Old London Street Cries and the Cries of To-day: With Heaps of Quaint Cuts Including Hand-coloured FrontispieceTuer, Andrew White
History
Old London Street Cries and the Cries of To-day: With Heaps of Quaint Cuts Including Hand-coloured Frontispiece
Tuer, Andrew White
Cries -- England -- London
squares, kept until wanted in a circular metal refrigerating pot
surrounded by broken ice, Hokey Pokey has the advantage over its rival
eaten from glasses, inasmuch as it can be carried away by the purchaser
and consumed at leisure. Besides being variously flavoured, Hokey Pokey
is dreadfully sweet, dreadfully cold, and hard as a brick. It is
whispered that the not unwholesome Swede turnip, crushed into pulp, has
been known to form its base, in lieu of more expensive supplies from the
cow, whose complex elaboration of cream from turnips is thus
unceremoniously abridged.
Another summer cry recalls to memory a species of house decoration,
which we may hope is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. "Ornaments
for yer fire stoves," are usually either cream-tinted willow shavings,
brightened by the interspersion of a few gold threads, or mats thickly
covered with rose-shaped bows and streamers of gaily-coloured tissue
papers. Something more ornate, and not always in better taste, is now
the fashion; the trade therefore has found its way from the streets to
the shops, and the old cry, "Ornaments for yer fire stoves," is likely
to be seldomer heard.
Many of the old cries, dying out elsewhere, may still be familiar,
however, in the back streets of second
[Illustration: "_O' Clo!_"]
[Illustration: "_Dust, O!_"]
and third rate neighbourhoods. The noisy bell[9] of the privileged
muffin-man can hardly be counted; but "dust, O,"--the dustman's bell is
almost a thing of the past--"knives and scissors,"--pronounced
sitthers--"to grind," "chairs to mend," "cat's and dawg's meat," the
snapped-off short "o' clo" of the Jewish dealer in left-off garments,
"fine warnuts, penny for ten, all cracked," "chestnuts all 'ot," "fine
ripe strawberries," "rabbit or 'air skins," "fine biggaroon cherries,"
"fine oranges, a penny for three," and many others, are still shouted in
due season by leathern-lunged itinerant traders. The "O' clo" man is
nearly always historically represented, as in the Catnach illustration,
wearing
[Illustration: "_Cat's and Dog's Meat!_"]
several hats; but, though he may often be met with more than one in his
possession, he is now seldom seen with more than one on his head.
Calling the price before the quantity, though quite a recent innovation,
or more probably the revival of an old style, is almost universal. The
cry of "Fine warnuts, ten a penny," is now "A penny for ten, fine
warnuts," or "A penny for 'arf a score, fine warnuts."
The cat's meat man has never, like some of his colleagues, aspired to
music, but apparently confines himself to the one strident monosyllable.
It has been stated, by the way, that the London cats, of which it seems
there are at present some 350,000, annually consume £100,000 worth of
boiled horse. Daintily presented on a skewer, pussy's meat is eaten
without salt; but, being impossible of verification, the statistics
presented in the preceding sentence may be taken with a grain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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