The Express.
London, England, 1865-09-06 00:00:00

The Act of Parlfenientoonipellhig pawnbrokers to
keina until 11 p.m. on Saturdays operates with
sr sifted in different London neighbourboode.
Herlit: • hardship to be called upon to burs gas
and up the semblance of work keg after its
reality departed ; there, another hour's goo* is
taken, and the crowded rush goes on unistermit-
faintly until midnight. To the bulk of West-end
pawnbrokers, Saturday night brings no special duty.
Watches, rings, timepieces. pictures, plate, or
knick-knacks, are as likely to remain undisturbed
by their owners daring that evening as on any
other throughout the week, while the sudden pecu-
niary. needs of customers are neither more nor lees
prawn than at other times. The ordinary rou-
tine of their business goes on therefore, undisturbed,
and were it not for the Act just cited many shops
now necessarily open until 11, would close at their
usual hour. But the pawnbroker in an essentially
low neighbourhood has to compress into a Saturday
evening as many business transactions as in the
whole week besides. And these operations are
almost uniform in their character. He has neither
Aims to attend to sales over the counter, nor
attuopportunity for lending money upon goods.
out pledges, receiving the money lent upon
them, and calculating and claiming the interest
due, occupies the entire night, keeps his shop
full to overflowing, and his staff of assistants inces-
santly engaged.
Last Saturday evening we took up our station
behind the counter of a pawnbroker's shop in one
of the lowest neighbourhoods in London, and had
ample facilities afforded us for observing the routine
of its business, the class of people forming its chief
customers, the nature of their dealings, the sums
they had borrowed, and the interest-money they
p. Situate in a narrow flaring thoroughfare,
and imbedded in a complex web of hemp facto-
the tallow-melting establishments, hat manufac-
tories, and a series of densely populated colonies
of bricklayers, labourers, waterside-men, shirt-
makers, sempetresses, and carmen, this establish-
ment may be taken as a fair type of others of its
class ; while in the number of its smell operations,
and the variety of its customer it is probably
among the most noteworthy in London. It pro-
' cures from an adjacent tobacconist's, and disposes
of during every week, fromlsol.to 2001. in halfpence
and threepenny sod fourpeuuy pieces. More than
12,000 pledges are redeemed there each Saturday
night throughout the year' the sum lent on each
ranging from one shilling, and their average being
apparently little over four shillings each. Thus, a
1 week ago, the Saturday's returns showed that
2,100 pledges were taken out by their owners, and
a total of 4181. paid, for them, besides some 111.
for interest and during our two visits, and some-
what lengthened stay, the rapid :stoat which small
bundles were handed over the counter, and the
1 kaleidoscope-like quickness with which one set of
eager struggling applicants made way for another,
during what was spoken of as "a comparatively
slack night," through so many of the poor Irish
being away in the hop districts, gave convincing
proof of the all-engrossing, continuous business
carried on.
The entire house, moreover, is crammed with
articles pledged. ded-rooms, attics, lofts, stair-
cases, lumber-closets, and landing-placee are con-
verted into warterooms for small parcels with
tickets affixed. The visitor knocks his bead against
bundles of mortgaged goods, finds it impossible to
avoid treading on them, sees them stacked above
and below, to the right and left of him, and after
being courteously
conducted through a geod-sired
house, finds the pledges to have completely invaded,
and all but edged out its dwelling accommodation.
Floor after floor of open shelves, divided into huge
pigeon-holes, running 'from ground to ceiling, and
so arranged that there is just room to walk between
each, are seen in uniform array. Each division is
stacked according to the nature of the article and
the sum lent on it. Thus, the eastern corner of one
wall is crammed with bundles of " two-shil-
ling gowns," neatly folded, and looking rather
like large rolly-polly puddings still in their
cloths. The next compartments have gowns
on which a trifle more has been lent—
and so on to the end. Trousers, shawls, coats, over-
coats, petticoats, shirts, shifts, are similarly arranged
and classified, while in ',the centre of the wall an
opening communicates with the shop below. The
shoot contained in this opening is never idle, and
the bell calling attention to it is seldom still. Four
youths are busily engaged in receiving the tickets
and looking out and sending down the parcels to
which they refer. As there are altogether some ten
to twelve thousand separate parcels lodged as we
have described, the ease with which each is found, i
and the short time elapsing between the borrower's
application for his goods and their delivery, are no
mean tribute to the system of organization.
An inspection of the trade-books of disbursement I
and receipt showed the net gains on what is com-
monly called "a low business" to be less than is
ordinarily supposed. The immense number of
transactions involves the necessity of keeping
up a numerous and expert staff of assistants,
and the salaries paid them form an important
item in annual outlay. Here, for example,
there are five men arduously engaged be-
hind the counter, who alternately ring the
shoot-bell, call up the opening, about "Mrs.
Brown, 3 !" " Name of Johnson—shift and a pair
of boots." "Any one here of the name of Jones 1"
and so on, to the customers' waiting, who clap
down the bundles and estimate and receive the
mosey due on them with skilled rapidity. Two of
these active busy shopmen receive 75/.,one 601., one
401., and one 301. per annum. The smallest
of the urchins upstairs has 101. a year, while his
bigger brethren have from 101. to 181. a year each.
As all these people are provided with board and
lodging, it will be readily seen that a
vast amount of " low trade," and the oonsequent
necessity of maintaining nine able-bodied assistants,
is not, from a purely tradesmaulike point of view,
an unmixed good. The capital required for such
a businesses we are describing is said to be about
7,000/. ; the general expenseswere put to us at 1,2001.
a year • and the trade incomings at a far lees sum
than the aspect of the crowded shop seemed to indi-
cate. It is fair to add that the figures given were
strictly borne out by the books. Taking
four months in the present year hap-
hazard from the journal of disbursements
we found the outlay in each to have been respec-
tively 1351., 801., 1201., and 791. This total of
4141. gives au average of 1031. per month, or about
the sum per annum just named. The receipts per
week for interest and ticket money seemed to ave-
rage from 241. to 351. ; thus corroborating in similar
fashion the annual sum mentioned to us.
About three years since an important alteration
was made in pawnbroldng law. 'Before that time,
when sums of leas than se. were lent no charge for
the ticket could be made. It was then settled that
one halfpenny should be levied by the pawnbroker
upon tickets for all such small amounts, and in the
instance before us this concession alone makes a
difference in income of some 1501. per &swim to
the shopkeeper. The pettiness of the transactions,
and the shortness of the time for which the money
is borrowed, amply show the relative importance of
this extra charge, trivial though it seems. We am
lysed fifty out of 2,000 tickets on Saturday,
for articles which had been redeemed, taking
them at random, and with the view
of estimating how long the goods left with
this particular pawnbroker remained—bearing
interest—in his bands. In 38 eases out of the 5)
the tickets were not a month old, in 7 cases they
were not a week, and the remaining 7 were all dated
less than Bmonths from the presenttime .It wean*:
therefore surprising to find, on one day last week
not a Saiurday, that while for the 137 articles re-
deemed the mosey lent amounted to 291. 3s. 3d.,
the interest came to 11. 9s. 9d., and that the ticket*

money, for sums under se. alone, at a half penny each,
came to no lees than 16s. 3d. Before quitting this
branch of the subject it is impossible to avoid
noting the amusing &beanoe of mystery or reticence
observed in the records of the business ins
The expenditure book lies open on a shelf
the counter ; the ledger for daily and weakly receipts
is left with its braes clasp-lock unused, exposed to
view in a room open to the entire household ; and
as if this were not enough, the monies received ,
during the last two or three weeks are pencilled in
the band of the proprietor upon the postern of his
kitchen-door.
While these facts are being noted, and the ware-
rooms and their pledges atainnied, the regular buei-
nese of the evening is going on with 111101111111
vigour. The shoot-pulleys and ropes creak
and grumbled on with monotonous reg=
the downstairs bell kept ringing at un
intervals, and the rapid running to and fro of the
boys with parcels and bundles in their hands—all
spoke of the busy 'Weal the shop below. From
five in the afternoon, when we visited it first, to
eleven at night, when we left it for the second time,
the counter was crowded. Sometimes thirty, some-
time. a hundred people were there at ones, and the
appearance end atmosphere of the entire place were
not a Meth singular and evsaptionaL Festoons of
new boots and shoes, of shirts and ebeeeiess, hand-
kerchiefs and cape, are suspended by strings from
the low ceiling and the wall behind the counter.
A gaudy clock, with a coarse pictorial face, looks
down upon the throng in front of it ; obeapsporting
pictures, framed and glazed, vaunt their own ex-
(* Hence and proclaim their cheapness from the wall
beyond, while the cased-in window filled with a
heterogeneous mass of articles of dress, timepieces,
jewellery, watches, boots, and chimney ornaments,
speaks no less than does the pile of many-poloured
wraps and coats against which we lesui,of the extent
and variety of the pledges unredeemed. Nothing
is bought for stock here, and all the articles we see
ha's become the property of their present owner
through the time for their redemption having
passed by—a source of profit, by the way, not in-
cluded in the returns quoted. With the exception
of one futile attempt it bargaining for a shirt, no
approach to • sale takes place during one visit.
Quite ninety per cent. of those at the counter are
women end children, and the object of all MIMS so
be to obtain their goods and get away as rapidly
as possible. The perspiring countermen, who are
busily working in • close miasma made up of gas,
the effluvia of worn clothes, and human breath,
are besieged on all sides. Sometimes they are ad-
dressed afectionately as " Dears ;" sometimes de-
fiantly, as " You there !"--eometinies they are petu-
lantly upbraided for the time the beldame speaking
has been kept waiting for her pledge.
Half the place is open shop, the other half isdivided
into little boxes, originally meant for privacy, but
each of which is now crammed to repletion. Poverty
in all its phases is represented. The young work
girl, whose bit of shabby finery has been here since
Monday, takes it away with the certainty of bring-
ing it back again when Sunday has gone by.
Shrewish looking, slatternly women insist upon
having their full complement of bundles, and de-
cline paying for the dress, the trowsers, and the
bonnet, until the fourth pledge, a pair of boots, is
produced. Cap-less, bonnetless ehildres, who, stand-
ing on tip-toe, strive in vain to bring tbeir eyes on
a level with the counter, have the ticket for their
father's clothes handed over for them ; while now
and then, at rare intervals, a working man may be
discerned in the moving mass of faces, who takes out
bis garment for himself, paying the sum demanded
with a business air bespeaking long usage and con-
sequent acclimatization. All this time one of the
shopmen remains at the shoot, and the ringing of the
bell to those above, and the shouts of " name of
Blank, one parcel," "trowsers and dress for Smith,"
go on with the regularity of " make your game "
at rouge et noir.
Two things are especially worthy of remark. First,
the demeanour of the sordid crowd, gin-sodden,
tattered, and forlorn as its component
parts are,is rather jocund than otherwise—
as if the circumstance of being able to take
articles out of pawn more than condoned the
original necessity of pledging them—and secondly
that with scarcely an exception the bundles were
banded over and the money and interest paid
without mention of the amount. The time for
which the money had been borrowed, and the sort of
sum—varied so little, and the details of the opera-
tion were so familiar, that conversation on either
side would have been, in the present din, and push,
and rattle of basilica, nothing but a waste of time.
The gown or coat " in" for half-a-crown, or
under, bad 2a. 60. paid for it ; that for 3s. had
3s. Ojd. ; that for ti to fis. had a penny added
to the sum ; and in the rare cases where 5e
was exceeded, the adding a half-penny for every
2s. 6d. up to 21. was a process fully understood
by people unaccustomed to let their goods remain
longer then a month. The free gossip between
the women waiting, the full market-baskets on the
arms of some of them, and the purely matter-of-
fact demeanour of nearly all, confirmed the theory
that a Saturday night's visit to the pawnbroker's is
not much more out of the ordinary routine of life in
the district we were in—full as it is of a poverty too
deep for pretence, andwhicla knows not what " keep-
ing up appearances " means—than is a like all
on the butcher, or baker, or other indispensable
ministrant to its wants.