| PAGE | |
| The Destroyers of Vermin | [1] |
| Street-Exhibitors | [43] |
| Street-Musicians | [158] |
| Street-Vocalists | [190] |
| Street-Artists | [204] |
| Exhibitors of Trained Animals | [214] |
| Skilled and Unskilled Labour | [221] |
| Garret-Masters | [221] |
| The Coal-Heavers | [234] |
| Ballast-Men | [265] |
| Lumpers | [288] |
| The Dock-Labourers | [300] |
| Cheap Lodging-Houses | [312] |
| The Transit of Great Britain and the Metropolis | [318] |
| London Watermen, Lightermen, and Steamboat-Men | [327] |
| London Omnibus-Drivers and Conductors | [336] |
| London Cab-Drivers | [351] |
| London Carmen and Porters | [357] |
| London Vagrants | [368] |
| Meeting of Ticket-of-Leave Men | [430] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| PAGE | |
| Rat-Killing at Sporting Public-Houses | [7] |
| Jack Black, Rat-Killer to Her Majesty | [11] |
| Punch’s Showman, with Assistant | [45] |
| Guy Faux | [63] |
| Street-Telescope Exhibitor | [81] |
| Street-Acrobats Performing | [93] |
| Street-Conjuror | [117] |
| Circus-Clown at Fair | [132] |
| Street-Performers on Stilts | [150] |
| Old Sarah | [160] |
| Ethiopian Serenaders | [190] |
| Interior of Photographer’s Travelling Caravan | [207] |
| A Garret-Master, or Cheap Cabinet-Maker | [225] |
| Gang of Coal-Whippers at work below Bridge | [241] |
| Coal-Porters filling Waggons at Coal-Wharf | [261] |
| Ballast-heavers at Work in the Pool | [279] |
| Lumpers Discharging Timber-Ship in Commercial Dock | [297] |
| A Dinner at a Cheap Lodging-House | [314] |
| Thames Lightermen tugging away at the Oar | [333] |
| Cab-Driver | [351] |
| Street Ticket-Porters with Knot | [364] |
| Vagrant in the Casual Ward of Workhouse | [387] |
| Vagrant, from the Refuge in Playhouse-Yard, Cripplegate | [406] |
| Vagrant, from Asylum for the Houseless Poor | [423] |
| Meeting of Ticket-of-Leave Men | [430] |
LONDON LABOUR
AND
THE LONDON POOR.
THE DESTROYERS OF VERMIN.
The Rat-Killer.
In “the Brill,” or rather in Brill-place, Somers’-town, there is a variety of courts branching out into Chapel-street, and in one of the most angular and obscure of these is to be found a perfect nest of rat-catchers—not altogether professional rat-catchers, but for the most part sporting mechanics and costermongers. The court is not easily to be found, being inhabited by men not so well known in the immediate neighbourhood as perhaps a mile or two away, and only to be discovered by the aid and direction of the little girl at the neighbouring cat’s-meat shop.
My first experience of this court was the usual disturbance at the entrance. I found one end or branch of it filled with a mob of eager listeners, principally women, all attracted to a particular house by the sounds of quarrelling. One man gave it as his opinion that the disturbers must have earned too much money yesterday; and a woman, speaking to another who had just come out, lifting up both her hands and laughing, said, “Here they are—at it again!”
The rat-killer whom we were in search of was out at his stall in Chapel-street when we called, but his wife soon fetched him. He was a strong, sturdy-looking man, rather above the middle height, with light hair, ending in sandy whiskers, reaching under his chin, sharp deep-set eyes, a tight-skinned nose that looked as if the cuticle had been stretched to its utmost on its bridge. He was dressed in the ordinary corduroy costermonger habit, having, in addition, a dark blue Guernsey drawn over his waistcoat.