LONDON LABOUR ANd the LONDON POOR. is for levelling, when the hollow part of any newly-made road has to be filled up, or garden or lawn ground has to be levelled for a new mansion. Rubbish, at one time, was in demand for the ballasting of small coasting vessels. For such ballasting 2d. a ton has to be paid to the corporation of the Trinity House. This rubbish has been used, but sometimes surreptitiously, for ballast, unmixed with other things. It is, however, light and inferior ballast, and occupies more space than the gravel ballast from the bed of the Thames. Suppose that a collier requires ballast to the extent of 60 tons; if house rubbish be used it will occupy the hold to a greater height by about 10 inches than would the ballast derived from the bed of the Thames. The Thames ballast is supplied at 1s. a ton; the rubbish-ballast, however, was only 3d. to 6d. a ton, but now it is seldom used unless to mix with manure, which might be considered too wet and soft, and likely to ferment on the voyage to a degree unpleasant even to the mariners used to such freights. The rubbish, I am told, checks the fermentation, and gives consistency to the manure. I am assured by a tradesman, who ships a considerable quantity of stable manure collected from the different mews of the metropolis, that comparatively little rubbish is now used for ballast (unless in the way I have stated); even for mixing, but a few tons a week are required up and down the river, and perhaps a small quantity from the wharfs on the several canals. Nothing was ever paid for the use of this rubbish as ballast, the carters being well satisfied to have the privilege of shooting it. Two of the principal shoots by the river side were at Bell-wharf, Shadwell, and off Wapping-street. The rubbish of Rotherhithe, it will be seen, is mainly "shot as ballast. The "hard-core" is readily got rid of; sometimes it is shot gratuitously (or merely with a small gratuity for beer to the men); but if it have to be carted three or four miles, it is from 2s. 6d. to 33. a load. This is used for the foundations of houses, the ground work of roads, and other purposes where a hard substratum is required. The hard-core on a new road is usually about nine inches deep. There are on an average 20 miles of streets, 15 yards wide, formed annually in London. Hence there would be upwards of 100,000 loads of hard-core required for this purpose alone. Where the soil is of a gravelly nature, but little hard rubbish is needed. Oystershells did form a much greater portion than they do now of the hard substratum of roads. Eight or nine years ago the costermongers could sell their oyster-shells for 6d. a bushel. Now they cannot, or do not, sell them at all; and the law not only forbids their deposit in any place whatever, but forbids their being scattered in the streets, under a penalty of 51. But as the same law provides no place where these shells may be deposited, the costermongers are in what one of them described to me as "a quandary." One man, who with his wife kept two stalls in Tottenham Court-road, one for fish (fresh and dried) and for shell-fish, and the other for fruit and vege 287 tables, told me that he gave "one of those poor long-legged fellows who were neither men nor boys, and who were always starving and hanging about for a two-penny job, two-pence to carry away a hamper-full of shells and get rid of them as he best could. O, where he put them, sir," said the man, "I don't know, I wouldn't know; and I shouldn't have mentioned it to you, only I saw you last winter and know you're inquiring for an honest purpose." of oysters and mussels, and sometimes of "wet Another costermonger who has a large barrow fish" near King's-cross, and at the junction of Leather-lane with Back-hill, Hatton-garden, was me, sir," he said, "I'll show you where they're more communicative: "If you'll walk on with shot. You may mention my name if you like, sir; I don't care a dd." He accordingly conducted me to a place which seemed adapted for the special purpose. At for the crushers; not a blessed the foot of Saffron-hill and the adjacent streets sewers; not covered over as in other parts, but runs the Fleet-ditch, now a branch of the common throwing up a sickening stench. The ditch is inopen, noisome, and, as the dark water flows on, differently fenced, so that any one with a little precaution may throw what he pleases into it. place where more oyster-shells is thrown than "There, sir," said my companion, "there's the anywhere in London. They're thrown in in the dark." Assuredly the great share of blame is not to those who avail themselves of such places for illegal purposes, but to those who leave such filthy receptacles available. The scattered oysterthis part of the open Fleet-ditch, evince the use shells along all the approaches, on both sides, to that is made of it in violation of the law. Many of the costers, however, keep the shells by them till they amount to several bushels, and then give them for them. the rubbish-carters a few pence to dispose of deposit their oyster-shells in the dustmen's yards, Some of the costermongers, again, obtain leave to dust-heaps, and a large quantity are collected with where quantities may be seen whitening the dingy crockery from the dust-bins of the several houses. the house-dust and ashes, together with the broken The oyster-shells are carted away with the pansherds, &c., for the purposes I have mentioned. that is to say, with the labourers engaged in the carts and horses to be hired for carting away 288 LONDON LABOUR AND THE LONDON POOR. of artesian wells, &c. This seems to comprise what in this carrying or removing trade is accounted "rubbish." Perhaps not one of these tradesmen is solely a rubbish-carter, for they are likewise the carters of new materials for the use of builders, such as lime, bricks, stone, gravel, slates, timber, ironwork, chimney-pieces, &c. Some of them are public carmen; licensed carmen if they work, or ply, in the City; but beyond the City boundaries no licence is necessary. This complication perplexes the inquiry, but I purpose to confine it, as much as possible, to the rubbish-carters proper, having defined what may be understood by "rubbish." These carters are also employed in digging, pick-axing, &c., at the buildings, the rubbish of which they are engaged to remove. Among the conveyors of rubbish are no distinctions as to the kind. Any of them will one week cart old bricks from a house which has been pulled down, and the next week be busy in removing the soil excavated where the foundations and cellars of a new mansion have been dug. From inquiries made in each of the different districts of the metropolis, there appear to be from 140 to 150 tradesmen who, with the carting of bricks, lime, and other building commodities, add also that of rubbish-carting. These "masters among them find employment for 840 labouring men, some of whom I find to have been in the service of the same employer upwards of 20 years. The Post-Office Directory, under the head of rubbish-carters, gives the names of only 35 of the principal masters, of whom several are marked as scavagers, dust contractors, nightmen, and roadcontractors. The occupation abstract of the census, on the other hand, totally ignores the existence of any such class of workmen, masters as well as operatives. I find, however, by actual visitation and inquiry in each of the metropolitan districts, and thus learning the names of the several masters as well as the number of men in their employment, that there may be said to be, in round numbers, 150 master rubbish-carters, employing among them 840 operatives throughout London. A large proportion of this number of labouring men, however, are casual hands, who have been taken on when the trade was busy during the summer (which is the the "brisk season" of rubbish-cartage), and who are discharged in the slack time; during which period they obtain jobs at dust-carting or scavaging, or some such outdoor employment. Among the employers there are scarcely any who are purely rubbish-carters, the large majority consisting of dust and roadcontractors, carmen, dairymen, and persons who have two or three horses and carts at their disposal. When a master builder or bricklayer obtains a contract, he hires horses and carts to take away any rubbish which may previously have been deposited. The contract of the King's Cross Terminus of the Great Northern Railway, for instance, has been undertaken by Mr. W. Jay, the builder; and, not having sufficient con veyances to cart the rubbish away, he has hired horses and carts of others to assist in the removal of it. The same mode is adopted in other parts of the metropolis, where any improvements are going on. The owners of horses and carts let them out to hire at from 78. for one horse, to 14s. for two per day. If, however, the job be unusually large, the master rubbish-carters often take it by contract themselves. Although the operative rubbish-carters may be classed among unskilled labourers, they are, perhaps, less miscellaneous, as a body, than other classes of open-air workers. Before they can obtain work of the best description it is necessary that they should have some knowledge of the management of a horse in the drawing of a loaded carriage, or of the way in which the animal should be groomed and tended in the stable. I was told by an experienced carman, that he, or any one with far less than his experience, could in a moment detect, merely by the mode in which a man would put the harness on a horse and yoke him to the cart, whether he was likely to prove a master of his craft in that line or not. My informant had noticed, more especially many years ago, when labour was not so abundantly obtainable as it was last year, that men out of work would offer him their services as carmen even if they had never handled a whip in their lives, as if little more were wanted than to walk by the horse's side. An experienced carter knows how to ease and direct the animal when heavily burdened, or when the road is rugged; and I am assured by the same informant, that he had known one of his horses more fatigued after traversing a dozen miles with a "yokel" (as he called him), or an incompetent man, than the animal had been after a fifteen miles' journey with the same load under the care of a careful and judicious driver. This knowledge of the management of a horse is most essential when men are employed to work "single-handed," or have confided to them singly a horse and cart; when they work in gangs it is not insisted upon, except as regards the " carman," or the man having charge of the horse or the team. The master rubbish-carters generally are more particular than they used to be as to the men to whom they commit the care of their horses. It may be easy enough to learn to drive a horse and cart, but a casual labourer will now hardly get employment in rubbish-carting of a "good sort" unless he has attained that preliminary knowledge. The foreman of one of the principal contractors said to me, "It would never do to let a man learn his business by practising on our horses." I mention this to show, that although rubbish-carting is to be classed among unskilled labours, some training is necessary. I am informed that one-third of the working rubbish-carters have been rubbish-carters from their youth, or cart, car, or waggon-drivers, for they all seem to have known changes; or they have been used to the care of horses in the capacity of ostlers, stable-men, helpers, coaching-inn porters, coachmen, grooms, and horse-breakers. Of LONDON LABOUR AND THE LONDON POOR. the remainder, one-half, I am informed, have "had a turn" at such avocations as scavagery, bricklayers' labouring, dock work, railway excavating, night work, and the many toils to which such men resort in their struggles to obtain bread, whatever may have been their original occupation, which is rarely that of an artizan. The other, and what may be called the greater half of the remaining number, is composed of agricultural labourers who were rubbishcarters in the country, and of the many men who have had the care of horses and vehicles in the provinces, and who have sought the metropolis, depending upon their thews and sinews for a livelihood, as porters, or carmen, or labourers in almost any capacity. The most of these men at the plough, the harrow, the manure-cart, the hay and corn harvests, have been practised carters and horse drivers before they sought the expected gold in the streets of London. Full a third of the whole body of rubbish-carters are Irishmen, who in Ireland were small farmers, or cottiers, or agricultural labourers, or belonged to some of the classes I have described. The mechanics among rubbish-carters I heard estimated, by men with equal means of information, as one in twenty and one in fifteen. Among these quondam mechanics were more farriers, cart and wheel wrights, than of other classes. It seems to be regarded as an indispensable thing that working rubbish-carters should have one quality-bodily strength. I am told that one employer, who died a few weeks ago, used to say to any applicant for work, "It's no use asking for it, if you wish to keep it, unless you can lift a horse up when he's down." As I have shown of the scavagers, &c., the employers in rubbish-carting may be classed as "honourable" and "scurfs." The men do not use the word "honourable," nor any equivalent term, but speak of their masters, though with no great distinctiveness, as being either "good," or "scurfs." As in other branches of unskilled labour where there are no trade societies or general trade regulations among the operatives, there are few distinctive appellations. From the facts I have collected in connection with this trade, it would appear that there are 180 master rubbish-carters in the metropolis, about 140 of whom pay 18s. or more per week as wages, while the remaining 40 pay less than that amount. The latter constitute what the men term the scurf portion of the trade; so that the honourable masters among the rubbish-carters may be said to comprise seven-ninths of the whole. 289 are engaged principally in filling the cart with the rubbish to be removed. Generally speaking, the two offices are performed by the same individual, who is both carter and shoveller, and it is only in large works that the gangers are employed. Master builders and others who require the aid of rubbish-carters for the removal of earth or any other kind of rubbish from ground about to be built upon, or from old buildings about to be repaired or pulled down, either hire horses, carts, and carmen, by the day, of the master rubbishcarters, or pay a certain price per load for the removal of the rubbish. If the job be likely to last some length of time, the builders pay the masters so much per load for carting away the rubbish; but if the job be only for a short period, the horses, carts, and carmen are hired of the masters for the time. The price paid to the master rubbish-carter ranges from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. per load for the removal of rubbish and bringing back such bricks, line, or sand as may be required for the building. The master rubbish carter, in all cases, pays the men engaged in the removal of the rubbish. The operative rubbish-carters (except in a very few instances) never work in gangs, either in the construction of new buildings or in old buildings about to be pulled down or repaired. In digging the foundations of new houses, the master builders, or speculators, building upon their own ground employ their own excavators, and engage rubbishcarters to remove the refuse earth, the latter being merely occupied in carting it away. The principle of simple co-operation or gangwork occasionally prevails; and, when this is the case, the gang is employed in shovelling and picking, while the carman, as the shovellers throw out the rubbish, fills or shovels the rubbish into the cart. Each rubbish-carter will, on an average, convey away from two to five loads a day, according to the distance he has to take it. Calculating 850 men to remove four loads per diem for five months in a year, the gross quantity of rubbish annually removed would be very nearly 326,000 loads. In the regular trade the hours of daily labour are twelve, or from six to six; but the men are allowed half an hour for breakfast, an hour for dinner, and half an hour for tea, and almost invariably leave at half-past five, so postponing the "tea" half-hour until after the termination of their work. In winter the hours are generally "between the lights," but on very short, dark, or foggy days, lanterns are used. The men emI will first treat of the circumstances, charac-ployed by one firm "often made up," I was told teristics, and wages of the men employed in the by one of them, for lost time, by shovelling by honourable trade. moonlight." The carman, however, has to get to his stable in the summer at four o'clock in the morning, and to tend his horse after he has done work at night; so that the usual hours of labour with him are fifteen and sixteen per day, as well as Sunday-work. And first, as regards the division of labour among the operative rubbish-carters, the work is as simple as possible. There are 1. The Rubbish-Carters proper, or "carmen," who are engaged principally in conveying the refuse brick or earth to the several shoots. 2. The Rubbish-Shovellers, or gangers," who No. XLIII. The rubbish-carters are paid by the week, 18s. to 20s. being the weekly amount; and by the load, which is indeed piece-work. The payment to the S TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF OPERATIVE RUBBISH-CARTERS EMPLOYED THROUGHOUT LONDON, THE WAGES RECEIVED BY THEM, THE NUMBER OF WEEKS THEY ARE EMPLOYED, AS WELL AS THE QUANTITY OF RUBBISH REMOVED BY THEM 290 LONDON LABOUR ANd the lonDON POOR. No. of Operative Rubbish-Carters. No. of Shovellers working in Gangs. Quantity of Rubbish carted Daily. Quantity of Rub bish carted Annu ally. 18 18 18 18 18 18 West Lon 18 don Im 18 18 provements. 18 18 West London. Mr. Rutty. Kitchener Porter Reddin Bateman 18 Tame.... London 18 Bindy. 18 18 ments. Gould 50 7800 18 Booth.. 20 360 898 18 360 16 192 12 216 6 108 18 432 16 288 12 180 121 216 50 7800 lds. loads. 12 360 No. of Operative Rubbish-Carters. No. of Shovellers working in Gangs. Quantity of Rubbish carted Daily. Quantity of Rubbish carted Annually. No. of days in the week each Opera tive is employed at Rubbish-Carting. No. of weeks during the year each Operative is engaged in Removing Rubbish. Weekly Wages of Rubbish-Carting. Weekly Wages of the Operatives working in Gangs at Rubbish-Carting. |