The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-23 00:00:00

RAG FAIR ON A SUNDAY.

At a meeting of the King's-cross Branch of the
City Missionary Society, held last night at the
Tunbridge-place Schools, Mr. Jackson, commonly
known as the "Rag Fair Missionary," gave some
curious details of the manner in which business is
transacted in this renowned mart for stolen and de-
cayed property. It appears that a portion of the
market only is within the limits of the City. The
Lord Mayor some two or three years kiuce inter-
dicted all Sunday trade in that portion of the mar-
ket over which he had authority. This proceeding
so far from putting do wn the evil, his augmented it,
as the area in which the market is held is now se
crowded with dealers that the police can scarcely
force their way into the mass. The dealers in
stolen goo Is and d•lapidated garments are divided
into two classes :—" men's clobbers" and "women's
clobbers,"—that is, persons who renovate men's
clothes and women's clothes. The quantity of pro-
perty that changes bands on a Sunday morning in
Rag Fair is something marvellous. Mr. Jackson
staled that as much as a thousand pounds has
changed hands within 15 minutes. The gauge of
boys who infest the streets for the purpose of
stealing pocket-handkerchiefs lasing the produce of
their week's industry to Rag Fair on the Sunday.
The handkerchiefs are washed and the numbers
carefully removed in order to prevent identifica-
tion. The selling price of a coloured silk hand-
kerchief is a shilling, and the juvenile thieves,
knowing the value of the article, rarely take less.
Handkerchiefs are called in Rag Fair phraseology
" (ogles," " stokes," " billies," and " wipes."
Should an " outsider"—a person not in the trade—
purchase a handkerchief thus exposed for sale, the
chances are that he will be robbed of it long before
he can make his escape from the market. Mr.
Jackson estimates the number of dealers frequent-
ing the fair on a Sunday morning at between 20,000
and 30,00) persons, including a great number of
children. The purchases and exchanges are made
with great rapidity, and garments are sold which
the uninitiated in such matters would suppose
utterly worthless. In many instances the police
are witnesses to the transfer of valuable property
which they have the fullest conviction is the pro-
duce of street and shop robberies, but which they
cannot seize, as they have no means of identifying
it. There is no description of property which can-
not be worked" (disposed of) in Rag Fair ; but
even in this sink of iniquity some progress has been
made towards the reformation of individuals. Mr.
Jackson exhibited a number of skeleton keys and
houselYeaking implements, which ho had obtained
possession of in the course of his vieite in the dis-
trict. Housebreaking instruments are generally
concealed beneath the hearthstone, which is so
fixed that it can be raised and shut down again
without leaving the appearance of being disturbed.
Mr. Jackson stated that one key which he exhi-
bited had a tale of crime associated with it that
would freeze the heart of a bold man to hear.

A RUNAWAY ENGINE.-0a Saturday morning an
accident occurred on the Granton section of the Edin-
burgh, Perth, and Dundee Riilway, which might have
been attended with fearful consequences. It is a railway
of three or four miles from E finburgh to Granton Pier,
on the Firth of Forth, add is on a considerable gradient
downward 4, particularly in the long tunnel apt the upper
end,l which is worked by breaks instead of locomo-
tives. A goods train had gone down the tunnel, but
had acquired too great an impetus for the breaks, and
it shot past the station at Scotland-street, which it should
have stopped at. In the short tunnel beyond that
station it overtook and smashed into a coal train, scatter-
ing 30 or 40 tons of coals on the line. The engine in
front of the coal train was jerked off by the shock, and
the dri7er jumping off in alarm ; the engine dashed
down the line at tremendous and increasing speed, not
stopping till it reached the Pier Station, where it smashed
several carriages, into which passengers just arrived by
a steamer had been entering, but were warned out in
time by the guards, who had fortunately seen the engine
approaching from a distance. Providentially no life was
lost nor personal injury sustained by the accident; but
the loss of plant and injury to the contents of the goods
train and coal waggons was somewhat serious: The
coal trucks, the carriages at Granton, and the engines
were all nearly rendered useless.
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