Lives of Famous London Beggars: With Forty Portraits of the Most Remarkable. — John Shaqi
Lives of Famous London Beggars: With Forty Portraits of the Most Remarkable.Smith, John Thomas
History
Lives of Famous London Beggars: With Forty Portraits of the Most Remarkable.
Smith, John Thomas
Beggars -- England -- London
The succeeding plate displays the effigy of Joseph Johnson, a black, who
in consequence of his having been employed in the merchant service only,
is not entitled to the provision of Greenwich. His wounds rendering him
incapable of doing further duty on the ocean, and having no claim to
relief in any parish, he is obliged to gain a living on shore; and in
order to elude the vigilance of the parochial beadles, he first started
on Tower Hill, where he amused the idlers by singing George Alexander
Stevenson's "Storm." By degrees he ventured into the public streets, and
at length became what is called a "Regular Chaunter." But novelty, the
grand secret of all exhibitions, from the Magic Lantern to the Panorama,
induced Black Joe to build a model of the ship Nelson, to which, when
placed on his cap, he can, by a bow of thanks, or a supplicating
inclination to a drawing-room window, give the appearance of sea-motion.
Johnson is as frequently to be seen in the rural village as in great
cities; and when he takes a journey, the kindhearted waggoner will often
enable him in a few hours to visit the marketplaces of Staines, Romford,
or St Albans, where he never fails to gain the farmer's penny, either by
singing "The British Seaman's Praise," or Green's more popular song of
"The Wooden Walls of Old England."
[Illustration: PLATE XIII.
Joseph Johnson, a black sailor, with a model of the ship _Nelson_ on his
cap.]
The following plate presents the portrait of another black man of great
notoriety, Charles M'Gee, a native of Ribon, in Jamaica, born in 1744,
and whose father died at the great age of 108. This singular man usually
stands at the Obelisk, at the foot of Ludgate Hill. He has lost an eye,
and his woolly hair, which is almost white, is tied up behind in a tail,
with a large tuft at the end, horizontally resting upon the cape of his
coat. Charles is supposed to be worth money. His stand is certainly
above all others the most popular, many thousands of persons crossing it
in the course of the day. He has of late on the working-days sported a
smart coat, presented to him by a city pastry-cook. On a Sunday he is a
constant attendant at Rowland Hill's meeting-house, and on that occasion
his apparel is appropriately varied.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.
Charles M'Gee, a notorious black man, whose father died at the age of
108. He usually stood at the Obelisk, at the foot of Ludgate Hill.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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