 Section 38 of London Labour and the London Poor Volume 2 by Henry Mayhew. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Gillian Hendry. Off the surface water off the streets of London. The consideration of what Professor Wei has called the street waters of the metropolis is one of as great moment as any of those I have previously treated in my details concerning street refuse, whether mack, mud or dung. Indeed water enters largely into the composition of the two former substances, while even the street dung is greatly affected by the rain. The feeders of the street, as regards the street surface water, are principally the rains. I will first consider the amount of surface water supplied by the rain descending upon the area of the metropolis, upon the roofs of the houses, and the pavement of the streets and roads. The depth of rain falling in London in the different months, according to the observations and calculations of the most eminent meteorologists, is as follows. Readers note, the following table gives the depth of rain in inches, according to observation of the Royal Society and Howard, and according to calculation by Daniel, followed by quantity of rain falling in the different seasons and number of days on which rain falls. End of readers note. January, Royal Society, 1.56 inches of rain. Howard, 1.907 inches. Daniel, 1.483 inches. Number of days on which rain falls, 14.4 days. February, Royal Society, 1.45 inches. Howard, 1.643 inches. Daniel, 0.746 inches. Number of days on which rain falls, 15.8. March, Royal Society, 1.36 inches. Howard, 1.542 inches. Daniel, 1.440 inches. Number of days on which rain falls, 12.7. April, Royal Society, 1.55 inches. Howard, 1.719 inches. Daniel, 1.786 inches. Number of days on which rain falls, 14.0. May, Royal Society, 1.67 inches. Howard, 2.036 inches. Daniel, 1.853 inches. Number of days on which rain falls, 15.8. June, Royal Society, 1.98 inches. Howard, 1.964 inches. Daniel, 1.830 inches. Number of days on which rain falls, 11.8. July, Royal Society, 2.44 inches. Howard, 2.592 inches. Daniel, 2.516 inches. Number of days on which rain falls, 16.1. August, Royal Society, 2.37 inches. Howard, 2.134 inches. Daniel, 1.453 inches. Number of days on which rain falls, 16.3. September, Royal Society, 2.97 inches. Howard, 1.644 inches. Daniel, 2.193 inches. Number of days on which rain falls, 12.3. October, Royal Society, 2.46 inches. Howard, 2.872 inches. Daniel, 2.073 inches. Number of days on which rain falls, 16.2. November, Royal Society, 2.58 inches. Howard, 2.637 inches. Daniel, 2.400 inches. Number of days on which rain falls, 15.0. December, Royal Society, 1.65 inches. Howard, 2.489 inches. Daniel, 2.426 inches. Number of days on which rain falls, 17.7. Quantity of rain falling in the different seasons. Winter, 5.868 inches. Spring, 4.813 inches. Summer, 6.682 inches. Autumn, 7.441 inches. Total depth of rain, according to the Royal Society observations, 24.04 inches. According to Howard's observation, 25.179 inches. According to Daniel's calculation, 22.199 inches. Total of number of days on which rain falls, 178.1. Total rain falling in the different seasons, 24.804 inches. The rainfall in London, according to a 10 years average of the Royal Society's observations, amounts to 23 inches. In 1848 it was as high as 28 inches, and in 1847 as low as 15 inches. The depth of rain annually falling near London is stated by Mr. Luke Howard to be on an average of 23 years, 1797 to 1819. As much as 25.179 inches. Mr. Daniel says that the average annual fall is 23.10 inches. The mean of the observations made at Greenwich between the years 1838 and 1849 was 24.84 inches. The following extract from an account of the soft water springs of the Surrey Sands by the Honourable William Napier is interesting. The amount of rainfall, says the author, is taken from a register kept at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from the year 1818 to 1846. The average fall of the last 15 years, during which time the register appears to have been correctly kept, is 22.64 inches. I consider this to be a very low estimate, however, of the average rainfall over the whole district. The fall on the ranges of the hind head must considerably exceed this amount, for I find in White Selburn, a register for 10 years at that place, the greatest fall being in 1782, 50.26 inches, the lowest in 1788, 22.50 inches, and the average of all, 37.58 inches. The elevation of the hind head is about 800 feet above mean tide. With reference to the measurement of rainfall, it is difficult indeed to obtain more than a very approximate idea for a given district of not very great extent. The method of measurement is so uncertain as liable to be affected by currents of air and evaporation. It is well known that elevated regions attract by condensation more rain than lowlands, and yet a rain gauge placed on the ground will register a greater fall than one placed immediately, and even at a small height, above it. Mr Arogo has shown from 12 years observations at Paris that the average depth of rain on the terrace of the observatory was 19.88 inches, while 30 yards lower it was 22.21 inches. Dr Heberden has shown the rainfall on the top of Westminster Cathedral during a certain period to be only 12.09 inches, and at a lower level on the top of a house in the neighbourhood to be 22.608 inches. This fact has been observed all over the world, and I can only account for it as arising partly from the greater amount of condensation the nearer the earth's surface, but probably also from currents of air depriving a rain gauge at a high elevation of its fair share. The results of the above observations as to the yearly quantity of rain falling in the metropolis may be summed up as follows. Royal Society average of 20 years 24.04 inches of rain falling annually Mr Howard average of 23 years 25.179 inches Professor Daniel 22.199 inches Dr Heberden 22.608 inches Mean 23.506 inches of rain falling annually The mean mean, or average of all the averages here given, is within a fraction the average of the Royal Society's observations for 10 years, and this is the quantity that I shall adopt in my calculations as to the gross volume of rain falling over the entire area of London. I have shown by a detail of the respective districts in the Registrar General's department that the metropolis contains 74,070 statute acres. Every square inch of this extent, as garden, arable or pasture ground, or as road or street, or waste place, or house, or enclosed yard or lawn, of course receives its modicum of rain. Each acre comprises 6,272,640 square inches, and we thus find the whole metropolitan area to contain a number of square inches almost beyond the terms of popular arithmetic, and best expressible in figures. Area of metropolis in square inches In figures 4,64614444400, or 464,614,444,800 Now, multiplying these 464,614,444,800 square inches by 23, the number of inches of rain falling every year in London, we have the following result. Total quantity of rain falling yearly in the metropolis In figures 10,686,132,230,400, or 10,686,132,230,400 cubic inches Then, as a fraction more than 277 and a quarter cubic inches of water represent a weight of 10 pounds, and an ad measurement of a gallon, we have the following further results. Yearly rainfall in the metropolis In figures 385,399,721,220, or 385,399,721,220 pounds weight, or In figures 172,053,447, or 172,053,447 tons Ad measurement in gallons In figures 385,399,72122, or 385,339,972,122 gallons The total quantity of water mechanically supplied every day to the metropolis is said to be in round numbers 55 million gallons, the amount being made up in the following manner Daily mechanical supply of water to metropolis Readers note the following table gives sources of supply and average number of gallons per day End readers note New river, average number of gallons per day 14,149,315 East London, 8,829,462 Chelsea, 3,940,730 West Middlesex, 3,334,054 Grand Junction, 3,532,013 Lambeth, 3,077,260 Sutherk and Vauxhall, 6,313,716 Kent, 1,079,311 Hampstead, 427,468 Total from companies, 44,383,329 Artesian wells, 8 million Landspring pumps, 3 million Total daily, 55,383,329 Yearly mechanical supply of water from companies, 16,200,000 gallons From Artesian wells, 1,920,000 gallons From Landspring pumps, 1,095,000,000 gallons Total yearly, 19,215,000,000 gallons Hence it would appear that the rain falling in London in the course of the year is rather more than double that of the entire quantity of water annually supplied to the metropolis by mechanical means The rainwater being to the other as 2.005 to 1.000 Now in order to ascertain what proportion of the entire volume of rain comes under the denomination of street surface water We must first deduct from the gross quantity falling, the amount said to be caught And which in contradiction to that mechanically supplied to the houses of the metropolis is termed catch This is estimated at 1 million gallons per day or 365 million gallons yearly But we must also subtract from the gross quantity of rainwater that which falls on the roofs as well as on the back premises and yards of houses And is carried off directly to the drains without appearing in the streets This must be a considerable proportion of the whole since the streets themselves allowing them to be 10 yards wide on an average Would seem to occupy only about one tenth part of the entire metropolitan area So that the rain falling directly upon the public thoroughfares will be but a tithe of the aggregate quantity But the surface water of the streets is increased largely by tributary shoots from courts and drainless houses And hence we may fairly assume the natural supply to be doubled by such means At this rate the volume of rainwater annually poured into and upon the metropolitan thoroughfares by natural means Will be between 5 and 6 thousand millions of gallons or 100 times the quantity that is daily supplied to the houses of the metropolis by mechanical agency Still only a part of this quantity appears in the form of surface water For a considerable portion of it is absorbed by the ground on which it falls, especially in dry weather Serving either to lay the dust or to convert it into mud Due regard therefore being had to all these considerations we cannot consistently with that caution which is necessary in all statistical enquiries Estimate the surface water of the London streets at more than 1000 millions of gallons per annum Or 20 times the daily mechanical supply to the houses of the entire metropolis And which it has been asserted is sufficient to exhaust a lake covering the area of St James's Park 30 inches in depth The quantity of water annually poured upon the streets in the process of what is termed watering Amounts according to the returns of the Board of Health to 275 million gallons per annum But as this seldom or never assumes the form of street surface water it need form no part of the present estimate What proportion of the 1000 million gallons of slop dirt produced annually in the London streets is carried off down the drains And what proportion is ladled up by the scavengers I have no means of ascertaining But that vast quantities run away into the sewers and therefore large deposits of mud everything tends to prove Mr. Lovak on being asked how many loads of deposit have been removed in any one week in the Surrey and Kent District What is the total quantity of deposit removed in any one week in the whole of the Metropolitan District replied quote it is difficult if not impossible to ascertain correctly the quantity removed owing to the variety of forms of sewers and the ever varying forms assumed by the deposit from the action of varying volumes of water but I have had observations made on the rate of accumulation from which I have been enabled roughly to approximate it In one week in the Surrey and Kent District about 1000 yards were removed In one week in the whole of the Metropolitan District including the Surrey and Kent District between 4000 and 5000 yards were removed but in portions of the Districts these operations were not in progress end quote It is not here stated of what the deposit consisted but there is no doubt that Mack from the streets formed a great portion of it Neither is it stated what period of time had sufficed for the accumulation but it is evident enough that such deposits in the course of a year must be very great The street surface water has been analysed by Professor Wei and found to yield different constituents according to the different pavements from which it has been discharged The results are as follows Examination of samples of water from street drainage taken from the gullies in the sewers during the reign of 6th of May 1850 The waters were all more or less turbid and some of them gave off very noxious odours due principally to the escape of silphurated hydrogen gas Some of them were alkaline to test paper but the majority were neutral The following table exhibits the quantity of matter both in solution and in solid state contained in an imperial gallon of each specimen Street waters Readers note the following table gives the number of bottle, the name of street, the quality of paving, the quality of traffic and the residue in an imperial gallon in soluble form in insoluble form and in both Readers note Number of bottle one, name of street, Duke Street, Manchester Square, quality of paving, McAdham, quality of traffic, middling Soluble residue, 92.80 grains, insoluble residue 105.95 grains, both 198.75 grains Number of bottle seven, Folly Street upper part, quality of paving, McAdham, quality of traffic, little Soluble residue, 95.13 grains, insoluble residue, 116.30 grains, both 211.43 grains Number of bottle five, Gower Street, quality of paving, Granite, quality of traffic, middling Soluble residue, 126.00 grains, insoluble residue, 168.30 grains, both 294.30 grains Number of bottle 12, Norton Street, quality of paving, Granite, quality of traffic, little Soluble residue, 123.87 grains, insoluble residue, 3.00 grains, both 126.87 grains Number of bottle three, Hampstead Road above the canal, quality of paving, Ballasted, quality of traffic, great Soluble residue, 96.00 grains, insoluble residue, 84.00 grains, both 180.00 grains Number of bottle four, Ferdinand Street, quality of paving, Ballasted, quality of traffic, middling Soluble residue, 44.00 grains, insoluble residue, 48.30 grains, both 92.30 grains Number of bottle two, Ferdinand Place, quality of paving, Ballasted, quality of traffic, little Soluble residue, 50.80 grains, insoluble residue, 34.30 grains, both 85.10 grains Number of bottle ten, Oxford Street, quality of paving, Granite, quality of traffic, great Soluble residue, 276.23 grains, insoluble residue, 537.10 grains, both 813.33 grains Number of bottle six, Oxford Street, quality of paving, Macadam, quality of traffic, great Soluble residue, 194.62 grains, insoluble residue, 390.30 grains, both 584.92 grains Number of bottle eleven, Oxford Street, quality of paving, Wood, quality of traffic, great Soluble residue, 34.00 grains, insoluble residue, 5.00 grains, both 39.00 grains The influence of the quality of the paving on the composition of the drainage water, says Professor Wei, is well seen in the specimens numbers 10, 6 and 11, all of them from Oxford Street, the traffic being described as great. The quantity of soluble salts is here found to be greatest from the granite matter from the macadamized road and very inconsiderable from the wood pavement. The same relation between the granite and macadam pavement seems to hold good in the other instances. The granite for any quality of traffic affording more soluble salts to the water than the macadam. The ballasted pavement holds a position intermediate between the macadam and the wood, giving more soluble salts than the wood but less than the macadam. The quantity of solid in soluble matter in the different samples of water, which is a measure of the mechanical waste of the different kinds of pavement, appears also to follow the same relation as that of the soluble salts. That is to say granite greatest, next macadam, then ballasted and lastly wood pavement, which affords a quantity of solid deposit almost too small to deserve notice. The influence of the quality of traffic on the composition of the different specimens of drainage is well marked in nearly all cases. The greatest amount of matter, both insoluble and soluble, being found in the water obtained from the streets of great traffic. The following table shows the composition of the soluble salts of four specimens, two of them being from the granite and two from the macadam pavement. It appears from the table that the granite furnishes little or no magnesium to the water, whilst the quantity from the macadam is considerable. On the other hand, the quantity of potash is far greater in the water derived from the granite. The traffic, as was before seen, has a very great influence on the quantity of the soluble salts. It seems also to influence their composition, for we find no carbonates, either in the water from the granite or that from the macadam, where the traffic is little. Whereas when it is great, carbonates of lime and potash are found in the water in large quantity, a circumstance which is no doubt attributable to the action of decaying organic matter on the mineral substances of the pavement. Analysis of the soluble matter in different specimens of street drainage water. Readers note, the following table gives the number of grains in an imperial gallon from granite number 10 and macadam number 6 in great traffic and from granite number 12 and macadam number 7 in little traffic. Water of combination and some soluble organic matter. Great traffic, granite number 10, 77.56 grains, macadam number 6, 29.07 grains. Little traffic, granite number 12, 22.72 grains, macadam number 7, 13.73 grains. Silica, great traffic, granite number 10, 0.51 grains, macadam number 6, 2.81 grains. Little traffic, no data given. Carbonic acid, great traffic, granite number 10, 15.84 grains, macadam number 6, 12.23 grains. Little traffic, granite number 12, none, macadam number 7, none. Sulfuric acid, great traffic, granite number 10, 36.49 grains. Macadam number 6, 38.23 grains. Little traffic, granite number 12, 46.48 grains, macadam number 7, 34.08 grains. Lime, great traffic, granite number 10, 6.65 grains, macadam number 6, 13.38 grains. Little traffic, granite number 12, 25.90 grains, macadam number 7, 16.10 grains. Magnesia, great traffic, granite number 10, none, macadam number 6, 23.51 grains. Little traffic, granite number 12, trace, macadam number 7, 3.50 grains. Oxide of iron and alumina with a little phosphate of lime. Great traffic, granite number 10, 2.58 grains, macadam number 6, 1.25 grains. Little traffic, no data given. Chloride of potassium, great traffic, granite number 10, none. Macadam number 6, 10.99 grains. Little traffic, granite number 12, none, macadam number 7, 2.79 grains. Chloride of sodium, great traffic, granite number 10, 53.84 grains, macadam number 6, 44.88 grains. Little traffic, granite number 12, 18.44 grains, macadam number 7, 19.70 grains. Potash, great traffic, granite number 10, 82.76 grains, macadam number 6, 18.27 grains. Little traffic, granite number 12, 8.75 grains, macadam number 7, 5.23 grains. Soda, great traffic, no data given. Little traffic, granite number 12, 1.58 grains. Macadam number 7, no data given. Totals, great traffic, granite number 10, 276.23 grains in an imperial gallon. Macadam number 6, 1.94.62 grains in an imperial gallon. Little traffic, granite number 12, 1.23.87 grains in an imperial gallon. Macadam number 7, 95.13 grains in an imperial gallon. The insoluble matter in the waters consists of the comminutate material of the road itself, with small fragments of straw and broken dung, the quantity of soluble salts, especially of salts of potash, in many of these samples of water is quite as great, and in some cases greater, than that found in the samples of sewer water that have been examined. And it is open to question and further inquiry whether the water obtained from the street drainage of a crowded city might not often be of nearly equal value as liquid manure, with the sewer water with which it is at present allowed to mix. With regard to the ballasted pavement mentioned by Professor Wei, I may observe that it cannot be considered a street pavement, unless exceptionally. It is formed principally of Thames ballast mixed with gravel and is used in the construction of what are usually private or pleasure walks, such as the gravel walks in the enclosures of some of the parks and upon Primrose Hill and so on. Off the master scavengers in former times. Degraded as the occupation of the scavenger may be in public estimation, though I'd rather sweep the streets, may be a common remark expressive of the lowest deep of humiliation among those who never handled abysm in their lives, yet the very existence of a large body who are public cleansers betokens civilisation. Their occupation indeed was defined or rather was established or confirmed in the early periods of our history when municipal regulations were a sort of charter of civic protection, of civic liberties and of general progress. The noun scavenger is said by lexicographers to be derived from the German Schaben to shave or scrape, applied to those who scrape and clear away the filth from public streets or other places. The more direct derivation, however, is from the Danish verb skäven, the Saxon equivalent of which is skäven, whence the English shave. Formerly the word was written scavager and meant simply one who was engaged in removing the scrapeage or rakeage. The working men it will be seen were termed also rakers from the surface of the streets, hence it would appear that there is no authority for the verb to scavenge, which has lately come into use. The term from which the personal substantive is directly made is scavage, a word formed from the verb in the same manner as sewage and rubbage, now fashionably corrupted into rubbish, and meaning the refuse which is or should be scraped away from the roads. The Latin equivalent from the Danish verb skäve is skaberre. I believe that the first mention of a scavenger in our earlier classical literature is by Bishop Hall, one of the lights of the Reformation, is satires, to see the Pope's black knight, a cloaked frayer, sweating in the channel like a scavenger. Many similar passages from the old poets and dramatists might be adduced, but I will content myself with one from the martial maid, of Beaumont and Fletcher, as bearing immediately on the topic I have to discuss. Do I not know thee for the al-Ghujur, whose dunghill all the parish scavengers could never rid? End quote. Johnson defines a scavenger to be, quote, a petty magistrate whose province is to keep the streets clean, end quote, and in earlier times certainly the scavenger was an officer to whom a certain authority was deputed, as to Beatles and others. One or two of these officials were appointed to the municipal or by-laws of the city of London, not to each parish, but to each ward. Of course in the good old days nothing could be done unless under the sanction of an oath, and the scavengers were sworn accordingly on the Gospel, the following being the form as given in the black letter of the laws relating to the city in the time of Henry VIII. The oath of scavengers, or scavengers, of the ward. Ye shall swear that ye shall well and diligently oversee that the pavements in every ward be well and rightfully repaired and not haunts to the annoyance of the neighbours, and that the ways, streets, and lanes be kept clean from dung and other filth for the honesty of the city, and that all the chimneys, redoses, and furnaces be made of stone for defence of fire, and if ye know any such, ye shall show it to the aldermen that he may make due redress therefor, and this ye shall not lean, so help ye God. Note, Honst is explained by a stripe to signify made too high, and the redoses to be rear-dose. A mason informed me that he believed these redoses were what were known in some old country houses as back-flues, or flues connecting any fire grate out offices with the main chimney. The term lean is the teutonic lane and signifies let lease, or literally loan. End note. To aid the scavengers in their execution of the duties of the office, the following among others were the injunctions of the civic law. They indicate the former state of the streets of London better than any description. A dung, or dung, firmer, should be a nightman, a dung-carrier, or bearer, the servant of the master, or ward scavenger. Quote, No dung firmer shall spill any order in the street under pain of thirteen shillings and fourpence. No dung firmer shall carry any order till after nine o'clock in the night under pain of thirteen shillings and fourpence. No man shall cast any urine bowls or order bowls into the streets by day or night before the hour of nine in the night. And also he shall not cast it out but bring it down and lay it in the canal under pain of three shillings and fourpence. And if he do so cast it upon any person's head, the person to have a lawful recompense if he have hurt thereby. No man shall bury any dung or dung within the liberties of this city under pain of forty shillings. End quote. He shall not dwell on the state of things which caused such enactments to be necessary or on the barbarism of the law which ordered a lawful recompense to any person assailed in the manner intimated only when he had hurt thereby. These laws were for the government of the city where a body of scavengers was sometimes called a street ward. Until about the reign of Charles II however to legislate concerning such matters for the city was to legislate for the metropolis as Sutherk was then more or less under the city jurisdiction and the houses of the nobility on the north bank of the Thames, the Strand would hardly require the services of a public scavenger. As new parishes or districts became populace and established outside the city boundaries the authorities seemed to have regulated the public scavengery after the fashion of the city but the whole in every respect of cleanliness, propriety, regularity or celerity was most grievously defective. Some time about the middle of the last century the scavengers were considered and pronounced by the administrators or explainers of municipal law to be two officers chosen yearly in each parish in London and the suburbs by the Constables, churchwardens and other inhabitants and their business was declared to be should higher persons called rakers with carts to clean the streets and carry away the dirt and filth thereof under a penalty of 40 shillings. The scavengers thus appointed we should now term surveyors. There's little reason to doubt that in the old times the duly appointed scavengers or scavengers laboured in their vocation themselves and employed such a number of additional hands as they accounted necessary but how or when the master scavenger ceased to be a labourer and how or when the office became merely nominal I can find no information. So little attention appears to have been paid to this really important matter that there are hardly any records concerning it. The law was satisfied to lay down provisions for street cleansing but to enforce these provisions was left to chance or to some idle corrupt efficient officer or body. Neither can I find any precise account of what was formerly done with the dirt swept and scraped from the streets which seems always to have been left to the discretion of the scavenger to deal with as he pleased and such is still the case in a great measure. Some of this dirt I find however promoted the goodly nutriment of the land about London and some was delivered in waste places apart from habitations. These waste places seem to have been the nuclei of the present dust yards and were sometimes presented that is they were reported by a jury of nuisances or under other titles as places of obscene resort for lewd and disorderly persons. The lewd and disorderly persons consisting chiefly of the very poor who came to search among the rubbish for anything that might be valuable or saleable. For there were frequent rumours of treasure or plate being temporarily hidden in such places by thieves. Some outcast wretches moreover slept within the shelter of these scavengers places and occasionally a vigilant officer even doubt our own times or within these few years apprehended such wretches charged them with destitution and had them punished accordingly. Much of the street refuse thus delivered especially the dry rubbish was thrown into the streets from houses under repair and so on. I now speak of the past century and no use seems to have been made of any part of it unless anyone requiring a load or two of rubbish chose to cart it away. I have given this sketch to show what master scavengers were in the olden times and I now proceed to point out what is the present condition of the trade. End of section 38 Section 39 of London Labour and the London Poor Volume 2 by Henry Mayhew This Librivoque recording is in the public domain recording by Gillian Henry of the several modes and characteristics of street cleansing we come here to the practical part of this complex subject we have ascertained the length of the streets of London we have estimated the amount and yearly traffic calculated the quantity of mud, dung, mack, dust and surface water formed and collected annually throughout the metropolis we have endeavoured to arrive at some notion as to the injury done by all this vast amount of filth owing to what the Board of Health has termed imperfect scavenging and we now come to treat of the means by which the loads of street refuse dust, loads of mack and mud and the tons of dung are separately and collectively removed throughout the year there are two distinct and in a measure diametrically opposed methods of street cleansing at present in operation one, that which consists in cleaning the streets when dirtied two, that which consists in cleaning them and keeping them clean these modes of scavenging may not appear to those who have paid but little attention to the matter to be very widely different means of effecting the same object the one however removes the refuse from the streets sooner or later after it has been formed whereas the other removes it as fast as it is formed by the latter method the streets are never allowed to get dirty by the former they must be dirty before they are cleansed the plan of street cleansing before dirtied or the pre scavenging system is of recent introduction being the mode adopted by the street orderlies that of cleansing after having dirtied or the post scavenging system is so far as the more general or common method is concerned the same as that pursued two centuries ago I shall speak of each of these modes in due course beginning with that last mentioned by the ordinary method of scavenging the dirt is still swept or scraped to one side of the public way then shuffled into a cart and conveyed to the place of deposit in wet weather the dirt swept or scraped to one side is so liquefied that it is known as slop and is lifted into the cart in shovels hollowed like sugar spoons the only change of which I have heard in this mode of scavenging was in one of the tools until about nine years ago birch or occasionally heather, brooms or bosoms were used by the streetsweepers but they soon became clogged in dirty weather and then as one working scavenger explained it to me they scattered and drove the dirt to the sides instead of making it go right ahead as you want it the material now used for the streetsweepers broom is known as bus and consists of the stems or branches of a New Zealand plant a substance which has considerable strength and elasticity of fibre and both sweeps and scrapes in the process of scavenging the broom itself too is differently constructed having divisions between the several insertions of bass in the wooden block of the head so that clogging is less frequent and cleaning easier whereas the birch broom consisted of a dense mass of twigs and thus scattered while it swept the dirt there was of course some outcry on the part of the established order of things gentry amongst scavengers against the innovation but it is now general as all the scavengers no matter how they vary in other respects work with the brooms described this one mention of the change will suffice no doubt the cleansing of the streets was accomplished with greater efficiency and with greater celerity than it was but the mere process of manual toil is little altered in a work like the present however we have more particularly to deal with the labourers engaged and viewing the subject in this light we may arrange the several modes of street cleansing into the four following divisions one by paid manual labourers or men employed by the contractors and paid in the ordinary ways of wages two by paid machine labourers differing from the first only or mainly in the means by which they attain their end three by popper labourers or men employed by the parishes in which they are set to work and either paid in money or in food or maintained in the workhouses four by street orderlies or men employed by philanthropists body of workmen with particular regulations and more organised than other scavengers by one or other of these modes of scavengery all the public ways of the metropolis are cleansed and the subject is most peculiar as including within itself all the several varieties of labour if we accept that of women and children namely manual labour, mechanical labour popper labour and philanthropic labour by these several varieties of labour the highways and byways of the entire metropolis are cleansed with one exception the muse concerning which a few words here may not be out of place all these localities whether they be water-styled private or gentlemen's muse or public muse where stables, coach houses and dwelling rooms above them may be taken by anyone a good many of such places being for over public or partial thoroughfares or whether they be jobmasters or cab proprietors muse are scavenged by the occupants for the manure is valuable the Muse of London indeed constitute a world of their own they are tenanted by one class coachmen and grooms with their wives and families men who are devoted to one pursuit the care of horses and carriages who live and associate one among another whose talk is of horses with something about masters and mistresses as if to ride or to drive where the great ends of human existence and to thus live as much together as the Jews in their compulsory quarters in Rome the Muse are also the chambers of unemployed coachmen and grooms and I am told that the very sicknesses known in such places have their own peculiarities these however form matter for future inquiry concerning the private scavenging of the Metropolitan Muse the medical times of July 26th 1851 contains a letter from Mr C. Cochran in which that gentleman says quote it will be found that in all the Muse throughout the metropolis the manure produced from each stable is packed up in a separate stack until there is sufficient for a load for some market gardener or farmer to remove the groom or stableman makes an arrangement or agreement as it is called with the market gardener to remove it at his convenience and a gratuity of one shilling or one shilling sixpence per load is usually presented to the stableman in some places there are dung pits containing the collectings of a fortnight's dung which when disturbed for removal casts out an offensive effluvium as sickening as it is disgusting to the whole neighbourhood in consequence of the arrangement in question if a third party wished to buy some of this manure he could not get it and if he wished to get rid of any by giving it away this stableman would not receive it as it would not be removed sufficiently quick by the farmer the result is that whilst the air is rendered offensive and insolubrious manure becomes difficult to be removed or disposed of and frequently is washed away into the sewer of this manure there are always at a moderate computation remaining daily in the news and stable yards of the metropolis at least 2,000 carp loads to remedy these evils I would suggest that a brief act of parliament should be passed giving municipal and parochial authorities the same complete control over the manure as they have over the ashes with the provision that owners should have the right of selling it themselves for their own use but if they did not do so daily then the control to return to the above authorities who should have the right of selling it and placing the proceeds in the parish funds by this simple means immense quantities of valuable manure would be saved for the purposes of agriculture food would be rendered cheaper and more abundant more people would be employed whilst the metropolis would be rendered clean, sweet and healthy end quote I may dismiss this part of the subject with a remark that I was informed that the muse manure was in regular demand and of ready sale being removed by the market gardeners with greater facility than can street dirt which the contractors with the parishes prefer to end by the barrage load having enumerated the four several modes of street cleansing I will now proceed to point out briefly the characteristics of each class of cleansing this will also denote the quality of the employers and the nature of the employment one the paid manual laborers constitute the bulk of those engaged in scavenging and the chief paymasters are the contractors many of these laborers consider themselves the only regular hands having been brought up to the business but unemployed or destitute laborers or mechanics or reduced tradesmen will often endeavour to obtain employment in street sweeping this is the necessary evil of all unskilled labor for since everyone can do it without previous apprenticeship it follows that the beaten out artisans or discarded trade assistants, beggared tradesmen or reduced gentlemen must necessarily resort to it as their only means of independent support and hence the reason why dock labor and indeed all the several forms of unskilled work have a tendency to be over stopped with hands the unskilled occupations being as it were the sink for all the refuse skilled labor and beggared industry of the country the contractors like other employers are separated by their men into two classes such as in more refined callings are often designated the honourable and dishonourable traders according as they pay or do not pay what is reputed fair wages I cannot say that I heard any special appellation given by the working scavengers to the better paying class of employers unless it were the expressive style of good uns the inferior paying class however are very generally known among their work people as scurfs two the street sweeping machine labourers of the men employed as attendant scavengers for so they may be termed in connection with these mechanical and vehicular street sweepers little need here be said for they are generally of the class of ordinary scavengers it may however be necessary to explain that each of those machines must have the street refuse for the lick in of the machine swept into a straight line wherever there is the slightest slope at the sides of a street towards the footpath the same too must sometimes be done if the pavement be at all broken even when the progress of the machine is what I heard not very appropriately termed plain sailing sometimes also men follow the course of the street sweeping machine to sweep up any dirt missed or scattered as the vehicle proceeds on a straight forward course for at all to diverge would be the labour where the machine alone is used almost double three the popper or parish employed scavengers present characteristics peculiarly their own as regards open labour in London they are employed less to cleanse the streets than to prevent their being chargeable to the poor's rate as outdoor recipients or as inmates of the work houses when paid they receive a lower amount of wages than any other scavengers and they are sometimes paid in food as well as in money while a difference may be made between the wages of the married and of the unmarried men and even between the married men who have and have not children some again are employed in scavenging without any money receipt their maintenance in the work house being considered a sufficient return for the fruits of their toil some of these men are feeble some are unskillful even in tasks in which skill is but little of an element and most of them are dissatisfied workmen their ranks comprise or may comprise men who have filled very different situations in life it is mentioned in the second edition of one of the publications of the National Philanthropic Association Sanitary Progress 1850 that the once high salaried cashier of a west end bank died lately in St. Pancras Workhouse that the architect of several of the most fashionable west end clubhouses is now an inmate of St. James's Workhouse and that the architect of St. Pancras New Church lately died in a back garret in Somerstown these recent instances a few out of many says the writer prove that wealth has wings and that genius and industry have but leaden feet when overtaken by adversity a late number of the Globe newspaper states that among the police constables on the Great Western Railway there are at present 8 members of the Royal College of Surgeons and 3 solicitors and the limerick examiner a few weeks ago announced the fact that a gentle woman is now an inmate of the Workhouse of that city whose husband a few years ago filled the office of high sheriff I do not know that either the cashier or the architect in the two Workhouses in question was employed as a street sweeper the second class then are situated differently to the paid street sweepers or number one of the present division who may be considered more or less independent or self supporting labourers while the poppers are of course dependent for the street orderlies these men present another distinct body they're not merely in the employment but many of them are under the care of the National Philanthropic Association which was founded by and is now under the presidency of Mr Cochran the objects of this society as far as regards the street orderlies existence as a class of scavengers are sufficiently indicated in its title which declares it to be for the promotion of street cleanliness and the employment of the poor so that able-bodied men may be prevented from burdening the parish raids and preserved independent of Workhouse Ams and degradation supported by the contributions of the benevolent the street orderlies men and boys are paid a fixed weekly wage a certain sum being stopped from those single men who reside in houses rented for them by the association where their meals washing are provided among them are men of many callings and some educated and accomplished persons the system of street orderlyism is moreover distinguished by one attribute unknown to any other mode it is an effort preserved in despite of many hindrances and difficulties to amend our streets scavengery indeed to reform it altogether so that dust and dirt may be checked in their very origination the corporation if I may so describe it of the street orderlies presents characteristics again varying from the other orders of what can only be looked upon either as the self-supporting or proper workers these then are the several modes or methods of streets scavengery and they show the following classes of street sweeping employers one traders who undertake contracts for the scavengery as a speculation under this denomination may be classed the contractors with parishes, districts, boards liberties, divisions and subdivisions of parishes, markets and so on two parishes who employ the men as a matter of parochial policy with a view to the reduction of the rates and with little regard to the men three philanthropists who seek more particularly to benefit the men whom they employ while they strive to promote the public good by increasing public cleanliness and order under the head of traders are the contractors with the parishes and so on and the proprietors of the sweeping machines who are in the same capacity as their regular contractors respecting their dealings with labourers but who substitute the mechanical for manual operations of these several classes of masters engaged in the scavengery of the metropolis I have much to say and for the clear saying of it I shall treat each of the several varieties of labour separately of the contractors for scavengery the scavenging of the streets of the metropolis is performed directly or indirectly by the authorities of the several parishes without the city who have the power to levy rates for the cleansing of the various districts within the city however the office is executed under the direction of the court of sewers when the cleansing of the streets is performed indirectly by either the parochial or civic authorities it is affected by contractors that is to say by traders who undertake for a certain sum to remove the street refuse at stated intervals and under express conditions and who employ paid servants to execute the work for them when it is performed directly the authorities employ labourers generally from the work house and usually enter into an agreement with some contractor for the use of his carts and appliances together with the right to deposit in his wharf or yard the refuse removed from the streets I shall treat first of the indirect mode of scavenging that is to say of cleansing the streets by contract beginning with the contractors setting forth as near as possible and expenditure in connection with the trade and then proceeding in due order to treat of the labourers employed by them in the performance of the task some of the contractors agree with the parochial or district authorities to remove the dust from the house bins as well as the dirt from the streets under one and the same contract some undertake to execute these two offices under separate contracts and some to perform only one of them most customary however for the same contractor to serve the parish especially the larger parishes in both capacities there is no established or legally required form of agreement between a contractor and his principles it is a bargain in which each side strives to get the best of it but in which the parish representatives have often to contend against something looking like a monopoly a very common occurrence in our day when capitalists choose to combine which is legal or unnoticed but very heinous on the part of the working men whose capital is only in their strength or skill one contractor on being questioned by a gentleman officially connected with a large district as to the existence of combination laughed at such a notion but said there might be a sort of understanding one among another as among people who must look to their own interests and see which way the cat jumped concluding with the undeniable assertion that no man ought reasonably to be expected to ruin himself for a parish there does not appear however to have been any counterveiling qualities on the part of the parishes to this understanding among contractors for some of the authorities have found themselves when a new or a renewed contract was in question suddenly on the other side of the hedge thus in the south west district of St. Pancras the contractor five or six years ago paid £100 per annum for the removal and possession of the street dirt and so on but the following year the district authorities had to pay him £500 for the same labour and with the same privileges other changes took place and in 1848-49 a contractor again paid the district £95 I have shown too that in Shadwell the dust contractor now receives £450 per annum whereas he formerly paid £240 to prove however that a spirit of combination does occasionally exist among these contractors I may cite the following minute from one of the parish books extract from minute book November 7th 1839 letter C folio 437 commissioner's office 30 Howland Street November 7th 1839 report of the paving committee to the general board relating to the watering the district for the past year your committee beg leave to report that for the past three years the sums paid by contract for watering were respectively for 1836 £230 for 1837 £220 for 1838 £200 that in the month of February in the present year the board advertised in the usual manner for tenders to water the district when the following were received namely Mr Dark £315 Mr Gore £318 Mr Nichols £312 your committee anxious to prevent any increase in the watering rate from being levied and considering the amount required by the contractors for this service as excessive and exorbitant and even evincing a spirit of combination resolve to make an inroad upon this system and after much trouble and attention adopted other measures for watering the district the results of which they have great pleasure in presenting to the board the committee regret that notwithstanding the efforts of themselves and their officers the state of insubordination and insult of most of the poppers in spite of all encouragement to industry was such that the committee on the 12th of July last in the same year the committee regret that notwithstanding the efforts of themselves and their officers the state of insubordination the committee on the 12th of July last were reluctantly compelled to discontinue their services the committee cannot but congratulate the board upon the result of their experiment which will have the effect of breaking up a spirit of combination highly dangerous to the community at large at the same time that their labours have caused a very considerable saving to the ratepayers and they trust the work considering all the numerous disadvantages under which they have laboured and performed in a satisfactory manner P. Cunningham Surveyor 30 Howland Street, Fitzroy Square The following regulations sufficiently show the nature of the agreements made between the contractors and the authorities as to the cleansing of the more important thoroughfares especially. It will be seen that in the regulations I quote every street, court or alley must now be swept daily a practice which has only been adopted within these few years in the city. Surra's office, Guildhall London Raker's duties mid-summer 1851 to mid-summer 1852 Note, the reader will remember that in the historical sketch given of the progress of public scavengery the word rakers occurred in connection with the sworn masters scavengers and so on and so on the word is now unknown to the trade except that it appears on city documents end note. Cleansing The whole surface of every carriageway court and alley shall be swept every day Sundays accepted and all mud, dust, filth and rubbish all frozen or partially frozen matter and snow animal and vegetable matter and everything offensive or injurious shall be properly pecked scraped, swept up and carted away therefrom the iron gutters laid across or along the footways the air grates over the sewers the gully grates in the carriageway of the streets respectively and all public urinals are to be daily raked out swept and made clean and clear from all obstructions and the contractor or contractors shall in time of frost continually keep the channels in the streets and places clear for water to run off and cleanse and cart away refuse refuse hogan or gravel going called upon by the inspector to do so from all streets newly paved the mud and dirt and so on is to be carted away immediately that it is swept up NB the inspector of the district may at any time he may think it necessary order any street or place to be cleansed and swept a second time in any one day and the contractor or contractors are there upon bound to do the same the markets and their approaches are also to be thus cleansed daily and the approaches there too respectively are also to be thus cleansed at such an hour in the night of Saturday in each week as the inspector of the district may direct every street, lane, square, yard, court, alley, passage and place except certain main streets here and after enumerated are to be thus cleansed within the following hours daily namely in the months of April, May, June, July, August and September to be begun not earlier than four o'clock in the morning and finished not later than one o'clock in the afternoon in the months of October, November, December, January, February and March to be begun not earlier than five o'clock in the morning and finished not later than two o'clock in the afternoon the following main streets are to be cleansed daily throughout the year except Sundays to be begun not earlier than four o'clock in the morning and finished not later than nine o'clock in the morning Fleet Street, Ludgate Hill and Street St Paul's Churchyard, Cheepside Newgate Street, Poultry Whatling Street, Butch Row and Cannon Street Mansion House Street, Corn Hill Ledden Hall Street, Aldgate Street and Aldgate King William Street and London Bridge Fenchurch Street, Hoburn Hoburn Bridge, Skinner Street Old Bailey, Lombard Street Newbridge Street, Pringdon Street Aldersgate Street St Martin Le Grand Princes Street, Murgate Street The Street called the Pavement Pinsbury Place South Grace Church Street Bishop's Gate Street within and without The Minerys, Wood Street Gresham Street, Coleman Street NB In times of frost and snow these hours of executing the work extended at the discretion of the local commissioners. The other conditions relate to the removal of the dust from the houses a subject I have already treated and specify the fines varying from £1 to £5 to be paid by the contractors for the violation or neglect of any of the provisions of the contract. It is further required that each foreman, sweeper and dustman in the employ of either of the contractors of whom there are four missers Sinut, Rook, Redden and Gold will be required to wear a badge on the arm with these words thereon London Sewers Number Blank, Guildhall By which means anyone having cause of complaint against any of the men in the performance of their several duties may by taking down the number of the man and applying at the Sewers Office Guildhall have reference to his name and employer any man working without his badge for each day he offends the contractor is liable to the penalty of five shillings all the sweepings of the streets and all the dust and ashes from the houses are to be entirely carted away from the city of London on a penalty of £10 for each cart load. These terms sufficiently show the general nature of the contracts in question the principal difference being that in some parts the contractor is not required to sweep the streets more than once twice or thrice a week in ordinary weather the number of individuals in London styling themselves master scavengers is 34 of these 10 aren't present without a contract either for dust or scavenging and five have a contract for removing the dust only so that deducting these two numbers the gross number 34 is reduced to 19 scavenging contractors of the latter number 16 are in a large way of business having large yards possessing several carts and some wagons and employing a vast number of men daily in sweeping the streets carting rubbish and so on the other three masters however are only in a small way of business being persons of more limited means a large master scavenger employs from 3 to 18 carts and from 18 to upwards of 40 men at scavengery alone while a small master employs only from 1 to 3 carts and from 3 to 6 men by the table I have given page 186 volume 2 it is shown that there are 52 contracts between the several district authorities and master scavengers and 19 contractors without counting members of the same family as distinct individuals this gives an average of nearly 3 distinct contracts per individual the contracts are usually for a 12 month although the table above referred to shows but 19 contractors for public scavenging there are as I have said more or about 24 in London most of them in a large way and next year some of those who have no contracts at present may enter into agreements with the parishes the smallness of this number when we consider the vast extent of the metropolis confirms the notion of the sort of monopoly and combination to which I have alluded in the post office directory for 1851 there are no names under the heads of scavengers or dustmen but under the head of rubbish carters 28 are given 9 names being marked as dust contractors and 10 as nightmen the smaller contractors however there are as I have said about 24 but they may not all obtain contracts every year and in this number are included different members of the same family or firm who may undertake specific contracts although in the trade it is looked upon as one concern the smaller contractors were represented to me as rather more numerous than the others and perhaps numbered 40 but it is not easy to define what is to be accounted a contractor in the table given in pages 213 and 214 I cite only 7 as being the better known the others may be considered as small rubbish carters and flying dustmen there are yet other transactions in which the contractors are engaged with the parishes independently of their undertaking the whole labour of street and house cleansing in the parishes where popper or poor labour is resorted to for it is not always that the men employed by the parishes are positive poppers but rather the unemployed poor of the parish in such parishes I say an agreement is entered into with a contractor for the deposit of the collected street dirt at his yard or wharf for such deposit the contractor must of course be paid as it is really an occupation and renting of a portion of his premises for specific purpose the street dirt however is usually left to the disposal of the contractor for his own profit and where he once paid £50 for the possession of the street collected dirt of a parish collected by labour which was no cost to him he may now receive half of such £50 or whatever the terms of the agreement may be I heard of one contractor who lately received £25 where he once paid £50 in another way too contractors are employed by parishes where popper or poor labour in street cleansing is the practice a contractor's horses carts and cart drivers are hired for the conveyance of the dirt from the streets this of course is for a specific payment and is in reality the work of the tradesman who in the post office directory are described as rubbish carters and of whom I shall have to speak afterwards some parishes or paving boards have however their own horses and vehicles but in the other respect they have dealings with the contractors to come to as correct a conclusion as possible in this complicated and involved matter I have obtained the aid of some gentlemen long familiar with such procedures one of them said that to procure the accounts of such transactions for a series of years with all their chops and changes to obtain a perfectly precise return for any three years affecting the whole metropolis would be the work of a parliamentary commission with full powers to send for papers and so on and so on and that even then the result might not be satisfactory as a clear exposition however with the aid of the gentlemen alluded to I venture upon the following approximation as my present inquiry relates only to the scavenging contractors of the metropolis I will take the number of districts markets and so on which are specified in the table page 186 volume 2 these are 83 in number of which 29 are shown to be scavenged by the parish I will not involve in this computation any of the more rural places which may happen to be in the outskirts of the metropolitan area but I will take the contracts through the entire work and as 29 where they are but the rubbish carters and dirt receivers of the parishes I am assured that it is a fair calculation that the scavengery of the streets apart from the removal of the dust from the houses costs and payments to the contractors £150 as an average to each of the several 54 districts and that in the 29 localities in which the streets are cleansed labour the sum paid is at the rate of £50 per locality some of them as the 5 districts of Marlborough for instance being very large this is calculated regardless of the cases where parishes may have their own horses and vehicles for the cost to the rate payers may not be very materially different between paying for the hire of carts and horses and investing capital in their purchase and incurring the expense of wear and tear the account then stands thus Parish payment on 54 contracts £150 each £8,100 Parish payment on 29 contracts £50 each £1,450 yearly total sum paid for scavenging of the metropolis £9,550 or a portioned among 19 contractors of £500 each and among 83 contracts about £1,15 per contract even if other contractors are employed where Parish labour is pursued the cost to the rate payers is the same this calculation is made as far as possible as regards scavengery alone and is independent of the value of the refuse collected it is about the scavengery that the grand fight takes place between the parishes and contractors the house dust being uninjured by rain or street surface water is more available for trade purposes from this it would appear that the cost of cleansing the streets of London may be estimated in round numbers at £10,000 per annum the next point in the enquiry is what is the value of the street dirt annually collected the price I have adjust for the dirt from the streets is 3 shillings per load which is a very reasonable average if the load be dung or even chiefly dung it is worth 5 shillings or 6 shillings with the proportion of dung and street refuse to be found in such a thoroughfare as the hay market in dry or comparatively dry weather a load weighing about a ton is worth about 3 shillings in the purchaser's own cart on the other hand as I have shown that quantities of mixed or slop mack have to be wasted that sum is sold at a nominal price and a good deal at 1 shilling the load 3 shillings is certainly a fair average thus the annual sum of the street dirt as regards the quantity collected by the contracting scavengers as shown in the table given at page 186 is in round numbers 89,000 cart loads that collected by parish labour with or without the aid of the street sweeping machines at 52,000 cart loads or a total I do not include what is collected by the orderlies of 141,000 loads this result shows then that the contractors yearly collect by scavenging the streets with their own paid labourers and receive as the produce of proper labour as follows by contractors 1,000 loads of street dirt 3 shillings per load total 13,350 pounds by parishes 52,000 loads of street dirt 3 shillings per load total 7,800 pounds total 141,000 loads of street dirt total amount 21,150 pounds or a value of rather more than 1,113 pounds as the return to each individual contractor in the table or about 255 pounds as the average on each contract as however the whole of the parish collected manure does not come into the hands of the contractors it will be fair I am assured to compute the total at 19,000 pounds a sum of 1,000 pounds to each contractor or nearly 229 pounds on each contract it would appear then that the total receipts of the contractors for the scavenging of London amount to very nearly 30,000 pounds that is to say 10,000 pounds as remuneration for the office and 20,000 pounds as the value of the dirt collected but against this sum as received we have to set the gross expense of wages paid to men wear and tear of carts and appliances rent of wharfs interest for money and so on concerning the amount paid in wages it appears by the table at pages 186 and 187 that the men employed by the scavenging contractors in wet weather are 260 daily being nearly half of the whole force of 531 men the orderlies accepted in dry weather however there are only 194 men employed I will therefore calculate upon 194 men employed daily and 66 employed half the year making the total of 260 by the table here given it will be seen that the total number of scavengers employed by the large and small contractors is 275 194 men for 12 months at 16 shillings weekly wage nearly 870 pounds 8 shillings 66 men for 6 months at a weekly wage of 16 shillings yearly 1372 pounds 16 shillings total 9443 pounds 4 shillings note I have computed all the weekly wages at 16 shillings though some of the men are paid only 14 shillings my object in this will give the contractors the benefit of the difference end note there remains now to show the amount of capital which a large contractor must embark in his business I include the amount of rent and the expenditure on what must be provided for business purposes and which is subject to wear and tear to decay and loss there are not now I am told more than 12 scavengers wharfs and 20 yards including also a yard in the possession of the contractors in regular work these are the larger contractors and their capital I am assured may be thus estimated capital of the master scavengers 179 carts 21 pounds each 3759 pounds 3 wagons 32 pounds each 96 pounds 230 horses 25 pounds each 5750 pounds 230 sets of harness 2 pounds each 460 pounds 600 brooms 9 pounds each 22 pounds 10 shillings 300 shovels 1 shilling each 15 pounds 100 barges 50 pounds each 5000 pounds total 15,102 pounds and 10 shillings I have estimated according to what may be the present value not the original cost of the implements vehicles and so on a broom when new costs 1 shilling tuppence and is worn out in 2 or 3 weeks a shovel when new costs 2 shillings the following appears to be the yearly expenditure of the master scavengers wages to working scavengers as before shown 9,443 pounds wages to 48 bargemen engaged in unloading the vessels with street dirt 4 men to each of 12 wharfs at 16 shillings weekly wage 1,996 pounds keep of 300 horses 26 pounds each 7,800 pounds wear and tear say 15% on capital 2,250 pounds rent of 20 wharfs and yards average 100 pounds each 2,000 pounds interest on 15,000 pounds capital at 10% 1,500 pounds total 24,989 pounds I have endeavored in this estimate to confine myself as much as possible to the separate subject of scavengery but it must be borne in mind that as the large contractors as well as scavengers the great charges for rent and barges cannot be considered as incurred solely on account of the street dirt trade including then the payments from parishes the account will stand thus yearly receipts of master scavengers from parishes 9,450 pounds from manure and so on 19,000 pounds total income 1,450 pounds deduct yearly expenditure 25,000 pounds profit 3,450 pounds this gives a profit of nearly 182 pounds to each contractor if equally apportioned or a little more than 41 pounds on each contract for street scavenging alone and a profit no doubt affected by circumstances which cannot very well be reduced to figures the profit may appear small but it should be remembered that it is independent of the profits on the dust end of section 39 section 40 of London Labour and the London Poor volume 2 by Henry Mayhew this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Gillian Henry a table showing the number of men and carts employed in collecting dust in scavengery and at rubbish carting as well as the number of men women and boys working in the dust yards of the several metropolitan contractors note this table appears on pages 213 and 214 of volume 2 and is referred to in other parts of this work end note the large contractors Mr Dodd for dust number of men employed 20 number of carts used 10 for scavengery number of men employed 26 number of carts wagons or machines used 13 for rubbish carting number of men employed 20 number of carts used 20 working in the yard number of men employed 9 number of women employed 12 number of boys working 4 Mr Gould dust number of men 20 number of carts 10 scavengery number of men 28 number of carts wagons or machines 11 rubbish carting number of men 11 number of carts 11 working in the yard number of men 5 number of women 15 number of boys 4 Mr Redding dust number of men 32 number of carts 16 scavengery number of men 41 number of carts wagons or machines 18 rubbish carting number of men 22 number of carts 22 working in the yard number of men 5 number of women 12 number of boys 4 Mr Gore number of men 32 number of carts 16 scavengery number of men 18 number of carts wagons or machines 7 rubbish carting none working in the yard number of men 4 number of women 20 number of boys 6 Mr Rook dust number of men 16 number of carts 8 scavengery number of men 16 number of carts wagons or machines 6 rubbish carting number of men 16 number of carts 16 working in the yard number of men 2 number of women 6 number of boys 3 Mr Stapleton and Holesworth dust number of men 10 number of carts 5 scavengery number of men 11 number of carts wagons or machines 8 rubbish carting number of men 10 number of carts 10 working in the yard number of men 4 number of women 8 number of boys 2 Mr Tame dust number of men 20 number of carts 10 scavengery number of men 5 number of carts wagons or machines 1 rubbish carting number of men 12 working in the yard number of men 4 number of women 8 number of boys 2 Mr Sturkey dust number of men 10 number of carts 5 scavengery number of men 22 number of cart wagons or machines 8 rubbish carting none working in the yard number of men 4 number of women 12 number of boys 3 number of men 8 number of carts 4 scavengery number of men 23 number of carts wagons or machines 10 rubbish carting number of men 8 number of carts 8 working in the yard number of men 4 number of women 8 number of boys 2 Mr Pratt and Mr Sewell dust number of men 10 number of carts 5 number of cart wagons or machines 2 rubbish carting number of men 20 number of carts 20 working in the yard number of men 2 number of women 6 number of boys 2 Mr W Sinut Sr dust number of men 28 number of carts 14 scavengery number of men 5 number of carts wagons or machines 2 rubbish carting none working in the yard number of men 5 number of women 15 number of boys 5 Mr Jay Sinut dust number of men 8 number of carts 4 scavengery number of men 16 number of carts wagons or machines 6 rubbish carting none working in the yard none Mr Westley dust number of men 10 number of carts 5 scavengery number of men 18 number of carts wagons or machines 9 rubbish carting none working in the yard number of men 3 number of women 9 number of boys 2 Mr Parsons dust number of men 10 number of carts 5 scavengery number of men 18 number of carts wagons or machines 3 working in the yard number of men 2 number of women 6 number of boys 1 Mr Hearn dust number of men 18 number of carts 9 scavengery number of men 7 number of carts wagons or machines 2 rubbish carting number of men 20 number of carts 20 working in the yard number of men 3 number of boys 3 Mr Humphries dust number of men 20 number of carts 10 scavengery number of men 4 number of carts wagons or machines 1 rubbish carting number of men 6 number of carts 6 working in the yard number of men 3 number of women 9 number of boys 3 Mr Calvert number of women 6 number of carts 3 scavengery none rubbish carting number of men 7 number of carts 7 working in the yard number of men 2 number of women 6 number of boys 2 total for dust number of men 278 number of carts 139 total for scavengery number of men 262 number of carts wagons or machines 107 total for rubbish carting number of men 152 number of carts 152 total working in the yard number of men 61 number of women 161 number of boys 48 small contractors Mr North dust number of men 4 number of carts 2 scavengery number of men 2 number of carts wagons or machines used 1 rubbish carting number of men 4 number of carts 4 working in the yard number of men 1 number of women 2 number of boys 1 Mr Milton dust number of men 6 number of carts 3 number of women 6 number of boys 2 Mr Jenkins dust number of men 2 number of carts 1 scavengery number of men 5 number of carts wagons or machines 1 rubbish carting none working in the yard number of men 1 number of women 2 number of boys 1 Mr Stroud number of men 10 number of carts 5 scavengery none rubbish carting none working in the yard number of men 4 number of women 9 number of boys 3 Mr Martin dust number of men 2 number of carts 1 scavengery number of men 6 number of carts wagons or machines 3 number of women 2 number of boys 1 Mr Clutterbuck dust number of men 4 number of carts 2 scavengery none rubbish carting number of men 5 number of carts 5 working in the yard number of men 1 number of women 3 number of boys 1 Mr W Sinit Jr scavengery none rubbish carting number of men 6 number of carts 6 working in the yard number of men 1 number of women 2 number of boys 1 totals for dust number of men 32 number of carts 16 for scavengery number of men 13 number of carts wagons or men 15 number of carts 15 total working in the yard number of men 12 number of women 26 number of boys 10 contractors but not having any contract at present only carting rubbish and so on rubbish carting Mr Dirk number of men 36 number of carts 36 Mr Tomkins number of men 6 Mr Jay Cooper number of men 8 number of carts 8 Mr T Cooper Sr number of men 12 number of carts 12 Mr Atthill number of men 6 number of carts 6 Mr Barnett lately sold off no details Mr Brown number of men 4 number of carts 4 number of carts 6 Mr Limpas number of men 10 number of carts 10 Mr Emerson number of men 6 number of carts 6 total number of men 94 number of carts 94 machines for scavengers woods and forest 4 men 2 machines Regent Street and Palm All 12 men 2 machines St Martins 9 men 4 machines totals for scavengers 25 men 8 machines Parishes Kensington scavengers 5 men 2 carts Chelsea scavengers 5 men 2 carts St George's Hanover Square scavengers 5 men St Margaret's Westminster scavengers 7 men 3 carts Piccadilly scavengers 28 men 2 carts St Ann Soho scavengers 4 men 2 carts Paddington scavengers 6 men 2 carts St Marlebone 5 districts scavengers 35 men 4 carts St James's Westminster scavengers 2 men 1 cart for Hampstead which has no parochial removal of dust scavengers 4 men 1 cart Highgate which has no parochial removal of dust 4 men 1 cart Islington scavengers 8 men 1 cart Hackney for dust 8 men 4 carts scavengers 7 men 1 cart Employed in the yard 2 men 6 women 2 children St Clement Danes scavengers 7 men 3 wagons Commercial Road East scavengers 6 men 3 carts Poplar for dust 4 men 2 carts scavengers 4 men 1 cart Employed in the yard 4 women 1 child Bermondsy Dust 6 men 3 carts scavengers 6 men 3 carts Employed in the yard 3 men 6 women 2 children Newington Dust 8 men 4 carts scavengers 6 men 2 carts Employed in the yard 2 men 6 women 2 children Lambeth Scavengers 16 men 3 carts Lambeth Christchurch Dust 4 men 2 carts Scavengers 20 men 3 carts Employed in the yard 1 man 4 women 1 child Wandsworth Dust 4 men 2 carts Scavengers 4 men 1 cart Employed in the yard 1 man 5 women 1 child Camberwell and Wallworth Dust 8 men 4 carts Scavengers 6 men 2 carts Employed in the yard 2 men 5 women 3 children Rutherith Dust 6 men 3 carts Scavengers 5 men 2 carts Employed in the yard 1 man 5 women 2 children Greenwich Dust 4 men 2 carts Scavengers 5 men 2 carts Employed in the yard 1 man 3 women 1 child Dettford Dust 4 men 2 carts Scavengers 4 men 2 carts Employed in the yard 1 man 3 women 1 child Willich Scavengers 5 men 2 carts Lewisham 4 men 1 cart Total for parishes For dust Total number of men 56 Total number of carts 28 For scavengers 218 men 50 carts and 3 wagons Total employed in the yard 16 men 46 women 16 children Total for large contractors For dust 278 men 139 carts For scavengers 262 men 107 carts wagons Or machines For rubbish 152 men 152 carts Total employed in the yard 61 men 161 women 48 children Total for small contractors For dust 32 men 16 carts Scavengers 13 men 5 carts wagons Or machines For rubbish 15 men 15 carts Total employed in the yard 12 men 26 women 10 children Total for machines Scavengers 25 men 8 machines Total for street orderlies Scavengers 60 men 9 carts wagons or machines Gross total For dust 366 men 183 carts Scavengers 578 men 179 carts 3 wagons For rubbish 167 men 167 carts Employed in the yard 89 men 233 women 74 children Total employed at dust 366 men 183 carts Total employed at scavenging 578 men 179 carts Total employed At rubbish carting 167 men 167 carts Total men, women and children in yard 396 Total employed in the removal of house and street refuse 1507 people 1529 carts Note, the following parishes have their dustmen and dust carts as well as the rubbish carting and the individuals in the dust yard reckoned in the numbers employed by the contractors Kensington, Chelsea St George's Hanover Square St Margaret's Westminster Piccadilly, St Anne's Soho Paddington, St Marlebone Islington, St Clement Danes Commercial Road East and Lambeth End of Table End of Section 40