THE street-trade in ginger-beer—now a very considerable traffic—was not known to any extent until about years ago. About that time () a man, during a most sultry drought, sold extraordinary quantities of "cool ginger-beer" and of "soda-powders," near the , clearing, for the or weeks the heat continued, a day, or weekly. Soda-water he sold "in powders," the acid and the alkali being mixed in the water of the glass held by the customer, and drunk whilst effervescing. His prices were and a glass for ginger-beer; and and for soda-water, "according to the quality;" though there was in reality no difference whatever in the quality—only in the price. From that time, the numbers pursuing this street avocation increased gradually; they have however fallen off of late years.

The street-sellers who "brew their own beer" generally prepare half a gross ( dozen) at a time. For a "good quality" or the "penny bottle" trade, the following are the ingredients and the mode of preparation:— gallons of water; lb. of ginger, ; lemon-acid, ; essence of cloves, ; yeast, ; and lb. of raw sugar, This admixture, the yeast being the last ingredient introduced, stands hours, and is then ready for bottling. If the beverage be required in hours, double the quantity of yeast is used. The bottles are filled only "to the ridge," but the liquid and the froth more than fill a full-sized half-pint glass. "Only half froth," I was told, "is reckoned very fair, and it's just the same in the shops." Thus, bottles, each to be sold at , cost—apart from any outlay in utensils, or any consideration of the value of labour—only , and yield, at per bottle, For the cheaper beverage —called "playhouse ginger-beer" in the trade —instead of sugar, molasses from the "private distilleries" is made available. The "private" distilleries are the illicit ones: "'Jiggers,' we call them," said man; "and I could pass in minutes' walk from where we're talking." Molasses, costing at a jigger's, is sufficient for a half-gross of bottles of ginger-beer; and of the other ingredients only half the quantity is used, the cloves being altogether dispensed with, but the same amount of yeast is generally applied. This quality of "beer" is sold at the glass.

About years ago "fountains" for the production of ginger-beer became common in the streets. The ginger-beer trade in the open air is only for a summer season, extending from to months, according to the weather, the season last year having been over in about months. There were then fountains in the streets, all of which, excepting or of the best, were hired of the ginger-beer manufacturers, who drive a profitable trade in them. The average value of a street-fountain, with a handsome frame or stand, which is usually fixed on a wheeled and movable truck, so as man's strength may be sufficient to propel it, is ; and, for the rent of such a fountain, a week is paid when the season is brisk, and when it is slack; but last summer, I am told, was an average. The largest and handsomest ginger-beer fountain in London was—I speak of last summer—in use at the East-end, usually standing in , and is the property of a dancing-master. It is made of mahogany, and presents somewhat the form of an upright piano on wheels. It has pumps, and the brass of the pump-handles and the glass receivers is always kept bright and clean, so that the whole glitters handsomely to the light. persons "serve" at this fountain; and on a fine Sunday morning, from to , that being the best trading time, they take or in halfpennies—for "the beer" is a glass—and each other day of the week. This machine, as it may be called, is drawn by ponies, said to be worth a-piece; and the whole cost is pronounced—perhaps with a sufficient exaggeration—to have been There were, in the same neighbourhood, more fountains on a similar scale, but commoner, each drawn by only pony instead of the aristocratic "pair."

The ingredients required to feed the "gingerbeer" fountains are of a very cheap description. To supply gallons, quarts of lime-juice (as it is called, but it is, in reality, lemonjuice), costing , are placed in the recess, sometimes with the addition of a pound of sugar (); while some, I am assured, put in a smaller quantity of juice, and add twopennyworth of oil of vitriol, which "brings out the sharpness of the lime-juice." The rest is water. No process of brewing or fermentation is necessary, for the fixed air pumped into

There is another kind of "ginger-beer," or rather of "small acid tiff," which is sold out of barrels at street-stalls at the glass. To make gallons of this, there is used lb. tartaric, or other acid, ; lb. alkali (soda), ; lb. lump sugar, bruised fine, ; and yeast Of these "barrel-men" there are now about .

Another class of street-sellers obtain their stock of ginger-beer from the manufacturers. of the largest manufacturers for the streettrade resides near Ratcliffe-highway, and another in the Commercial-road. The charge by the wholesale traders is the doz., while to a known man, or for ready money, are given to the dozen. The beer, however, is often let out on credit—or in some cases security is given in the same way as for the fountains—and the empty bottles must be duly returned. It is not uncommon for gross of beer to be let out in this way at a time. For the itinerant trade these are placed on a truck or barrow, fitted up with shelves, on which are ranged the bottles. These barrows are hired in the same way as the costers' barrows. Some sell their beer at stalls fitted up exclusively for the trade, a kind of tank being let into the centre of the board and filled with water, in which the glasses are rinsed or washed. Underneath the stall there is usually a reserve of the beer, and a keg containing water. Some of the best frequented stalls were in Whitechapel, Old-street-road, Cityroad, Tottenham-court-road, the New-cut, Elephant and Castle, the Commercial-road, Towerhill, , and near Westminster-bridge.

The stationary beer business is, for the most part, carried on in the more public streets, such as and , and in the markets of Covent-garden, , and ; while the peripatetic trade, which is briskest on the Sundays—when, indeed, some of the stationary hands become itinerant—is more for the suburbs; Victoria-park, Battersea-fields, Hampstead-heath, , - common, and Camberwell-green, being approved Sunday haunts.

The London street-sellers of ginger-beer, say the more experienced, may be computed at —of whom about - are women. I heard them frequently estimated at , and some urged that the number was at least as near as . For my own part I am inclined to believe that half the smaller number would be nearer the truth. Judging by the number of miles of streets throughout the metropolis, and comparing the street-sellers of ginger-beer with the fruit-stall keepers, I am satisfied that in estimating the ginger-beer-sellers at we are rather over than under the truth. This body of street-sellers were more numerous years back by or per cent., but the introduction of the street fountains, and the trade being resorted to by the keepers of coal-sheds and the small shopkeepers—who have frequently a stand with ginger-beer in front of their shops —have reduced the amount of the street-sellers. In , there were ginger-beer sellers in the streets who had attached to their stalls or trucks labels, showing that they were members —or assumed to be members—of the Society of Odd Fellows. This was done in hopes of a greater amount of custom from the other members of the Society, but the expectation was not realised—and so the Odd Fellowship of the ginger-beer people disappeared. Of the street-traders work fountains; and of the remaining portion the stationary and the itinerant are about equally divided. Of the whole number, however, not above an confine themselves to the trade, but usually sell with their "pop" some other article of open-air traffic—fruit, sweet-stuff, or shell-fish. There are of the entire number about , who, whenever the weather permits, stay out all night with their stands or barrows, and are to be found especially in all the approaches to Coventgar- den, and the other markets to which there is a resort during the night or at day-break. These men, I was told by of their body, worked from in the evening to or next morning, then went to bed, rose at , and "plenty of 'em then goes to the skittles or to get drunk."

The character of the ginger-beer-sellers does not differ from what I have described as pertaining to the costermonger class, and to streettraders generally. There is the same admixture of the reduced mechanic, the broken-down gentleman's servant, the man of any class in life who cannot brook the confinement and restraint of ordinary in-door labour, and of the man "brought up to the streets." experienced and trustworthy man told me that from his own knowledge he could count up "classical men," as he styled them, who were in the street ginger-beer-trade, and of these had been, or were said to have been "parsons," being of the same name (Mr. S ——); but my informant did not know if they stood in any degree of consanguinity

Some of the stalls at which ginger-beer is sold —and it is the same at the coal-sheds and the chandlers' shops—are adorned pictorially. Erected at the end of a stall is often a painting, papered on a board, in which a gentleman, with the bluest of coats, the whitest of trousers, the yellowest of waistcoats, and the largest of guardchains or eye-glasses, is handing a glass of ginger-beer, frothed up like a pot of stout, and containing, apparently, a pint and a half, to some lady in flowing white robes, or gorgeous in purple or orange.

To commence in this branch of the street business requires, in all : glasses, ; board, ; tank, ; keg, ; gross of beer, (this is where the seller is not also the maker); and for towels, &c., ; if however the street-seller brew his own beer, he will require half a gross of bottles, ; and the ingredients I have enumerated,

In addition to the street-sale of ginger-beer is that of other summer-drinks. Of these, the principal is lemonade, the consumption of which is as much as that of all the others together. Indeed, the high-sounding names given to some of these beverages—such as "Nectar" and "Persian Sherbet"—are but other names for lemonade, in a slightly different colour or fashion.

Lemonade is made, by those vendors who deal in the best articles, after the following method: lb. of carbonate of soda, ; lb. of tartaric acid, ("at least," said an informant, ' pay at' Pothecaries Hall, but it can be had at "); lb. of loaf-sugar, ; essence of lemon, This admixture is kept, in the form of a powder, in a jar, and water is drawn from what the street-sellers call a "stonebar- rel"—which is a stone jar, something like the common-shaped filters, with a tap—and a larger or smaller spoonful of the admixture in a glass of water supplies an effervescing draught for or "There's sometimes shocking roguishness in the trade," said man, "and there is in a many trades—some uses vitriol!" Lemonade, made after the recipe I have given, is sometimes bottled by the street-sellers, and sold in the same way as ginger-beer. It is bought, also, for street sale of the ginger-beer manufacturers—the profit being the same—but so bought to less than a of the whole sale. The water in the stone barrel is spring-water, obtained from the nearest pump, and in hot weather obtained frequently, so as to be "served" in as cool a state as possible. Sometimes lemonade powders are used; they are bought at a chemist's, at the pound. "Sherbet" is the same admixture, with cream of tartar instead of tartaric acid. "Raspberry" has, sometimes, the addition of a few crusted raspberries, and a colouring of cochineal, with, generally, a greater degree of sweetening than lemonade. "If cochineal is used for colouring," said man, "it sometimes turns brown in the sun, and the rasberry don't sell. A little lake's better." "Lemon-juice" is again lemonade, with a slight infusion of saffron to give it a yellow or pale orange colour. "Nectar," in imitation of Soyer's, has more sugar and less acid than the lemonade; spices, such as cinnamon, is used to flavour it, and the colouring is from lake and saffron.

These "cooling drinks" are sold from the powder or the jar, as I have described, from fountains, and from bottles. The fountain sale is not above a of the whole. All is sold in and glasses, except the nectar, which is never less than The customers are the same as those who buy ginger-beer; but "lemonader" with whom I conversed, seemed inclined to insist that they were a "more respectabler class." Boys are good customers—better, perhaps, than for the beer,—as "the colour and the fine names attracts them."

The "cooling drink" season, like that of the ginger-beer, is determined by the weather, and last summer it was only months. It was computed for me that there were persons, chiefly men, selling solely lemonade, &c., and an additional uniting the sale with that of ginger-beer. man, whose statement was confirmed by others, told me that on fine days he took , out of which he cleared to ; and he concluded that his brother tradesmen cleared as much every fine day, and so, allowing for wet weather and diminished receipts, made a week. The receipts, then, for this street luxury—a receipt of affording a profit of —show a street expenditure in such a summer as the last, of , by those who do not unite ginger-beer with the trade. Calculating that those who do unite ginger beer with it sell only -half as much as the others, we find a total outlay of of the best trades is in the hands of a man who "works" , and on the market days clears generally from to

The stalls, &c., are of the same character as those of the ginger-beer sellers. The capital required to start is:—stone barrel, with brass tap, ; stand and trestle, ; tumbler glasses, ; towels, ; stock money, ; jar, ; bottles (when used), ; in all, about a guinea.

In showing the money expended in the ginger-beer trade it must be borne in mind that a large portion of the profits accrues to persons who cannot be properly classed with the regular street-traders. Such is the proprietor of the great fountain of which I have spoken, who is to be classed as a speculative man, ready to embark capital in any way—whether connected with street-traffic or not—likely to be remunerative. The other and large participants in the profits are the wholesale ginger-beer manufacturers, who are also the letters-out of fountains, of them having generally let out at a time. For a street trader to sell gross of ginger-beer in bottle is now accounted a week, and for that the receipts

The fountain trade is the most profitable to the proprietors, whether they send out their machines on their own account, or let them out on hire; but perhaps there are only an of the number not let out on hire. Calculating that a fountain be let out for successive seasons of weeks each, at only the week, the gross receipts are for what on the day of hire was worth only ; so that the returns from machines let out for the same term, would be , or a profit of over and above the worth of the fountain, which having been thus paid for is of course in a succeeding year the means of a clear profit of I am assured that the weekly average of "a fountain's takings," when in the hands of the regular street-dealers, is

The barrel traders may be taken as in the average receipt of a week.

The duration of the season was, last year, only weeks. Calculating from the best data I could acquire, it appears that for this period street-sellers of ginger-beer in the bottle trade of the penny class take a week each (thus allowing for the inferior receipts in bad weather); take each, selling for the most part at the bottle, and that the remaining "in a small way" take each; hence we find expended in the bottled ginger-beer of the streets. Adding the receipts from the fountains and the barrels, the barrel season continuing only weeks, the total sum expended annually in street ginger-beer is altogether The bottles of ginger-beer sold yearly in the streets will number about , and the total street consumption of the same beverage may be said to be about gallons per annum.