Street Artists

Street Photography Within the last few years photographic portraits have gradually been diminishing in price, until at the present time they have become a regular article of street commerce. Those living at the west-end of London have but little idea of the number of persons...

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 ratcatchers—not altogether professional rat-catchers, but...

Street-Finders or Collectors

Of the Street-Finders or Collectors These men, for by far the great majority are men, may be divided, according to the nature of their occupations, into three classes: The bone-grubbers and rag-gatherers, who are, indeed, the same individuals, the pure-finders, and the cigar-end and old...

Prostitution in London

Seclusives, or Those that Live in Private Houses and Apartments It is frequently a matter of surprise amongst the friends of a gentleman of position and connection that he exhibits an invincible distaste to marriage. If they were acquainted with his private affairs their astonishment...

Street-Sellers of Second-Hand Articles

Of the Street-Sellers of Second-Hand Articles In London, where many, in order to live, struggle to extract a meal from the possession of an article which seems utterly worthless, nothing must be wasted. Many a thing which in a country town is kicked by...

Street Musicians

Concerning street musicians, they are of multifarious classes. As a general rule, they may almost be divided into the tolerable and the intolerable performers, some of them trusting to their skill in music for the reward for their exertions, others only making a noise...

Chimney-Sweepers

Of the General Characteristics of the Working Chimney-Sweepers There are many reasons why the chimney-sweepers have ever been a distinct and peculiar class. They have long been looked down upon as the lowest order of workers, and treated with contumely by those who were but...

Street-Sellers of Stationery, Literature, and the Fine Arts

Of the Street-Sellers of Stationery, Literature, and the Fine Arts We now come to a class of street-folk wholly distinct from any before treated of. As yet we have been dealing principally with the uneducated portion of the street-people—men whom, for the most part, are...

Introduction and Classification

Of the Workers and Non-Workers The essential quality of an animal is that it seeks its own living, whereas a vegetable has its living brought to it. An animal cannot stick its feet in the ground and suck up the inorganic elements of its...

Skilled and Unskilled Labour

The Doll’s-Eye Maker A curious part of the street toy business is the sale of dolls, and especially that odd branch of it, doll’s-eye making. There are only two persons following this business in London, and by the most intelligent of these I was furnished...