James Greenwood

“ There are shops for the sale of second-hand clothes on either side of all the narrow thoroughfares, but the bulk of the business is done by those dealers who bear their goods about with them, slung over their shoulders or hugged in their arms, and who push and drive through the mob with the rest, screeching out with all the strength of their lungs what it is they have got to dispose of, and what the price of it is. ”

“ Surely you cannot for a moment suspect that the very considerable number of black-coated, semi-genteel individuals who mingle with the mob, and evidently take such deep interest in what is going on, even to the handling and close inspection of the goods offered for sale; surely you cannot imagine but that these grave and decently dressed men, elderly as a rule, have come to pick up bargains in such a place? ”

“ ONE of the most common of popular errors, and strangely enough, especially amongst folk who all their lives have resided within omnibus ride of the Mansion House and the Monument, is that on Sunday London is a deserted city; that its streets both wide and narrow, and which from Monday morning until Saturday night are as busily thronged as a bee-hive at swarming time, are all through the intervening four and twenty hours utterly empty and forsaken. ”

“ They are rough customers, nine out of ten of them, and the fact that the urgency of the mission on which they are bound did not admit of their staying to denude their hands and faces of any of yesterday's work-a-day grime, or to pass the teeth of a comb through their uproarious shocks of hair, does not do much towards redeeming the unfavourable impression created by their untidy aspect, and the prevailing greasiness and raggedness of their habiliments, from the crown of their battered hats or caps to where should be the sole of their, in most cases, dilapidated old boots. ”

“ There now, the cat is out - Robinson's cat that is; the creature he tried so desperately hard, poor fellow, to conceal beneath the breast-lappet of his coat; and the truth is that almost every one of the decently attired individuals conspicuous amongst the Rag Fair mob carries about with him, jealously concealed from inquisitive eyes, a creature of the feline species. Jones's cat very nearly escaped at the same time as Robinson's. An extra hard poke of an elbow, or a sudden push from behind, would certainly have released the animal ”

“ The movement of the crowd with which they are progressing is so slow that ample time is afforded for the unobtrusive contemplation of the goods exposed for sale, and whenever the article sought for - a boy's jacket or a waistcoat, or a pair of mended shoes - is identified, out comes the bit of tape, with knots in it betokening the requisite length and breadth, a hasty investigation for lurking stains and artfully concealed rents and bare places, and then the price asked is paid ”

“ And it is no exaggeration to say that there were scores on scores of unfortunate Joneses and Robinsons - worthy, real good fellows every one of them - abroad that Sunday morning, and all bent on the same errand. That they find it worth while may be safely assumed; they wouldn't be there else. At the same time, there can be no question but they are awfully swindled by the unscrupulous persons with whom they are brought in contact. They are ignorant of the art of haggling, and even were it otherwise, they dare not practise it. ”

“ They are simply persons of an inquisitive turn of mind, and who have somehow heard or read concerning this wonderful market, and who have slipped away from home, and - just for once - from church-going, that they may satisfy themselves that it is a reality, and not a fiction. ”

“ And are all these thousands of people who patiently move with the crowd, or violently elbow their way through the evil-smelling, almost overwhelming crush, in search of bargains in the shape of more than half-worn-out coats and waistcoats, and threadbare trousers, and boots and shoes, the vamped-up defects of which grin perceptibly through the polish with which they are so bountifully coated ”

“ Considering the perpetual crushing of unprotected toes by hobnailed heels, and the bending of ribs under the crushing pressure of uncompromising elbows there is heard on all sides an astonishingly small amount of cursing and swearing; but the most marvellous part of the business is the various things the people contrive to do in the very heart and thick of the crush. ”

“ It is exactly at that time when the ringers, fresh to their work, are setting the bells clanging their loudest that the streets below swarm thickest with the hundreds who, with their faces turned all in one direction, and who have come from south, and north and east and west by twopenny 'bus and tram and penny steamboat, and who though as yet a full quarter of a mile from the place whither they are bound, find the pavements so full that rapid headway is not to be made without elbowing, and elbow they do vigorously, lest all the bargains be sold before they are there to bid. ”

“ And while five hundred voices are blending to advertise these and a score of other amazing bargains, dealers in another line of business wriggle their ware through the close-jammed multitude with bright tin kettles balanced on their heads containing hot green peas, sheep's trotters and pickled cucumbers for sale. ”

“ It is like no other market in England. It has covered ways and spacious "exchanges," which on week-days are guarded by toll-takers, who exact a certain sum from all corners ere they may enter to engage in their daily business of buying and bartering. ”

“ The reproachful ghost of respectability is ever at their elbow, whispering "there's somebody looking", and urging them to get the shameful business done as soon as possible. Their dealings are extremely rapid. ”

“ The vendor's of second-hand hats cannot, under such circumstances, go about with their's hugged in their arms, so they mount them sometimes on the dome of an expanded umbrella, and holding the latter aloft pass through the crowd, crying out, "A hat for a shillin'! ”

“ Goodness knows it is not because their tongues are not loud enough to reach the ears of those whom they would summon that the chimes in the belfries fail to cause the various churches in the city to be full to overflowing. ”

“ It is generally accepted that the reason why the goodly sprinkling of churches to be found within the city's limits fall so uncommonly short as regards Sabbath day congregations, is to be found in the fact that there are people to speak of left within earshot of the ringing of the church bells, and that if on a Sunday the whole community to be discovered within the various gates which indicate the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor were compelled to go to church, St. ”