 | OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF LUCIFER-MATCHES.
Under this head I shall speak only of those who
sell the matches, apart from those who, in proffer-
ing lucifer boxes, mix up trade with mendicancy.
The latter class I have spoken of, and shall treat
of them more fully under the head of "the Lon-
don Poor."
Until "lucifers" became cheap and in general
use, the matches sold by the street-folks, and there
were numbers in the trade, were usually prepared
by themselves. The manufactures were simple
enough. Wooden splints, twice or thrice the
length of the lucifer matches now in use, were
prepared, and dipped into brimstone, melted in an
iron ladle. The matches were never, as now,
self-igniting, or rather ignitable by rapid friction;
but it was necessary to "strike a light" by the
concussion of a flint and steel, the sparks from
which were communicated to tinder kept in a
"box."
The brimstone match-sellers were of all ages,
but principally, I am told, old people. Many of
them during, and for some years after the war,
wore tattered regimentals, or some remains of
military paraphernalia, and had been, or assumed
to have been, soldiers, but not entitled to a pen-
sion; the same with seamen. I inquired of
some of the present race of match-sellers what
became of the "old brimstones," as I heard them
called, but from them I could gain little infor-
ation. An old groundsel-gatherer told me that
some went into his trade. Others, I learned,
"took to pins," and others to song or tract selling.
Indeed the brimstone match-sellers not unfre-
quently carried a few songs to vend with their
matches. It must be borne in mind that, 15
years ago, those street trades, into which any one
who is master of a few pence can now embark,
were less numerous. Others of the match-sellers,
with rounds, or being known men, displaced their
"brimstones" for "lucifers," and traded on as
usual. I heard of one old man, now dead, who
made a living on brimstone-matches by selling a
good quantity in Hackney, Stoke Newington, and
Islington, and who long refused to sell lucifer-
matches; "they was new-fangled rubbish," he said,
"and would soon have their day." He found his
customers, however, fall off, and in apprehension
of losing them all, he was compelled to move with
the times.
"I believe, sir," said one man, still a street-
seller, but not having sold matches of any kind
for years, — "I believe I was the first who
hawked `Congreves,' or `instantaneous lights;'
they weren't called `lucifers' for a good while
after. I bought them at Mr. Jones's light-house in
the Strand, and if I remember right, for it must
be more than 20 years ago, between 1820 and
1830, Mr. Jones had a patent somehow about
them. I bought them at 7s. a dozen boxes, and
sold them at 1s. a box. I'm not sure how many
matches was in a box, but I think it was 100.
You'll get as much for a farthing now, as you
would for a shilling then. The matches were
lighted by being drawn quickly through sand-
paper. I sold them for a twelvemonth, and had
the trade all to myself. As far as I know, I had;
for I never met with or heard of anybody else in
it all that time. I did decent at it. I suppose I
cleared my 15s. a week. The price kept the same
while I was in the business. I sold them at city
offices. I supplied the Phœnix in Lombard-
street, I remember, and the better sort of shops.
[Description: 915EAF. Page 432.]
candle in a hurry, in places where there was no
fire to seal a letter, or such like. There was no
envelopes in them days. The penny-postage
brought them in. I was sometimes told not to
carry such things there again, as they didn't want
the house set on fire by keeping such dangerous
things in it. Now, I suppose, lucifers are in every
house, and that there's not a tinder-box used in
all London." Such appears to have been the
beginning of the extensive street-trade in these
chemical preparations now carried on. At the
twelvemonth's end, my informant went into an-
other line of business.
The "German Congreves" were soon after in-
troduced, and were at first sold wholesale at the
"English and German" swag-shops in Hounds-
ditch, at 2s. the dozen boxes, and were retailed
at 3d., 4d., and sometimes as high as 6d. the box.
These matches, I am told, "kept their hold"
about five years, when they ceased to be a portion
of the street trade. The German Congreves were
ignited by being drawn along a slip of sand-
paper, at the bottom of the box, as is done at
present; with some, however, a double piece of
sand-paper was sold for purposes of igniting.
After this time cheaper and cheaper matches
were introduced, and were sold in the streets im-
mediately on their introduction. At first, the
cheaper matches had an unpleasant smell, and
could hardly be kept in a bed-room, but that was
obviated, and the trade progressed to its present
extent.
The lucifer-match boxes, the most frequent in
the street-trade, are bought by the poor persons
selling them in the streets, at the manufacturers,
or at oil-shops, for a number of oilmen buy largely
of the manufacturers, and can "supply the trade"
at the same rate as the manufacturer. The price
is 2¼d. the dozen boxes, each box containing 150
matches. Some of the boxes (German made) are
round, and many used to be of tin, but these are
rarely seen now. The prices are proportionate.
The common price of a lucifer box in the streets
is ½d., but many buyers, I am told, insist upon
and obtain three a penny, which they do generally
of some one who supplies them regularly. The
trade is chiefly itinerant.
One feeble old man gave me the following
account of his customers. He had been in the
employ of market-gardeners, carmen, and others,
whose business necessitated the use of carts and
horses. In his old age he was unable to do any
hard work; he was assisted, however, by his
family, especially by one son living in the
country; he had a room in the house of a daugh-
ter, who was a widow, but his children were
only working people, with families, he said, and so
he sold a few lucifers "as a help," and to have
the comfort of a bit of tobacco, and buy an old
thing in the way of clothing without troubling
any one. Out of his earnings, too, he paid 6d. a
week for the schooling of one of his daughter's
children.
"I sell these lucifers, sir," he said, in answer
to my inquiries, "I never beg with them: I'd
scorn it. My children help me, as I've told you;
I did my best for them when I was able, and so
I have a just sort of claim on them. Well,
indeed, then, sir, as you ask me, if I had only
myself to depend upon, why I couldn't live. I
must beg or go into the house, and I don't know
which I should take to worst at 72. I've been
selling lucifers about five years, for I was worn
out with hard work and rheumatics when I was
65 or 66. I go regular rounds, about 2 miles in a
day, or 2½, or if it's fine 3 miles or more from
where I live, and the same distance back, for I
can sometimes walk middling if I can do nothing
else. I carry my boxes tied up in a handker-
chief, and hold 2 or 3 in my hand. I'm ashamed
to hold them out on any rail where I aint known;
and never do if there isn't a good-humoured
looking person to be seen below, or through the
kitchen window. But my eyesight aint good,
and I make mistakes, and get snapped up very
short at times. Yesterday, now, I was lucky
in my small way. There's a gentleman, that if I
can see him, I can always sell boxes to at 1d.
a piece. That's his price, he says, and he takes
no change if I offer it. I saw him yesterday at
his own door, and says he, `Well, old greybeard,
I haven't seen you for a long time. Here's 1s.,
leave a dozen boxes.' I told him I had only 11
left; but he said, `O, it's all the same,' and he
told a boy that was crossing the hall to take them
into the kitchen, and we soon could hear the
housekeeper grumbling quite loud — perhaps she
didn't know her master could hear — about being
bothered with rubbish that people took in master
with; and the gentleman shouts out, `Some of
you stop that old — mouth, will you? She
wants a profit out of them in her bills.' All was
quiet then, and he says to me quite friendly, `If
she wasn't the best cook in London I'd have
quitted her long since, by G — .' " The old man
chuckled no little as he related this; he then went
on, "He's a swearing man, but a good man, I'm
sure, and I don't know why he's so kind to me.
Perhaps he is to others. I'm ashamed to hold
my boxes to the ary rails, 'cause so many does
that to beg. I sell lucifers both to mistresses and
maids. Some will have 3 for a 1d., and though
it's a poor profit, I do it, for they say, `O, if you
come this way constant, we'll buy of you when-
ever we want. If you won't give 3 a penny,
there's plenty will.' I sell, too, in some small
streets, Lisson-grove way, to women that see me
from their windows, and come down to the door.
They're needle-workers I think. They say some-
times, `I'm glad I've seen you, for it saves me
the trouble of running out.'
"Well, sir, I'm sure I hardly know how many
boxes I sell. On a middling good day I sell
2 dozen, on a good day 3 dozen, on a bad day
not a dozen, sometimes not half-a-dozen, and
sometimes, but not often, not more than a
couple. Then in bad weather I don't go out,
and time hangs very heavy if it isn't a Monday;
for every Monday I buy a threepenny paper
of a newsman for 2d., and read it as well as I
can with my old eyes and glasses, and get my
[Description: 915EAF. Page 433.]
next day I send the paper to my son in the
country, and so save him buying one. As well as
I can tell I sell about 9 dozen boxes a week, one
week with another, and clear from 2s. to 2s. 6d.
It's employment for me as well as a help."
It is not easy to estimate the precise number of
persons who really sell lucifer matches as a means
of subsistence, or as a principal means. There
are many, especially girls and women, the ma-
jority being Irishwomen, who do not directly
solicit charity, and do not even say, "Buy a box
of lucifers from a poor creature, to get her a
ha'porth of bread;" or, "please a bit of broken
victuals, if it's only cold potatoes, for a box of the
best lucifers." Yet these match-sellers look so
imploringly down an area, or through a window,
some "shouldering" a young child the while, and
remain there so pertinaciously that a box is bought,
or a halfpenny given, often merely to get rid of
the applicant.
An intelligent man, a street-seller, and familiar
with street-trading generally, whom I questioned
on the subject, said: "It's really hard to tell, sir,
but I should calculate this way. It's the real
sellers you ask about; them as tries to live on
their selling lucifers, or as their main support. I
have worked London and the outside places — yes,
I mean the suburbs — in ten rounds, or districts, but
six is better, for you can then go the same round the
same day next week, and so get known. The real
sellers, in my opinion, is old men and women out
of employ, or past work, and to beg they are
ashamed. I've read the Bible you see, sir, though
I've had too much to do with gay persons even to
go to church. I should say that in each of those
ten rounds, or at any rate, splicing one with
another, was twenty persons really selling luci-
fers. Yes, and depending a good deal upon them,
for they're an easy carriage for an infirm body,
and as ready a sale as most things. I don't
reckon them as begs, or whines, or sticks to a
house for an hour, but them as sells; in my
opinion, they're 200, and no more. All the
others dodges, in one way or other, on pity and
charity. There's one lurk that's getting common
now. A man well dressed, and very clean, and
wearing gloves, knocks at a door, and asks to
speak to the master or mistress. If he succeeds,
he looks about him as if he was ashamed, and
then he pulls out of his coat-pocket a lucifer box
or two, and asks, as a favour, to be allowed to sell
one, as reduced circumstances drive him to do so.
He doesn't beg, but I don't reckon him a seller,
for he has always some story or other to tell,
that's all a fakement." Most dwellers in a
suburb will have met with one of these well-
dressed match-sellers.
Adopting my informant's calculation, and sup-
posing that each of these traders take, on lucifers
alone, but 4s. weekly, selling nine dozen (with a
profit to the seller of from 1s. 9d. to 2s. 6d.), we
find 2080l. expended in this way. The matches
are sold also at stalls, with other articles, in the
street markets, and elsewhere; but this traffic, I
am told, becomes smaller, and only amounts to one-
tenth of the amount I have specified as taken by
itinerants. These street-sellers reside in all parts
of town which I have before specified as the
quarters of the poor.
| OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |