 Section 41 of London Labour and the London Poor Volume 2 by Henry Mayhew. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Gillian Henry. Of the contractors or employers, premises and so on. At page 171 of the present volume, I have described one of the yards devoted to the trade in house dust and I have little to say in addition regarding the premises of the contracting or employing scavengers. They are the same places and the industrious pursuits carried on there and the division and subdivision of labour relate far more to the dustmen's department than to the scavengers. When the produce of the sweeping of the streets has been thrown into the cart, it is so far ready for use that it has not to be sifted or prepared as has the house dust for the formation of breeze and so on, the mack being sifted by the purchaser. These yards or wharfs are far less numerous and better conducted now than they were 10 years ago. They are at present fast disappearing from the banks of the Thames. There is however one still at Whitefriars and one at Milbank. They are chiefly to be found on the banks of the Canals. Some of the principal wharfs near Meaden Lane, St Pancras, are to be found among unpaved or ill paved or imperfectly macadamised roads along which run rows of what were once evidently pleasant suburban cottages with their green porches and their trained woodbine, clematis, jasmine or monthly roses. These tenements however are now occupied chiefly by the labourers at the adjacent stone, coal, lime, timber, dust and general wharfs. Some of the cottages still presented on my visits a blooming display of Dahlia's and other autumnal flowers and in one corner of a very large and very black looking dust yard in which rose a huge mound of dirt was the cottage residents of the man who remained in charge of the wharf all night and whose comfortable looking abode was embedded in flowers blooming luxuriously. The gate-inted hollyhocks and Dahlia's are in striking contrast with the dinginess of the dustyards while the canal flows along dark sluggish and muddy as if to be in keeping with the wharf it washes. The dustyards must not be confounded with the nightyards or the places where the contents of the cesspools are deposited, places which, since the passing of the sanitary act, are rapidly disappearing. Upon entering a dust yard there is generally found a heavy oppressive sort of atmosphere, more especially in wet or damp weather. This is owing to the tendency of charcoal to absorb gases and to part with them on being saturated with moisture. The cinder heaps of the several dustyards with their million pores are so many huge gasometers retaining all the offensive gases arising from the putrefying organic matters which usually accompany them and parting with such gases immediately on a fall of rain. It would be a curious calculation to estimate the quantity of deleterious gas thus poured into the atmosphere after a slight shower. The question has been raised as to the propriety of devoting some special locality to the purposes of dustyards and it is certainly a question deserving public attention. The chief disposal of the street manure is from barges sent by the Thames or along the canals and sold to farmers and gardeners. In the larger wharfs and in those considered removed from the imputation of scurfdom, six men and often but four are employed to load a barge which contains from 30 to 40 tons. In such cases the dust yard and the wharf are one and the same place. The contents of these barges are mixed, about one fourth being mack, the rest street mud and dung. This admixture on board the vessel is called by the bargemen and the contractor's servants at the wharfs Leicester. Properly Leicester, a load. We have the same term at the end of our word ballast. I am assured by a wharfinger who has every means of forming a correct judgment, it may be estimated that there are dispatched from the contractor's wharfs 12 barges daily freighted with street manure. This is independent of the house dust barged to the country brick fields. The weight of the cargo of a barge of manure is about 40 tons, 36 tons being a low average. This gives 3,744 barge loads or 132,784 tons or loads yearly. For it must be recollected that the dirt gathered by popper labour is dispatched from the contractor's yards or wharfs as well as that collected by the immediate servants of the contractors. The price per barge load at the canal, basin or wharf in the country parts where agriculture flourishes is from £5 to £6 making a total of £20,595 sterling. The difference of that sum and the total given in the table £21,147 may be accounted for on the supposition that the remainder is sold in the yards and carted away thence. The slop and valueless dirt is not included in this calculation. Off the working scavengers under the contractors. I have now to deal with what throughout the whole course of my inquiry into the state of London labour and the London poor I have considered the great object of investigation the condition and characteristics of the working men and what is more immediately the labour question the relation of the labourer to his employer as to rates of payment modes of payment hiring of labourers constancy or inconstancy of work supply of hands the many points concerning wages perquisites family work and parochial or club relief first I shall give an account of the class employment together with the labour season and earnings of the labourers or economical part of the subject I shall then pass to the social points concerning their homes general expenditure and so on and then to the more moral and intellectual questions of education literature politics religion marriage and concubinage of the men and of their families all this will refer it should be remembered only to the working scavengers in the honourable or better paid trade the cheaper labourers I shall treat separately as a distinct class the details in both cases I shall illustrate with the statement of men of the class described the first part of this multifarious subject pertains to the division of labour this in the scavenging trade consists rather of that kind of gang work which mr wakefield styles simple cooperation or the working together of a number of people at the same thing as opposed to complex cooperation or the working together of a number at different branches of the same thing simple cooperation is of course the rudder kind but even this rude as it appears is far from being barbaric the savages of new holland we are told never help each other even in the most simple operations and their condition is hardly superior in some respects it is inferior to that of the wild animals which they now and then catch as an instance of the advantages of simple cooperation mr wakefield tells us that in a vast number of simple operations performed by human exertion it is quite obvious that two men working together will do more than four or four times four men each of whom should work alone in the lifting of heavy weights for example in the felling of trees in the gathering of much hay and corn during a short period of fine weather in draining a large extent of land during the short season when such a work may be properly conducted in the pooling of ropes on board ship in the rowing of large boats in some mining operations in the erection of a scaffolding for a building and in the breaking of stones for the repair of a road so that the whole road shall always be kept in good repair in all these simple operations and thousands more it is absolutely necessary that many persons should work together at the same time in the same place and in the same way end of quote to the above instances of simple cooperation or gang working as it may be briefly styled in saxon english mr wakefield might have added dock labour and scavenging the principle of complex cooperation however is not entirely unknown in the public cleansing trade this business consists of as many branches as there are distinct kinds of refuse and these appear to be four they are one the wet and two the dry house refuse or dust and night soil and three the wet and for the dry street refuse or mud and rubbish and in these four different branches of the one general trade the principle of complex cooperation is found commonly though not invariably to prevail the difference as to the class employments of the general body of public cleansers the dustman street sweepers nightman and rubbish carters seems to be this any nightman will work as a dustman or scavenger but it is not all the dustman and scavengers who will work as nightmen the reason is almost obvious the avocations of the dustman and the nightman are in some degree hereditary a rude man provides for the future maintenance of his sons in the way which is most patent to his notice he makes the boys share in his own labour and grow up unfit for anything else the regular working scavengers are then generally a distinct class from the working dustmen and are all paid by the week while the dustmen are paid by the load in very wet weather when there is a great quantity of slop in the streets a dustman is often called upon to lend a helping hand and sometimes when a working scavenger is out of employ in order to keep himself from want he goes to a job of dust work but seldom from any other cause in a parish where there is a crowded population the dustman's labourers consume on an average from six to eight hours a day in scavengery the average hours of daily work are 12 Sundays of course accepted but they sometimes extend to 15 and even 16 hours in places of great business traffic while in very fine dry weather the 12 hours may be abridged by two three four or even more thus it is manifest that the consumption of time alone prevents the same working men being simultaneously dustmen and scavengers in the more remote and quiet parishes however and under the management of the smaller contractors the opposite arrangement frequently exists the operative is a scavenger one day and a dustman the next this is not the case in the busier districts districts and with the large contractors unless exceptionally or on an emergency if the scavengers or dustmen have completed their street and house labourers in a shorter time than usual there is generally some sort of employment for them in the yards or wharfs of the contractors or they may sometimes avail themselves of their leisure to enjoy themselves in their own way in many parts indeed as I have shown the street sweeping must be finished by noon or earlier concerning the division of labour it may be said that the principle of complex cooperation in the scavenging trade exists only in its rudest form for the characteristics distinguishing the labour of the working scavengers are far from being of that complicated nature common to many other callings as regards the act of sweeping or scraping the streets the labour is performed by the gangsman and his gang the gangsman usually loads the cart and occasionally when a number are employed in a district acts as a foreman by superintending them and giving directions he is a working scavenger but has the office of overlooker confided to him and receives a higher amount of wage than the others for the completion of the street work there are the one horse carmen and the two horse carmen who are also working scavengers and so-called from their having to load the carts drawn by one or two horses these are the men who shovel into the cart the dirt swept or scraped to one side of the public way by the gang some of it mere slop and then drive the cart to its destination which is generally their master's yard thus far only does the street labour extend the carmen have the care of the vehicles in cleaning them greasing the wheels and such like but the horses are usually groomed by stablemen who are not employed in the streets the division of labour then among the working scavengers may be said to be as follows first the ganger whose office it is to superintend the gang and shovel the dirt into the cart second the gang which consists of from three to ten or twelve men who sweep in a row and collect the dirt in heaps ready for the ganger to shovel into the cart third the carmen one horse or two horse as the case may be who attends to the horse and cart brushes the dirt into the gangers shovel and assists the ganger in wet sloppy weather in carting the dirt and then takes the mud to the place where it is deposited there's only one mode of payment for the above labour's pursued among the master scavengers and that is by the week first the ganger receives a weekly salary of 18 shillings when working for an honourable master with a scurf however the gangers pay is but 16 shillings a week second the gang receive in a large establishment each 16 shillings per week but in a small one they usually get from 14 shillings to 15 shillings a week when working for a small master they have often by working over hours to make eight days to the week instead of six third the one horse carmen receives 16 shillings a week in a large and 15 shillings in a small establishment fourth the two horse carmen receives 18 shillings a week but is employed only by the larger masters on the opposite page i give a table on this point some of these men are paid by the day some by the week and some on wednesdays and saturdays perhaps in about equal proportions the casuals being mostly paid by the day and the regular hands with some exceptions among the scurfs once or twice a week the chance hands are sometimes engaged for a half day and as i was told jump at a bob and a joy one shilling fourpence or at a bob i heard of one contractor who not infrequently said to any foreman or gangsman who mentioned to him the applications for work oh give the poor divils a turn if it's only for a day now and then piecework or as the scavengers call it by the load did at one time prevail but not to any great extent the prices varied according to the nature and the state of the road from two shillings to two shilling sixpence the load the system of piecework was never liked by the men it seems to have been resorted to less as a system or mode of labour than to ensure a seduity on the part of the working scavengers when a rapid street cleansing was desirable it was rather in the favour of the working man's individual emoluments than otherwise as may be shown in the following way in battle bridge four men collect five loads in dry and six men seven loads in wet weather if the average piece higher be two shillings thruppence a load it is two shillings ninepence three farthings for each of the five men's day's work if two shillings thruppence a load it is two shillings eightpence apenny the regular wage and an extra apenny if two shillings it is two shilling sixpence and if less which has been paid the day's wage is not lower than two shillings at the lowest rates however the men i was informed could not be induced to take the necessary pains as they would struggle to make up half a crown while if the streets were scavenged in a slovenly manner the contractor was sure to hear from his friends of the parish that he was not acting up to his contract i could not hear of any men now set to piecework within the precincts of the places specified in the table this extra work and scamping work are the two great evils of the peace system in their payments to the men the contractors show a superiority to the practices of some traders and even of some dock companies the men are never paid at public houses the payment moreover is always in money one contractor told me that he would like all his men to be teetotalers if he could get them though he was not one himself but these remarks refer only to the nominal wages of the scavengers and i find the nominal wages of operatives in many cases are widely different either from some additions by way of perquisites and so on or deductions by way of fines and so on but oftener the latter from the actual wages received by them again the average wages or gross yearly income of the casually employed men are very different from those of the constant hands so are the gains of a particular individual often no criterion of the general or average earnings of the trade indeed i find that the several varieties of wages may be classified as follows one nominal wages those said to be paid in a trade two actual wages those really received and which are equal to the nominal wages plus the additions to or minus the deductions from them three casual wages the earnings of the men who are only occasionally employed four average casual or constant wages those obtained throughout the year by such as are either occasionally or regularly employed five individual wages those of particular hands whether belonging to the scurf or honorable trade whether working long or short hours whether partially or fully employed and the like six general wages or the average wages of the whole trade constant or casual fully or partially employed honorable or scurf long and short our men and so on and so on all lumped together and the mean taken of the whole now in the preceding account of the working scavengers mowed and rate of payment i have spoken only of the nominal wages and in order to arrive at their actual wages we must as we have seen ascertain what additions and what deductions are generally made to and from this amount the deductions in the honorable trade are as usual inconsiderable all the tools used by operative scavengers are supplied to them by their employers the tools being only brooms and shovels and for this supply there are no stoppages to cover the expense neither by fines nor by way of security are the men's wages reduced the truck system moreover is unknown and has never prevailed in the trade i heard of only one instance of an approach to it a yard foreman some years ago who had a great deal of influence with his employer had a Chandler shop managed by his wife and it was broadly intimated to the men that they must make their purchases there complaints however were made to the contractor and the foreman dismissed one man of whom i inquired did not even know what the truck system meant and when informed thought they were pretty safe from it as a contractor had nothing which he could truck with the men and if he pauses himself the man said he's not likely to let anybody else do it there are moreover no trade payments to which the men are subjected there are no trade societies among the working men no benefit nor sick clubs neither do parochial relief and family labour characterised the regular hands in the honorable trade although in sickness they may have no other resource indeed the working scavengers employed by the more honorable portion of the trade instead of having any deductions made from their nominal wages have rather additions to them in the form of perquisites coming from the public these perquisites consist of allowances of beer money obtained in the same manner as the dustmen not through the medium of their employers though to say the least through their sufferance but from the householders of the parish in which their labours are prosecuted the scavengers it seems are not required to sweep any places considered private nor even to sweep the public footpaths and when they do sweep or carry away the refuse of a butcher's premises for instance for by law the butcher is required to do so himself they receive a gratuity in the contract entered into by the city scavengers it is expressly covenanted that no men employed shall accept gratuities from the householders a condition little or not at all regarded though i am told that these gratuities become less every year i'm informed also by an experienced butcher who had at one time a private slaughterhouse in the borough that until within these six or seven years he thought the scavengers and even the dustmen would carry away entrails and so on in the carts from the butchers and the knackers premises for an allowance i cannot learn that the contractors whether of the honorable or scuff trade take any advantage of these allowances a working scavenger receives the same wage when he enjoys what i have heard called in other trade the height of perquisites or is employed in a locality where there are no such additions to his wages i believe however that the contracting scavengers let their best and steadiest hands have the best perquisited work these perquisites i am assured average from one shilling to two shillings a week but one butcher told me he thought one shilling sixpence might be rather too high an average for a pint of beer tuppence was the customary sum given and that was or ought to be divided among the gang in my opinion he said there'll be no allowances in a year or two by the amount of these perquisites then the scavengers gains are so far enhanced the wages therefore of an operative scavenger in full employ and working for the honorable portion of the trade may be thus expressed nominal weekly wages 16 shillings perquisites in the form of allowances for beer from the public two shillings actual weekly wages 18 shillings of the casual hands among the scavengers of the scavengers proper there are as in all classes of unskilled labour that is to say of labour which requires no previous apprenticeship and to which anyone can turn his hand on an emergency two distinct orders of workmen the regulars and casuals to adopt the trade terms that is to say the labourers consist of those who have been many years at the trade constantly employed at it and those who have but recently taken to it as a means of obtaining a subsistence after their ordinary resources have failed this mixture of constant and casual hands is moreover a necessary consequence of all trades which depend upon the seasons and in which an additional number of labourers are required at different periods such as necessarily the case with dock labour where an easterly wind prevailing for several days deprives thousands of work and where the change from a foul to a fair wind causes an equally inordinate demand for workmen the same temporary increase of employment takes place in the agricultural districts at harvesting time and the same among the hop growers in the picking season and it will be here after seen that there are the same labour fluctuations in the scavenging trade a greater or lesser number of hands being required of course according as the season is wet or dry this occasional increase of employment though a benefit in some few cases as enabling a man suddenly deprived of his ordinary means of living to obtain a job of work until he can turn himself round is generally a most alarming evil in a state what are the casual hands to do when the extra employment ceases those who have paid attention to the subject of dock labour and the subject of casual labour in general may form some notion of the vast mass of misery that must be generally existing in London the subject of hot picking again belongs to the same question here are thousands of the very poorest employed only for a few days in the year what the mind naturally asks do they after their short term of honest independence has ceased with dock labour the poor man's bread depends upon the very winds in scavenging and in street life generally it depends upon the rain and in market gardening harvesting hot picking and the like it depends upon the sunshine how many thousands in this huge metropolis have to look immediately to the very elements for their bread it is overwhelming to contemplate and yet with all this fitfulness of employment we wonder that an extended knowledge of reading and writing does not produce a decrease of crime we should however ask ourselves whether men can stay their hunger with alphabets or grow fat on spelling books and wanting employment and consequently food and objecting to the incarceration of the workhouse can we be astonished indeed is it not a natural law that they should help themselves to the property of others concerning the regular hands of the contracting scavengers it may perhaps be reasonable to compute that little short of one half of them have been to the manner born the others are as i have said what these regular hands call casuals or casualties as an instance of the peculiar mixture of the regular and casual hands in the scavenging trade i may state that one of my informants told me he had at one period under his immediate direction 14 men of whom the former occupations had been as follows seven always scavengers or dustmen and six of them nightmen when required one pot boy at a public house but only as a boy one stableman also nightman one formerly a pugilist then a showman's assistant one navi one ploughman nightman occasionally two unknown one of them saying but gaining no belief that he had once been a gentleman total 14 in my account of the street orderlies will be given an interesting and elaborate statement of the former avocations the habits expenditure and so on of a body of street sweepers 67 in number this table will be found very curious as showing what classes of men have been driven to street sweeping but it will not furnish a criterion of the character of the regular hands employed by the contractors the casuals or the casualties always called among the men casualties may be more properly described as men whose employment is accidental chanceful or uncertain the regular hands of the scavengers are apt to designate any newcomer even for a permanence any sweeper not reared to or versed in the business a casual casual i shall however here deal with the casual hands not only as hands newly introduced into the trade but as men of chanceful and irregular employment these persons are now i understand numerous in all branches of unskilled labour willing to undertake or attempt any kind of work but perhaps there is a greater tendency on the part of the surplus unskilled to turn to scavenging from the fact that any broken down man seems to account himself competent to sweep the streets to ascertain the number of these casual or outside labourers in the scavenging trade is difficult for as i have said they are willing in their need to attempt any kind of work and so may be casuals in diverse departments of unskilled labour i do not think that i can better approximate the number of casuals than by quoting the opinion of a contracting scavenger familiar with his workmen and their ways he considered that there were always nearly as many hands on the lookout for a job in the streets as there were regularly employed at the business by the large contractors this i have shown to be 262 let us estimate therefore the number of casuals at 200 according to the table i have given at pages 213 and 214 the number of men regularly or constantly employed at the metropolitan trade is as follows scavengers employed by large contractors 262 ditto small contractors 13 ditto machines 25 ditto parishes 218 ditto street orderlies 60 total working scavengers in london 578 but the prior table given at pages 186 and 187 shows the number of scavengers employed throughout the metropolis in wet and dry weather exclusive of the street orderlies to be as follows scavengers employed in wet weather 531 ditto in dry weather 358 difference 173 hence it would appear that about one third less hands are required in the dry than in the wet season of the year the 170 hands then discharged in the dry season are the casually employed men but the whole of these 170 are not turned adrift immediately they are no longer wanted some being kept on odd jobs in the yard and so on nor can that number be said to represent the entire amount of the surplus labour in the trade but only that portion of it which does obtain even casual employment after much trouble and taking the average of various statements it would appear that the number of casualty or quantity of occasional surplus labour in the scavenging trade may be represented at between 200 and 250 hands the scavenging trade however is not I am informed so over stopped with labourers now as it was formerly seven years ago and from that to ten there were usually between 200 and 300 hands out of work this was owing to there being a less extent of paved streets and comparatively few contractors the scavenging work moreover was scamped the men to use their own phrase licking the work over anyhow so that fewer hands were required now however the inhabitants are more particular I am told about the crooks and corners and require the streets to be swept oftener formerly a gang of operative scavengers would only collect six loads of dirt a day but now a gang will collect nine loads daily the causes to which the surplus of labourers at present may be attributed are I find as follows each operative has to do nearly double the work to what he formerly did the extra cleansing of the streets having tended not only to employ more hands but to make each of those employed do more work the result has however been followed by an increase in the wages of the operatives seven years ago the labourers received but two shillings a day and the ganger two shilling sixpence but now the labourers receive two shillings eightpence a day and the ganger three shillings in the city the men have to work very long hours sometimes as many as 18 hours a day without any extra pay this practice of overworking is I find carried on to a great extent even with those master scavengers who pay the regular wages one man told me that when he worked for a certain large master whom he named he has many times been out at work 28 hours in the wet saturated to the skin without having any rest this plan of overworking again is generally adopted by the small masters whose men after they have done a regular days labour are set to work in the yard sometimes toiling 18 hours a day and usually not less than 16 hours daily often so tired and weary are the men that when they rise in the morning to pursue their daily labour they feel as fatigued as when they went to bed frequently said one of my informants have I gone to bed so worn out that I haven't been able to sleep however he added there is the work to be done and we must do it or be off this system of overwork especially in those trades where the quantity of work to be done is in a measure fixed I find to be a far more influential cause of surplus labour than overpopulation the mere number of labourers in a trade is per se no criterion as to the quantity of labour employed in it to arrive at this three things are required one the number of hands two the hours of labour three the rate of labouring for it is a mere point of arithmetic that if the hands in the scavenging trade work 18 hours a day there must be one third less men employed than there otherwise would or in other words one third of the men who are in work must be thus deprived of it this is one of the crying evils of the day and which the economists filled as they are with their overpopulation theories have entirely overlooked there are 262 men employed in the metropolitan scavenging trade one half of these at the least may be said to work 16 hours per diem instead of 12 or one third longer than they should so that if the hours of labour in this trade were restricted to the usual day's work there would be employment for one sixth more hands or nearly 50 individuals extra the other causes of the present amount of surplus labour are the many hands thrown out of employment by the discontinuance of railway works a less demand for unskilled labour in agricultural districts or a smaller remuneration for it a less demand for some branches of labour as ostlers and so on by the introduction of machinery applied to roads and through the caprices of fashion it should however be remembered that men often found their opinions of such causes on prejudices or express them according to their class interests and it is only a few employers of unskilled labourers who care to inquire into the antecedent circumstances of men who ask for work as regards the population part of the question it cannot be said that the surplus labour of the scavenging trade is referable to any inordinate increase in the families of the men those who are married appear to have on the average four children and about one half of the men have no family at all early marriages are by no means usual of the casual hands however full three fourths are married and one half have families there are not more than 10 or a dozen irish labourers who have taken to the scavenging though several have tried it on the regular hands say that the irish are too lazy to continue at the trade but surely the labour of the hodman in which the irish seem to delight is sufficient to disprove this assertion be the cause what it may about one fourth of the scavengers entering the scavenging trade as casual hands have been agricultural labourers and have come up to london from the several agricultural districts in quest of work about the same proportion appear to have been connected with horses such as ostler's carmen and so on the brisk and slack seasons in the scavenging trade depend upon the state of the weather in the depth of winter owing to the shortness of the days more hands are usually required for street cleansing but a clear frost renders the scavengers labour in little demand in the winter too his work is generally the hardest and the hardest of all when there is snow which soon becomes mud in london streets and though a continued frost is a sort of lull to the scavengers labour after a great thaw his strength is taxed to the uttermost and then indeed new hands have had to be put on at the west end in the height of the summer which is usually the height of the fashionable season there is again a more than usual requirement of scavenging industry in wet weather but perhaps the greatest exercise of such industry is after a series of the fogs peculiar to the london atmosphere when the men cannot see to sweep the table i have given shows the influence of the weather as on wet days 531 men are employed and on dry days only 358 this however does not influence the street orderly system as under it the men are employed every day unless the weather make it an actual impossibility according to the rain table given at page 202 there would appear to be on an average of 23 years 178 wet days in london out of the 365 that is to say about 100 in every 205 days are rainy ones the months having the greatest and least number of wet days are as follows number of days in the month in which rain falls December 17 July August and October 16 February May and November 15 January and April 14 March and September 12 June 11 hence it would appear that June is the least and December the most showery month in the course of the year the greatest quantity of rain falling in any month is however in October and the least quantity in March the number of wet days and the quantity of rain falling in each half of the year may be expressed as follows the first six months in the year ending June there are 84 wet days in total 10 inches of rain falling in total the second six months in the year ending December there are 93 wet days in total 14 inches of rain falling in total hence we perceive that the quantity of work for the scavengers would fluctuate in the first and last half of the year in the proportion of 10 to 14 which is very nearly in the ratio of 358 to 531 which are the numbers of hands given in table pages 186 and 187 as those employed in wet and dry weather throughout the metropolis if then the labor in the scavenging trade varies in the proportion of five to seven that is to say that five hands are required at one period and seven at another to execute the work the question consequently becomes how do the two casuals who are discharged out of every seven obtain their living when the wet season is over when a scavenger is out of employ he seldom or never applies to the parish this he does i am informed only when he is fairly beaten out through sickness or old age for the men hate the thought of going to the big house the union workhouse an unemployed operative scavenger will go from yard to yard and offer his services to do anything in the dust trade or any other kind of employment in connection with dust or scavenging generally speaking an operative scavenger who is casually employed obtains work at that trade for six or eight months during the year and the remaining portion of his time is occupied either at rubbish carting or brick carting or else he gets a job for a month or two in a dust yard many of these men seem to form a body of street jobbers or operative laborers ready to work at the docks to be navvies when strong enough brick layers laborers street sweepers carriers of trunks or parcels window cleaners errand goers porters and occasionally nightmen few of the class seem to apply themselves to trading as in the costar monger line they are the loungers about the boundaries of trading but seldom take any onward steps the street sweeper of this week a casual hand maybe a rubbish carter or a laborer about buildings the next or he may be a starving man for days together and the more he is starving with the less energy will he exert himself to obtain work it's not in a starving or ill fed man to exert himself otherwise than what may be called passively this is well known to all who have paid attention to the subject the want of energy and carelessness begotten by want of food was well described by the tin man at page 355 in volume one one casual hand told me that last year he was out of work altogether three months and the year before not more than six weeks and during the six weeks he got a day's work sometimes at rubbish carting and sometimes at loading bricks their wives are often employed in the yards as sifters and their boys when big enough work also at the heap either in carrying off or else as fillers in if there are any girls one is generally left at home to look after the rest and get the meals ready for the other members of the family if any of the children go to school they're usually sent to a ragged school in the neighborhood though they seldom attend the school more than two or three times during the week the additional hands employed in wet weather are either men who at other times work in the yards or such as have their turns in street sweeping if not regularly employed there appears however to be little of system in the arrangement if more hands are wanted the gangsman who receives his orders from the contractor or the contractor's managing man is told to put on so many new hands and overnight he has but to tell any of the men at work that jack and bob and bill will be wanted in the morning and they if not employed another work appear accordingly there is nothing however which can be designated a labour market appertaining to the trade no house of call no trade society if men seek such employment they must apply at the contractor's premises and i am assured that poor men not infrequently ask the scavengers whom they see at work in the streets where to apply for a job and sometimes receive gruff or abusive replies but though there is nothing like a labour market in the scavengers trade the employers have not to look out for men for i was told by one of their foreman that he would undertake if necessary which it never was by a mere round of the docks to select 200 new hail men of all classes and strong ones too if properly fed who in a few days would be tolerable street sweepers it is a calling to which agricultural labourers are glad to resort and a calling to which any labourer or any mechanic may resort more especially as regards sweeping or scraping apart from shoveling which is regarded as something like the high art of the business we now come to estimate the earnings of the casual hands whose yearly incomes must of course be very different from those of the regulars the constant weekly wages of any workman are of course the average of his casual and hence we shall find the wages of those who are regularly employed far exceed those of the occasionally employed man nominal yearly wages at scavenging for 25 weeks in the year at 16 shillings per week 20 pounds 16 shillings perquisites for 26 weeks at two shillings two pounds 12 shillings actual yearly wages at scavenging 23 pounds eight shillings nominal and actual weekly wages at rubbish carting for 20 weeks in the year at 12 shillings 12 pounds unemployed six weeks in the year zero gross yearly earnings 35 pounds eight shillings average casual or constant weekly wages throughout the year 15 shillings four pins hipney hence the difference between the earnings of the casual and the regular hand would appear to be one sixth but the great evil of all casual labour is the uncertainty of the income for where there is the greatest chance connected with unemployment there is not only the greatest necessity for providence but unfortunately the greatest tendency to improvidence it is only when a man's income becomes regular and fixed that he grows thrifty and lays by for the future but where all is chance work there is but little ground for reasoning and the accident which assisted the man out of his difficulties at one period is continually expected to do the same good turn for him at another hence the casual hand who passes the half of the year on 18 shillings and 20 weeks on 12 shillings and six weeks on nothing lives a life of excess both ways of excess of guzzling when in work and excess of privation when out of it oscillating as it were between surfeit and starvation a man who had worked in an iron foundry but who had lost his work I believe through some misconduct and was glad to get employment as a street sweeper as he had a good recommendation to a contractor told me that the misery of the thing was the want of regular work I've worked he said for a good master for four months and end at two shillings eight pence a day and they were prime times then I hadn't a stroke of work for a fortnight and very little for two months and if my wife hadn't had middling work with a lawn dress we might have starved or I might have made a hole in the Thames where it's no good living to be miserable and feel you can't help yourself anyhow we was sometimes half starved as it was I'd rather at this minute have regular work at 10 shillings a week all the year round than have chance work that I could earn 20 shillings a week at I once had 15 shillings in relief from the parish and a doctor to attend us when my wife and I was both laid up sick oh there's no difference in the way of doing the work whatever wages you're on for the streets must be swept clean of course the plans the same and there's the same sort of management anyhow end of section 41 section 42 of London Labour and the London poor volume 2 by Henry Mayhew this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Gillian Henry table showing the division of labour mode and rates of payment nature of work performed time unemployed and average earnings of the operative scavengers of London readers note this table appears on page 219 of volume 2 and readers note one manual labourers a better paid ganger mode of payment by the day rates of payment 18 shillings weekly and two shillings allowance nature of work performed to load the cart and super intend the men time unemployed during the year not two days average casual or constant gains throughout the year 20 shillings per week carmen to horse mode of payment by the day rate of payment 18 shillings weekly and two shillings allowance nature of work performed to take care of the horses help to load the cart and take the dirt and slop to the dust yard time unemployed during the year seldom or never out of employment average casual or constant gains throughout the year 20 shillings per week carmen one horse mode of payment by the day rates of payment 16 shillings weekly and two shillings allowance nature of work performed as the two horse carmen time unemployed during the year seldom or never out of employment average casual or constant gains throughout the year 18 shillings per week sweepers mode of payment by the day rates of payment 16 shillings weekly and two shillings allowance nature of work performed to sweep the district to which they are sent and collect the dirt or slop ready for carting away time unemployed during the year about three months average casual or constant gains throughout the year 13 shillings sixpence per week be worse paid ganger mode of payment by the day rates of payment 16 shillings weekly and one shilling allowance nature of work performed to load the cart and super intense the men time unemployed during the year three months average casual or constant gains throughout the year 12 shillings ninepence per week carmen mode of payment by the day rates of payment 15 shillings weekly and one shilling allowance nature of work performed to take charge of the horse and cart help to load the cart and take the dirt or slop to the dust yard time unemployed during the year three months average casual or constant gains throughout the year 12 shillings per week sweepers mode of payment by the day rates of payment 15 shillings weekly and one shilling allowance nature of work performed to sweep the district collect the dirt or slop ready for carting off work in the yard and load the barge time unemployed during the year three months average casual or constant gains throughout the year 12 shillings per week two machine men carmen mode of payment by the day rates of payment 16 shillings weekly nature of work performed to take charge of the horse and machine collect the dirt and take it to the yard time unemployed during the year three months average casual or constant gains throughout the year 12 shillings per week sweepers mode of payment by the day rates of payment 16 shillings weekly nature of work performed to sweep where the machine cannot touch work in the yard and load the barges time unemployed during the year three months average casual or constant gains throughout the year 12 shillings per week three parish men a outdoor poppers one paid in money married men mode of payment by the day rates of payment nine shillings weekly nature of work performed sweep the streets and courts belonging to the parish and collect the dirt or slop ready for carting away time unemployed during the year six months average casual or constant gains throughout the year four shilling six months per week single men mode of payment by the day rates of payment six shillings weekly nature of work performed as the married men time unemployed during the year six months average casual or constant gains throughout the year three shillings per week two paid part in kind married men mode of payment by the day rates of payment six shillings nine pence weekly and three quarter in loaves nature of work performed sweep the streets and courts belonging to the parish and collect the dirt or slop ready for carting away time unemployed during the year six months average casual or constant gains throughout the year three shillings four pence hape knee and three quarter in loaves weekly single men mode of payment by the day rates of payment five shillings and three half quarter in loaves nature of work performed as for the married men time unemployed during the year six months average casual or constant gains throughout the year two shilling six pence and three half quarter in loaves weekly be indoor poppers mode of payment all in kind rates of payment food lodging and clothes nature of work performed sweep the streets and courts belonging to the parish and collect the dirt or slop ready for carting away no information for time unemployed average casual or constant gains throughout the year food lodging and clothes for street orderlies formant or ganger mode of payment by the day rates of payment 15 shillings weekly nature of work performed superintend the men and see that their work is done well sweepers mode of payment by the day rates of payment 12 shillings weekly nature of work performed collect the dirt or slop ready for carting away barrow men mode of payment by the day nature of work performed collect the short dung as it gathers in the district to which they are appointed barrow boys mode of payment by the day nature of work performed as the barrow men end of table end of section 42 section 43 of london labour and the london poor volume two by henry mayhew this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by jillian henry statement of a regular scavenger the following statement of his business his sentiments and indeed of the subjects which concerned him or about which he was questioned was given to me by a street sweeper so he called himself for I have found some of these men not to relish the appellation of scavenger he was a short sturdy somewhat red faced man without anything particular in his appearance to distinguish him from the mass of mere labourers but with the sodden and sometimes dogged look of a man contented in his ignorance and for it is not a very uncommon case rather proud of it I don't know how old I am he said I have observed by the by that there is not any excessive vulgarity in these men's tones or accent so much as grossness in some of their expressions and I can't see what that concerns anyone as I's old enough to have a jolly rough beard and so can take care of myself I should think so my father was a sweeper and I wanted to be a waterman but father he hasn't been dead long didn't like the thoughts on it and he said there was all drowned one time or another so I ran away and tried my hand as a jack in the water but I was starved back in a week and got a H blank of a clouting after that I sifted a bit in the dust yard and helped in any way and I was sent to help at and learn honey pot and other pot making at Deppford but honey pots was a great thing in the business masters foreman married a relation of mine some way or other I never tasted honey but I've heard it's like sugar and butter mixed the pots was often wanted to look like foreign pots I don't know nothing what was meant by it some b blank dodge or other no the trade didn't suit me at all master so I left I don't know why it didn't suit me because it didn't just then father had hurt his hand and arm in a jam again a cart and so as I was a big lad I got to take his place and gave every satisfaction to mr blank yes he was a contractor and a great man I can't say as I knows how contracting's done but it's a bargain between man and man so I got on I'm now looked on as a stunning good workman I can tell you well I can't say as I think sweeping the streets is hard work I'd rather sweep two hours than shovel one it tires one's arms and back so to go on shoveling you can't change you see sir and the same parts keep getting gripped more and more then you must mind your eye if you're shoveling slop into a cart particular so or some fella may run off with a complaint that he's been splashed a purpose is a man ever splashed a purpose no sir not as I knows on in course not note laughing and note why should he the streets must be done as they're done now it always was so and will always be so did I ever hear what London streets were like a thousand years ago it's nothing to me but they must have been like what they is now yes there was always streets and I was people that has tin to get their coals taken to them and I was the public houses to get their beer it's talking nonsense talking that way asking such questions note as a scavenger seemed likely to lose his temper I changed the subject of conversation and note yes he continued I have good health I never had a doctor but twice once was for a hurt and the tither won't tell on well I think night works healthful enough but I'll not say so much for it as you may hear someone I'm say I don't like it but I do it when I's obligated under necessity it pays one as overwork and wary like more ones in it more one may be suited I reckon no men works harder nor such as me oh as to poor journeymen tailors and such like I know they're stunning badly off and many of their masters is the hardest of beggars I have a nephew as works for a juice lot but I don't reckon that work anybody might do it you think not sir very well it's all the same no I won't say as I could make a biscuit but I've sold my own buttons on to one a four now yes I've here done the board of health they've put down some night charts and if he goes on putting down more what's to become of the night soil I can't think what they're up to but if they don't touch wages it may be all right in the end in it I don't know but them their concerns does touch wages but ones naturally a feared in them I could read a little when I was a child but I can't know for want of practice or I might know more about it I earns my money gallows hard and requires support to do hard work and if wages goes down once strength goes down I'm a man as understands what things belongs I was once out of work through a mistake for a good many weeks perhaps five or six or more I learned then what short grub meant I got a drop of beer and a crust sometimes with men as I knowed or I might have dropped in the street what did I do to pass my time while I was out of work certainly the days seemed very long but I went about and called at dust yards till I didn't like to go too often and I met men I knowed at tap rooms and spent time that way and asked if there was any openings for work I'd been out of collar odd weeks now and then but when this happened I'd been on slack work a goodish bit and was bad for rent three weeks and more my rent was two shillings a week then it's one shelling nine pins now and my own traps no I can't say I was sorry when I was forced to be idle that way that I hadn't kept up my reading nor tried to keep it up because I couldn't then have settled down my mind to read I know I couldn't I like to hear the paper read well enough if I's resting but old bill as often volunteers to read has to spell the hard words so that one can't tell what the devil he's reading about I never hears anything about books I never heard of Robinson Crusoe if it wasn't once at the wake note Victoria Theatre and note I think there was some such a name there he lived on a deserted island did he sir all by himself well I think now you mentions it I have here done him but one needn't believe all one hears whether out of books or not I don't know much good that ever anybody as I knows ever got out of books they're fittest for idle people certainly I've seen working people reading in coffee shops but they might as well be resting themselves to keep up their strength do I think so I'm sure on it master I sometimes spends a few browns are going to the play mostly about Christmas it's very fine and grand at the wick that's the place I goes to most both the pantomimers and other things is very stunning I can't say how much I spends a year in place I keeps no account perhaps five shillings or so in a year including expenses such as beer when one goes out after a stopper on the stage I don't keeps no accounts of what I gets or what I spends it would be no use when it comes and it goes and it often goes a damn sight faster than it comes so it seems to me though I ain't in debt just at this time I never goes to any church or chapel sometimes I hasn't closed as is fit and I suppose I couldn't be admitted into such fine places in my working dress I was once in a church but felt queer as one dozen them strange places and never went again their fittest for rich people yes I've heard about religion and about God Almighty what religion have I heard on why the regular religion I'm satisfied with what I knows and feels about it and that's enough about it I came to tell you about trade and work because Mr blank told me it might do good but religion hasn't nothing to do with it yes Mr blank's a good master and a religious man but I've known masters I didn't care damn for religion as good as him and so you see it comes to much the same thing I care nothing about politics neither but I'm a chartist I'm not a married man I was a going to be married to a young woman as lived with me a goodish bit as my housekeeper note this he said very demurely and note but she went to the hopping to yarn a few shillings for herself and never came back I heard that she'd taken up with an Irish hawker but I can't say as to the rights on it did I fret about her perhaps not but I was wixed I'm sure I can't say what I spends my wages on I sometimes makes 12 shilling six pence a week and sometimes better than 21 shillings with night work I suppose grub costs a shilling a day and beer six pence but I keeps no accounts I buy ready cooked meat often cold boiled beef and eats it at any taproom I have meat every day mostly more than once a day vegetables I don't care about only Ingins and cabbage if you can get it smoking hot with plenty of pepper the rest of my tin goes for rent and backie and togs and a little drop of gin now and then the statement I have given is sufficiently explicit of the general opinions of the regular scavengers concerning literature politics and religion on these subjects the great majority of the regular scavengers have no opinion at all or opinions distorted even when the facts seem clear and obvious by ignorance often united with its nearest of kin prejudice and suspiciousness I am inclined to think however that the man whose narrative I noted down was more dogged in his ignorance than the body of his fellows all the intelligent men with whom I conversed and whose avocations had made them familiar for years with this class concurred in representing them as grossly ignorant this description of the scavengers ignorance and so on it must be remembered applies only to the regular hands those who have joined the ranks of the street sweepers from other callings are more intelligent and sometimes more temperate the system of concubinage with a great degree of fidelity in the couple living together without the sanction of the law such as I have described as prevalent among the costumers and dustmen is also prevalent among the regular scavengers I did not hear of habitual unkindness from the parents to the children born out of wedlock but there is habitual neglect of all or much which a child should be taught a neglect growing out of ignorance I heard of two scavengers with large families of whom the treatment was sometimes very harsh and at others mere petting education or rather the ability to read and write is not common among the adults in this calling so that it cannot be expected to be found among their children some labouring men ignorant themselves but not perhaps constituting a class or a clique like the regular scavengers try hard to procure for their children the knowledge the one of which they usually think has barred their own progress in life other ignorant men mixing only with their own sort as is generally the case with the regular scavengers and in the several branches of the business often think and say that what they did without their children could do without also I even heard it said by one scavenger that it wasn't right a child should ever think himself wiser than his father a man who knew in the way of his business as a private contractor for night work and so on a great many regular scavengers ran them over and came to the conclusion that about four or five out of 20 could read ill or tolerably well and about three out of 40 could write he told me more over that one of the most intelligent fellows generally whom he knew among them a man whom he had heard read well enough and always understood to be a tolerable writer the other day brought a letter from his son a soldier abroad with his regiment in lower canada and requested my informant to read it to him as that kind of writing although plain enough was beyond him the son in writing had availed himself of the superior skill of a corporal in his company so that the letter on family matters and feelings was written by deputy and read by deputy the costumongers I have shown when themselves unable to read have evinced a fondness for listening to exciting stories of courts and aristocracies and have even bought penny periodicals to have their contents read to them the scavengers appear to have no taste for this mode of enjoying themselves but then their leisure is far more circumscribed than that of the costumongers it must be borne in mind that I have all along spoken of the regular many of them hereditary scavengers employed by the more liberal contractors there are yet accounts of habitations statements of wages and so on and so on to be given in connection with men working for the honorable masters before proceeding to the scurff traders the working scavengers usually reside in the neighborhood of the dust yards occupying second floor backs kitchens where the entire house is sublet a system often fraught with great extortion or garrants they usually and perhaps always when married or what they consider as good have their own furniture the rent runs from one shilling sixpence to two shillings thruppence weekly an average being one shilling ninepence or one shilling tenpence one room which I was in was but barely furnished a sort of dresser serving also for a table a chest three chairs one almost bottomless an old turn up bedstead a dutch clock with the minute hand broken or as the scavenger very well called it when he saw me looking at it a stump an old corner cupboard and some pots and domestic utensils in a closet without a door but retaining a portion of the hinges on which the door had swung the rent was one shilling tenpence with a frequent intimation that it ought to be two shillings the place was clean enough and the scavenger seemed proud of it assuring me that his old woman wife or concubine was a good sort and kept things as nice as ever she could washing everything herself where other old women lashed the only ornaments in the room were three profiles of children cut in black paper and pasted upon white card tacked to the wall over the fireplace for mantle shelf there was none while one of the three profiles that of the eldest child then dead was framed with a glass and a sort of bronze or cast frame costing I was told 15 pence this was the apartment of a man in regular employ with but a few exceptions another scavenger with whom I had some conversation about his labours as a night man for he was both gave me a full account of his own diet which I find to be sufficiently specific as to that of his class generally but only of the regular hands the diet of the regular working scavenger or night man seems generally to differ from that of mechanics or perhaps of other working men in the respect of his being fonder of salt and strong flavoured food I have before made the same remark concerning the diet of the poor generally I do not mean however that the scavengers are fond of such animal food as is called high for I did not hear that night man or scavengers were more tolerant of what approached putridity than other labouring men and despite their calling might sicken at the rankness of some haunches of venison but they have a great relish for highly salted cold boiled beef bacon or pork with a saucer full of red pickled cabbage or dingy looking pickled onions or one or two big strong raw onions of which most of them seem as fond as Spaniards of garlic this sort of meat sometimes profusely mustarded is often eaten in the beer shops with thick shives of bread cut into big mouthfuls with a clasp pocket knife while vegetables unless indeed the beer shop can supply a plate of smoking hot potatoes are uncared for the drink is usually beer the same style of eating and the same kind of food characterised the scavenger and nightman while taking his meal at home with his wife or family but so irregular and often of necessity are these men's hours that they may be said to have no homes merely places to sleep or doze in a working scavenger and nightman calculated for me his expenses in eating and drinking and other necessaries for the previous week he had earned 15 shillings but one shilling of this went to pay off an advance of five shillings made to him by the keeper of a beer shop or as he called it a jerry rent of an unfurnished room weekly one shilling ninepence washing average weekly thruppence note the man himself washed the dress in which he worked and generally washed his own stockings shaving when twice a week weekly a penny tobacco daily a penny weekly seven pence note short pipes are given to these men at the beer shops or public houses which they use and note beer daily four pence weekly two shillings four pence note he usually spent more than four pence a day in beer he said it was only a pot but this week more beer than usual had been given to him in night work gin daily tuppence weekly one shilling tuppence note the same with gin and note cocoa pint at a coffee shop daily a penny hipney weekly ten pence hipney bread quarter loaf sometimes five pence hipney daily six pence weekly three shilling six pence boiled salt beef three quarters of a pound or a half a pound daily as happened for two meals six pence per pound average daily four pence weekly two shillings four pence pickles or onions daily a farthing weekly a penny and three farlings butter weekly a penny soap weekly a penny total weekly 13 shillings tuppence and a farling perhaps this informant was excessive in his drink i believe he was so the others not drinking so much regularly the odd nine pence he told me he paid to a snob because he said he was going to send his half boots to be mended this man informed me he was a witter having lost his old woman and he got all his meals at a beer or coffee shop sometimes when he was a street sweeper by day and a nightman by night he had earned 20 shillings to 22 shillings and then he could have his pound of salt meat a day for three meals with a baked tater or so when they was in i inquired as to the apparently low charge of six pence per pound for cooked meat but i found that the man had stated what was correct in many parts good boiled brisket fresh cut is seven pence and eight pence per pound with mustard into the bargain and the cook shopkeepers not the eating house people who sell boiled hams beef and so on in retail but not to be eaten on the premises then the hard remains of a brisket and sometimes of around for six pence or even less also with mustard and the scavengers like this better than any other food in the brisk times my informant sometimes had a hot cut from a shop on a sunday and a more liberal allowance of beer and gin if he had any piece of clothing to buy he always bought it at once before his money went for other things these were his proceedings when business was brisk in slacker times his diet was on another footing he then made his supper or second meal for tea he seldom touched on faggots this preparation of baked meats costs a penny hot but it is seldom sold hot except in the evening and three farlings or more frequently two for one pence apny cold it is a sort of cake roll or ball a number being baked at a time and is made of chopped liver and lights mixed with gravy and wrapped in pieces of pigs call it weighs six ounces so that it is unquestionably a cheap and to the scavenger a savory meal but to other nostrils its order is not seductive my informant regretted the capital faggots he used to get at a shop when he worked in lambeth superior to anything he had been able to meet with on the middle sex side of the water or he dined off a savalloy costing a penny and bread or bought a penny worth of strong cheese and a farlings worth of onions he would further reduce his daily expenditure on cocoa or sometimes coffee to a penny and his bread to three quarters of a loaf he ate however in average times a quarter of a quarter loaf to his breakfast sometimes buying a hipney worth of butter a quarter or more to his dinner the same to his supper and the other with an onion for a relish to his beer he was a great breadeater he said but sometimes if he slept in the daytime half a loaf would stand over to the next day he was always hungriest when at work among the street mud or night soil or when he had finished work on my asking him if he meant that he partook of the meals he had described daily he answered no but that was mostly what he had and if he bought a bit of cold boiled or even roast pork what offered cheap the expense was about the same when he was drinking and he did make a break sometimes he ate nothing and wasn't inclined to and he seemed rather to plume himself on this as a point of economy he had tasted fruit pies but cared nothing for them but liked four penneth of a hot meat or giblet pie on a sunday batter pudding he only liked if smoking hot and it was uncommon improved he said with an onion rum he preferred to gin only it was dearer but most of the scavengers he thought liked old tom gin best but they was both good of the drinking of these men i heard a good deal and there is no doubt that some of them taupe hard and by their conduct evens a sort of belief that the great end of labour is beer but it must be borne in mind that if inquiries are made as to the man best adapted to give information concerning any rude calling especially some talkative member of the body of these working men some pothouse hero who has persuaded himself and his ignorant mates that he is an oracle is put forward as these men are sometimes from being trained to and long known in their callings more prosperous than their fellows their opinion seems ratified by their circumstances but in such cases or in the appearance of such cases it has been my custom to make subsequent inquiries or there might be frequent misleading where the statements of these men taken as typical of the feelings and habits of the whole body the statement of the working scavenger given under this head is unquestionably typical of the character of a portion of his co-workers and more especially of what was and in the sort of hereditary scavengers i have spoken of is the character of the regular hands there are now however many checks to prolonged indulgence in lush as every man of the rudder street sweeping class will call it the contractors must be served regularly the most indulgent will not tolerate any unreasonable absence from work so that the working scavengers at the jeopardy of their means of living must leave their carousel at an hour which will permit them to rise soon enough in the morning the beer which these men imbibe it should be also remembered they regard as a proper part of their diet in the same light indeed as they regard so much bread and that among them the opinion is almost universal that beer is necessary to keep up their strength there are a few teetotalers belonging to the class one man thought he knew five and had heard of five others i inquired of the landlord of a beer shop frequented by these men as to their petitions but he wanted to make it appear that they took a half pint now and then went thirsty he was evidently tender of the character of his customers the landlord of a public house also frequented by them informed me that he really could not say what they expended in beer for labourers of all kinds used his tap and as all tap room liquor was paid for on delivery in his and all similar establishments he did not know the quantity supplied to any particular class he was satisfied these men as a whole drank less than they did at one time though he had no doubt some he seemed to know no distinctions between scavengers dustman and nightman spent a shilling a day in drink he knew one scavenger who was dosing about not long since for nearly a week sleepy drunk and the belief was that he had found something the absence of all accounts prevents my coming to anything definite on this head but it seems positive that these men drink less than they did the landlord in question thought the statement i have given as to diet and drink perfectly correct for a regular hand in good earnings i am assured however and it is my own opinion after long inquiry that one third of their earnings is spent in drink end of section 43 section 44 of london labour and the london poor volume two by henry mayhew this livery box recording is in the public domain recording by jillian henry of the influence of free trade on the earnings of the scavengers as regards the influence of free trade upon the scavenging business i could gain little or no information from the body of street sweepers because they have never noticed its operation and the men with the exception of such as have sunk into street sweeping from better informed conditions of life know nothing about it among all however i have heard statements of the blessing of cheap bread always cheap bread there's nothing like bread says the men it's not all poor people can get meat but they must get bread cheap food all labouring men pronounce a blessing as it unquestionably is but somehow as a scavenger's carman said to me the thing ain't working as it should in the course of the present and former inquiries among unskilled labourers street sellers and costumers i have found the great majority of the more intelligent declare that free trade had not worked well for them because there were more labourers and more street sellers than were required for each man to live by his toil and traffic and because the numbers increased yearly and the demand for their commodities did not increase in proportion among the ignorant i heard the continual answers of i can't say sir what it's going to that i'm so bad off or well i can't tell anything about that it is difficult to state however without positive inquiry whether this extra number of hands be due to diminished employment in the agricultural districts since the repeal of the corn laws or whether it be due to the insufficiency of occupation generally for the increasing population one thing at least is evident that the increase of the trades alluded to cannot be said to arise directly from diminished agricultural employment for but few farm labourers have entered these businesses since the change from protection to free trade if therefore free trade principles have operated injuriously in reducing the work of the unskilled labourers street sellers and the poorer classes generally it can have done so only indirectly that is to say by throwing a mass of displaced country labour into the towns and so displacing other labourers from their ordinary occupations as well as by decreasing the wages of working men generally hence it becomes almost impossible i repeat to tell whether the increasing difficulty that the poor experience in living by their labour is a consequence or merely a concomitant of the repeal of the corn laws if it be a consequence of course the poor are no better for the alteration if however it be a coincidence rather than a necessary result of the measure the circumstances of the poor are of course as much improved as they would have been impoverished provided that measure had never become law i candidly confess i am as yet without the means of coming to any conclusion on this part of the subject nor can it be said that in the scavengers trade wages have in any way declined since the repeal of the corn laws so that where it's not for the difficulty of obtaining employment among the casual hands this class must be allowed to have been considerable gainers by the reduction in the price of food and even as it is the constant hands must be acknowledged to be so i will now endeavor to reduce to a tabular form such information as i could obtain as to the expenditure of the labourer in scavenging before and after the establishment of free trade i inquired the better to be assured of the accuracy of the representations and accounts i received from labourers the price of meat then and now a butcher who for many years has conducted a business in a populist part of westminster and in a populist suburb supplying both private families with the best joints and the poor with their little bits their block ornaments meat and small pieces exposed on the chopping block their purchases of liver and of beasts heads in 1845 the year i take as sufficiently prior to the free trade era my informant from his recollection of the state of his business and from consulting his books which of course were a correct guide found that for a portion of the year in question mutton was as much as seven pence apny per pound smithfield prices now the same quality of meat is but five pence this however was but a temporary matter and from causes which sometimes are not very ostensible or explicable taking the butcher's trade that year as a whole it was found sufficiently conclusive that meat was generally a penny per pound higher then than at present my informant however was perfectly satisfied that although situated in the same way and with the same class of customers he did not sell so much meat to the poor and labouring classes as he did five or six years ago he believed not by one eighth although perhaps price of his meat among the poor were more numerous for this my informant accounted by expressing his conviction that the labouring men spent their money in drink more than ever and were a longer time in recovering from the effects of tippling this supposition from what i have observed in the course of the present inquiry is negative by facts another butcher also supplying the poor said they bought less of him but he could not say exactly to what extent perhaps an eighth and he attributed it to less work there being no railways about london fewer buildings and less general employment about the wages of the labourers he could not speak as influencing the matter from this tradesman also i received an account that meat generally was a penny per pound higher at the time specified pickled australian beef was four or five years ago very low thuppens per pound salted and prepared and swelling in hot water but the poor couldn't eat the stringy stuff for it was like pickled ropes it's better now he added but it don't sell and there's no nourishment in such beef but these tradesmen agreed in the information that poor labourers bought less meat while one pronounced free trade a blessing the other declared it a curse i suggested to each that cheaper fish might have something to do with a smaller consumption of butcher's meat but both said that cheap fish was the great thing for the irish and the poor needle women and the like who were never at any time meat eaters from respectable bakers i ascertained that bread might be considered a penny a quarter loaf dearer in 1845 than at present perhaps the following table may throw a fuller light on the matter i give it from what i learned from several men who were without accounts to refer to but speaking positively from memory i give the statement per week as for a single man without charge for the support of a wife and family and without any help from other resources rent before free trade one shilling sixpence after free trade one shilling sixpence bread five loaves before free trade two shillings eleven pence after free trade two shilling six pence saving since free trade five pence butter half a pound before free trade five pence after free trade five pence tea two ounces before free trade eight pence after free trade eight pence sugar half a pound before free trade thruppence after free trade tuppence saving since free trade a penny meet three pounds before free trade one shilling sixpence after free trade one shilling thruppence saving since free trade thruppence bacon a pound before free trade five pence after free trade five pence fish a dinner a day six days before free trade thruppence or one shilling six pence weekly after free trade tuppence or one shilling weekly saving since free trade six pence potatoes or vegetables a heap me a day before free trade thruppence hey penny after free trade thruppence hey penny beer pot before free trade thruppence hey penny after free trade thruppence total saving per week since free trade one shilling thruppence in butter bacon potatoes and so on and beer I could hear of no changes except that bacon might be a trifle cheaper but instead of a good quality selling better although cheaper there was a demand for an inferior sort in the foregoing table the weekly consumption of several necessaries is given but it is not to be understood that one man consumes them all in a week they are what may generally be consumed when such things are in demand by the poor one week after another or one day after another forming an aggregate of weeks thus free trade and cheap provisions are an unquestionable benefit if unaffected by drawbacks to the labouring poor the above statement refers only to a fully employed the following table gives the change since free trade in the earnings of casual hands and relates to the past and the present expenditure of a scavenger the man who was formerly a house painter said he could bring me 50 men similarly circumstances as himself readers note the following table gives costs per week in 1845 and in 1851 and readers note rent in 1845 one shilling four pence in 1851 one shilling eight pence five loaves in 1845 two shillings eleven pence four loaves in 1851 two shillings butter in 1845 five pence in 1851 five pence tea in 1845 six pence in 1851 five pence meat three pounds in 1845 one shilling six pence in 1851 one shilling potatoes in 1845 thruppence in 1851 tuppence beer a pot in 1845 four pence beer a pint in 1851 tuppence total in 1845 per week seven shillings thruppence in 1851 per week five shillings ten pence here then we find a positive saving in the expenditure of one shilling five pence per week in this man's wages since the cheapening of food his earnings however tell a different story earnings of six days in 1845 15 shillings earnings of three days in 1851 seven shilling six pence weekly income in 1845 15 shillings in 1851 seven shilling six pence expenditure in 1845 seven shillings thruppence in 1851 five shillings ten pence difference in 1845 seven shillings nine pence in 1851 one shilling eight pence thus we perceive that the beneficial effects of cheapness are defeated by the dearth of employment among laborers it is impossible to come to precise statistics in this matter but all concurrent evidence as regards the unskilled work of which I now treat shows that labor is attainable at almost any rate another drawback to the benefits of cheap food I heard of first in my inquiries for the letters on labor and the poor in the morning chronicle among the boot and shoemakers their rents had been raised in consequence of their landlord's property having been subjected to the income tax numbers of large houses are now let out in single rooms in the streets of tutnam court road and near golden square as well as in many other quarters to men who working for west end tradesmen must live for economy of time near the shops from which they derive their work near and in cunningham street and other streets to men father and son rent upwards of 30 houses the whole of which they let out in one or two rooms it is believed at a very great profit in fact they live by it the rent of these houses among many others was raised when income tax was imposed the subletters declaring with what truth no one knew that the rents were raised to them it is common enough for capitalists to fling such imposts on the shoulders of the poor and I heard scavengers complain that every time they had to change their rooms they had either to pay more rent by tuppence or thruppence a week or put up with a worse place one man who lived at the time of the passing of the income tax bill in shulain found his rent raised suddenly thruppence a week a non resident landlord or agent calling for it weekly he was told that the advance was to meet the income tax I know nothing about what income tax means he said but it's some blank roguery as is put on the poor I heard complaints to the same purport from several working scavengers and the letters of rooms are the most exacting in places crowded with the poor and where the poor think or feel they must reside to be handy for work what connection there may be between the questions of free trade and the necessity of the income tax it is not my business now to dilate upon but it is evident that the circumstances of the country are not sufficiently prosperous to enable parliament to repeal this temporary impulse from a better informed class than the scavengers I might have derived data on which to form a calculation from account books and so on but I could hear of none being kept I remember that a lady's shoemaker told me that the weekly rents of the 10 rooms in the house in which he lived were foreshadowing thruppence higher than before the income tax which came to the same thing as an extra penny on over 50 loaves a week it is certain that the great taxpayers of London are the labouring classes I have endeavoured to ascertain the facts in connection with this complex subject in as calm and just a manner as possible leaning neither to the protectionist nor the free trade side of the question and I must again in honesty acknowledge that to the constant hands among the scavengers and dustmen of the metropolis the repeal of the corn laws appears to have been an unquestionable benefit I shall conclude this exposition of the condition and earnings of the working scavengers employed by the more honourable masters with an account of the average income and expenditure of the better paid hands regular and casual as well as single and married and first of the unmarried regular hand the following is an estimate of the income and expenditure of an unmarried operative scavenger regularly employed working for a large contractor weekly income constant wages nominal weekly wages 16 shillings perquisites two shillings actual weekly wages 18 shillings weekly expenditure rent two shillings washing and mending 10 pence clothes and repairing ditto 10 pence butchers meet three shilling six pence bacon eight pence vegetables four pence cheese four pence beer three shillings spirits one shilling tobacco 10 pence apnae butter seven pence apnae sugar four pence tea thruppence coffee thruppence fish four pence soap tuppence shaving apnae fruit four pence keep of two dogs six pence amusements as skittles and so on one shilling nine pence total 18 shillings the subjoined represents the income of an unmarried operative scavenger casually employed by a small master scavenger six months during the year at 15 shillings a week and 20 weeks at sand and rubbish carting at 12 shillings a week casual wages nominal weekly wages at scavenging 16 shillings for 26 weeks during the year 20 pounds 16 shillings perquisites two shillings for 26 weeks during the year two pounds 12 shillings actual weekly wages for 26 weeks during the year 16 shillings nominal and actual weekly wages at rubbish carting 12 shillings for 20 weeks more during the year 12 pounds average casual or constant weekly wages throughout the year 15 shillings four pence apnae the expenditure of this man when in work was nearly the same as that of the regular hand the main exceptions being that his rent was a shilling instead of two shillings and no dogs were kept when in work he saved nothing and when out of work lived as he could the married scavengers are differently circumstanced from the unmarried their earnings are generally increased by those of their family the labour of the wives and children of the scavengers is not infrequently in the capacity of sifters in the dust yards where the wives of the men employed by the contractors have the preference and in other but somewhat rude capacities one of their wives i heard of as a dresser of sheep's trotters two as being among the most skillful dressers of tripe for a large shop one as a cat's meat seller her father's calling but i still speak of the regular scavengers i could not meet with one woman working a slop needle one indeed i saw who was described to me as a feather dresser to an out and out nigger readers note spelt n e g u r and readers note but the women assured me she was neither badly paid nor badly off perhaps by such labour as an average on the part of the wives nine pence a day is cleared and one shilling on tripe and such like among the casuals wives there are frequent instances of the working for slop shirt makers and so on upon the coarser sorts of work and at starvation wages but on such matters i have often dwelt i heard from some of these men that it was looked upon as a great thing if the wives labour could clear the week's rent of one shilling six pence to two shillings the following may be taken as an estimate of the income and outlay of a better paid and fully employed operative scavenger with his wife and two children weekly income of the family nominal weekly wages of man 16 shillings perquisites two shillings actual weekly wages of man 18 shillings nominal weekly wages of wife six shillings perquisites in coal and wood one shilling four pence actual weekly wages of wife seven shillings four pence nominal weekly wages of boy three shillings total one pound eight shillings four pence weekly expenditure of the family rent three shillings candle thruppen's hipney bread two shillings and a penny butter ten pence sugar eight pence tea ten pence coffee four pence butcher's meat three shilling six pence bacon one shilling tuppence potatoes ten pence raw fish four pence herrings four pence beer at home two shillings beer at work one shilling six pence spirits one shilling cheese six pence flour thruppence suet thruppence fruit thruppence rice a hipney soap six pence starch a hipney soda and blue a penny dubbing a hipney clothes for the whole family and repairing ditto two shillings boots and shoes for ditto ditto one shilling six pence milk seven pence salt pepper and mustard a penny tobacco nine pence wear and tear of bedding crocs and so on thruppence schooling for a girl thruppence baking sunday's dinner tuppence mangling thruppence amusements and sundries one shilling total one pound seven shillings and six pence the subjoined on the other hand gives the income and outlay of a casually employed operative scavenger better paid with his wife and two boys in constant work weekly income of the family nominal wages of man at scavenging for six months at 16 shillings weekly ditto at rubbish carting three months 12 shillings weekly average casual wages throughout the year 15 shillings nominal weekly wages of wife six shillings constant perquisites in wood and coal one shilling four pence actual weekly wages of wife seven shillings four pence nominal weekly wages of two boys seven shillings the two perquisites for running on messages one shilling the two constant actual weekly wages of the two boys eight shillings total one pound ten shillings four pence weekly expenditure of the family rent three shilling six pence candle six pence soap four pence soda starch and blue tuppence hapeny bread two shilling six pence butter nine pence dripping five pence sugar eight pence tea eight pence coffee six pence butchers meat three shilling six pence bacon a shilling potatoes a shilling cheese six pence raw fish four pence herrings thruppence fried fish thruppence flour thruppence suet tuppence fruit six pence rice a penny hapeny beer at home two shillings beer at work one shilling nine pence spirits one shilling tobacco nine pence pepper salt and mustard a penny milk seven pence clothes for man wife and family two shillings repairing ditto for ditto six pence boots and shoes for ditto one shilling six pence repairing ditto for ditto eight pence wear and tear of bedding crocs and so on thruppence baking sunday's dinner tuppence mangling tuppence amusement sundries and so on one shilling total one pound ten shillings four pence end of section 44