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Speaker 1: The streets at Christmas time by the oldest inhabitant, Old

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Father Christmas is a great receiver of goods. Seated on

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his throne at this season he receives the offerings of

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his subjects, droves of oxen, of sheep and of pigs,

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flocks of geese and turkeys, Men and carts laden with

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all descriptions of game in season, Carts of fish, baskets

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of fruits and vegetables, barrels of ale and wine. All

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are proceeding to the feet of the King of Good.

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Cheer boys and girls are rushing pell Mell from school,

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delighted at the prospect of catching a glimpse of his

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jolly and kindly face. For a few weeks before Christmas,

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the streets of London begin to assume a new aspect.

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It is not in Region Street, or Oxford Street, or

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the fashionable streets were linen drapers, jewelers and other traders

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who administer to fashion and to all the wants and

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adornments of the outward man or woman reside that the

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change is perceptible. Such streets are uniformly cheerful. Such shops

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are always luxuriant and always displayed to the greatest possible

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advantage the commodities upon which their owners thrive to them.

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All seasons are alike. Christmas and Midsummer, spring or autumn

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sees them equally attractive. The jeweler's shop is splendid of necessity.

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The mercer but changes from muslins and cottons to silks

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and satins, and from these to woolen textures and furs,

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according to the season. But it is in the minor

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streets inhabited by dealers in eatables of all kinds, that

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the approach of Christmas is manifested by outward and visible

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signs about which there can be no mistake. Region Street

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is too proud to show any symptoms of rejoicing at Christmas,

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but more homely Tottenham Court Road puts on a new

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face for the occasion and decks herself out with attractions

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never thought of at any other time. Oxford Street would

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scorn to be too Christmas like, but her tributary streets

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on either side, except those somber and highly respectable streets

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in which there are no shops, look upon Christmas as

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an era and rejoice accordingly. The immense increase of population

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in London has not only led to the multiplication of

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these signs of Christmas, but to a greater competition among

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shopkeepers to attract notice. London is not merely a city.

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It may be called a nation. Anyone who would wish

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to examine the manners and customs of its people could

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have no better opportunity for the purpose than Christmas. It

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is to be questioned whether he could have any so good. Formerly, say,

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thirty or forty years ago, ingenuity was not much taxed

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to tempt the purchasers of good things. People knew it

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was Ristmas without being told so by advertisements, and knew

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where to go for the commodities they require to celebrate

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the festival, without any announcement by placard or handbill. But

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year after year up to the present period, the rivalry

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of business consequent upon the immense number of streets opened

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up in all quarters, and the establishment of thousands of

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new shops in almost every parish, the old shopkeepers have

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been gradually compelled to resort to something like publicity to

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preserve their custom. Among shops, those of the butcher's stand

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pre eminent and give us prospects not alone of the

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good feeling for which December is famous, but of the

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good lighting that we may expect in January and February.

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Old Father Christmas has a capacious stomach, and the maw

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of London, not easily filled at any time, becomes all

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but insatiable. Towards the close of the year, the droves

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of oxen in the streets nuisance which has antiquity in

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its favor but nothing else, increase in numbers and in

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the bulk of the animals that form them. The future dinners,

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as well as the future candles of the million, wend

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their way to Smithfield in all but countless multitudes. The

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butcher's shops soon give evidence of the new demand that

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is certain to spring up. Beef ries is twenty percent

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in value, and mutton at a somewhat smaller ratio. As

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soon as the carcasses of prize animals are displayed in

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the great thoroughfares of the people, Prince Albert's oxen and

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the Earl of Leicester's sheep or other animals bred by

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celebrated agriculturists are exhibited. The oxen in portions and the

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sheep whole with labels upon them, pointing out to the

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admiring crowds that gather around the shops, the place where,

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and the owner by whom they were fed, as well

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as the amount of prize they obtained. In many instances

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the carcasses are adorned with ribbons or wreaths, and in

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almost all cases with sprigs of holly. It is a

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glorious time for the butchers of London. There is a

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vastly increased supply, and there is a vastly increased demand,

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And these tradesmen contrive upon what principle is a mystery

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of London never thoroughly explained, to make an extra profit

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of both circumstances. Suet, which, in those quiet and ordinary times,

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when sue it is neither abundant nor scarce, fetches eight

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pence a pound rises to a shilling when all the

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world is bent upon making plum pudding happy. Sometimes is

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the housewife that can obtain it even at that price.

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But it is not only in meat. There is in

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fact a general rise in the price of all agricultural

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produce at this time. Butter, for which it cannot be

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supposed there is any extra demand or any diminished supply

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at Christmas is an instance of it. The price is

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increased by twopence or threepence a pound, as every housekeeper knows,

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although she may not be able to account for it

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on any known principles, either of political or domestic economy.

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The reason may be that the butter man, having to

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pay an extra sum to the butcher, takes it out

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of the pockets of the public. The butcher, too may

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plead that he has to pay extra to the agriculturists

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for the flesh that Londoners will consume, so that the

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farmer and grazer, after all, may be the grand recipients

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of the prophets or the plunder of Christmas. Beef eating.

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London must admit, even although it grumble, the infliction it

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is to be feared, is wholly irremediable. Next to the

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butcher's shops, the porkman's, the poulterers, and the dealers in

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game are the most crowded with the future good cheer

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of the London nation. If the streets of the metropolis

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give unpleasant evidence of the living beef and mutton that

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are to be offered up at the shrine of Old

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Father Christmas, they give evidence equally strong and a vast

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deal more pleasant, of the old gentleman's capabilities in the

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way of game and poultry. The portmen may be passed over.

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They share the good fortune of Christmas like their neighbors.

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But the dealers in domestic poultry and in game of

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all descriptions reap a more abundant harvest and offer more

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tempting inducements for the expenditure of the million. The family

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that never tastes game or poultry at any other period

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of the year indulge themselves in it at Christmas, and chickens, geese,

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and turkeys, dead and alive, are dispatched to the metropolis

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to help in the honors of Christmas, in numbers commensurate

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with the magnitude of the city and the joviality of

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the occasion. While poultry which is bought has its thousands

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and tens of thousands of purchasers, game which is given

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away has also its thousands and tens of thousands of

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grateful recipients. Blessed is the London family that has friends

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in the country. Blessed at Christmas time is he who

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has a relative or friend who loves sport, and who,

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knowing how to enjoy his sport, knows quite as well

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how to cultivate friendship. And render relationship agreeable to him.

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Comes the welcome present from the fields, the moors, or

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the mountains, and for him the railways bear the welcome

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gifts from all quarters of the land. This large portion

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of the Christmas consumption of the metropolis does not grace

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the shops. It is only to be seen in its

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transit from the railway station to the houses of the

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grateful recipients. But a portion equally large finds its way

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to the dealers. In the days of stage and mail coaches,

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it was a pleasant sight to see how picturesquely they

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were loaded. But the railway, which does more business, does

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it without a tithe of the display. All game is

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not given away what it were, but a goodly share

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of it, because ms merchandise and is set forth with

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tempting beauty in the shops. The butcher's shops may be disgusting,

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and they are so to all who think upon the subject, which, however,

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the majority of man and womankind do not. But the

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shop of the dealer in game cannot be considered repulsive.

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The victims of our appetite which he supplies, are not

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always stripped of their beautiful plumage, and the pheasant dead

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is only less lovely than the pheasant alive. Even poor

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puss the hair, with their warm jacket on, suggests no

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ideas akin to those which are felt on the contemplation

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of the joints that hang from the rafters of the

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butcher's shop may no revenan pas ah, no mouton. But

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far more attractive than those of the game dealer are

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the shops of the grocer's. The grocers look upon Christmas

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as their peculiar time, and they take all due pains

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to set themselves forth in their fairest trim. Neither do

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they take such advantage of the day as the dealers

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in home agricultural produce. The grocers provide large and abundant

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stores of raisins, currants, spices, and preserved fruits, and put

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no additional price upon them. On the contrary, they often

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ask less for their wares than at other seasons, a

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piece of good generalship on their parts, which our friends

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the flesh dealers, might imitate with advantage to themselves as

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well as to the public. The grocers are not greedy.

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They encourage the manufacture of pudding their pleasant and wholesome shops,

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which meet the eye. In all our great thoroughfares are

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shrines to which the devotees of Christmas pay a willing visit.

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Many are their devices to attract notice. Sometimes a flag

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is displayed from the first floor windows, or the whole

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front of the house is beplastered with placards announcing the

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arrival of millions of pounds of currants and raisins, all

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for the use of the pudding loving people, and to

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be obtained within at prices defying competition. One placard exhibited

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a few years ago by a grocer was in the

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form of a playbill announcing the production of a new

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pantomime to be called Harlequin Peel or the Magic Pudding.

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This was not intended as a political sneer at a

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great statesman, though at first glance it would seem suggestive

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of such an idea. It was simply a social and

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domestic affair to attract customers. Sometimes the grocer gives his

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customers the additional attraction of a pictorial pudding in his window,

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with the figure of a sturdy John Bull surrounded by

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his family cutting into the dainty. His face is redolent

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of good humor, and a scroll issuing from his mouth

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informs all men, sometimes in a couplet of choice doggerel,

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that the plums and spices of which that pudding was

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compounded were bought at mister Snook's, or mister Jones's, or

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whatever the name may be of the enterprising trader. Very

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often a long string of rhymes, almost as good as

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those remarkable lyrics with which mister Moses and his poets

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amuse the public, is printed in large type and affixed

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to the grocer's door post, that all who run may read. Indeed,

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of late years, the majority of grocers in crowded streets

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think it necessary to become poetical. There's a good time coming, boys,

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said one effusion of the kind a few years ago.

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There's a good time coming. Raisins will be cheap at Robinson's,

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while a rival grocer on the other side of the

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way put up a placard with a more delightful announcement,

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The good time has come, boys. Raisins are cheap at Smith's.

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The grocers and the keepers of those compound establishments half

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grocers and half Italian warehouses, have of late years very

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much increase their trade by large importations of preserved fruits.

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The English as a people do not excel in this manufacture,

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but the French and Italians, who have long been famous

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for it, improve in it every year. The English demand

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that has arisen, and which seems to go on increasing

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every year, will doubtless give a further impetus to their ingenuity.

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It is worth while to spend a few hours in

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the shop of a large importer of these elegant articles,

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not merely for the sake of the fruits themselves, crystallized

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and uncrystallized, but for a sight of the boxes in

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which they are packed. The French prints used for the

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purpose have long been celebrated for their beauty and fancy,

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and the boxes in which plums and those delicious little

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oranges known as sheenas are packed are worth preserving for

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their own sakes. After the fruit has been consumed. Some

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of the larger receptacles are fit to convert into workboxes

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after thee have served their original intention, and many are

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paired with a view to such a purpose. In these times,

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it might be worth the while of capitalists to devote

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their attention to the home manufacture of these articles, and

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also to the preservation of fruits. Sugar is as cheap

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in England as in France, and there is no reason

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why jams and marmalade, good as they are, should be

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the sole products of English industry as regards the preservation

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of fruit. The most pleasing, as well as the most

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common symptom of Christmas in the streets is the holly

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displayed in shops of every kind wherever eatables or drinkables

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are sold, and which is almost invariably to be seen

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at kitchen windows for a week or two before and

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after Christmas Day. Love in the kitchen could not prosper

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without the holly, and the policeman, in search of affection

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or of cold mutton, would think the kitchen of his

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fair friend unseasonable in its appearance if the sprigs of

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dark green intermingled with the bright red berries were absent

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from the window. The holly, chart of which a most

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admirable representation is given in our engraving, is also a

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pleasant sight in the streets, either of the outskirts of

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the metropolis as represented by the artist, or of the

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dense heart of the old city. Holly is a great

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article of commerce at Christmas time and yields a good

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prophet both to those who cultivate it and those who

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vended in the streets. Never was it more in request

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than it is now. Never may it be less sought

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after as the verdant symbol of the loving kindness of

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the season. There is one other aspect of the streets

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of London at Christmas which requires notice, the public heart

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being open. At Christmas beggars usually venture out with more

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certain hope of our charity than at other times. Nor

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is their hope disappointed, to say nothing of the carol singers,

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who seem to look upon themselves as privileged for the

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sake of the old familiar chain which they musically or unmusically,

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pour into our ears, And who of all ages and

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of both sexes, swarm in every street, in numbers of

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which an accurate estimate would convey a somewhat alarming idea

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of the poverty of London. Troops of unmusical beggars make

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their appearance in the streets. Ireland evidently contributes a large

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portion to this multitude of misery, and the mind is

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driven to reflect amid the gaiety and joviality of the time,

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not only upon the pauperism of that unhappy land, but

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of the pauperism of this which is made more wretched

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by the influx of these interlopers. The pauperism of England

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amounts to one million, four hundred thousand people. The Irish

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vagrants that come over to take their chance amongst us

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cannot account to many less than three hundred thousand, and

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possibly they amount to many more, forming an aggregate of

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one million and three quarters. When we fancy that this

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is almost equal to the whole population of London, Westminster, Lambeth, Southwark, Finsbury, Marleybone,

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the Tower, Hamlets, Kensington, Hammersmith, Greenwich and Woolwich. And when

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we attempt to realize to our mind how vast a

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multitude this is, and how fearful it would be if

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it were all congregated together in one place, we are

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compelled to ask, if there be not something radically wrong

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in our civilization which not only permits the growth of

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such a sore in the body politic, but which actually

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favors its growth. Let the minds of our great thinkers

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be directed to it. The chief difficulty of a time

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not far distant will be the existence and maintenance of

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this immense standing army of poverty. If there ever be

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a time when it is the duty of individuals to

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attempt to relieve it. That time is Christmas, at a

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period of feasts, when the paupers and the union workhouses

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are embraced in the large circle of our sympathies and

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cared for a little more liberally than usual. Let us

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draw a circle around the circle and include within it

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the beggars in the streets. It may be wrong as

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a rule to encourage street beggars by donations of any kind.

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But Christmas is an exceptional period, and though possibly in

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being charitable to all, we may be charitable to many

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worthless persons, the good will and the good day will

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consecrate the deed at least, although political theorists may dissent,

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and although the man who paid a very heavy poorest

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rate yesterday may see reason to be unconvinced. Such is

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the opinion until Christmas has passed of the oldest inhabitant

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end of the streets at Christmas time, by the oldest

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inhabitant