Of the Street-Sellers of French Polish.
The greater part of the French polish vended in the streets is bought at oil and varnish-shops in Bethnal-green and Whitechapel, the wholesale price being 1s. a pint. The street-vendors add turpentine to the polish, put it into small bottles, and retail it at 1d. a bottle. They thus contrive to clear 5d. on each shilling they take.
There are now five and sometimes six men selling French polish in the streets and public-houses. “But the trade’s getting stale,” I was told; “there was twice as many in it three or four years back, and there’ll be fewer still next year.” When French polish first became famous there were, I was informed, several cabinet-makers who hawked it—some having prepared it themselves—and they would occasionally clear 5s. in a day. Of these street-traders there are now none, the present vendors having been in no way connected with the manufacture of furniture. These men generally carry with them pieces of “fancy wood,” such as rose, or sandal wood, which they polish up in the streets to show the excellence of the varnish. The chief purchasers are working people and small tradespeople, or their wives, who require trifling quantities of such a composition when they re-polish any small article of furniture.
The French polish-sellers, I am assured by a man familiar with the business, take 2s. a day each, or rather in an evening, for the sales are then the most frequent: the 2s. leaves a profit of 10d. The street expenditure is, therefore (reckoning five regular sellers), 156l. yearly. None of the French polish-sellers confine themselves entirely to the sale of it.