University of Virginia Library

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF LACE.

This trade is carried on both by itinerants and at
stands, or "pitches." The itinerants, of whom I
will first treat, are about forty in number (thirty

[Description: 915EAF. Page 387.]

women and ten men). They usually carry their
lace in boxes, or cases. It is not uncommon for
the women to represent themselves as lacemakers
from Marlow, or some other place in Buckingham-
shire, or from Honiton, in Devonshire, while the
men assert they are from Nottingham. I am in-
formed that there are among these itinerant lace-
sellers two women and one man who really have
been lacemakers. They all buy their wares at
the haberdashery swag-shops.

The lace, which is the principal staple of this
trade, is "edgings," or the several kinds of cheap
lace used for the bordering of caps and other
female requirements. Among street-people the
lace is called "driz," and the sellers of it "driz-
fencers." It gained this slang name, I was in-
formed, many years ago, when it was sold, and
often to wealthy ladies, as rare and valuable lace,
smuggled from Mechlin, Brussels, Valenciennes,
or any foreign place famous, or once famous, for
its manufacture. The pretended smuggled lace
trade is now unknown in London, and is very
little practised in the country. There is, how-
ever, still some smuggling connected with lace-
selling. Two, and sometimes-three, female lace-
sellers are also "jigger-workers." They carry
about their persons pint bladders of "stuff," or
"jigger stuff" (spirit made at an illicit still). "I
used to supply them with it until lately," one
street-trader told me, "from a friend that kept a
`jigger,' and a tidy sale some of them had. Indeed,
I've made the stuff myself. I knew one woman,
six or seven years back, that did uncommon well
at first, but she got too fond of the stuff, and
drank herself into the work'us. They never
carried gin, for brandy was most asked for. They
sold the brandy at 2s. 6d. the pint; rum at 1s. 6d.; and whiskey at 2s.; sometimes higher, and always
trying for 6d. a pint profit, at least. O yes, sir;
I know they got the prices I've mentioned, though
they seem high; for you must remember that the
jigger spirit is above proof, and a pint will make
two pints of gin-palace stuff. They sold it, I've
heard them say, to ladies that liked a drop on the
sly; and to some as pretended they bought that
way for economy; yes, and to shopkeepers and
publicans too. One old lady used to give 3s. for
three yards of driz, and it was well enough under-
stood, without no words, that a pint of brandy
was part of them three yards. But the trade that
way is nothing to what it was, and gets less and
less every year."

From a middle-aged woman selling laces I had
the following account: —

"I've been in the trade about six years, sir.
Ten years back or more I was in place, and saved
a little money, as a servant of all work. I mar-
ried a house-painter, but trade got bad, and we
both had illnesses; and my husband, though he's
as good a man as need be, can't stick to anything
very long at a time." (A very common failing, by
the bye, with the street-folk.) "It seems not in
his nature. When we was reduced very low he got
on a cab — for he can turn his hand to almost any-
thing — and after that we came to street-selling.
He's now on jewellery, and I think it suits him as
well or better than anything he's tried; I do my
part, and we get on middling. If we're ever pushed
it's no use fretting. We had one child, and he
died when he wanted just a month of three years
old, and after I'd lost him I said I would never
fret for trifles no more. My heart was broke for
a long time — it was indeed. He was the loveliest
boy ever seen, and everybody said so. I went
into lace, because my husband got to know all
about it, and I had no tie at home then. I was
very shy and ashamed at first to go into houses,
but that wears off, and I met with some nice
people that bought of me and was very civil, so
that encourages one. I sell nothing but lace. I
never cleared more than 2s. 6d. in a day, and that
only once. I suppose I clear from 3s. 6d. to
4s. 6d. a week now; perhaps, take it altogether,
rather more than 4s. I have a connection, and go
to the houses in and about the Regent's Park, and
all the small streets near it, and sometimes Maida
Hill way. I once tried a little millinery made-up
things, but it didn't suit somehow, and I didn't
stick to it. You see, sir, I sell my lace to very
few but servant maids and small shopkeepers'
wives and daughters; but then they're a better sort
of people than those as has to buy everything
ready made like servants has. They can use their
own needles to make themselves nice and smart,
and they buy of such as me to do it cheap, and
they're not often such beaters down as them that
buys the ready-made. I can do nothing, or next
to nothing, in very wet weather. If I'm in the
habit of going into a nice kitchen, perhaps the
housemaid flies at me for `bringing in all that
dirt.' My husband says all women is crossest in
bad weather, and perhaps servants is.

"I buy my lace near Shoreditch. It's a long
walk, but I think I'm best used there. I buy
generally a dozen yards, from 3½d. to 1s., and
sometimes up to 2s. I sell the commoner at 1d. a yard, and three yards 2d.; and the better at 2d. and 3d. a yard. It's a poor trade, but it's doing
something. My husband seldom earns less than
12s. a week, for he's a good salesman, and so we
pay 2s. rent regular every Monday for an unfur-
nished room, and has the rest to live on. I have
sold in the Brill on a Saturday night, but not often,
nor lately I don't like it; I haven't tongue enough."

In addition to the itinerants there are about se-
venty stationary lace sellers, and not less than eighty
on the Saturday evenings. The best pitches are,
I am told, near the Borough-market; in Clare-mar-
ket; the New Cut (on Saturday nights); Wal-
worth-road; Tooley-street; and Dockhead, Ber-
mondsey. From the best information at my com-
mand, it appears that at least half of these traders
sell only lace, or rarely anything else. The others
sell also net for making caps and "cauls," which
are the plain portion at the back, to be trimmed or
edged according to the purchaser's taste. Some
sell also, with their lace, cap ribbons — plain or
worked collars — and muslin, net, or worked under-
sleeves. Braid and gimp were formerly sold by them,
but are now in no demand. The prices run from
2d. to 6d. for lace articles, and about the same for
net, &c. per yard; the lowest priced are most sold.

In this stationary trade are as many men and
youths as women and girls. One woman, who
had known street-selling for upwards of twenty
years, said she could not do half so well now as
she could twenty years ago, for the cheaper things
got the cheaper people would have them. "Why,
twenty year ago," she exclaimed, "I bought a
lot of `leno' cheap — it was just about going out
of fashion for caps then, I think — and one Satur-
day night in the Cut, I cleared 15s. on it. I don't
clear that in a fortnight now. I have sold to wo-
men of the town, as far as I've known them to be
of that sort, but very seldom. It's not often
you'll catch them using a needle for theirselves.
They do use their needles, I know. You can see
some of them sewing at their doors and windows
in Granby-street, Waterloo-road, or could lately —
for I haven't passed that way for some time — but
I believe it's all for money down, for the slop-
shops. It suits the slop-shops to get work cheap
anyway; and it suits the women to have some sort
of occupation, which they needn't depend upon for
their living."

The stationary lace sellers, for the most part,
display their goods on stalls, but some spread them
on a board, or on matting on the ground. Some
of the men gather an audience by shouting out,
"Three yards a penny, edging!" As at this rate
the lace-seller would only clear ½d. in a dozen yards,
the cry is merely uttered to attract attention. A
few who patter at the trade — but far fewer than
was once the case — give short measure. One man,
who occasionally sold lace, told me, that when he
was compelled to sell for "next to no profit, and a
hungry Sunday coming," he gave good shop mea-
sure, thirty full inches to a yard. His yard wand
was the correct length, "but I can do it, sir," he
said with some exultation, "by palming," and he
gave a jerk to his fingers, to show how he caught in
the lace, and "clipped it short."

Calculating that 100 persons in this trade each
take 10s. 6d. weekly, the profit being about cent.
per cent., we find 2600l. expended in the streets
in lace and similar commodities.