Reprinted Pieces

by Dickens, Charles

  blows from whips fell heavily on the Temple's walls, when by

  stopping up the road longer than usual, we irritated carters and

  coachmen to madness; but they fell harmless upon us within and

  disturbed not the serenity of our peaceful retreat. As I looked

  upward, I felt, I should imagine, like the Astronomer Royal. I was

  enchanted by the contrast between the freezing nature of our

  external mission on the blood of the populace, and the perfect

  composure reigning within those sacred precincts: where His

  Majesty, reclining easily on his left arm, smoked his pipe and

  drank his rum-and-water from his own side of the tumbler, which

  stood impartially between us. As I looked down from the clouds and

  caught his royal eye, he understood my reflections. 'I have an

  idea,' he observed, with an upward glance, 'of training scarlet

  runners across in the season, - making a arbour of it, - and

  sometimes taking tea in the same, according to the song.'

  I nodded approval.

  'And here you repose and think?' said I.

  'And think,' said he, 'of posters - walls - and hoardings.'

  We were both silent, contemplating the vastness of the subject. I

  remembered a surprising fancy of dear THOMAS HOOD'S, and wondered

  whether this monarch ever sighed to repair to the great wall of

  China, and stick bills all over it.

  'And so,' said he, rousing himself, 'it's facts as you collect?'

  'Facts,' said I.

  'The facts of bill-sticking,' pursued His Majesty, in a benignant

  manner, 'as known to myself, air as following. When my father was

  Engineer, Beadle, and Bill-Sticker to the parish of St. Andrew's,

  Holborn, he employed women to post bills for him. He employed

  women to post bills at the time of the riots of London. He died at

  the age of seventy-five year, and was buried by the murdered Eliza

  Grimwood, over in the Waterloo Road.'

  As this was somewhat in the nature of a royal speech, I listened

  with deference and silently. His Majesty, taking a scroll from his

  pocket, proceeded, with great distinctness, to pour out the

  following flood of information:-

  '"The bills being at that period mostly proclamations and

  declarations, and which were only a demy size, the manner of

  posting the bills (as they did not use brushes) was by means of a

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  piece of wood which they called a 'dabber.' Thus things continued

  till such time as the State Lottery was passed, and then the

  printers began to print larger bills, and men were employed instead

  of women, as the State Lottery Commissioners then began to send men

  all over England to post bills, and would keep them out for six or

  eight months at a time, and they were called by the London billstickers

  'TRAMPERS,' their wages at the time being ten shillings

  per day, besides expenses. They used sometimes to be stationed in

  large towns for five or six months together, distributing the

  schemes to all the houses in the town. And then there were more

  caricature wood-block engravings for posting-bills than there are

  at the present time, the principal printers, at that time, of

  posting-bills being Messrs. Evans and Ruffy, of Budge Row;

  Thoroughgood and Whiting, of the present day; and Messrs. Gye and

  Balne, Gracechurch Street, City. The largest bills printed at that

  period were a two-sheet double crown; and when they commenced

  printing four-sheet bills, two bill-stickers would work together.

  They had no settled wages per week, but had a fixed price for their

  work, and the London bill-stickers, during a lottery week, have

  been known to earn, each, eight or nine pounds per week, till the

  day of drawing; likewise the men who carried boards in the street

  used to have one pound per week, and the bill-stickers at that time

  would not allow any one to wilfully cover or destroy their bills,

  as they had a society amongst themselves, and very frequently dined

  together at some public-house where they used to go of an evening

  to have their work delivered out untoe 'em."'

  All this His Majesty delivered in a gallant manner; posting it, as

  it were, before me, in a great proclamation. I took advantage of

  the pause he now made, to inquire what a 'two-sheet double crown'

  might express?

  'A two-sheet double crown,' replied the King, 'is a bill thirtynine

  inches wide by thirty inches high.'

  'Is it possible,' said I, my mind reverting to the gigantic

  admonitions we were then displaying to the multitude - which were

  as infants to some of the posting-bills on the rotten old warehouse

  - 'that some few years ago the largest bill was no larger than

  that?'

  'The fact,' returned the King, 'is undoubtedly so.' Here he

  instantly rushed again into the scroll.

  '"Since the abolishing of the State Lottery all that good feeling

  has gone, and nothing but jealousy exists, through the rivalry of

  each other. Several bill-sticking companies have started, but have

  failed. The first party that started a company was twelve year

  ago; but what was left of the old school and their dependants

  joined together and opposed them. And for some time we were quiet

  again, till a printer of Hatton Garden formed a company by hiring

  the sides of houses; but he was not supported by the public, and he

  left his wooden frames fixed up for rent. The last company that

  started, took advantage of the New Police Act, and hired of Messrs.

  Grissell and Peto the hoarding of Trafalgar Square, and established

  a bill-sticking office in Cursitor Street, Chancery Lane, and

  engaged some of the new bill-stickers to do their work, and for a

  time got the half of all our work, and with such spirit did they

  carry on their opposition towards us, that they used to give us in

  charge before the magistrate, and get us fined; but they found it

  so expensive, that they could not keep it up, for they were always

  employing a lot of ruffians from the Seven Dials to come and fight

  us; and on one occasion the old bill-stickers went to Trafalgar

  Square to attempt to post bills, when they were given in custody by

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  the watchman in their employ, and fined at Queen Square five

  pounds, as they would not allow any of us to speak in the office;

  but when they were gone, we had an interview with the magistrate,

  who mitigated the fine to fifteen shillings. During the time the

  men were waiting for the fine, this company started off to a

  public-house that we were in the habit of using, and waited for us

  coming back, where a fighting scene took place that beggars

  description. Shortly after this, the principal one day came and

  shook hands with us, and acknowledged that he had broken up the

  company, and that he himself had lost five hundred pound in trying

  to overthrow us. We then took possession of the hoarding in

  Trafalgar Square; but Messrs. Grissell and Peto would not allow us

  to post our bills on the said hoarding without paying them - and

 
from first to last we paid upwards of two hundred pounds for that

  hoarding, and likewise the hoarding of the Reform Club-house, Pall

  Mall."'

  His Majesty, being now completely out of breath, laid down his

  scroll (which he appeared to have finished), puffed at his pipe,

  and took some rum-and-water. I embraced the opportunity of asking

  how many divisions the art and mystery of bill-sticking comprised?

  He replied, three - auctioneers' bill-sticking, theatrical billsticking,

  general bill-sticking.

  'The auctioneers' porters,' said the King, 'who do their billsticking,

  are mostly respectable and intelligent, and generally

  well paid for their work, whether in town or country. The price

  paid by the principal auctioneers for country work is nine

  shillings per day; that is, seven shillings for day's work, one

  shilling for lodging, and one for paste. Town work is five

  shillings a day, including paste.'

  'Town work must be rather hot work,' said I, 'if there be many of

  those fighting scenes that beggar description, among the billstickers?'

  'Well,' replied the King, 'I an't a stranger, I assure you, to

  black eyes; a bill-sticker ought to know how to handle his fists a

  bit. As to that row I have mentioned, that grew out of

  competition, conducted in an uncompromising spirit. Besides a man

  in a horse-and-shay continually following us about, the company had

  a watchman on duty, night and day, to prevent us sticking bills

  upon the hoarding in Trafalgar Square. We went there, early one

  morning, to stick bills and to black-wash their bills if we were

  interfered with. We WERE interfered with, and I gave the word for

  laying on the wash. It WAS laid on - pretty brisk - and we were

  all taken to Queen Square: but they couldn't fine ME. I knew

  that,' - with a bright smile - 'I'd only give directions - I was

  only the General.' Charmed with this monarch's affability, I

  inquired if he had ever hired a hoarding himself.

  'Hired a large one,' he replied, 'opposite the Lyceum Theatre, when

  the buildings was there. Paid thirty pound for it; let out places

  on it, and called it "The External Paper-Hanging Station." But it

  didn't answer. Ah!' said His Majesty thoughtfully, as he filled

  the glass, 'Bill-stickers have a deal to contend with. The billsticking

  clause was got into the Police Act by a member of

  Parliament that employed me at his election. The clause is pretty

  stiff respecting where bills go; but HE didn't mind where HIS bills

  went. It was all right enough, so long as they was HIS bills!'

  Fearful that I observed a shadow of misanthropy on the King's

  cheerful face, I asked whose ingenious invention that was, which I

  greatly admired, of sticking bills under the arches of the bridges.

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  'Mine!' said His Majesty. 'I was the first that ever stuck a bill

  under a bridge! Imitators soon rose up, of course. - When don't

  they? But they stuck 'em at low-water, and the tide came and swept

  the bills clean away. I knew that!' The King laughed.

  'What may be the name of that instrument, like an immense fishingrod,'

  I inquired, 'with which bills are posted on high places?'

  'The joints,' returned His Majesty. 'Now, we use the joints where

  formerly we used ladders - as they do still in country places.

  Once, when Madame' (Vestris, understood) 'was playing in Liverpool,

  another bill-sticker and me were at it together on the wall outside

  the Clarence Dock - me with the joints - him on a ladder. Lord! I

  had my bill up, right over his head, yards above him, ladder and

  all, while he was crawling to his work. The people going in and

  out of the docks, stood and laughed! - It's about thirty years

  since the joints come in.'

  'Are there any bill-stickers who can't read?' I took the liberty of

  inquiring.

  'Some,' said the King. 'But they know which is the right side

  up'ards of their work. They keep it as it's given out to 'em. I

  have seen a bill or so stuck wrong side up'ards. But it's very

  rare.'

  Our discourse sustained some interruption at this point, by the

  procession of cars occasioning a stoppage of about three-quarters

  of a mile in length, as nearly as I could judge. His Majesty,

  however, entreating me not to be discomposed by the contingent

  uproar, smoked with great placidity, and surveyed the firmament.

  When we were again in motion, I begged to be informed what was the

  largest poster His Majesty had ever seen. The King replied, 'A

  thirty-six sheet poster.' I gathered, also, that there were about

  a hundred and fifty bill-stickers in London, and that His Majesty

  considered an average hand equal to the posting of one hundred

  bills (single sheets) in a day. The King was of opinion, that,

  although posters had much increased in size, they had not increased

  in number; as the abolition of the State Lotteries had occasioned a

  great falling off, especially in the country. Over and above which

  change, I bethought myself that the custom of advertising in

  newspapers had greatly increased. The completion of many London

  improvements, as Trafalgar Square (I particularly observed the

  singularity of His Majesty's calling THAT an improvement), the

  Royal Exchange, &c., had of late years reduced the number of

  advantageous posting-places. Bill-Stickers at present rather

  confine themselves to districts, than to particular descriptions of

  work. One man would strike over Whitechapel, another would take

  round Houndsditch, Shoreditch, and the City Road; one (the King

  said) would stick to the Surrey side; another would make a beat of

  the West-end.

  His Majesty remarked, with some approach to severity, on the

  neglect of delicacy and taste, gradually introduced into the trade

  by the new school: a profligate and inferior race of impostors who

  took jobs at almost any price, to the detriment of the old school,

  and the confusion of their own misguided employers. He considered

  that the trade was overdone with competition, and observed speaking

  of his subjects, 'There are too many of 'em.' He believed, still,

  that things were a little better than they had been; adducing, as a

  proof, the fact that particular posting places were now reserved,

  by common consent, for particular posters; those places, however,

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  must be regularly occupied by those posters, or, they lapsed and

  fell into other hands. It was of no use giving a man a Drury Lane

  bill this week and not next. Where was it to go? He was of

  opinion that going to the expense of putting up your own board on

  which your sticker could display your own bills, was the only

  complete way of posting yourself at the present time; but, even to

  effect this, on payment of a shilling a week to the keepers of

  steamboat piers and other such places, you must be able, besides,

  to give orders for theatres and public exhibitions, or you would be

  sure to be cut out by somebody. His Majesty regarded t
he passion

  for orders, as one of the most unappeasable appetites of human

  nature. If there were a building, or if there were repairs, going

  on, anywhere, you could generally stand something and make it right

  with the foreman of the works; but, orders would be expected from

  you, and the man who could give the most orders was the man who

  would come off best. There was this other objectionable point, in

  orders, that workmen sold them for drink, and often sold them to

  persons who were likewise troubled with the weakness of thirst:

  which led (His Majesty said) to the presentation of your orders at

  Theatre doors, by individuals who were 'too shakery' to derive

  intellectual profit from the entertainments, and who brought a

  scandal on you. Finally, His Majesty said that you could hardly

  put too little in a poster; what you wanted, was, two or three good

  catch-lines for the eye to rest on - then, leave it alone - and

  there you were!

  These are the minutes of my conversation with His Majesty, as I

  noted them down shortly afterwards. I am not aware that I have

  been betrayed into any alteration or suppression. The manner of

  the King was frank in the extreme; and he seemed to me to avoid, at

  once that slight tendency to repetition which may have been

  observed in the conversation of His Majesty King George the Third,

  and - that slight under-current of egotism which the curious

  observer may perhaps detect in the conversation of Napoleon

  Bonaparte.

  I must do the King the justice to say that it was I, and not he,

  who closed the dialogue. At this juncture, I became the subject of

  a remarkable optical delusion; the legs of my stool appeared to me

  to double up; the car to spin round and round with great violence;

  and a mist to arise between myself and His Majesty. In addition to

  these sensations, I felt extremely unwell. I refer these

  unpleasant effects, either to the paste with which the posters were

  affixed to the van: which may have contained some small portion of

  arsenic; or, to the printer's ink, which may have contained some

  equally deleterious ingredient. Of this, I cannot be sure. I am

  only sure that I was not affected, either by the smoke, or the rumand-

  water. I was assisted out of the vehicle, in a state of mind

  which I have only experienced in two other places - I allude to the

  Pier at Dover, and to the corresponding portion of the town of