 | OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
MEETING OF THIEVES.
As a further proof, however, of the demoralizing
influences of the low lodging-houses, I will now
conclude my investigations into the subject with a
report of the meeting of vagrants, which I con-
vened for the express purpose of consulting them
generally upon several points which had come
under my notice in the course of my inquiries.
The Chronicle reporter's account of this meeting
was as follows: —
A meeting of an unprecedented character was
held at the British Union School-room, Shak-
speare-walk, Shadwell, on Monday evening last.
The use of the school-room was kindly granted by
Mr. Fletcher, the proprietor, to whose liberality
we stand indebted for many similar favours. It
was convened by our Metropolitan Correspondent,
for the purpose of assembling together some of the
lowest class of male juvenile thieves and vaga-
bonds who infest the metropolis and the country
at large; and although privately called, at only
two days' notice, by the distribution of tickets of
admission among the class in question at the
various haunts and dens of infamy to which they
resort, no fewer than 150 of them attended on the
occasion. The only condition to entitle the parties
to admission was that they should be vagrants,
and under twenty years of age. They had all
assembled some time before the hour for com-
mencing the proceedings arrived, and never was
witnessed a more distressing spectacle of squalor,
rags, and wretchedness. Some were young men,
and some mere children; one, who styled himself
a "cadger," was six years of age, and several who
confessed themselves "prigs" were only ten. The
countenances of the boys were of various charac-
ters. Many were not only good-looking, but had
a frank, ingenuous expression that seemed in no
way connected with innate roguery. Many, on
the other hand, had the deep-sunk and half-averted
eye which are so characteristic of natural dis-
honesty and cunning. Some had the regular
features of lads born of parents in easy circum-
stances. The hair of most of the lads was cut
very close to the head, showing their recent libera-
tion from prison; indeed, one might tell by the
comparative length of the crop, the time that each
boy had been out of gaol. All but a few of the
elder boys were remarkable, amidst the rags, filth,
and wretchedness of their external appearance,
for the mirth and carelessness impressed upon
their countenances. At first their behaviour was
very noisy and disorderly: coarse and ribald jokes
were freely cracked, exciting general bursts of
laughter; while howls, cat-calls, and all manner
of unearthly and indescribable yells threatened for
some time to render the object of the meeting
utterly abortive. At one moment a lad would
imitate the bray of a jack-ass, and immediately the
whole hundred and fifty would fall to braying.
[Description: 915EAF. Page 419.]
whereupon the place would echo again with a
hundred and fifty cock-crows. Then, as a black
boy entered the room, one of the young vagabonds
would shout out "swe-ee-op." This would be
received with peals of laughter, and followed by a
general repetition of the same cry. Next, a hun-
dred and fifty cat-calls of the shrillest possible
description would almost split the ears. These
would be succeeded by cries of "Strike up, you
catgut scrapers," "Go on with your barrow,"
"Flare up, my never-sweats," and a variety of
other street sayings. Indeed, the uproar which
went on before the meeting began will be best
understood if we compare it to the scene presented
by a public menagerie at feeding time. The
greatest difficulty, as might be expected, was ex-
perienced in collecting the subjoined statistics of
their character and condition. By a well-contrived
and persevering mode of inquiry, however, the
following facts were elicited: —
With respect to their ages, the youngest boy
present was 6 years old. He styled himself a
"cadger," and said that his mother, who is a
widow, and suffering from ill-health, sends him
into the streets to beg. There were seven of 10
years of age, three of 12, three of 13, ten of 14,
ten of 15, eleven of 16, twenty of 17, twenty-six
of 18, and forty-five of 19.
Nineteen had fathers and mothers still living;
thirty-nine had only one parent, and eighty were
orphans in the fullest sense of the word, having
neither father nor mother alive.
Of professed beggars there were fifty, and sixty-
six who acknowledged themselves to be habitual
thieves. The announcement that the greater num-
ber present were thieves pleased them exceedingly,
and was received with three rounds of applause.
Twelve of the youths assembled had been in
prison once (two of these were but 10 years of
age); 5 had been in prison twice; 3, thrice; 4 four
times; 7, five times; 8, six times; 5, seven times;
4, eight times; 2, nine times (1 of them 13 years
of age); 5, ten times; 5, twelve times; 2, thir-
teen times; 3, fourteen times; 2, sixteen times;
3, seventeen times; 2, eighteen times; 5, twenty
times; 6, twenty-four times; 1, twenty-five times;
1, twenty-six times; and 1, twenty-nine times.
The announcements in reply to the questions as
to the number of times that any of them had been
in prison were received with great applause, which
became more and more boisterous as the number
of imprisonments increased. When it was an-
nounced that one, though only 19 years of age,
had been in prison as many as twenty-nine times,
the clapping of hands, the cat-calls, and shouts of
"brayvo!" lasted for several minutes, and the
whole of the boys rose to look at the distinguished
individual. Some chalked on their hats the figures
which designated the sum of the several times that
they had been in gaol.
As to the causes of their vagabondism, it was
found that 22 had run away from their homes,
owing to the ill-treatment of their parents; 18
confessed to having been ruined through their
parents allowing them to run wild in the streets,
and to be led astray by bad companions; and 15
acknowledged that they had been first taught
thieving in a lodging-house.
Concerning the vagrant habits of the youths,
the following facts were elicited: 78 regularly
roam through the country every year, 65 sleep
regularly in the casual wards of the unions, and
52 occasionally slept in tramper's lodging-houses
throughout the country.
Respecting their education, according to the
popular meaning of the term, 63 of the 150 were
able to read and write, and they were principally
thieves. Fifty of this number said they had
read "Jack Sheppard," and the lives of Dick
Turpin, Claude du Val, and all the other popular
thieves' novels, as well as the "Newgate Calendar"
and "Lives of the Robbers and Pirates." Those
who could not read themselves, said they'd had
"Jack Sheppard" read to them at the lodging-
houses. Numbers avowed that they had been
induced to resort to an abandoned course of life
from reading the lives of notorious thieves, and
novels about highway robbers. When asked
what they thought of "Jack Sheppard," several
bawled out "He's a regular brick" — a sentiment
which was almost universally concurred in by the
deafening shouts and plaudits which followed.
When asked whether they would like to be Jack
Sheppards, they answered, "Yes, if the times
was the same now as they were then." Thirteen
confessed that they had taken to thieving in order
to go to the low theatres; and one lad said he had
lost a good situation on the Birmingham Railway
through his love of the play.
Twenty stated they had been flogged in prison
— many of them two, three, and four different
times. A policeman in plain clothes was present;
but their acute eyes were not long before they
detected his real character notwithstanding his
disguise. Several demanded that he should be
turned out. The officer was accordingly given to
understand that the meeting was a private one,
and requested to withdraw. Having apologised
for intruding, he proceeded to leave the room —
and, no sooner did the boys see the policeman
move towards the door, than they gave vent to
several rounds of very hearty applause, accom-
panied with hisses, groans, and cries of "throw
him over."
The process of interrogating them in the mass
having been concluded, the next step was to call
several of them separately to the platform, to
narrate, in their peculiar style and phraseology,
the history of their own career, together with the
causes which had led them to take up a life of
dishonesty. The novelty of their position as
speech-makers seemed peculiarly exciting to the
speakers themselves, and provoked much merri-
ment and interest amongst the lads. Their antics
and buffoonery in commencing their addresses
were certainly of the most ludicrous character.
The first speaker, a lad 17 years of age, ascended
the platform, dressed in a torn "wide-a-awake"
hat, and a dirty smock-frock. He began: — Gen-
tlemen [immense applause and laughter], I am a
Brummagem lad [laughter]. My father has been
[Description: 915EAF. Page 420.]
my father died I had to go and live along with my
aunt. I fell out of employment, and went round
about the town, and fell into the company of a lot
of chaps, and went picking ladies' pockets. Then
I was in prison once or twice, and I came to
London, and have been in several prisons here. I
have been in London three years; but I have
been out of it several times in that time. I can't
get anything honest to do; and I wish I could get
something at sea, or in any foreign land. I don't
care what or where it is [cheers and yells].
Another lad about 16, clad in a ragged coat,
with a dirty face and matted hair, next came
forward and said — My father was a soldier, and
when I growed up to about ten years I joined the
regiment as a drummer in the Grenadier Guards.
I went on and got myself into trouble, till at last
I got turned away, and my father left the regi-
ment. I then went out with some more chaps
and went thieving, and have been thieving about
two years now. [Several voices — "Very good;"
"that's beautiful;" "I hope you do it well."]
The third boy, who stated that he had been
twenty-four times in prison, said he belonged to
Hendon, in Middlesex, and that his father left his
mother seventeen years ago, and he did not know
whether he was dead or alive. He went to Christ-
church school for some time, but afterwards picked
up with bad companions, and went a thieving. He
went to school again, but again left it to go a
thieving and cadging with bad companions. He
had been doing that for the last five years; and if
he could get out of it he would be very glad to
leave it [cheers].
The fourth lad (who was received with loud
cheering, evidently indicating that he was a well-
known character) said, he came from the city of
York, and was a farrier. His father died a few
years ago, and then he took to work; but "the
play" led him on to be a thief, and from that
time to the present he had done nothing but beg
or thieve. If he could go to Australia he would
be very glad; as if he stopped in England he
feared he should do nothing but thieve to the end
[laughter, with cries of "well done," "very well
spoken"].
The next speaker was about 18 years of age,
and appeared a very sharp intelligent lad. After
making a very grave but irresistibly comical pre-
fatory bow, by placing his hand at the back of his
head, and so (as it were) forcing it to give a nod,
he proceeded: My father is an engineer's labourer,
and the first cause of my thieving was that he
kept me without grub, and wallopped me
[laughter]. Well, I was at work at the same
time that he was, and I kept pilfering, and at last
they bowled me out [loud cheers]. I got a show-
ing up, and at last they turned me away; and, not
liking to go home to my father, I ran away. I
went to Margate, where I had some friends, with
a shilling in my pocket. I never stopped till I
got to Ramsgate, and I had no lodging except
under the trees, and had only the bits of bread I
could pick up. When I got there my grand-
father took me in and kept me for a twelvemonth.
My mother's brother's wife had a spite against
me, and tried to get me turned away. I did not
know what thieving was then; and I used to
pray that her heart might be turned, because I
did not know what would become of me if my
grandfather turned me away. But she got other
people to complain of me, and say I was a
nuisance to the town; but I knowed there was
no fault in me; but, however, my grandfather
said he could put up with me no longer, and
turned me away. So after that I came back to
London, and goes to the union. The first night I
went there I got tore up [cheers and laughter].
Everything was torn off my back, and the bread
was taken away from me, and because I said a
word I got well wallopped [renewed laughter].
They "small-ganged" me; and afterwards I went
seven days to prison because others tore my
clothes. When I went in there — this was the
first time — a man said to me, "What are you
here for?" I said, "For tearing up." The man
said to another, "What are you here for?" and
the other made answer, "For a handkerchief."
The man then said, "Ah, that's something like;"
and he said to me, "Why are you not a thief —
you will only get to prison for that." I said, "I
will." Well, after that I went pilfering small
things, worth a penny or twopence at first; but I
soon saw better things were as easy to be got as
them, so I took them [laughter]. I picked up
with one that knowed more than me. He fairly
kept me for some time, and I learnt as well as
him. I picked him up in a London workhouse.
After that I thought I would try my friends
again, and I went to my uncle at Dover, but he
could do nothing for me, so I got a place at a
butcher's, where I fancied myself fairly blessed,
for I had 2s. a week and my board and washing.
I kept a twelvemonth there honest, without
thieving. At last my master and I fell out and I
left again, so I was forced to come up to London,
and there I found my old companions in the
Smithfield pens — they were not living anywhere.
I used to go to the workhouse and used to tear
up and refuse to work, and used to get sent to
"quod," and I used to curse the day when it was
my turn to go out. The governor of the prison
used to say he hoped he wouldn't see my face
there again; but I used to answer, "I shall be
here again to night, because it's the only place
I've got." That's all I've got to say.
The next lad, who said he had been fourteen
times in prison, was a taller, cleaner, and more
intelligent-looking youth than any that had pre-
ceded him. After making a low affected bow,
over the railing, to the company below, and utter-
ing a preliminary a-hem or two with the most
ludicrous mock gravity, he began by saying: —
"I am a native of London. My father is a poor
labouring man, with 15s. a week — little enough,
I think, to keep a home for four, and find candle-
light [laughter]. I was at work looking after a
boiler at a paper-stainer's in Old-street-road at 6s.
a week, when one night they bowled me out. I
got the sack, and a bag to take it home in
[laughter]. I got my wages, and ran away from
[Description: 915EAF. Page 421.]
no money, I went back again. I got a towelling,
but it did not do me much good. My father did
not like to turn me out of doors, so he tied me to
the leg of the bedstead [laughter]. He tied my
hands and feet so that I could hardly move, but I
managed somehow to turn my gob (mouth) round
and gnawed it away. I run down stairs and got
out at the back door and over a neighbour's wall,
and never went home for nine months. I never
bolted with anything. I never took anything that
was too hot for me. The captain of a man-of-war
about this time took me into his service, where I
remained five weeks till I took a fever, and was
obliged to go to the hospital. When I recovered,
the captain was gone to Africa; and not liking to
go home, I stepped away, and have been from
home ever since. I was in Brummagem, and was
seven days in the new `stir' (prison), and nearly
broke my neck. When I came out, I fell into
bad company, and went cadging, and have been
cadging ever since; but if I could leave off, and
go to the Isle of Dogs, the Isle of Man, or the
Isle of Woman [laughter], or any other foreign
place, I would embrace the opportunity as soon as
I could. And if so be that any gentleman would
take me in hand, and send me out, I would be
very thankful to him, indeed. And so good
night" [cheers].
A dirty little boy, fourteen years of age, dressed
in a big jacket, next stood forward. He said his
father was a man-of-war's man, and when he came
home from sea once his father, his mother, and all
of them got drunk. The lad then stole 4d. from
his father's pocket. After this, when he was sent
for sixpenny rum he used to fetch fourpenny, and
for fourpenny gin threepenny; and for fourpenny
beer he used to fetch threepenny, and keep the
difference to himself. His mother used to sell
fruit, and when she left him at the stall he used
to eat what he could not sell, and used to sell
some to get marbles and buttons. Once he stole
a loaf from a baker's shop. The man let him off,
but his father beat him for it. The beating did
him no good. After that he used to go "smug-
ging" [running away with] other people's things.
Then one day his father caught him, and tied his
leg to the bedstead, and left him there till he was
pretty near dead. He ran away afterwards, and
has been thieving ever since.
A lad about twenty was here about to volunteer
a statement concerning the lodging-houses, by
which he declared he had been brought to his
ruin, but he was instantly assailed with cries of
"come down!" "hold your tongue!" and these
became so general, and were in so menacing a
tone, that he said he was afraid to make any dis-
closures, because he believed if he did so he would
have perhaps two or three dozen of the other
chaps on to him [great confusion].
Will it hurt any of you here if
he says anything against the lodging-houses [yes,
yes]? How will it do so?
A Voice:
They will not allow stolen property
to come into them if it is told.
Mr. Mayhew:
But would you not all gladly
quit your present course of life [yes, yes, yes]?
Then why not have the lodging-house system, the
principal cause of all your misery, exposed?
A Voice:
If they shut up the lodging-houses,
where are we to go? If a poor boy gets to the
workhouse he catches a fever, and is starved into
the bargain.
Mr. Mayhew:
— Are not you all tired of the
lives you now lead? [Vociferous cries of "yes, yes,
we wish to better ourselves!" from all parts of the
room.]
However much you dread the exposure
of the lodging-houses, you know, my lads, as well
as I do, that it is in them you meet your com-
panions, and ruin, if not begun there, is at least
completed in such places. If a boy runs away
from home he is encouraged there and kept se-
creted from his parents. And do not the parties
who keep these places grow rich on your degrada-
tion and your peril? [Loud cries of "yes, yes!"]
Then why don't you all come forward now, and,
by exposing them to the public, who know nothing
of the iniquities and vice practised in such places,
put an end to these dens at once? There is not
one of you here — not one, at least, of the elder
boys, who has found out the mistake of his present
life, who would not, I verily believe, become
honest, and earn his living by his industry, if he
could. You might have thought a roving life a
pleasant thing enough at first, but you now know
that a vagabond's life is full of suffering, care,
peril, and privation; you are not so happy as you
thought you would be, and are tired and disgusted
with your present course. This is what I hear
from you all. Am I not stating the fact? [Re-
newed cries of "yes, yes, yes!" and a voice:
"The fact of it is, sir, we don't see our folly till it
is too late."]
Now I and many hundreds and
thousands really wish you well, and would gladly
do anything we could to get you to earn an honest
living. All, or nearly all, your misery, I know,
proceeds from the low lodging-houses ["yes, yes, it
does, master! it does"]
; and I am determined,
with your help, to effect their utter destruction.
[A voice, "I am glad of it, sir — you are quite
right; and I pray God to assist you."]
The elder boys were then asked what they
thought would be the best mode of effecting their
deliverance from their present degraded position.
Some thought emigration the best means, for if
they started afresh in a new colony, they said
they would leave behind them their bad charac-
ters, which closed every avenue to employment
against them at home. Others thought there
would be difficulties in obtaining work in the
colonies in sufficient time to prevent their being
driven to support themselves by their old practices.
Many again thought the temptations which sur-
rounded them in England rendered their reforma-
tion impossible; whilst many more considered that
the same temptations would assail them abroad
which existed at home.
Mr. Mayhew then addressed them on another
point. He said he had seen many notorious
thieves in the course of his investigations. Since
then he had received them at all hours into his
house — men of the most desperate and women of
[Description: 915EAF. Page 422.]
lost a 6d. worth of his property by them. One
thief he had entrusted with a sovereign to get
changed, and the lad returned and gave him back
the full amount in silver. He had since gone out
to America. Now he would ask all those present
whether, if he were to give them a sovereign, they
would do the same? [Several voices here called
out that they would, and others that they would
not. Others, again, said that they would to him,
but to no one else.]
Here one of the most desperate characters pre-
sent, a boy who had been twenty-six times in
prison, was singled out from the rest, and a sove-
reign given to him to get changed, in order to
make the experiment whether he would have the
honesty to return the change or abscond with it in
his possession. He was informed, on receiving it,
that if he chose to decamp with it, no proceedings
should be taken against him. He left the room
amid the cheers of his companions, and when he
had been absent a few moments all eyes were
turned towards the door each time it opened,
anxiously expecting his arrival, to prove his trust-
worthiness. Never was such interest displayed
by any body of individuals. They mounted the
forms in their eagerness to obtain the first glimpse
of his return. It was clear that their honour was
at stake; and several said they would kill the lad
in the morning if he made off with the money.
Many minutes elapsed in almost painful suspense,
and some of his companions began to fear that so
large a sum of money had proved too great a
temptation for the boy. At last, however, a
tremendous burst of cheering announced the lad's
return. The delight of his companions broke forth
again and again, in long and loud peals of ap-
plause, and the youth advanced amidst triumphant
shouts to the platform, and gave up the money in
full.
The assemblage was then interrogated as to
the effect of flogging as a punishment; and the
general feeling appeared to be that it hardened
the criminal instead of checking his depravity,
and excited the deadliest enmity in his bosom at
the time towards the person inflicting it. When
asked whether they had seen any public execu-
tions, they almost all cried out that they had seen
Manning and his wife hung; others said that they
had seen Rush and Sarah Thomas executed. They
stated that they liked to go a "death-hunting,"
after seeing one or two executed. It hardened
them to it, and at last they all got to thieve under
the gallows. They felt rather shocked at the
sight of an execution at first; but, after a few
repetitions, it soon wore off.
Before the meeting broke up several other lads
expressed a strong desire to make statements.
A young man, 18 years of age, and of a
miserable and ragged appearance, said he first left
home from bad usage; and could not say whether
it was the same with his sister or not, but she left
her home about nine months ago, when he met
her while he was getting his living as a coster-
monger. With the stock-money that he had, rather
than she should be driven to prostitution and the
streets, he bought as many things as he could to
furnish a room. This exhausted his stock-money,
and then his furniture had to go a little at a time
to support him and his sister in food. After this
he was obliged to take a furnished room, which
put him to greater expense. To keep her off the
streets, he was compelled to thieve. His father,
if he ever had the feeling of a Christian, would
never have treated him as he had done. Could a
father (he asked) have any feeling, who chained
his son up by the leg in a shed, as his father had
done to him, and fed him on bread and water for
one entire month: and then, after chaining him
up all day, still chain him in bed at night. This
it was that drove him into the streets at first. It
was after his mother died, and he had a step-
mother, that his father treated him thus. His
mother-in-law ill-treated him as well as his father.
If he had been a transport he could not have been
treated worse. He told his father that he was
driving him on the road to transportation, but
he took no notice of it; and he was obliged to
leave his roof. He had been in Newgate since.
A little boy, dressed in the garb of a sailor,
came up to Mr. Mayhew crying bitterly, and im-
plored him to allow him to say a word. He stated
— I am here starving all my time. Last night I
was out in the cold and nearly froze to death.
When I got up I was quite stiff and could hardly
walk. I slept in Whitechapel under a form where
they sell meat. I was an apprentice on board of
a fishing smack, and ran away because I was ill-
treated. After I ran away I broke into my
master's house because I was hungry. He gave
me twelve months, and now he is in the union
himself; he failed in business and got broken up.
I have been out of prison three months, starving;
and I would rather do anything than thieve. If
I see a little thing I take it, because I can't get
anything to eat without it. [Here the child, still
weeping piteously, uncovered his breast, and
showed his bones starting through his skin. He
said he was anxious to get out of the country.]
The following statement respecting the lodging-
houses was made, after the others had left, by
another lad. He left home when about thirteen,
and never thieved before that. His father was
dead, and his mother was unable to keep him. He
got a situation and held it for three years and
nine months, until he picked up with a man from
a lodging-house, and through keeping late hours
he was obliged to leave his place and sleep in a
lodging-house himself. The lodging-house is in
Short's-gardens. This he considered to have been
the commencement of his downfall. About forty
thieves lived in the house, and they brought in
stolen property of every description, and the de-
puties received it and took it to other people to sell
it again, and get the price and pay the thieves.
They got double as much as the thieves did, or
else they would have nothing to do with it.
Several housebreakers lived at the house, and he
heard them there plan the robbery of Bull and
Wilson, the woollen-drapers in St. Martin's-lane.
One of the men secreted himself in the house in
the daytime, and the other two were admitted by
[Description: 915EAF. Page 423.]
the persons present would have killed him. He
was sure that more might be done by giving proper
encouragement to virtue, and by reforming the
criminal, than by rigorous prosecution. He said
(with tears in his eyes) that he should be very
willing and happy to work for an honest living if
he could only get it to do. He showed a letter of
recommendation for good conduct to his former
master, and a Bible; both of which had been
given him by the chaplain of the gaol which he
had just left, after undergoing an imprisonment of
twelve months. It was useless (he said) for a
young man like him to apply to the parish for re-
lief; he might just as well stand in the street and
talk to a lamp-post. Then what was a man to do
after he left prison? He must go a thieving to
live. He was persuaded that if there was an in-
stitution to give employment to the homeless, the
friendless, and the penniless, after being liberated
from prison, it would be the means of rescuing
thousands.
The proceedings then terminated. The assem-
blage, which had become more rational and ma-
nageable towards the close, dispersed, quite peace-
ably it should be added, and the boys were
evidently sincerely grateful for the efforts being
made to bring their misfortunes before the notice
of those in whose power it may be to alleviate
them.
Before they were dismissed, as much money
was dispensed to each as would defray his night's
lodging.
| OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |