of 1d. and
2d. One young man that had been lucky in win-
ning the ornaments got cleaned out, and staked
his ornaments for 2d., or for a 1d. rather than not
play. That sort of thing only happened to me
once, to the same extent. If the landlord came
into the room, of course they was only playing for
drink, or he might have begun about his licence."
The ornaments are bought at the swag shops I
have described, and are nearly all of German
make. They are retailed from 1d. and sometimes
½d. to 1s. each, and the profit is from 25 to 75 per
cent. There are, I am informed, about thirty
persons in this trade, two-thirds of them being
rafflers, and their receipts being from 25s. to 30s.
weekly. Most of them mix "fancy glass" goods
and spars, and other articles, with their "orna-
ment" trade, so that it is not easy to ascertain
what is expended upon the china ornaments in-
dependently of other wares. If we calculate it at
10s. weekly (a low average considering the suc-
cess of some of the raffles), we find 780l. ex-
pended in the streets in these ornamental produc-
tions.
| OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |