Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-02-07
STREET MiNSTREI.S.
IN ENGLAND THE WANDERING SING
Frs MAKE GOOD WAGES.

Ten Fifteen Dollars a weeL Is Not an
Unusual Amount for Go"d Weeks |
Work-An Interesting Intervie " with the
Leader of a Travelling Band.
1t was in little court off the Strand
where | caught "Brudder Johrs:st with
his three minstrel friends They were Just
moving off from that particular pitch to
another, where the police were not so anx-
ious that they should move on"
That's the worst of our perfession 'ere,"
began Mr. Johnsing, as the end men call
him. No sooner are you well fixed on g
good pitch than the bobby comes and moves
yer on. OF course if we can make our col
lection before he comes it doesn't much
matter" And here he chuckled.
Then where can you make most money!
"Oh, at the seaside: but that is only dur
ing the summer. In the late autumn and
winter we make for London. There we find
quiet street off one of the big thorough
fares, or a square in Bloomsbury, or far
Their away in the suburbs pays US best.
Our day is long one, and | don't know
how many times we repeat our songs and
jokes. The money we collect on a pitch
varies greatly Sometimes we make as
much as five shiilings or six shillines,
work. But then we may 90 from pitch TO
pitch for whole afternoon or night with
out getting more than few coppers from
each"
But at what do you average your week
ly takings?"
We'll, that depends A bad, wet season
keeps the average low. But. after all, in
first rate company like ours we generally
manage to make at least two or three pounds
a week. That means working many hours
p day without rest. When we are at the
Eeaside we may even beat these earnings.
but If we do j 8 good business. Wealways
do well in Bloomsbury. You see, there are
n lot of foreigners who lodge there and they
are always coming and going. Our pro
gramme there of course never falls fat''
What caused you TO turn to this bust
ness?"
why, because I had failed at everything
else. But | had little talent as a singer
of comic songs and played on the banjo
and one Gay became 50 desperate at my
| i'll luck that it occurred to me to go into
| the streets with a hlackened face and try
| my hand at negro minstrelsy Well, the
| first days earnings produced %. 31fd. You
| laugh. hut it was a godsend to me- The
next day did even better, and my earnings
| for the first week came to twenty-four
| shillings.
THE next week I bought an old fancy
negro minstrel costume from a secondhand
| dealer, and as r result did better and bet
| ter. In a month had got together one or
two pals, and we then determined to storm
| Brighton. We did so and made lot of
money. Each of US was twenty pounds in
pocket at the end of the season We had
bought a concertina, tambourine and bones
1 fO- h. IL
| painted the town red.
| Here's something which Won NAV or
may not like to put down Not long aga
we always made a pitch opposite a n..e
in Bayswater and performed ovr p. ..-
gramme for the benefit OF Il lit,lc -cr.,s...... -
! tive boy, whose mother Wantc.! to- r,.-"
him. We went there every dav for - 'Ho-t n
every time doing something new The
day after the end of the month we again
went to the house. but the blinds were
down. a servant came out and told US hat
the mother had left US a ten pound note
She had taken her little boy to Torquay,
where he was expected to die. / shall never
forget the merry way in which the young
ster laughed at our jokes" And ''Brudder
Johnsing" looked as sad as lie could with Il
coal black face
"How long are you going to keep up your
.street work2'
"Oh, as long as it pays We have to con
tinually find something fresh to sing, and
| if you We a joke or two about you we should
be glad to use them. Sometimes we gag as
much rs Arthur Roberts, and other OF our
Jokes we discover in the comic papers.
| Talking of Arthur Roberts reminds me
that many street MINISTRIES have gone onto
the music hall stage. One man I know
makes quite ten pounds a week in winter
in taking turns at the halls spending the
summer time AZ the seaside where he earns
quite as much. Some day I hope to try his
kind of business.
What kind OF songs do we sing? Oh.
any that are popular. You see. we may
sing as many as we care, whether they are
copyright or not, and I know a man in the
same line as myself who can always get a
crowd around him by singing some of Gil
bert and Sullivan's songs from the SAVOY
operas. But some of Chev8lier's songs 60
down quite as well. No, there are not
many troops of MINISTRIES who perform in
the streets, although there are a number OF
single performers on the banjo who &c
around the 'pubGcs' and take their luck II
earning a copper"
BY this time the troop had reached an.
other pitch, where / left "Brudder John.
sing" who was at that moment endeavor
ing to explain to the obtuse "Bruddel
Bones" an easy conundrum of which ev-
: | erybody else at once saw the solution
London Million,
Myth of the CIiH DweIIers Exploded
The fable of the so called cliff builder