Broadsides; Chapbooks; Street literature -- Great Britain
The First Clause in this truly farcical and singular Act is relating to
all ‘regular’ but not ‘running’ dustmen:--
That it be enacted that no dustman or scavenger shall dare to sing out
dust oh! in a falsetto voice, between the hours of 10 in the morning
and 7 in the evening; and that all housekeepers or lodgers shall
place all their cabbage stumps, potatoe peels, or fish bones into a
frying-pan, dustpan, box or basket, chamber utensil, or any other
utensil that is at hand, and place them neatly along the kerb, so that
children may play at leap-frog on their way to school.
2. That no persons shall under any pretence leave any goods in the
streets for more than sixteen seconds and a half; and any baker resting
his basket for a longer space of time, shall for the first offence,
forfeit his basket, and for the second, be compelled to stand three
hours in a flour sack.
3. That no ox, pig, or ass, or any other kind of donkey shall be driven
through the streets without an order from Scotland yard, or the Police
Commissioners may detain them for ther own use.
And it is enacted that on and after the first day of November no cabman
shall ply for hire, unless his cab shall be illuminated; and moreover,
it is expected that each cabman shall be furnished with a transparent
hat, each hat to have a life-like photographic likeness of Sir R-- M--
stuck in the centre.
4. That no ’bus driver or conductor shall allow more than twenty-four
volunteers to ride on the roof at one time, and any female with a
crinoline more than twelve yards round shall not be allowed as an
inside passenger; and any person with more than thirteen stone of
useless fat, shall not be considered as a single fare. And it is
expected that each ’bus will be provided with a truck to transport all
such live lumber te their destination.
5. No walking sandwich will be allowed to parade the streets, and
no pavement to be disfigured with, ‘read Fun or Tommyhawk.’ And any
dandy seen strutting about in one of Moses’s Guinea Overcoats, will be
considered as a walking advertisement, and will be punished as the law
directs. No play bills, show bills, sale bills, nor bills of any kind
be seen in the public streets, and any quack doctor’s butler who shall
be seen giving out bills relative to extraordinary cures of incurable
cures shall be treated as a treasonable offender.
6. All carts, go-carts, or donkey carts, must keep a correct line, at
least four inches and a half from the kerb, and all nursemaids who are
seen out with a perambulator with more than two soldiers as an escort,
shall forfeit their last quarter’s wages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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