“Lawyer Joe was up to his trade—he folded the paper in official style—creased it as if it was long written and often examined, attached the signatures of the minister and churchwardens, and dipping his fingers under the fireplace, smeared it with ashes, and made the whole the best representation of a true account of ‘a horse in the mad staggers’ and ‘a child in the measles’ that could be desired by the oldest and best cadger on the monkry.
“These professional writers are in possession of many autographs of charitable persons, and as they keep a dozen or more bottles of different shades of ink, and seldom write two documents on exactly the same sort of paper, it is difficult to detect the imposition. A famous lurker who has been previously alluded to in this work, was once taken before a magistrate at York whose own signature was attached to his fakement. The imitation was excellent, and the ‘lurker’ swore hard and fast to the worthy justice that he (the justice) did write it in his own saddle-room, as he was preparing to ride, and gave him five shillings, too. The effrontery and firmness of the prisoner’s statement gained him his discharge!
“It is not uncommon in extensive districts—say, for instance, a section of a county taking in ten or a dozen townships—for a school of lurkers to keep a secretary and remit his work and his pay at the same time. In London this functionary is generally paid by commission, and sometimes partly in food, beer, and tobacco. The following is a fair estimate of the scale of charges:
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Friendly letter | 0 | 6 |
| Long ditto | 0 | 9 |
| Petition | 1 | 0 |
| Ditto, with ream monekurs (genuine signatures) | 1 | 6 |
| Ditto, with gammy monekurs (forged names) | 2 | 6 |
| Very “heavy” (dangerous) | 3 | 0 |
| Manuscript for a broken down author | 10 | 0 |
| Part of a play for ditto | 7 | 6 |
“To this I may add the prices of other articles in the begging line.
| Loan of one child, without grub | 0 | 9 |
| Two ditto | 1 | 0 |
| Ditto, with grub and Godfrey’s Cordial | 0 | 9 |
| If out after twelve at night, for each child, extra | 0 | 2 |
| For a school of children, say half-a-dozen | 2 | 6 |
| Loan of any garment, per day | 0 | 2 |
| Going as a pal to vindicate any statement | 1 | 0 |
“Such is an outline, open to circumstantial variation, of the pay received for the sort of accommodation required.
“There is a very important species of ‘lurking’ or ‘screeving,’ which has not yet been alluded to.
“It is well-known that in the colliery districts an explosion of fire-damp frequently takes place, when many lives are lost, and the men who escape are often so wounded as to render amputation of a leg or arm the only probable means of saving them from the grave. Of course the accident, with every particular as to date and locality, goes the round of the newspapers. Such an event is a sort of God-send to the begging-letter writer. If he is anything of a draughtsman, so much the better. He then procures a sheet of vellum, and heads it with a picture of an explosion, and exhibiting men, boys, and horses up in the air, and a few nearer the ground, minus a head, a leg, or an arm; with a background of women tearing their hair, and a few little girls crying. Such a ‘fakement,’ professionally filled up and put into the hands of an experienced lurker, will bring the ‘amanuensis,’ or ‘screever,’ two guineas at least, and the proceeds of such an expedition have in many cases averaged 60l. per week. The lurker presenting this would have to take with him three or four countrymen, dressed in the garb of colliers, one at least knowing something of underground work. These he would engage at ‘a bob a nob’ (one shilling each), and if he made a good day, give them a ‘toothful o’ rum’ beside. As such men are always left outside the jigger (door) of the houses, they are of course ignorant of the state of the subscription-list.
“A famous lurker, to whom we have previously referred, Nicholas A——, kept ‘a man of business’ to himself, and gave him from 5s. to 10s. 6d. per day. Nicholas, who was tolerably educated, could write very well, but as his ‘secretary’ could imitate twelve different hands, he was of course no trifling acquisition.