Part 60

I took a statement from this man, but do not care to dwell upon the subject. The trade, in the form I have described, had been carried on, he thought, for the last six years. At one time, 20 men followed it; at present, he believed there were only 6, and they worked only at intervals, and as opportunities offered: some going out, for instance, to sell almanacs or memorandum books, and, when they met with a favourable chance, offering their sealed packets. My informant’s customers were principally boys, young men, and old gentlemen; but old gentlemen chiefly when the trade was new. This street-seller’s “great gun,” as he called it, was to make up packets, as closely resembling as he could accomplish it, those which were displayed in the windows of any of the shops I have alluded to. He would then station himself at some little distance from one of those shops, and, if possible, so as to encounter those who had stopped to study the contents of the window, and would represent--broadly enough, he admitted, when he dared--that he could sell for 6_d._ what was charged 5_s._, or 2_s._ 6_d._, or whatever price he had seen announced, “in that very neighbourhood.” He sometimes ventured, also, to mutter something, unintelligibly, about the public being imposed upon! On one occasion, he took 6_s._ in the street in about two hours. On another evening he took 4_s._ 8_d._ in the street and was called aside by two old gentlemen, each of whom told him to come to an address given (at the West-end), and ask for such and such initials. To one he sold two packets for 2_s._; to the other, five packets, each 1_s._--or 11_s._ 8_d._ in one evening. The packets were in different coloured papers, and had the impressions of a large seal on red wax at the back; and he assured the old gents., as he called them, one of whom, he thought, was “silly,” that they were all different. “And very likely,” he said, chucklingly, “they were different; for they were made out of a lot of missionary tracts and old newspapers that I got dirt cheap at a ‘waste’ shop. I should like to have seen the old gent.’s face, as he opened his 5_s._ worth, one after another!” This trade, however, among old gentlemen, was prosperous for barely a month: “It got blown then, sir, and they wouldn’t buy any more, except a very odd one.”

This man--and he believed it was the same with all the others in the trade--never visited the public-houses, for a packet would soon have been opened and torn there, which, he said, people was ashamed to do in the public streets. As well as he could recollect, he had never sold a single packet to a girl or a woman. Drunken women of the town had occasionally made loud comments on his calling, and offered to purchase; but on such occasions, fearful of a disturbance, he always hurried away.

I have said that the straw trade is now confined to the country, and I give a specimen of the article vended there, by the patterer in the sham indecent trade. It was purchased of a man, who sold it folded in the form of a letter, and is addressed, “On Royal Service. By Express. Private. To Her Royal Highness, Victoria, Princess Royal. Kensington Palace, London. Entered at Stationer’s Hall.” The man who sold it had a wisp of straw round his neck, and introduced his wares with the following patter:

“I am well aware that many persons here present will say what an absurd idea--the idea of selling straws for a halfpenny each, when there are so many lying about the street; but the reason is simply this: I am not allowed by the authorities to sell these papers, so I give them away and sell my straws. There are a variety of figures in these papers for gentlemen; some in the bed, some on the bed, some under the bed.” The following is a copy of the document thus sold:--

“Bachelors or Maidens, Husbands and Wives, Will love each other and lead happy lives; If both these Letters to read are inclined, Secrets worth knowing therein they will find.

“Dated from the Duchy of Coburg.

“MY DEAREST VICTORIA,

----never did I enjoy greater bliss, than when I sat down to the delightful task of writing a love letter to thy royal highness--my sweetest angel, oh! how I do adore thy lovely form, and long for the happy hour when I shall clasp thee in my arms--My bosom heaves, my heart pants, my senses wander, my hair stands on end, my head is on fire, my feet stumbles--yea, my arms and my legs refuse to do their office; every one of my members are tantalised with varied and conflicting emotions, and my whole body is being consumed in the furnase of everlasting love! Then hasten my glorious cherub--thou heavenly samaritan, pass not away from thy adoring albert; but come and pour thy healing balsam into my smarting wounds--Then will I pleasantly repose myself on my _now_ sleepless couch, and resining my soul to the enjoyment of that balmy sleep I have been long wanting, I shall be enchanted with the most beautiful visions of futurity, and continue to dream of love and thee! My amiable Victoria, the most pure and spotless of virgins, come to my longing arams--it is only thy dear Albert who like a bird of paradise, is calling thee to listen to his charming notes, and with fluttering wings wishes to bury himself within thy own downy plumage! Most amiable of England’s princesses--and the most virtuous of all heirs to a british diadem--I implore thee on ny bended knees, to favour my suit, above any other prince in christendom; and when thou hast deigned to exhalt me to that envied station of being thy husband, rest assured on my princely honour, that I will award to my royal bride and future sovereign, very many and living pledges of affection--anxiously awaiting your royal-Highnesses’ answer, I beg leave to subscribe myself

“Your adored Lover,

“ALBERT,

“PRINCE OF COBURG.”

On the back of this page is the following cool initiation of the purchaser into the mysteries of the epistle:

“Directions for the purchasers to understand the _Royal Love Letters_, and showing them how to practise the art of Secret Letter Writing:--

“Proceed to lay open ‘Albert’s Letter’ by the side of ‘Victoria’s,’ and having done so, then look carefully down them until you have come to a word at the left hand corner, near the end of each Letter, having two marks thus -- --, when you must commence with that word, and read from left to right after you have turned them bottom upwards before a looking glass so that you may peruse the copy reflected therein. But you must notice, throughout all the words every other letter is upside down, also every other word single; but the next two words being purposely joined together, therefore they are double; and in addition to those letters placed upside down, makes it more mysterious in the reading. The reader is recommended to copy each word in writing, when he will be able to read the letters forward, and after a little practice he can soon learn to form all his words in the same curious manner, when he wants to write a ‘secret letter.’

“Be sure when holding it up side down before a looking-glass, that the light of a candle, is placed between then by the reflection it will show much plainer, and be sooner discovered.

“If you intend to practise a _Joke_ and make it answer the purpose of a Valentine, write what you think necessary on the adjoining _blank page_; then post it, with the superscription filled up in this manner:--After the word To, _write the name and address of the party_ also place the word FROM _before_ ‘VICTORIA’S’ name: then the address on the outside of this letter will read somewhat after the following fashion:--To Mr. or Mrs. so and so, (with the number if any,) in such and such a street: at the same time your letter will appear as if it came from Royalty.

“N.B. You must first buy both the letters, as the other letter is an answer to this one; and because, without the reader has got both letters, he will not have the secrets perfect.”

Notwithstanding the injunction to buy _both_ letters, and the seeming necessity of having both to understand the “directions,” the patterer was selling only the one I have given.

That the trade in sham indecent publications was, at one time, very considerable, and was not unobserved by those who watch, as it is called, “the signs of the times,” is shown by the circumstance that the Anti-Corn-Law League paper, called the _Bread Basket_, could only be got off by being done up in a sealed packet, and sold by patterers as a pretended improper work.

The really indecent trade will be described hereafter.

For a month my informant thought he had cleared 35_s._ a week; for another month, 20_s._; and as an average, since that time, from 5_s._ to 7_s._ 6_d._ weekly, until he discontinued the trade. It is very seldom practised, unless in the evening, and perhaps only one street-seller depends entirely upon it.

Supposing that 6 men last year each cleared 6_s._ weekly, we find upwards of 93_l._ expended yearly in the streets on this rubbish.

The capital required to start in the business is 6_d._ or 1_s._, to be expended in paper, paste, and sometimes sealing-wax.

OF RELIGIOUS TRACT SELLERS.

The sellers of religious tracts are now, I am informed, at the least, about 50, but they were at one time, far more numerous. When penny books were few and very small, religious tracts were by far the cheapest things in print. It is common, moreover, for a religious society, or an individual, to give a poor person, children especially, tracts for sale. A great many tract sellers, from 25 to 35 years ago, were, or pretended to be, maimed old soldiers or sailors. The traffic is now in the hands of what may be called an anomalous body of men. More than one half of the tract sellers are foreigners, such as Malays, Hindoos, and Negros. Of them, some cannot speak English, and some--who earn a spare subsistence by selling Christian tracts--are Mahometans, or worshippers of Bramah! The man whose portrait supplies the daguerreotyped illustration of this number is unable to speak a word of English, and the absence of an interpreter, through some accident, prevented his statement being taken at the time appointed. I shall give it, however, with the necessary details on the subject, under another head.

With some men and boys, I am informed, tract-selling is but a pretext for begging.

OF A BENEFIT SOCIETY OF PATTERERS.

In the course of my inquiries, I received an account of an effort made by a body of these people to provide against sickness,--a step so clearly in the right direction, and perhaps so little to be expected from the habits of the class, that I feel bound to notice it. It was called the “Street-sellers’ Society;” but as nearly all the _bonâ-fide_ members (or those who sought benefit from its funds) were patterers in paper, or ballad-singers, I can most appropriately notice their proceedings here.

The society “sprung up accidental,” as it was expressed to me. A few paper-workers were conversing of the desirableness of such an institution, and one of the body suggested a benefit club, which it was at once determined to establish. It was accordingly established between six and seven years ago, and was carried on for about four years. The members varied in number from 40 to 50; but of a proportion of 40, as many as 18 might be tradesmen who were interested in the street-trade, either in supplying the articles in demand for it, or from keeping public-houses resorted to by the fraternity, or any such motive, or who were merely curious to mix in such society. Mr. C---- was conductor; Mr. J. H---- (a poet, and the writer of “Black Bess,” “the Demon of the Sea,” and other things which “took” in the streets), secretary; and a well-known patterer was under-conductor, with which office was mixed up the rather onerous duties of a kind of master of the ceremonies on meeting-nights. None of the officers were paid.

The subscription was 2_d._ a week, and meetings of the members were held once a week. Each member, not an officer, paid 1/2_d._ for admission to the fund, and could introduce a visitor, who also paid 1/2_d._ No charge was made for the use of the club-room (in a public-house), which was entirely in the control of the members. Every one using bad language, or behaving improperly, was fined 1/2_d._, and on a second offence was ejected, and sometimes, if the misbehaviour was gross, on the first. Any one called upon to sing, and refusing, or being unable, was fined 1/2_d._, and was liable to be called upon again, and pay another fine. A visitor sometimes, instead of 1/2_d._, offered 6_d._ when fined; but this was not accepted,--only 1/2_d._ could be received. The members’ wives could and did often accompany their husbands to the meetings; but women of the town, whether introduced by members or not, were not permitted to remain. “They found their way in a few times,” said the man who was under-conductor to me, “but I managed to work them out without any bother, and without insulting them--God forbid!”

The assistance given was 5_s._ weekly to sick members, who were not in arrear in their subscriptions. If the man had a family to support, a gathering was made for him, in addition to his weekly allowance,--for the members were averse to “distress the box” (fund). There was no allowance for the burial of a member, but a gathering took place, and perhaps a raffle, to raise funds for a wake (sometimes) and an interment; and during the existence of the society, three members, I was told, were buried that way “comfortably.” The subscriptions were paid up regularly enough; “indeed,” said a member to me, “if a man earned anything, his mates knew of it: we all know how the cat jumps that way, so he must either pay or be scratched.” The members not unfrequently lent each other money to pay up their subscriptions. Fashionable young “swells,” I was told, often visited the house, and stayed till 3 or 4 in the morning, but were very seldom in the club-room, which was closed regularly at 12. After that hour, the “swells” who were bent upon seeing life--(and they are a class whom the patterers, on all such occasions, not so very unreasonably consider “fair game” for bamboozling)--could enjoy the society congenial to their tastes or gratifying to their curiosity. On one occasion two policemen were among the visitors, and were on friendly terms enough with the members, some of whom they had seen before.

From the beginning there seems to have been a distrust of one another among the members, but a distrust not invincible or the club would never have been formed. Instead of the “box,” or fund (the money being deposited in a box), being allowed to accumulate, so that an investment might be realised, available for any emergency, the fund was divided among the members quarterly, and then the subscription went on anew. The payments, however, fell off. The calling of the members was precarious, their absence in the country was frequent, and so the society ceased to exist, but the members were satisfied that every thing was done honourably.

[Illustration: HINDOO TRACT-SELLER.

[_From a Daguerreotype by_ BEARD.]]

The purpose to which the funds, on a quarterly division, were devoted, was one not confined to such men as the patterers--to a supper. “None of your light suppers, sir,” said a member; “not by no means. And we were too fly to send anybody to market but ourselves. We used to go to Leadenhall, and buy a cut off a sirloin, which was roasted prime, and smelt like a angel. But not so often, for its a dear jint, the bones is heavy. One of the favouritest jints was a boiled leg of mutton with caper trimmings. That _is_ a good supper,--I believe you, my hero.”

OF THE ABODES, TRICKS, MARRIAGE, CHARACTER, AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIFFERENT GRADES OF PATTERERS.

Having now giving an account of those who may be called the literary patterers (proper), or at any rate of those who do not deem it vain so to account themselves, because they “work paper,” I proceed to adduce an account of the different grades of patterers generally, for patter has almost as many divisions as literature. There is patter pathetic, as from beggars; bouncing, to puff off anything of little or no value; comic, as by the clowns; descriptive, as in the cases where the vendor describes, however ornately, what he really sells; religious, as occasionally by the vendors of tracts; _real patter_ (as it is understood by the profession) to make a thing believed to be what it is not; classical, as in the case of the sale of stenographic cards, &c.; and sporting, as in race cards.

The pattering tribe is by no means confined to the traffic in paper, though it may be the principal calling as regards the acuteness of its professors. Among these street-folk are the running and standing patterers (or stationers as they are sometimes, but rarely, styled)--and in these are included, the Death and Fire Hunters of whom I have spoken; Chaunters; Second Edition-sellers; Reciters; Conundrum-sellers; Board-workers; Strawers; Sellers of (Sham) Indecent Publications; Street Auctioneers; Cheap Jacks; Mountebanks (quacks); Clowns; the various classes of Showmen; Jugglers; Conjurors; Ring-sellers for wagers; Sovereign-sellers; Corn-curers; Grease-removers; French-polishers; Blacking-sellers; Nostrum-vendors; Fortune-tellers; Oratorical-beggars; Turnpike-sailors; the classes of Lurkers; Stenographic Card-sellers, and the Vendors of Race-cards or lists.

The following accounts have been written for me by the same gentleman who has already described the Religion, Morals, &c., of patterers. He has for some years resided among the class, and has pursued a street calling for his existence. What I have already said of his opportunities of personal observation and of dispassionate judgment I need not iterate.

“I wish,” says the writer in question, “in the disclosures I am now about to make concerning the patterers generally, to _do more_ than merely put the public on their guard. I take no cruel delight in dragging forth the follies of my fellow-men. Before I have done with my subject, I hope to draw forth and exhibit some of the latent virtues of the class under notice, many of whom I know to sigh in secret over that _one_ imprudent step (whatever its description), which has furnished the censorious with a weapon they have been but too ready to wield. The first thing for me to do is to give a glance at the _habitations_ of these outcasts, and to set forth their usual conduct, opinions, conversation and amusements. As London (including the ten mile circle), is the head quarters of lodging-house life, and least known, because most crowded, I shall lift the veil which shrouds the vagrant hovel where the patterer usually resides.

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“As there are many individuals in lodging-houses who are not regular patterers or professional vagrants, being rather, as they term themselves, ‘travellers’ (or tramps), so there are multitudes who do _not_ inhabit such houses who really belong to the fraternity, pattering, or vagrant. Of these some take up their abode in what they call ‘flatty-kens,’ that is, houses the landlord of which is not ‘awake’ or ‘fly’ to the ‘moves’ and dodges of the trade; others resort to the regular ‘padding-kens,’ or houses of call for vagabonds; while others--and especially those who have families--live constantly in furnished rooms, and have little intercourse with the ‘regular’ travellers, tramps, or wanderers.

“The medium houses the London vagrant haunts, (for I have no wish to go to extremes either way,) are probably in Westminster, and perhaps the fairest ‘model’ of the ‘_monkry_’ is the house in Orchard-street--once the residence of royalty--which has been kept and conducted for half a century by the veteran who some fifty years ago was the _only_ man who amused the population with that well-known ditty,

‘If I’d as much money as I could tell, I would not cry young lambs to sell.’

_Mister_ (for that is the old man’s title) still manufactures lambs, but seldom goes out himself; his sons (obedient and exemplary young men) take the toys into the country, and dispose of them at fairs and markets. The wife of this man is a woman of some beauty and good sound sense, but far too credulous for the position of which she is the mistress.

“So much for the establishment. I have now to deal with the inmates.

“No one could be long an inmate of Mr. ----’s without discerning in the motley group persons who had seen better days, and, seated on the same bench, persons who are ‘seeing’ the best days they _ever_ saw. When I took up my abode in the house under consideration, I was struck by the appearance of a middle-aged lady-like woman, a native of Worcester, bred to the glove trade, and brought up in the lap of plenty, and under the high sanction of religious principle. She had evidently some source of mental anguish. I believe it was the conduct of her husband, by whom she had been deserted, and who was living with a woman to whom, it is said, the wife had shown much kindness. By her sat a giant in size, and candour demands that I should say a ‘giant in sin.’ When Navy Jem, as he is called, used to _work_ for his living (it was a long while ago) he drove a barrow at the formation of the Great Western Railway. At present the man lies in bed till mid-day, and when he makes his appearance in the kitchen,

‘The very kittens on the hearth They dare not even play.’

His breakfast embraces all the good things of the season. He divides his delicacies with a silver fork--where did he get it? The mode in which this man obtains a livelihood is at once a mixture and a mystery. His prevailing plan is to waylay gentlemen in the decline of life, and to extort money by threats of accusation and exposure, to which I can do no more than allude. His wife, a notorious shoplifter, is now for the third time ‘expiating her offences’ in Coldbath-fields.

“Next to Navy Jem may be perceived a little stunted woman, of pretended Scotch, but really Irish extraction, whose husband has died in the hospital for consumption at least as many times as the hero of Waterloo has seen engagements. At last the man _did_ die, and his widow has been collecting money to bury him for eight years past, but has not yet secured the required sum. This woman, whose name I never knew, has a boy and a girl; to the former she is very kind, the latter she beats without mercy, always before breakfast, and with such (almost) unvaried punctuality that her brother will sometimes whisper (after saying grace), ‘Mother, has our Poll had her licks yet?’

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