We should, therefore, remember while venting our indignation against pattering street-sellers, that they are not the only puffers in the world, and that they, at least, can plead poverty in extenuation of their offence; whereas, it must be confessed, that shopkeepers can have no other cause for their acts but their own brutalizing greed of gain.
The class of patterers with whom we have here to deal are those who patter to help off their goods—but while describing them it has been deemed advisable to say a few words, also, on the class who do nothing but patter, as a means of exciting commiseration to their assumed calamities. These parties, it should be distinctly understood, are in no way connected with the puffing street-sellers, but in the exaggerated character of the orations they deliver, they are mostly professional beggars—or bouncers (that is to say cheats of the lowest kind), and will not work or do anything for their living. This, at least, cannot be urged against the pattering street-sellers who, as was before stated, do something for the bread they eat.
Further to show the extent, and system, of the lodging and routes throughout the country of the class of “lurkers,” &c., here described—as all resorting to those places—I got a patterer to write me out a list, from his own knowledge, of divers routes, and the extent of accommodation in the lodging-houses. I give it according to the patterer’s own classification.
“Brighton is a town where there is a great many furnished cribs, let to needys (nightly lodgers) that are molled up,” [that is to say, associated with women in the sleeping-rooms.]
SURREY AND SUSSEX.
| Dossing Cribs, or Lodging-houses | Beds. | Needys, or Nightly Lodgers. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wandsworth | 6 | 9 | 108 |
| Croydon | 9 | 8 | 144 |
| Reigate | 5 | 6 | 60 |
| Cuckfield | 2 | 8 | 32 |
| Horsham | 3 | 7 | 52 |
| Lewis | 7 | 6 | 84 |
| Kingston | 12 | 8 | 192 |
| Brighton | 16 | 9 | 228 |
“Bristol.—A few years back an old woman kept a padding-ken here. She was a strong Methodist, but had a queer method. There was thirty standing beds, besides make-shifts and furnished rooms, which were called ‘cottages.’ It’s not so bad now. The place was well-known to the monkry, and you was reckoned flat if you hadn’t been there. The old woman, when any female, old or young, who had no tin, came into the kitchen, made up a match for her with some men. Fellows half-drunk had the old women. There was always a broomstick at hand, and they was both made to jump over it, and that was called a broomstick wedding. Without that ceremony a couple weren’t looked on as man and wife. In course the man paid, in such case, for the dos (bed.)
| Kensington | 6 | 7 | 84 |
| Brentford | 12 | 8 | 192 |
| Hounslow | 6 | 5 | 60 |
| Colebrook | 2 | 7 | 20 |
| Windsor | 7 | 10 | 140 |
| Maidenhead | 4 | 5 | 40 |
| Reading | 12 | 9 | 216 |
| Oxford | 14 | 7 | 196 |
| Banbury | 10 | 12 | 240 |
| Marlboro’ | 8 | 7 | 112 |
| Bath | 10 | 8 | 160 |
| Bristol | 20 | 11 | 440 |
“Counties of Kent and Essex.—Here is the best places in England for ‘skipper-birds;’ (parties that never go to lodging-houses, but to barns or outhouses, sometimes without a blanket.) The Kent farmers permit it to their own travellers, or the travellers they know. In Essex it’s different. There a farmer will give 1s. rather than let a traveller sleep on his premises, for fear of robbery. ‘Keyhole whistlers,’ the skipper-birds are sometimes called, but they’re regular travellers. Kent’s the first county in England for them. They start early to good houses for victuals, when gentlefolk are not up. I’ve seen them doze and sleep against the door. They like to be there before any one cuts their cart (exposes their tricks). Travellers are all early risers. It’s good morning in the country when it’s good night in town.