: London Labour and the London Poor Vol. 2 by Mayhew Henry - Poor England London; London (England) Social conditions; Criminals England London; Prostitution England London; Charities England London; Working class England London; Unemployed England London

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THE STREET-FOLK.

PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 STREET-SELLERS OF SECOND-HAND ARTICLES 5 STREET-SELLERS OF LIVE ANIMALS 47 STREET-SELLERS OF MINERAL PRODUCTIONS AND NATURAL CURIOSITIES 81 THE STREET-BUYERS 103 THE STREET-JEWS 115 STREET-FINDERS OR COLLECTORS 136 THE STREETS OF LONDON 181 CHIMNEY-SWEEPERS 338 CROSSING SWEEPERS 465

PAGE A VIEW IN PETTICOAT-LANE 36 A VIEW IN ROSEMARY-LANE 39 THE STREET DOG-SELLER 54 THE CRIPPLED STREET BIRD-SELLER 66 STREET-SELLER OF BIRDS'-NESTS 72 THE JEW OLD-CLOTHES MAN 118 THE BONE-GRUBBER 138 THE MUD-LARK 155 THE LONDON DUSTMAN 172 VIEW OF A DUST-YARD 208 THE LONDON SCAVENGER 226 STREET ORDERLIES 253 THE ABLE-BODIED PAUPER STREET-SWEEPER 262 THE RUBBISH-CARTER 289 THE LONDON SWEEP 346 ONE OF THE FEW REMAINING CLIMBING-SWEEPS 354 THE MILKMAID'S GARLAND 370 THE SWEEP'S HOME 378 THE SEWER-HUNTER 388 MODE OF CLEANSING CESSPOOLS 406 FLUSHING THE SEWERS 424 THE RAT-CATCHERS OF THE SEWERS 431 LONDON NIGHTMEN 433 THE BEARDED CROSSING-SWEEPER AT THE EXCHANGE 471 THE CROSSING-SWEEPER THAT HAS BEEN A MAID-SERVANT 479 THE IRISH CROSSING-SWEEPER 481 THE ONE-LEGGED CROSSING-SWEEPER AT CHANCERY-LANE 488 THE BOY CROSSING-SWEEPERS 494

LONDON LABOUR AND THE LONDON POOR.

THE STREET-FOLK. BOOK THE SECOND.

INTRODUCTION.

In commencing a new volume I would devote a few pages to the consideration of the import of the facts already collected concerning the London Street-Folk, not only as regards the street-people themselves, but also in connection with the general society of which they form so large a proportion.

According to the accounts which have been collected during the progress of this work, the number of the London Street-People, so far as the inquiry has gone, is upwards of 40,000. This sum is made up of 30,000 Costermongers; 2000 Street-Sellers of "Green-Stuff," as Watercresses, Chickweed, and Groundsell, Turf, &c.; 4000 Street Sellers of Eatables and Drinkables; 1000 selling Stationery, Books, Papers, and Engravings in the streets; and 4000 other street-sellers vending manufactured articles, either of metal, crockery, textile, chemical, or miscellaneous substances, making altogether 41,000, or in round numbers say 40,000 individuals. The 30,000 costermongers may be said to include 12,000 men, 6000 women, and 12,000 children.

The above numbers comprise the main body of people selling in the London streets; hence if we assert that, with the vendors of second-hand articles, as old metal, glass, linen, clothes, &c., and mineral productions, such as coke, salt, and sand, there are about 45,000 street-traders in the Metropolis, we shall not, I am satisfied, be very far from the truth.

To place the above facts clearly before the reader the following table has been prepared. The first column states the titles of the several classes of street-sellers; the second, the number of individuals belonging to each of these classes; the third, the value of their respective capitals or stock in trade; the fourth, the gross amount of trade done by them respectively every year; the fifth, the average yearly takings of each class; and the sixth, their average weekly gains. This gives us, as it were, a bird's-eye view of the earnings and pecuniary condition of the various kinds of street-sellers already treated of. It is here cited, as indeed all the statistics in this work are, as an approximation to the truth rather than a definite and accurate result.

Nevertheless, a large proportion of the street-trading without a licence is contrary to law, and the people seeking to obtain a living by such means are strictly liable to fine or imprisonment, while even those street-traders whom the Act specially exempts--as for instance the street-sellers of fish, fruit, and vegetables, and of eatables and drinkables, as well as the street artizans, and who are said to have the right of "exposing their goods to sale in any market or fair in every city, borough, town-corporate, and market-town"--even these, I say, are liable to be punished for obstructing the highway whenever they attempt to do so.

There are already a sufficient number of poor-markets established at the East end of the town--though of a different character, such as the Old Clothes Exchange--to prove the practicability of the proposed plan among even the pettiest traders. And I am convinced, after long deliberation, that such institutions could not but tend to produce a rapid and marked improvement in the character of the London Hawkers.

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