I have been reading Henry Mayhew's London Labour & The London Poor, written in the late 1840's and early 1850's. Mayhew conducted hundreds of interviews with poor people around the city, which he published in a magazine called the Morning Chronicle. The bit I was just reading was about his visit to a cheap lodging house. It reminded me very much of Oliver Twist.
The pickpockets generally lodging in the house consist of handkerchief-stealers, shoplifters - including those who rob the till as well as steal articles from the doors of shops. Legs and breasts of mutton are frequently brought in by this class of persons. There are hardly any housebreakers lodging in such places, because they require a room of their own, and mostly live with prostitutes. Besides pickpockets, there are also lodging in the house speculators in stolen goods. They may be dock labourers or Billingsgate porters, having a few shillings in their pockets. With these they purchase the booty of the juvenile thieves. 'I have known,' says my informant, 'these speculators wait in the kitchen, walking about with their hands in their pockets, till a little fellow would come in with such a thing as a cap, a piece of bacon, or a piece of mutton. They would purchase it, and then either retail it amongst the other lodgers in the kitchen or take it to some 'fence', where they would receive a profit upon it. The general feeling among the kitchen - excepting with four or five individuals - is to encourage theft. The encouragement to the 'gonaff' [a Hewbrew word signifying a young thief, probably learnt from the Jew 'fences' in the neighbourhood] consists in laughing at and applauding his dexterity in thieving; and whenever anything is brought in, the 'gonaff' is greeted for his good luck, and a general rush is made towards him to see the produce of his thievery. The 'gonaffs' are generally young boys; about 20 or 30 of these lads are under 21 years ago. They almost all of them love idleness, and will only work for one or two days together, but then they will work very hard. It is a singular fact that, as a body, the pickpockets are generally very sparing of drink. They are mostly libidinous, indeed universally so, and spent whatever money they can spare upon low prostitutes round about the neighbourhood. Burglars and smashers generally rank above this class of thieves. A burglar would not condescend to sit among pickpockets. My informant has known a housebreaker to say with a sneer, when requested to sit down with the 'gonaffs', 'No, no! I may be a thief, sir; but, thank God, at least I'm a respectable one.'
This bit reminded me of The Artful Dodger:
Four frequenters of that room had been transported, and yet the house had been open only as many years, and of the associates and companions of those present, no less than 40 had left the country in the same manner. The names of some of these were curious. I subjoin a few if them: The Banger, The Slasher, The Spider, Flash Jim, White-coat Mushe, Lankey Thompson, Tom Sales [he was hung], and Jack Sheppard.
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