ABSTRACT
The hucksters of crockeryware are a considerable class. One who has great experience in the business thinks there must be some hundreds employed in it throughout London. He says he meets many at the warehouses on the evenings that he goes there. He is· often half an hour before he can be served. There are seven or eight warehouses frequented by the hucksters; and at the busy time my informant has often seen as many as twenty-five at each house, and he is satisfied that there must be two or three hundred hucksters of china and glass throughout the metropolis. The china and glass in which they deal are usually purchased at the east-end of the town, upon the understanding that if the huckster is unable to dispose of them in the course of the day the articles will be taken back in the morning, if uninjured, and the money returned. The hucksters usually take out their goods in the morning. Their baskets are commonly deposited at the warehouse, and each warehouse has from thirty to forty baskets left there over-night, when the unsold articles are returned. The baskets are usually filled with china and glass and ornaments, to the amount of from 5s. to 15s., according to the stock-money of the huckster. A basket filled with 15s. worth of china is considered, I am told, "a very tidy stock." In the same neighbourhood where they get the crockery, are made the baskets in which it is carried. For these baskets they pay from Is. 6d. to 3s., and they are made expressly for the hucksters; indeed, on one side of a well-known street at the east-end, the baskets made in the cellars may be seen piled outside the houses up to the second-floor windows. The class of persons engaged in hawking china through the metropolis are either broken-down tradesmen or clerks out of place, or Jews, or they may be Staffordshire men who have been regularly bred to the business. They carry different kinds of articles. The Staffordshire man may generally be known by the heavy load of china that he carries with him. He has few light or fancy articles in his basket; it is filled chiefly with plates and dishes and earthenware pans. The brokendown tradesman carries a lighter load. He prefers tea services and vases, and "rummers" and cruet-stands, as they are generally of a more delicate make than the articles carried by the Staffordshire men. The Jew, however, will carry nothing of any considerable weight. He takes with him mostly light, showy, Bohemian goodswhich are difficult "to be prized" by his customers, and do not require much labour to carry about. The hucksters usually start on their rounds about nine. They mostly live in the neighbourhood of
Bethnal-green-road. There are very few who take money; indeed, they profess to take none at all. "But that is all flam," said my informant. "If anyone was to ask me the price of an article in an artful way like, I shouldn't give him a straightforward answer. To such parties we always say, 'Have you got any old clothes?' " The hucksters do take money when they can get it, and they adopt the principle of exchanging their goods for old clothes merely as a means of evading the licence. Still they are compelled to do a great deal in the old clothes line. When they take money they usually reckon to get 4d. in the shilling, but at least three-fourths of their transactions consist of exchanges for old clothes. "A good tea service we generally give," said my informant, "for a left-off suit of clothes, hat, and boots-they must all be in a decent condition to fetch as much as that. We give a sugar-basin for an old coat, and a rummer for a pair of old Wellington boots. For a glass milk-jug I should expect a waistcoat and trousers; and they must be tidy ones, too. But there's nothing so saleable as a pair of old boots to us. There is always a market for old boots, when there is not for old clothes. You can always get a dinner out of old Wellingtons; but coats and waistcoats-there's a fashion about them, and what pleases one don't another. I can sell a pair of old boots going along the streets, if I carry them in my hand. The snobs will run after us to get those - the backs are so valuable. Old beaver hats and waistcoats are worth little or nothing. Old silk hats, however, there's a tidy market for. They are bought for the shops, and are made up into new hats for the country. The shape is what is principally wanted. We won't give a farden for the polka hats with the low crowns. If we can double an old hat up and put it in our pockets, it's more valuable to us than a stiff one. We know that the shape must be good to stand that. As soon as a hatter touches a hat, he knows by the touch or the stiffness of it whether it's been 'through' the fire or not; and if so, they'll give it you back in a minute. There is one man who stands in Devonshire-street, Bishopsgate-street, waiting to buy the hats of us as we go into the market, and who purchases at least thirty dozen of us a week. There will be three or four there besides him, looking out for us as we return from our rounds, and they'll either outbid one another, according as the demand is, or they'll all hold together to give one price. The same will be done by other parties wanting the old umbrellas that we bring back with us. These are valuable principally for the whalebone. Cane-ribbed ones are worth only from ld. to 2d. and that's merely the value of the stick and the supporters. Iron skewers are made principally out of the old
supporters of umbrellas. The china and crockery bought by the hucksters at the warehouses are always second-rate articles. They are most of them a little damaged, and the glass won't stand hot water. Every huckster, when he starts, has a bag, and most of them two - the one for the inferior, and the other for the better kind of old clothes he buys. We purchase gentlemen's left-off wearing. apparel. This is mostly sold to us by women. They are either the wives of tradesmen or mechanics who sell them to us; or else it is the servant of a lodging-house, who has had the things given to her, and with her we can deal much easier than the others. She's come to 'em light, and of course she parts with 'em light," said the man, "and she'll take a pair of sugar-basins worth about 6d., you know, for a thing that'll fetch two or three shillings sometimes. But the mistresses of the houses are she-dragons. They wants a whole dinner chany service for their husband's rags. As for plates and dishes, they think they can be had for picking up. Many a time they sells their husband's things unbeknown to 'em, and often the gentleman of the house, coming up to the door, and seeing us making a dealfor his trousers maybe-puts a stop to the whole transaction. Often and often I've known a woman to sell the best part of her husband's stock of clothes for chany ornaments for her mantelpiece. And I'm sure the other day a lady stripped the whole of her passage, and gave me almost a new great coat, that was hanging up in the hall, for a few trumpery tea-things. But the greatest 'screws' we have to deal with are some of the ladies in the squares. They stops you on the sly in the streets, and tells you to call at their house at sitch a hour of the day, and when you goes there they smuggles you quietly into some room by yourselves, and then sets to work Jewing away as hard as they can, prizing up their own things, and downcrying yourn. Why, the other day I was told to call at a fashionable part of Pimlico; so I gave a woman 3d to mind the child, and me and my good woman started off at eight in the morning with a double load. But, bless you, when we got there, the lady took us both into a private room unbeknown to the servants, and wanted me to go and buy expressly for her a green-andwhite chamber service all complete, with soap trays and brush trays, together with four breakfast cups-and all this here grand set-out she wanted for a couple of old washed-out light waistcoats, and a pair of light trousers! She tried hard to make me believe that the buttons alone on the waistcoats was worth 6d. a piece, but I knowed the value of buttons afore she were born; at first start-off I'm sure they wouldn't have cost ld. each; so I couldn't make a deal of it no how, and I had to take all my things back for my
trouble. I asked her even for a pint of beer, but she wouldn't listen to such a thing. We generally cry as we go, 'Any old clothes to sell or exchange?' and I look down the area, and sometimes knock at the door. If I go out with a 15s. basket of crockery, may be after a tidy day's work I shall come home with one shilling in my pocket (perhaps I shall have sold a couple of tumblers, or half a dozen plates), and a bundle of old clothes, consisting of two or three old shirts, a coat or two, a suit of left-off livery, a woman's gown may be, or a pair of old stays, a couple of pair of Wellingtons, and a waistcoat or so. These I should have at my back, and the remainder of my chany and glass on my head, and werry probably a humberella or two under my arm, and five or six old hats in my hand. This load altogether will weigh about three-quarters of a hundredweight, and I shall have travelled fifteen miles with that at least; for as fast as I gets rid on the weight of the crockery, I takes up the weight of the old clothes. The clothes I hardly know the value on till I gets to the Clothes Exchange, in Houndsditch. The usual time for the hucksters arriving there is between three and four at this time of year, or between five and six in the summer. In fact, we must be at the Exchange at them hours, because there all our buyers is, and we can't go out the next day until we've sold our lot. We can't have our baskets stocked again until we've got the money for our old clothes." The Exchange is a large square plot of damp ground, about an acre in extent, enclosed by a hoarding about eight feet high, on the top of which is a narrow sloping roof, projecting sufficiently forward to shelter one person from the rain. Across this ground are placed four rows of double seats, ranged back to back. Here meet all the Jew clothesmen, hucksters, dealers in second-hand shoes, left-off wardrobe keepers, hare-skin dealers, umbrella dealers and menders, and indeed buyers and sellers of left-off clothes and worn-out commodities of every description. The purchasers are of all nations and in all costumes. Some are Greeks, others Swiss, and others Germans; some have come there to buy up old rough charity clothing and army coats for the Irish market, others have come to purchase the hare-skins and old furs, or else to pick up cheap old teapots and tea-urns. That man with the long flowing beard and greasy tattered gaberdine is worth thousands, and he has come to make another sixpence out of the rags and tatters that are strewn about the ground in heaps for sale. At a little before three o'clock the stream of rag-sellers sets in in a flood towards this spot. At the gate stands "Barney Aaron," to take the halfpenny admission of everyone entering the ground. By his side stands his
son,withaleatherpouchofhalfpencetogivechangeforany silverthatmaybetendered.Thestenchoftheoldclothesispositivelyoverpowering.Everyonethereisdressedinhisworst.Ifhe hasanygoodclotheshedoesnotputthemontogothere.Almost eachonethatentershasabagathisback,andscarcelyhashe passedthegatebeforeheissurroundedbysomehalf-dozeneager Jews:onefeelsthecontentsofthebundleonthehuckster'sbackanotherclamoursforthefirstsight-athirdcries,''I'msureyou havesomethingthat'llsuitme.""Youknowme,"saysafourth, "I'mabuyer,andgiveagoodprice.""Haveyougotanybreaking?"askedthisJew,whowantsanoldcoatortwotocutupinto clothcaps-"Haveyougotanyfustian,anyoldcords,orold boots?"Andsuchistheanxietyandgreedinessofthebuyers, thatitisasmuchasthesellercandotokeephisbundleonhis back.Atlengthheforceshiswaytoaseat,andasheemptiesthe contentsofhissackontheground,eachdifferentarticleissnapped upandeagerlyoverbauedbythedifferentJewsthathavefollowed himtohisseat.Thentheyallaskwhatsumiswantedforthe severalthings,andthey,oneandall,bidonequarteroftheprice demanded.Iamassuredthatitrequiresthegreatestvigilanceto preventthethingsbeingcarriedoffunpaidintheconfusion.While thissceneisgoingon,aJew,percheduponahighstageinthe centreoftheground,shoutsaloudtothemultitude,"Hotwine, ahalfpen'yaglasshere!"Besidehimstandsanother,withsmokingcansofhoteels;andnexttothisoneisasweetmeatstall,with acrowdofJewboysgatheredroundthekeeperofit,gambling withmarblesforAlbertrockandhardbake.Upanddownbetween theseatspushwomenwithbasketsofsheep'strottersontheir arms,andscreaming,"Legsofmutton,twoforapenny;who'll givemeahandsel-who'llgivemeahandsel?"Afterthemcomes amanwithalargetincanunderhisarm,androaring,"Hotpea, oh!Hotpea,oh!"Inonecornerisacoff~eandbeershop.Inside thisareJewsplayingatdraughts,orsettlingandwranglingabout thegoodstheyhaveboughtofoneanother.Infact,innoother placeissuchasceneofriot,rags,andfilthtobewitnessed.The causeofthisexcitementisthegreatdemand,onthepartofthe poor,andthecheapclothiersaswell,forthosearticleswhichare consideredasworthlessbytherich.Theoldshoesaretobecobbled up,andthecracksheelballedover,andsoldouttotheworking classesasstrongdurablearticles.TheWellingtonsaretobenew fronted,anddisposedoftoclerkswhoareexpectedtoappearrespectableuponthesmallestsalaries.Theoldcoatsandtrousers arewantedfortheslop-shops;theyaretobe"turned,"andmade
up into new garments. The best black suits are to "clobbered" up; and those which are more worn in parts are to be cut up and made into new cloth caps or gaiters; whilst others are to be transformed into the "best boys' tunics." Such as are too far gone are bought to be torn to pieces by the "devil," and made up into new cloth, or "shoddy," as it is termed; while such as have already done this duty are sold for manure for the ground. The old shirts, if they are past mending, are bought as "rubbish" by the marine-store dealers, and sold as rags to the paper-mills, to be changed either into the bank-note, the newspaper, or the best satin note-paper. The average earnings of the hucksters who exchange crockery. china, and glass for the above articles, are from 8s. to 1 Os. a week. Some days, I am told, they will make 3s., and on others they will get only 6d. However, taking the good with the bad, it is thought that lOs. a week is about a fair average of the earnings of the whole class. The best times for this trade are at the turn of the winter, and at the summer season, because then people usually purchase new clothes, and are throwing off the old ones. The price of an old hat varies from ld. to 8d.; for an old pair of shoes, from ld. to 4d.; an old pair of Wellingtons fetch from 3d. to Is. 6d. (those of French leather are of scarcely any value). An old coat is worth from 4d. to ls.; waistcoats are valued from ld. to 3d.; trousers are worth from 4d. to 8d.; cotton gowns are of the same value; bonnets are of no value whatever; shirts fetch from 2d. to 6d.; stockings are ld. per pair; a silk handkerchief varies in value from 3d. to Is. The party supplying me with the above information was originally in the coal and greengrocery business, but, owing to a succession of calamities, he has been unable to carry it on. Since then he has taken to the vending of crockery in the streets, but owing to an insufficiency of capital he is incapable of making a living at it. He says if he could get £5, it would be the making of him in his present business. He seems to be a man far above the average of the class to which he at present belongs_
The regular itinerant old-clothes dealers are generally Jews; there are a few Christians among them, but these are exceptions. A Jew tells me that the Gentiles are not so speculative as they are, and the people do not like to deal with them. My informant, who is an Israelite, speaking and writing some dozen languages, and who has been fifty years in the business, says, "He is no bigot; indeed, he does not care where he buys his meat, so long as he can get it. He often goes into the Minories and buys some, without looking to how it has been killed, or whether it has a seal on it or not." The Christians, he says, are not near so speculative as we
are. "Now, our people will be out all day in the wet, and begrudge themselves a bit of anything to eat till they go home, and then maybe they'll gamble away their crown just for the love of speculation." He is confident there must be at least from 800 to 1,000 persons in the business. This he knows by the multitude of people about Petticoat-lane and Middlesex-street, and also by the number that pay to go into the Clothes Exchange every day. Part of the people that enter this place are Christians; these are chiefly the hucksters of crockeryware. Of these there are about 150 to 200, and not above six of these are Jews. The itinerant Jew clothesman is generally the son of a former old-clothesman, but many are cigar makers, and some pencil makers, who take to the business whenever their trade is slack; but nineteen out of twenty have been born to it. If the parents of the Jew are poor, and the son is a sharp lad, he generally commences business at ten years of age, by selling lemons or oranges in the street. The Jew boys are in general good boys to their fathers and mothers, and bring home every sixpence they earn. With his lemons the Jew boy will "get a round," or street connection, by becoming known to the neighbourhoods he visits. If he sees a servant, he will, when selling his lemons, ask if she has any old shoes or old clothes, and, if so, say he'll be a purchaser of them. If the clothes should come to more money than the Jew boy has in his pocket, he'll leave what silver he has as "an earnest upon them," and then go seek some regular old Jew clothesman, who will advance the purchase-money. This the old Jew agrees to do upon the understanding that he is to have "half Rybeck," that i~. a moiety of the profit, and he will accompany the boy to the house to pass his judgment on the goods, and to see that the lad is not giving too much for them. After this he goes with the lad to Petticoat-lane, and there they will share together whatever money the clothes may bring over and above what has been paid for them. By such means the Jew boy gets his knowledge of the old clothes business; and so quick are these lads generally, that in the course of two months they will acquire sufficient experience in connection with the trade to begin dealing on their own account. There are plenty of them, I am told, at the age of fourteen, as sharp as a man of fifty. They are mostly in Petticoat-lane, Middlesex-street, and Cutler-street, where the business is principally carried on. The itinerant Jew clothesman lives at the east-end of the town. The greater number of them reside in Portsoken ward, Houndsditch; and their favourite localities in this district are either Cobb's-yard or Roper's-buildings, or Wentworth-street. Here they mostly occupy small houses, about
4s.6d.aweekrent,andlivewiththeirfamilies.Theyaregenerally sober,thoughnotparticularlyhonest,people.Itisseldom,however,thataJewleaveshishouseandoweshislandlordanymoney; andifhisgoodsshouldbeseized,therestofhistribewillgo roundandcollectwhatisowing.Asabodyofpersons,theyare particularlycharitableonetotheother,andneverallowanyof theirownpeopletobeinwantordistress,ifitispossibleto preventit.ItisveryseldomthatanitinerantJewclothesmantakes awayanyofthepropertyofthehousethathemaybecalledinto. "Iexpectthere'sagoodmanyof'em,"saidmyinformant,"is fondofcheating-thatis,theywon'tmindgivingonly2s.fora thingthat'sworthfive."Theyareremarkablyfondofmoney,and willdoalmostanythingtogetit.TheyareperhapsthemostmoneylovingpeopleinallEngland.Therearecertainlysomeoldclothesmen,Iamtold,whowillbuyarticlesatsuchapricethat theymustknowthemtohavebeenstolen.Theirrule,however. istoasknoquestions,andtogetascheapanarticleaspossible. Jewsaresoberpeopleingeneral,andtheJewclothesmanisseldom oreverseeninliquor.Theyareparticularlyfondof"plays;" indeed,onaFriday·nighttheStandardTheatreisabovehalffilled withold-clothesm~n.Theylovegamblingformoney,andatthis theyaremostlyengaged,eitherattheirownhomesoratthe public-housesintheneighbourhood.Theirfavouritegamesare tossing,dominoes,andcards.Iamcrediblyinformedbyoneof thepeople,thathehasseenasmuchas£30insilverandgoldlying uponthegroundwhentwopartieshavebeenplayingatthrowing threehalfpenceintheair.OnaSaturdaytheygamblethewhole ofthemorningandthegreaterpartoftheafternoon.Theymeet insomesecretbackplace,aboutten,andbeginplayingforwhat theycall"oneatime"-thatis,tossingupthreehalfpence,and stakingashillingontheresult.OtherJews,andoccasionallya fewChristians,willthengatherroundthegamblers,andbetupon them.SometimesthebetslaidbytheJewbystanderswillbeas highas£2each;andIamassuredthatonmorethanoneoccasion hehasseentheold-clothesmenwagerasmuchas£50.Butthis isonlydoneaftergreatgainsatgambling.Iftheycantheywill cheat,andthisisfrequentlydonebymeansofahalfpennywitha headoratailonbothsides,commonlycalled"agray."Theplay laststilltheJewishSabbathisnearlyover,andafterthistheyretire eithertotheirbusinessorthetheatre.Theyseldomorneversay awordwhiletheyarelosing,butmerelystamptheirfootonthe ground;butitisdangeroustointerferewiththemwhenluckis againstthem.Theruleis,whenamanislosing,tolethimalone.
