Part 73

From the best information I could obtain, it appears that from 70 to 100 pounds weight of “waste”--about three-fourths being newspapers, of which some are foreign--is supplied to Billingsgate market and its visitants. Two numbers of the _Times_, with their supplements, one paper-buyer told me, “when cleverly damped, and they’re never

## particularly dry,” will weigh about a pound. The average price is not

less than 2-1/2_d._ a pound, or from that to 3_d._ A single paper is 1_d._ At 2-1/2_d._ per pound, and 85 pounds a day, upwards of 275_l._ is spent yearly in waste paper at Billingsgate, in the street or open-air purchase alone.

OF THE SALE OF PERIODICALS ON THE STEAM-BOATS AND STEAM-BOAT PIERS.

In this traffic are engaged about 20 men, “when the days are light until eight o’clock;” from 10 to 15, if the winter be a hard winter; and if the river steamers are unable to run--none at all. This winter, however, there has been no cessation in the running of the “boats,” except on a few foggy days. The steam-boat paper-sellers are generally traders on their own account (all, I believe, have been connected with the newsvendors’ trade); some few are the servants of newsvendors, sent out to deal at the wharfs and on board the boats.

The trade is not so remunerative that any payment is made to the proprietors of the boats or wharfs for the privilege of selling papers there (as in the case of the railways), but it is necessary to “obtain leave,” from those who have authority to give it.

The steam-boat paper-seller steps on board a few minutes before the boat starts, when there are a sufficient number of voyagers assembled. He traverses the deck and dives into the cabins, offering his “papers,” the titles of which he announces: “Punch, penny Punch, _real_ Punch, last number for 3_d._--comic sheets, a penny--all the London periodicals--Guide to the Thames.”

From one of these frequenters of steam-boats for the purposes of his business, I had the following account:

“I was a news-agent’s boy, sir, near a pier, for three or four year, then I got a start for myself, and now I serve a pier. It’s not such a trade as you might think, still it’s bread and cheese and a drop of beer. I go on board to sell my papers. It’s seldom I sell a newspaper; there’s no call for it on the river, except at the foreign-going ships--a few as is sold to them--but I don’t serve none on ’em. People reads the news for nothing at the coffee-shops when they breakfasts, I s’pose, and goes on as if they took in the _Times_, _Chron_, and _’Tiser_--pubs. we calls the _’Tiser_--all to their own cheek. It’s penny works I sell the most of; indeed, it’s very seldom I offer anything else, ’cause it’s little use. Penny Punches is fair sale, and I calls it ‘Punch’--just Punch. It’s dead now, I believe, but there’s old numbers; still they’ll be done in time. The real Punch--I sell from six to twelve a week--I call that there as the reel Punch. Galleries of Comicalities is a middling sale; people take them home with them, I think. Guides to the Thames is good in summer. They’re illustrated; but people sometimes grumbles and calls them catchpennies. It ain’t my fault if they’re not all that’s expected, but people expects everything for 1_d._ Joe Millers and ’Stophelees” (Mephistopheles) “I’ve sold, and said they was oppositions to Punch; that’s a year or more back, but they was old, and to be had cheap. I sell Lloyd’s and Reynolds’s pennies--fairish, both of them; so’s the Family Herald and the London Journal--very fair. I don’t venture on any three-halfpenny books on anything like a spec., acause people says at once: ‘A penny--I’ll give you a penny.’ I sell seven out of eight of what I do sell to gents.; more than that, perhaps; for you’ll not often see a woman buy nothing wots intended to improve her mind. A young woman, like a maid of all work, buys sometimes and looks hard at the paper; but I sometimes thinks it’s to show she can read. A summer Sunday’s my best time, out and out. There’s new faces then, and one goes on bolder. I’ve known young gents. buy, just to offer to young women, I’m pretty well satisfied. It’s a introduction. _I have_ met with real gentlemen. They’ve looked over all I offered for sale and then said: ‘Nothing I want, my good fellow, but here’s a penny for your trouble.’ I wish there was more of them. I do sincerely. Sometimes I’ve gone on board and not sold one paper. I buy in the regular way, 9_d._ for a dozen (sometimes thirteen to the dozen) of penny pubs. I don’t know what I make, for I keep no count; perhaps a sov. in a good week and a half in another.”

I am informed that the average earnings of these traders, altogether, may be taken at 15_s._ weekly; calculating that twelve carry on the trade the year through, we find that (assuming each man to sell at thirty-three per cent. profit--though in the case of old works it will be cent. per cent.) upwards of 1,500_l._ are expended annually in steam-boat papers.

OF THE SALE OF NEWSPAPERS, BOOKS, &C., AT THE RAILWAY STATIONS.

Although the sale of newspapers at the railway termini, &c., cannot strictly be classed as a street-sale, it is so far an open-air traffic as to require some brief notice, and it has now become a trade of no small importance.

The privilege of selling to railway-passengers, within the precincts of the terminus, is disposed of by tender. At present the newsvendor on the North-Western Line, I am informed, pays to the company, for the right of sale at the Euston-square terminus, and the provincial stations, as large a sum as 1,700_l._ per annum. The amount usually given is of course in proportion to the number of stations, and the traffic of the railway.

The purchaser of this exclusive privilege sends his own servants to sell the newspapers and books, which he supplies to them in the quantity required. The men thus engaged are paid from 20_s._ to 30_s._ a week, and the boys receive from 6_s._ to 10_s._ 6_d._ weekly, but rarely 10_s._ 6_d._

All the morning and evening papers are sold at the Station, but of the weekly press, those are sent for sale which in the manager’s judgment are likely to sell, or which his agent informs him are “asked for.” It is the same with the weekly unstamped publications. The reason seems obvious; if there be more than can be sold, a dead loss is incurred, for the surplusage, as regards newspapers, is only saleable as waste paper.

The books sold at railways are nearly all of the class best known as “light reading,” or what some account light reading. The price does not often exceed 1_s._; and among the books offered for sale in these places are novels in one volume, published at 1_s._--sometimes in two volumes, at 1_s._ each; “monthly parts” of works issued in weekly numbers; shilling books of poetry; but rarely political or controversial pamphlets. One man, who understood this trade, told me that “a few of the pamphlets about the Pope and Cardinal Wiseman sold at first; but in a month or six weeks, people began to say, ‘A shilling for that! I’m sick of the thing.’”

The large sum given for the privilege of an exclusive sale, shows that the number of books and papers sold at railway stations must be very considerable. But it must be borne in mind, that the price, and consequently the profit on the daily newspapers, sold at the railways, is greater than elsewhere. None are charged less than 6_d._, the regular price at a news-agent’s shop being 5_d._, so that as the cost price is 4_d._ the profit is double. Nor is it unusual for a passenger by an early train, who grows impatient for his paper, to cry out, “A shilling for the _Times_!” This, however, is only the case, I am told, with those who start very early in the morning; for the daily papers are obtained for the railway stations from among the earliest impressions, and can be had at the accustomed price as early as six o’clock, although, if there be exciting news and a great demand, a larger amount may be given.

OF THE STREET BOOKSELLERS.

The course of my inquiry now leads me to consider one of the oldest, and certainly not least important of the street traffics--that of the book-stalls. Of these there are now about twenty in the London streets, but in this number I include only those which are _properly_ street-stalls. Many book-stalls, as in such a locality as the London-road, are appendages to shops, being merely a display of wares outside the bookseller’s premises; and with these I do not now intend to deal.

The men in this trade I found generally to be intelligent. They have been, for the most part, engaged in some minor department of the book-selling or newspaper trade, in the regular way, and are unconnected with the street-sellers in other lines, of whose pursuits, habits, and characters, they seem to know nothing.

The street book-stalls are most frequent in the thoroughfares which are well-frequented, but which, as one man in the trade expressed himself, are not so “shoppy” as others--such as the City-road, the New-road, and the Old Kent-road. “If there’s what you might call a recess,” observed another street book-stall-keeper, “_that’s_ the place for us; and you’ll often see us along with flower-stands and pinners-up.” The stalls themselves do not present any very smart appearance; they are usually of plain deal. If the stock of books be sufficiently ample, they are disposed on the surface of the stall, “fronts up,” as I heard it described, with the titles, when lettered on the back, like as they are presented in a library. If the “front” be unlettered, as is often the case with the older books, a piece of paper is attached, and on it is inscribed the title and the price. Sometimes the description is exceeding curt, as, “Poetry,” “French,” “Religious,” “Latin” (I saw an odd volume, in Spanish, of Don Quixote, marked “Latin,” but it was at a shop-seller’s stall,) “Pamphlets,” and such like; or where it seems to have been thought necessary to give a somewhat fuller appellation, such titles are written out as “Locke’s Understanding,” “Watts’s Mind,” or “Pope’s Rape.” If the stock be rather scant, the side of the book is then shown, and is either covered with white paper, on which the title and price are written, or “brushed,” or else a piece of paper is attached, with the necessary announcement.

Sometimes these announcements are striking enough, as where a number of works of the same size have been bound together (which used to be the case, I am told, more frequently than it is now); or where there has been a series of stories in one volume. One such announcement was, “Smollett’s Peregrine Pickle Captain Kyd Pirate Prairie Rob of the Bowl Bamfyeld Moore Carew 2_s._” Alongside this miscellaneous volume was, “Wilberforce’s Practical View of Christianity, 1_s._;” “Fenelon’s Aventures de Télémaque, plates, 9_d._;” “Arres, de Predestinatione, 1_s._” (the last-mentioned work, which, at the first glance, seems as if it were an odd mixture of French and Latin, was a Latin quarto); “Coronis ad Collationem Hagiensem, &c. &c., Gulielmo Amesio.” Another work, on another stall, had the following description: “Lord Mount Edgecumbe’s Opera What is Currency Watts’s Scripture History Thoughts on Taxation only 1_s._ 3_d._” Another was, “Knickerbocker Bacon 1_s._” As a rule, however, the correctness with which the work is described is rather remarkable.

At some few of the street-stalls, and at many of the shop-stalls, are boxes, containing works marked, “All 1_d._,” or 2_d._, 3_d._, or 4_d._ Among these are old Court-Guides, Parliamentary Companions, Railway Plans, and a variety of sermons, and theological, as well as educational and political pamphlets. To show the character of the publications thus offered--not, perhaps, as a rule, but generally enough, for sale--I copied down the titles of some at 1_d._ and 2_d._

“_All these at 1d._--‘Letters to the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, on State Education, by Edward Baines, jun.;’ ‘A Pastoral Letter to the Clergy and Members of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America;’ ‘A Letter to the Protestant Dissenters of England and Wales, by the Rev. Robert Ainslie;’ ‘Friendly Advice to Conservatives;’ ‘Elementary Thoughts on the Principles of Currency and Wealth, and on the Means of Diminishing the Burthens of the People, by J. D. Basset, Esq., price 2_s._ 6_d._’” The others were each published at 1_s._

“_All these at 2d._--‘Poems, by Eleanor Tatlock, 1811, 2 vols., 9_s._;’ ‘Two Sermons, on the Fall and Final Restoration of the Jews, by the Rev. John Stuart;’ ‘Thoughts and Feelings, by Arthur Brooke, 1820;’ ‘The Amours of Philander and Sylvia, being the third and last part of Love-letters between a Nobleman and his Sister. Volume the Second. The Seventh Edition. London.’”

From a cursory examination of the last-mentioned twopenny volume, I could see nothing of the nobleman or his sister. It is one of an inane class of books, originated, I believe, in the latter part of the reign of Charles II. Such publications professed to be (and some few were) records of the court and city scandal of the day, but in general they were works founded on the reputation of the current scandal. In short, to adopt the language of patterers, they were “cocks” issued by the publishers of that period; and they continued to be published until the middle of the eighteenth century, or a little later. I notice this description of literature the more, particularly as it is still frequently to be met with in street-sale. “There’s oft enough,” one street-bookseller said to me, “works of that sort making up a ‘lot’ at a sale, and in very respectable rooms. As if they were make-weights, or to make up a sufficient number of books, and so they keep their hold in the streets.”

As many of my readers may have little, if any, knowledge of this class of street-sold works, I cite a portion of the “epistle dedicatory,” and a specimen of the style, of “Philander and Sylvia,” to show the change in street, as well as in general literature, as no such works are now published:

“To the Lord Spencer, My Lord, when a new book comes into the world, the first thing we consider is the dedication; and according to the quality and humour of the patron, we are apt to make a judgment of the following subject. If to a statesman we believe it grave and politic; if to a gownman, law or divinity; if to the young and gay, love and gallantry. By this rule, I believe the gentle reader, who finds your lordship’s name prefixed before this, will make as many various opinions of it, as they do characters of your lordship, whose youthful sallies have been the business of so much discourse; and which, according to the relator’s sense or good nature, is either aggravated or excused; though the woman’s quarrel to your lordship has some more reasonable foundation, than that of your own sex; for your lordship being formed with all the beauties and graces of mankind, all the charms of wit, youth, and sweetness of disposition (derived to you from an illustrious race of heroes) adapting you to the noblest love and softness, they cannot but complain on that mistaken conduct of yours, that so lavishly deals out those agreeable attractions, squandering away that youth and time on many, which might be more advantageously dedicated to some one of the fair; and by a liberty (which they call not being discreet enough) rob them of all the hopes of conquest over that heart which they believe can fix no where; they cannot caress you into tameness; or if you sometimes appear so, they are still upon their guard with you; for like a young lion you are ever apt to leap into your natural wildness; the greatness of your soul disdaining to be confined to lazy repose; though the delicacy of your person and constitution so absolutely require it; your lordship not being made for diversions so rough and fatiguing, as those your

## active mind would impose upon it.”

The last sentence is very long, so that a shorter extract may serve as a specimen of the staple of this book-making:

“To Philander,--False and perjured as you are, I languish for a sight of you, and conjure you to give it me as soon as this comes to your hands. Imagine not that I have prepared those instruments of revenge that are so justly due to your perfidy; but rather, that I have yet too tender sentiments for you, in spite of the outrage you have done my heart; and that for all the ruin you have made, I still adore you; and though I know you are now another’s slave, yet I beg you would vouchsafe to behold the spoils you have made, and allow me this recompense for all, to say--Here was the beauty I once esteemed, though now she is no more Philander’s Sylvia.”

Having thus described what may be considered the divisional parts of this stall trade, I proceed to the more general character of the class of books sold.

OF THE CHARACTER OF BOOKS OF THE STREET-SALE.

There has been a change, and in some respects a considerable change, in the character or class of books sold at the street-stalls, within the last 40 or 50 years, as I have ascertained from the most experienced men in the trade. Now sermons, or rather the works of the old divines, are rarely seen at these stalls, or if seen, are rarely purchased. Black-letter editions are very unfrequent at street book-stalls, and it is twenty times more difficult, I am assured, for street-sellers to pick up anything really rare and curious, than it was in the early part of the century.

One reason assigned for this change by an intelligent street-seller was, that black-letter or any ancient works, were almost all purchased by the second-hand booksellers, who have shops and issue catalogues, as they had a prompt sale for them whenever they could pick them up at book-auctions or elsewhere. “Ay, indeed,” said another book-stall keeper, “anything scarce or curious, when it’s an old book, is kept out of the streets; if it’s not particular decent, sir,” (with a grin), “why it’s reckoned all the more curious,--that’s the word, sir, I know,--‘curious.’ I can tell how many beans make five as well as you or anybody. Why, now, there’s a second-hand bookseller not a hundred miles from Holborn--and a pleasant, nice man he is, and does a respectable business--and he puts to the end of his catalogue--they all have catalogues that’s in a good way--two pages that he calls ‘Facetiæ.’ They’re titles and prices of queer old books in all languages--indecent books, indeed. He sends his catalogues to a many clergymen and learned people; and to any that he thinks wouldn’t much admire seeing his ‘Facetiæ,’ he pulls the last leaf out, and sends his catalogue, looking finished without it. Those last two pages aren’t at all the worst part of his trade among buyers that’s worth money.”

In one respect a characteristic of this trade is unaltered; I allude to the prevalence of “odd volumes” at the cheaper stalls,--not the odd volumes of a novel, but more frequently of one of the essayists--the “Spectator” especially. One stall-keeper told me, that if he purchased an old edition of the “Spectator,” in eight vols., he could more readily sell it in single volumes, at 4_d._ each, than sell the eight vols. altogether for 2_s._, or even 1_s._ 4_d._, though this was but 2_d._ a volume.

“There’s nothing in my trade,” said one street-bookseller with whom I conversed on the subject, “that sells better, or indeed so well, as English classics. I can’t offer to draw fine distinctions, and I’m just speaking of my own plain way of trade; but _I_ call English classics such works as the ‘Spectator,’ ‘Tatler,’ ‘Guardian,’ ‘Adventurer,’ ‘Rambler,’ ‘Rasselas,’ ‘The Vicar of Wakefield,’ ‘Peregrine Pickle,’ ‘Tom Jones,’ ‘Goldsmith’s Histories of Greece, Rome, and England’ (they all sell quick), ‘Enfield’s Speaker,’ ‘mixed plays,’ the ‘Sentimental Journey,’ no, sir, ‘Tristram Shandy,’ rather hangs on hand, the ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ (but it must be sold _very_ low), ‘Robinson Crusoe,’ ‘Philip Quarles,’ ‘Telemachus,’ ‘Gil Blas,’ and ‘Junius’s Letters.’ I don’t remember more at this moment, such as are of good sale. I haven’t included poetry, because I’m speaking of English classics, and of course they must be oldish works to be classics.”

Concerning the street sale of poetical works I learned from street book-sellers, that their _readiest_ sale was of volumes of Shakespeare, Pope, Thomson, Goldsmith, Cowper, Burns, Byron, and Scott. “You must recollect, sir,” said one dealer, “that in nearly all those poets there’s a double chance for sale at book-stalls. For what with old editions, and new and cheap editions, there’s always plenty in the market, and very low. No, I can’t say I could sell Milton as quickly as any of those mentioned, nor ‘Hudibras,’ nor ‘Young’s Night Thoughts,’ nor Prior, nor Dryden, nor ‘Gay’s Fables.’ It’s seldom that we have any works of Hood, or Shelley, or Coleridge, or Wordsworth, or Moore at street stalls--you don’t often see them, I think, at booksellers’ stalls--for they’re soon picked up. Poetry sells very fair, take it altogether.”

Another dealer told me that from twenty to thirty years ago there were at the street-stalls a class of works rarely seen now. He had known them in all parts and had disposed of them in his own way of business. He specified the “Messiah” (Klopstock’s) as of this class, the “Death of Abel,” the “Castle of Otranto” (“but that’s seen occasionally still,” he observed), the “Old English Baron” (“and that’s seen still too, but nothing to what it were once”), the “Young Man’s Best Companion,” “Zimmerman on Solitude,” and “Burke on the Sublime and Beautiful” (“but I have that yet sometimes.”) These works were of heavy sale in the streets, and my informant thought they had been thrown into the street-trade because the publishers had not found them saleable in the regular way. “I was dead sick of the ‘Death of Abel,’” observed the man, “before I could get out of him.” Occasionally are to be seen at most of the stalls, works of which the majority of readers have heard, but may not have met with. Among such I saw “Laura,” by Capel Lloftt, 4 vols. 1_s._ 6_d._ “Darwin’s Botanic Garden,” 2_s._ “Alfred, an Epic Poem,” by H. J. Pye, Poet Laureate, 10_d._ “Cœlebs in search of a Wife,” 2 vols. in one, 1_s._