London Labour and the London Poor, Volume 1
Mayhew, Henry
1861
Of the Seller of the Penny Short-Hand Cards.
ALL ladies and gentlemen who "take their walks abroad," must have seen, and of course heard, a little man in humble attire engaged in selling at penny each a small card, containing a few sentences of letter-press, and stenographic characters, with an example, by which, it is asserted, anybody and everybody may "learn to write short-hand in a few hours." With the merits of the production, selfcon- sidered, this is not the place to meddle; suffice it that it is of the many ways of getting a crust common to the great metropolis, and perhaps the most innocent of all the street performances. A kind of a street lecture is given by the vendor, in which the article is sufficiently puffed off. Of course this lecture is, so to speak, stereotyped, embracing the same ideas in nearly the same words over and over and over again. The exhibitor, however, pleads that the constant exchange and interchange of passengers, and his desire to give each and all a fair amount of information, makes the repetition admissible, and even necessary. It is here given as a specimen of the style of the educated "patterer." | |