1 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:07,879 The streets at Christmas time by the oldest inhabitant, Old Father Christmas is a 2 00:00:07,879 --> 00:00:13,039 great receiver of goods. Seated on his throne at this season he receives the 3 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:17,920 offerings of his subjects, droves of oxen, of sheep and of pigs, 4 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:23,320 flocks of geese and turkeys, Men and carts laden with all descriptions of game 5 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:29,359 in season, Carts of fish, baskets of fruits and vegetables, barrels of 6 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:34,000 ale and wine. All are proceeding to the feet of the King of Good. 7 00:00:34,079 --> 00:00:39,520 Cheer boys and girls are rushing pell Mell from school, delighted at the 8 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:44,359 prospect of catching a glimpse of his jolly and kindly face. For a few 9 00:00:44,399 --> 00:00:48,960 weeks before Christmas, the streets of London begin to assume a new aspect. 10 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:53,960 It is not in Region Street, or Oxford Street, or the fashionable streets 11 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:59,479 were linen drapers, jewelers and other traders who administer to fashion and to all 12 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:03,840 the wants and adornments of the outward man or woman reside that the change is 13 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:11,439 perceptible. Such streets are uniformly cheerful. Such shops are always luxuriant and always 14 00:01:11,439 --> 00:01:18,000 displayed to the greatest possible advantage the commodities upon which their owners thrive to them. 15 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:23,000 All seasons are alike. Christmas and Midsummer, spring or autumn sees them 16 00:01:23,079 --> 00:01:30,200 equally attractive. The jeweler's shop is splendid of necessity. The mercer but changes 17 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:34,599 from muslins and cottons to silks and satins, and from these to woolen textures 18 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:40,519 and furs, according to the season. But it is in the minor streets 19 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:45,719 inhabited by dealers in eatables of all kinds, that the approach of Christmas is 20 00:01:45,799 --> 00:01:52,040 manifested by outward and visible signs about which there can be no mistake. Region 21 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:57,159 Street is too proud to show any symptoms of rejoicing at Christmas, but more 22 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:01,560 homely Tottenham Court Road puts on a new face for the occasion and decks herself 23 00:02:01,599 --> 00:02:07,000 out with attractions never thought of at any other time. Oxford Street would scorn 24 00:02:07,039 --> 00:02:13,080 to be too Christmas like, but her tributary streets on either side, except 25 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:17,240 those somber and highly respectable streets in which there are no shops, look upon 26 00:02:17,319 --> 00:02:23,719 Christmas as an era and rejoice accordingly. The immense increase of population in London 27 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:29,360 has not only led to the multiplication of these signs of Christmas, but to 28 00:02:29,439 --> 00:02:35,479 a greater competition among shopkeepers to attract notice. London is not merely a city. 29 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:38,719 It may be called a nation. Anyone who would wish to examine the 30 00:02:38,759 --> 00:02:45,439 manners and customs of its people could have no better opportunity for the purpose than 31 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:49,680 Christmas. It is to be questioned whether he could have any so good. 32 00:02:50,439 --> 00:02:54,960 Formerly, say, thirty or forty years ago, ingenuity was not much taxed 33 00:02:55,280 --> 00:03:00,039 to tempt the purchasers of good things. People knew it was Ristmas without being 34 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:06,800 told so by advertisements, and knew where to go for the commodities they require 35 00:03:06,879 --> 00:03:12,599 to celebrate the festival, without any announcement by placard or handbill. But year 36 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:17,080 after year up to the present period, the rivalry of business consequent upon the 37 00:03:17,159 --> 00:03:23,560 immense number of streets opened up in all quarters, and the establishment of thousands 38 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:29,280 of new shops in almost every parish, the old shopkeepers have been gradually compelled 39 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:35,759 to resort to something like publicity to preserve their custom. Among shops, those 40 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,639 of the butcher's stand pre eminent and give us prospects not alone of the good 41 00:03:39,719 --> 00:03:44,400 feeling for which December is famous, but of the good lighting that we may 42 00:03:44,439 --> 00:03:50,280 expect in January and February. Old Father Christmas has a capacious stomach, and 43 00:03:50,319 --> 00:03:53,560 the maw of London, not easily filled at any time, becomes all but 44 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:58,960 insatiable. Towards the close of the year, the droves of oxen in the 45 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:04,360 streets nuisance which has antiquity in its favor but nothing else, increase in numbers 46 00:04:04,599 --> 00:04:09,439 and in the bulk of the animals that form them. The future dinners, 47 00:04:09,439 --> 00:04:14,080 as well as the future candles of the million, wend their way to Smithfield 48 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:18,439 in all but countless multitudes. The butcher's shops soon give evidence of the new 49 00:04:18,519 --> 00:04:24,120 demand that is certain to spring up. Beef ries is twenty percent in value, 50 00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:28,800 and mutton at a somewhat smaller ratio. As soon as the carcasses of 51 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:34,000 prize animals are displayed in the great thoroughfares of the people, Prince Albert's oxen 52 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:41,920 and the Earl of Leicester's sheep or other animals bred by celebrated agriculturists are exhibited. 53 00:04:42,319 --> 00:04:46,040 The oxen in portions and the sheep whole with labels upon them, pointing 54 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:50,439 out to the admiring crowds that gather around the shops, the place where, 55 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:55,319 and the owner by whom they were fed, as well as the amount of 56 00:04:55,360 --> 00:05:00,240 prize they obtained. In many instances the carcasses are adorned with ribbons or wreaths, 57 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:04,680 and in almost all cases with sprigs of holly. It is a glorious 58 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:10,240 time for the butchers of London. There is a vastly increased supply, and 59 00:05:10,319 --> 00:05:15,600 there is a vastly increased demand, And these tradesmen contrive upon what principle is 60 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:21,959 a mystery of London never thoroughly explained, to make an extra profit of both 61 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:28,439 circumstances. Suet, which, in those quiet and ordinary times, when sue 62 00:05:28,439 --> 00:05:32,839 it is neither abundant nor scarce, fetches eight pence a pound rises to a 63 00:05:32,879 --> 00:05:39,360 shilling when all the world is bent upon making plum pudding happy. Sometimes is 64 00:05:39,399 --> 00:05:43,519 the housewife that can obtain it even at that price. But it is not 65 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:46,120 only in meat. There is in fact a general rise in the price of 66 00:05:46,199 --> 00:05:51,639 all agricultural produce at this time. Butter, for which it cannot be supposed 67 00:05:51,879 --> 00:05:58,240 there is any extra demand or any diminished supply at Christmas is an instance of 68 00:05:58,279 --> 00:06:02,040 it. The price is increased by twopence or threepence a pound, as every 69 00:06:02,079 --> 00:06:06,480 housekeeper knows, although she may not be able to account for it on any 70 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:13,000 known principles, either of political or domestic economy. The reason may be that 71 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:15,800 the butter man, having to pay an extra sum to the butcher, takes 72 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:19,439 it out of the pockets of the public. The butcher, too may plead 73 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:25,920 that he has to pay extra to the agriculturists for the flesh that Londoners will 74 00:06:25,959 --> 00:06:30,279 consume, so that the farmer and grazer, after all, may be the 75 00:06:30,319 --> 00:06:34,959 grand recipients of the prophets or the plunder of Christmas. Beef eating. London 76 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:40,639 must admit, even although it grumble, the infliction it is to be feared, 77 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:46,160 is wholly irremediable. Next to the butcher's shops, the porkman's, the 78 00:06:46,199 --> 00:06:49,360 poulterers, and the dealers in game are the most crowded with the future good 79 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:55,800 cheer of the London nation. If the streets of the metropolis give unpleasant evidence 80 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:59,759 of the living beef and mutton that are to be offered up at the shrine 81 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:04,160 of Old Father Christmas, they give evidence equally strong and a vast deal more 82 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:10,120 pleasant, of the old gentleman's capabilities in the way of game and poultry. 83 00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:14,959 The portmen may be passed over. They share the good fortune of Christmas like 84 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:19,160 their neighbors. But the dealers in domestic poultry and in game of all descriptions 85 00:07:19,439 --> 00:07:25,800 reap a more abundant harvest and offer more tempting inducements for the expenditure of the 86 00:07:25,839 --> 00:07:30,879 million. The family that never tastes game or poultry at any other period of 87 00:07:30,959 --> 00:07:34,519 the year indulge themselves in it at Christmas, and chickens, geese, and 88 00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:40,360 turkeys, dead and alive, are dispatched to the metropolis to help in the 89 00:07:40,439 --> 00:07:45,399 honors of Christmas, in numbers commensurate with the magnitude of the city and the 90 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:50,800 joviality of the occasion. While poultry which is bought has its thousands and tens 91 00:07:50,839 --> 00:07:57,120 of thousands of purchasers, game which is given away has also its thousands and 92 00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:01,680 tens of thousands of grateful recipients. Blessed is the London family that has friends 93 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:07,079 in the country. Blessed at Christmas time is he who has a relative or 94 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:11,319 friend who loves sport, and who, knowing how to enjoy his sport, 95 00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:16,439 knows quite as well how to cultivate friendship. And render relationship agreeable to him. 96 00:08:16,519 --> 00:08:20,279 Comes the welcome present from the fields, the moors, or the mountains, 97 00:08:20,639 --> 00:08:24,439 and for him the railways bear the welcome gifts from all quarters of the 98 00:08:24,519 --> 00:08:30,839 land. This large portion of the Christmas consumption of the metropolis does not grace 99 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:35,200 the shops. It is only to be seen in its transit from the railway 100 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:39,960 station to the houses of the grateful recipients. But a portion equally large finds 101 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:45,320 its way to the dealers. In the days of stage and mail coaches, 102 00:08:45,639 --> 00:08:48,840 it was a pleasant sight to see how picturesquely they were loaded. But the 103 00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:54,799 railway, which does more business, does it without a tithe of the display. 104 00:08:54,639 --> 00:08:58,559 All game is not given away what it were, but a goodly share 105 00:08:58,559 --> 00:09:03,440 of it, because ms merchandise and is set forth with tempting beauty in the 106 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:07,080 shops. The butcher's shops may be disgusting, and they are so to all 107 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:11,679 who think upon the subject, which, however, the majority of man and 108 00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:16,519 womankind do not. But the shop of the dealer in game cannot be considered 109 00:09:16,559 --> 00:09:20,600 repulsive. The victims of our appetite which he supplies, are not always stripped 110 00:09:20,639 --> 00:09:26,240 of their beautiful plumage, and the pheasant dead is only less lovely than the 111 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:31,039 pheasant alive. Even poor puss the hair, with their warm jacket on, 112 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:35,840 suggests no ideas akin to those which are felt on the contemplation of the joints 113 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:41,120 that hang from the rafters of the butcher's shop may no revenan pas ah, 114 00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:46,159 no mouton. But far more attractive than those of the game dealer are the 115 00:09:46,159 --> 00:09:50,840 shops of the grocer's. The grocers look upon Christmas as their peculiar time, 116 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:56,600 and they take all due pains to set themselves forth in their fairest trim. 117 00:09:56,840 --> 00:10:01,879 Neither do they take such advantage of the day as the dealers in home agricultural 118 00:10:01,919 --> 00:10:07,960 produce. The grocers provide large and abundant stores of raisins, currants, spices, 119 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:13,519 and preserved fruits, and put no additional price upon them. On the 120 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:18,039 contrary, they often ask less for their wares than at other seasons, a 121 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:22,799 piece of good generalship on their parts, which our friends the flesh dealers, 122 00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:28,559 might imitate with advantage to themselves as well as to the public. The grocers 123 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:33,759 are not greedy. They encourage the manufacture of pudding their pleasant and wholesome shops, 124 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:37,960 which meet the eye. In all our great thoroughfares are shrines to which 125 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:43,639 the devotees of Christmas pay a willing visit. Many are their devices to attract 126 00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:48,919 notice. Sometimes a flag is displayed from the first floor windows, or the 127 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:54,279 whole front of the house is beplastered with placards announcing the arrival of millions of 128 00:10:54,360 --> 00:11:00,320 pounds of currants and raisins, all for the use of the pudding loving people, 129 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:05,519 and to be obtained within at prices defying competition. One placard exhibited a 130 00:11:05,519 --> 00:11:11,039 few years ago by a grocer was in the form of a playbill announcing the 131 00:11:11,080 --> 00:11:16,480 production of a new pantomime to be called Harlequin Peel or the Magic Pudding. 132 00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:20,360 This was not intended as a political sneer at a great statesman, though at 133 00:11:20,399 --> 00:11:26,519 first glance it would seem suggestive of such an idea. It was simply a 134 00:11:26,559 --> 00:11:33,159 social and domestic affair to attract customers. Sometimes the grocer gives his customers the 135 00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:37,000 additional attraction of a pictorial pudding in his window, with the figure of a 136 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:43,639 sturdy John Bull surrounded by his family cutting into the dainty. His face is 137 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:48,679 redolent of good humor, and a scroll issuing from his mouth informs all men, 138 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:52,480 sometimes in a couplet of choice doggerel, that the plums and spices of 139 00:11:52,519 --> 00:11:58,039 which that pudding was compounded were bought at mister Snook's, or mister Jones's, 140 00:11:58,399 --> 00:12:03,200 or whatever the name may be of the enterprising trader. Very often a long 141 00:12:03,279 --> 00:12:09,559 string of rhymes, almost as good as those remarkable lyrics with which mister Moses 142 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:13,480 and his poets amuse the public, is printed in large type and affixed to 143 00:12:13,519 --> 00:12:18,279 the grocer's door post, that all who run may read. Indeed, of 144 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:24,480 late years, the majority of grocers in crowded streets think it necessary to become 145 00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:28,320 poetical. There's a good time coming, boys, said one effusion of the 146 00:12:28,399 --> 00:12:33,600 kind a few years ago. There's a good time coming. Raisins will be 147 00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:37,879 cheap at Robinson's, while a rival grocer on the other side of the way 148 00:12:37,279 --> 00:12:41,759 put up a placard with a more delightful announcement, The good time has come, 149 00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:46,799 boys. Raisins are cheap at Smith's. The grocers and the keepers of 150 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:54,399 those compound establishments half grocers and half Italian warehouses, have of late years very 151 00:12:54,480 --> 00:13:00,600 much increase their trade by large importations of preserved fruits. The English as a 152 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:05,600 people do not excel in this manufacture, but the French and Italians, who 153 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:09,919 have long been famous for it, improve in it every year. The English 154 00:13:09,919 --> 00:13:13,960 demand that has arisen, and which seems to go on increasing every year, 155 00:13:13,279 --> 00:13:18,320 will doubtless give a further impetus to their ingenuity. It is worth while to 156 00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:22,919 spend a few hours in the shop of a large importer of these elegant articles, 157 00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:28,399 not merely for the sake of the fruits themselves, crystallized and uncrystallized, 158 00:13:28,679 --> 00:13:33,720 but for a sight of the boxes in which they are packed. The French 159 00:13:33,799 --> 00:13:37,440 prints used for the purpose have long been celebrated for their beauty and fancy, 160 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:43,600 and the boxes in which plums and those delicious little oranges known as sheenas are 161 00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:50,240 packed are worth preserving for their own sakes. After the fruit has been consumed. 162 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:56,879 Some of the larger receptacles are fit to convert into workboxes after thee have 163 00:13:56,080 --> 00:14:01,399 served their original intention, and many are paired with a view to such a 164 00:14:01,399 --> 00:14:05,039 purpose. In these times, it might be worth the while of capitalists to 165 00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:11,120 devote their attention to the home manufacture of these articles, and also to the 166 00:14:11,159 --> 00:14:16,000 preservation of fruits. Sugar is as cheap in England as in France, and 167 00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:20,039 there is no reason why jams and marmalade, good as they are, should 168 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:24,360 be the sole products of English industry as regards the preservation of fruit. The 169 00:14:24,399 --> 00:14:30,519 most pleasing, as well as the most common symptom of Christmas in the streets 170 00:14:30,639 --> 00:14:35,519 is the holly displayed in shops of every kind wherever eatables or drinkables are sold, 171 00:14:35,639 --> 00:14:39,919 and which is almost invariably to be seen at kitchen windows for a week 172 00:14:41,039 --> 00:14:46,240 or two before and after Christmas Day. Love in the kitchen could not prosper 173 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:50,840 without the holly, and the policeman, in search of affection or of cold 174 00:14:50,919 --> 00:14:56,240 mutton, would think the kitchen of his fair friend unseasonable in its appearance if 175 00:14:56,279 --> 00:15:01,399 the sprigs of dark green intermingled with the bright red berries were absent from the 176 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:07,200 window. The holly, chart of which a most admirable representation is given in 177 00:15:07,279 --> 00:15:11,600 our engraving, is also a pleasant sight in the streets, either of the 178 00:15:11,600 --> 00:15:16,840 outskirts of the metropolis as represented by the artist, or of the dense heart 179 00:15:16,919 --> 00:15:20,279 of the old city. Holly is a great article of commerce at Christmas time 180 00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:26,240 and yields a good prophet both to those who cultivate it and those who vended 181 00:15:26,320 --> 00:15:30,039 in the streets. Never was it more in request than it is now. 182 00:15:30,679 --> 00:15:35,720 Never may it be less sought after as the verdant symbol of the loving kindness 183 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:39,120 of the season. There is one other aspect of the streets of London at 184 00:15:39,159 --> 00:15:46,000 Christmas which requires notice, the public heart being open. At Christmas beggars usually 185 00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:50,200 venture out with more certain hope of our charity than at other times. Nor 186 00:15:50,279 --> 00:15:54,759 is their hope disappointed, to say nothing of the carol singers, who seem 187 00:15:54,840 --> 00:16:00,720 to look upon themselves as privileged for the sake of the old familiar chain which 188 00:16:00,759 --> 00:16:06,159 they musically or unmusically, pour into our ears, And who of all ages 189 00:16:06,440 --> 00:16:10,919 and of both sexes, swarm in every street, in numbers of which an 190 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:17,000 accurate estimate would convey a somewhat alarming idea of the poverty of London. Troops 191 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:22,480 of unmusical beggars make their appearance in the streets. Ireland evidently contributes a large 192 00:16:22,519 --> 00:16:27,720 portion to this multitude of misery, and the mind is driven to reflect amid 193 00:16:27,759 --> 00:16:33,399 the gaiety and joviality of the time, not only upon the pauperism of that 194 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:37,399 unhappy land, but of the pauperism of this which is made more wretched by 195 00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:42,480 the influx of these interlopers. The pauperism of England amounts to one million, 196 00:16:42,799 --> 00:16:48,399 four hundred thousand people. The Irish vagrants that come over to take their chance 197 00:16:48,519 --> 00:16:52,799 amongst us cannot account to many less than three hundred thousand, and possibly they 198 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:57,440 amount to many more, forming an aggregate of one million and three quarters. 199 00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:03,440 When we fancy that this is almost equal to the whole population of London, 200 00:17:03,759 --> 00:17:08,680 Westminster, Lambeth, Southwark, Finsbury, Marleybone, the Tower, Hamlets, 201 00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:14,880 Kensington, Hammersmith, Greenwich and Woolwich. And when we attempt to realize to 202 00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:18,440 our mind how vast a multitude this is, and how fearful it would be 203 00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:23,480 if it were all congregated together in one place, we are compelled to ask, 204 00:17:23,559 --> 00:17:29,839 if there be not something radically wrong in our civilization which not only permits 205 00:17:29,839 --> 00:17:33,519 the growth of such a sore in the body politic, but which actually favors 206 00:17:33,559 --> 00:17:37,640 its growth. Let the minds of our great thinkers be directed to it. 207 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:44,119 The chief difficulty of a time not far distant will be the existence and maintenance 208 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:48,640 of this immense standing army of poverty. If there ever be a time when 209 00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:52,079 it is the duty of individuals to attempt to relieve it. That time is 210 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:56,920 Christmas, at a period of feasts, when the paupers and the union workhouses 211 00:17:57,160 --> 00:18:02,599 are embraced in the large circle of our sympathies and cared for a little more 212 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:07,440 liberally than usual. Let us draw a circle around the circle and include within 213 00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:11,680 it the beggars in the streets. It may be wrong as a rule to 214 00:18:11,839 --> 00:18:17,559 encourage street beggars by donations of any kind. But Christmas is an exceptional period, 215 00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:22,240 and though possibly in being charitable to all, we may be charitable to 216 00:18:22,359 --> 00:18:27,000 many worthless persons, the good will and the good day will consecrate the deed 217 00:18:27,559 --> 00:18:33,440 at least, although political theorists may dissent, and although the man who paid 218 00:18:33,519 --> 00:18:38,279 a very heavy poorest rate yesterday may see reason to be unconvinced. Such is 219 00:18:38,319 --> 00:18:48,880 the opinion until Christmas has passed of the oldest inhabitant end of the streets at 220 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:51,920 Christmas time, by the oldest inhabitant