Nowadays, these polished brass arrows are seldom or never seen on the stalls of sweet-stuff, for the law has looked into the matter.
At another part of the fair one might hear inspiriting music being ground out of a wheezy old organ by a one-legged performer, while hard by was a stall where small bundles of out-of-date magazines were offered at a penny or twopence the parcel. Somewhat in the rear of this stall stood a cheapjack who now and again essayed to revive the public curiosity by playing a concertina, banging a tea-tray or smashing a few plates. Further on was a man standing upon an upturned box, who was trying to persuade his small circle of hearers to believe that the only straightforward way of getting to heaven was by following the directions given in a little book,—a few copies of which he had considerately brought with him—for sale. Passing between the lines of sweetmeat, gingerbread and toy stalls, presided over principally by swarthy, black-haired women, a number of trifles, such as one would look for in vain to-day, might be seen; but the item which might now be considered as most distinctly marking a different age, was the small bundles of toy whips selling at one penny each, every whip containing enough real gutta-percha to make a golf ball and having a wooden whistle at the handle end.
Next came two women attired as Sisters of Mercy at a tiny stall, selling embroidered work for the benefit of some convent; prominent among their goods were men’s braces of such gorgeous colouring as would make a naked savage yearn for trousers in order that braces of such splendour might be adequately displayed.
Hard by was a thimble-rigger and exponent of the purse trick, but he too has been prohibited by law to pursue his unselfish profession, and probably the gentleman who stood at a stall close to him has ere this been obliged by statute to divert to some other channel his labours for the public good.
Along the shelf just above the man’s head were arranged glass jars of specimens in spirit. These were labelled in Latin, in order to impress the more the rustics, who were his best customers. The specimens, purporting to be of human origin, were in reality portions of domestic animals, carefully selected with a view to the particular organism simulated, all of which were described as having been extracted from human patients by means of the wonderful medicines offered by the proprietor, whose magnanimity—judging from his own statements—was phenomenal. One of the specimens of which I have a very distinct recollection, was stated to be an extraordinary tapeworm from a client, while it was actually the bleached intestine of a common fowl. Nevertheless this man did a roaring trade, a tribute to his “gift of the gab.”
Now and again would be heard the raucous voice of a disreputable-looking man who perambulated the fair, announcing that the “last dying speech and confession” of a malefactor, executed on the previous day at the county gaol, could be bought for one penny. Luckily, opportunities of this nature no longer occur. Gone, too, is the obliging individual who was so anxious to allow everyone to “prick the garter”; a short description of the procedure may therefore prove interesting:—
Firstly, the exponent produced a very long, narrow leather strap; this he doubled so as to form a loop end; he then set it upon edge on the ground and rolled up the remainder of the strap around it, making several other loops as he proceeded; then he invited bystanders to prick with a long metal pin which he provided the loop considered to be the doubling of the strap. A necessary condition was that the garter pricker put down any sum he pleased, and in event of the pin remaining caught in the loop when the strap was unwound by the demonstrator, he doubled the amount laid down, the total sum becoming the property of the garter pricker; on the other hand, if the strap came away entirely from the pin, then the amount staked passed over to the strap manipulator, who could work the trick so as to win or lose at will.
The period of which I write was that of the old “roundabouts.” Prior to the development of galloping powers by the wooden horses and the use of electric light, the naphtha lamps which illuminated the fair at night frequently blew out and they then added powerfully to the characteristic smell of the fair.
Such then is the kind of school in which many of the wanderers, whose parents obtain a livelihood at fairs, learn their early lessons; but to the credit of the Romanies it must be said that, as a rule, they have not taken part in such distinctly swindling concerns as thimble-rigging, purse trick and the like, these ventures being mostly conducted by the cockney element which finds its way to all large fairs; in fact, the only Romany concern which partook of this nature I can recollect, was the brass arrow on the stall of the woman who dispensed the celebrated “fair rock.”
Notwithstanding the innumerable inducements to adopt the ways of the gorgio house-dweller, tradesman, mechanic, sharper or swindler, the traditional life of the Romany has been proof against them; pricking the garter and thimble-rigging are of the past, the purse trickster and others of that ilk have had their day; but the same Romany types will be still found attending the same fairs, gaining a livelihood in practically the same manner as fifty years ago. They boast that their people will never die out,—an assertion that can, of course, be proved by time alone,—but it is certain that various writers, during the last hundred years, have spoken of them as a fast disappearing race, and have stated that they would become merged in, or absorbed by, the main population; it is to be feared, however, that those who could write in this strain, had not closely studied the people, for, as a matter of fact, there is scarcely greater reason to expect the Romanies to become extinct as a people, than that the Jews should lose their racial characteristics, while unbiassed investigation of the matter would seem to urge the opinion that the type will persist.