Black men are extremely cunning, and often witty; they have mostly short names, such as Jumbo, Toby, &c., but the last seems of late to be the most fashionable, for it has not only been used by the master of Mr Punch, the street-strolling puppet, as a name for that merry little fellow's dog, but by the proprietor of the Sapient Pig.
The last negro beggar called Toby, was a character well known in this Metropolis. He was destitute of toes, had his head bound with a white handkerchief, and bent himself almost double to walk upon two hand-crutches, with which he nearly occupied the width of the pavement. Master Toby generally affected to be tired and exhausted whenever he approached a house where the best gin was to be procured; and was perhaps of all the inhabitants of Church Lane, St Giles's, the man who expended the most money in that national cordial.
But this man was nothing when compared with a Lascar, who lately sold halfpenny ballads, and whose gains enabled him to spit his goose, or broil a duck; for it is well known, that upon an average he made not less than fifteen shillings per day.
The author of this little work sincerely regrets the loss of a sketch that he made from a black man, whose countenance and figure were the most interesting of any of the tribe. He was nearly six feet in height, rather round in the shoulders, and usually wore a covering of green baize; indeed altogether he brought to recollection that exquisite statue of Cicero, in the Pomfret collection of marbles at Oxford, so beautifully engraved by Sherwin. This fellow, who had often been taken up, has not been seen for several months.
Go-cart, Billies in bowls, or Sledge-beggars, are denominations for those cripples whose misfortunes will not permit them to travel in any other way; and these are next presented to the reader's notice.
Men of this class are to be found in every country. The little fellow above depicted in the cart is copied from Luca Carlevarij's 100 Views in Venice, a set of long quarto plates, most spiritedly etched, and published in 1703.
Hogarth, whose active eye caught Nature in all her garbs, has introduced in his Wedding of the Industrious Apprentice, a cripple well known in those days under the appellation of Philip in the Tub, a fellow who constantly attended weddings, and retailed the ballad of "Jesse, or the Happy Pair."
Dublin has ever been famous for a Billy in the Bowl. A very remarkable fellow of this class, well known in that city, and who thought proper to leave Ireland on the Union, was met in London by a Noble Lord, who observed, "So you are here too!" "Yes, my Lord," replied the beggar, "the Union has brought us all over."
The back view of the person exhibited in the following plate, is that of Samuel Horsey, who, in December 1816, had been a London beggar for thirty-one years. Of this man there are various opinions, and it is much to be doubted if the truth can be obtained even from his own mouth. He states that Mr Abernethy cut off his legs in St Bartholomew's Hospital, but he does not declare from what cause; so that being deprived of the power of gaining a subsistence by labour, he was forced to become a beggar. By some persons he is styled the King of the Beggars, but certainly without the least foundation. He says that no one has been less acquainted with beggars than himself; and as for his having the command of a district, that he utterly denies. His walks, or rather movements, are not always confined; on some days he slides to Charing Cross, but is oftener to be seen at the door of Mr Coutts's banking-house, perhaps with an idea that persons just after they have received money are more likely to bestow charity.