Other carmen’s whips are 1s. 6d., and as high as 2s. 6d., but the great sale is of those at 1s. The principal localities for the trade are at the meat-markets, the “green markets,” Smithfield, the streets leading to Billingsgate when crowded in the morning, the neighbourhood of the docks and wharfs, and the thoroughfares generally.
The trade in the other kind of whips is again in the hands of another class, in that of cabmen who have lost their licence, who have been maimed, and the numerous “hands” who job about stables—especially cab-horse stables—when without other employment. The price of the inferior sort of “gig-whips” is 1s. to 1s. 6d., the wholesale price being from 9s. 6d. to 14s. 6d. the dozen. Some are lower than 9s. 6d., but the cabmen, I am told, “will hardly look at them; they know what they’re a-buying of, and is wide awake, and that’s one reason why the profit’s so small.” Occasionally, one whip-seller told me, he had sold gig-whips at 2s. or 2s. 6d. to gentlemen who had broken their “valuable lance-wood,” or “beautiful thorn,” and who made a temporary purchase until they could buy at their accustomed shops. “A military gent, with mustachers, once called to me in Piccadilly,” the same man stated, “and he said, ‘Here, give me the best you can for half-a-crown, I’ve snapped my own. I never use the whip when I drive, for my horse is skittish and won’t stand it, but I can’t drive without one.’”
In the height of the season, two, and sometimes three men, sell handsome gig-whips at the fashionable drives or the approaches. “I have taken as much as 30s. in a day, for three whips,” said one man, “each 10s.; but they were silver-mounted thorn, and very cheap indeed; that’s 8 or 9 years back; people looks oftener at 10s. now. I’ve sold horse-dealers’ whips too, with loaded ends. Oh, all prices. I’ve bought them, wholesale, at 8s. a dozen, and 7s. 6d. a piece. Hunting whips are never sold in the streets now. I have sold them, but it’s a good while ago, as riding whips for park gentlemen. The stocks were of fine strong lancewood—such a close grain! with buck horn handles, and a close-worked thong, fastened to the stock by an ‘eye’ (loop), which it’s slipped through. You could hear its crack half a mile off. ‘Threshing machines,’ I called them.”
All the whip-sellers in a large way visit the races, fairs, and large markets within 50 miles of London. Some go as far as Goodwood at the race-time, which is between 60 and 70 miles distant. On a well-thronged race-ground these men will take 3l. or 4l. in a day, and from a half to three-fourths as much at a country fair. They sell riding-whips in the country, but seldom in town.
An experienced man knew 40 whip-sellers, as nearly as he could call them to mind, by sight, and 20 by name. He was certain that on no day were there fewer than 30 in the streets, and sometimes—though rarely—there were 100. The most prosperous of the body, including their profits at races, &c., make 1l. a week the year through; the poorer sort from 5s. to 10s., and the latter are three times as numerous as the others. Averaging that only 30 whip-sellers take 25s. each weekly (with profits of from 5s. to 10s.) in London alone, we find 1,950l. expended in the streets in whips.
Some of the whip-sellers vend whipcord, also, to those cabmen and carters who “cord” their own whips. The whipcord is bought wholesale at 2s. the pound (sometimes lower), and sold at ½d. the knot, there being generally six dozen knots in a pound.
Another class “mend” cabmen’s whips, re-thonging, or “new-springing” them, but these are street-artisans.
Of the Street-Sellers of Pipes, and of Snuff and Tobacco Boxes.
The pipes now sold in the streets and public-houses are the “china bowls” and the “comic heads.” The “china-bowl” pipe has a bowl of white stone china, which unscrews, from a flexible tube or “stem,” as it is sometimes called, about a foot long, with an imitation-amber mouth-piece. They are retailed at 6d. each, and cost 4s. a dozen at the swag-shops. The “comic heads” are of the clay ordinarily used in the making of pipes, and cost 16d. the dozen, or 15s. the gross. They are usually retailed at 2d. Some of the “comic heads” may be considered as hardly well described by the name, as among them are death’s-heads and faces of grinning devils. “The best sale of the comic heads,” said one man, “was when the Duke put the soldiers’ pipes out at the barracks; wouldn’t allow them to smoke there. It was a Wellington’s head with his thumb to his nose, taking a sight, you know, sir. They went off capital. Lots of people that liked their pipe bought ’em, in the public-houses especial, ’cause, as I heerd one man—he was a boot-closer—say, ‘it made the old boy a-ridiculing of hisself.’ At that time—well, really, then, I can’t say how long it’s since—I sold little bone ‘tobacco-stoppers’—they’re seldom asked for now, stoppers is quite out of fashion—and one of them was a figure of ‘old Nosey,’ the Duke you know—it was intended as a joke, you see, sir; a tobacco-stopper.”
There are now nine men selling pipes, which they frequently raffle at the public-houses; it is not unusual for four persons to raffle at ½d. each, for a “comic head.” The most costly pipes are not now offered in the streets, but a few are sold on race-courses. I am informed that none of the pipe-sellers depend entirely upon their traffic in those wares, but occasionally sell (and raffle) such things as china ornaments or table-covers, or tobacco or snuff-boxes. If, therefore, we calculate that four persons sell pipes daily the year through, taking each 25s. (and clearing 10s.), we find 260l. yearly expended upon the hawkers’ pipes.