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Source: London Labour and the London Poor Henry Mayhew (1861) Of the Street-Sellers of Broad-Sheets and Song-BooksThe broad-sheet known in street-sale is an unfolded sheet, varying in size, and printed on one side. The word is frequently used to signify an account of a murder or execution, but it may contain an account of a fire, an awful accident and great loss of life, a series of conundrums, as in those called Nuts to Crack, a comic or intended comic engraving, with a speech or some verses, as recently in satire of the Pope and Cardinal Wiseman, or a bill of the play.The sale of song-books in the streets is smaller than it was two years ago. One reason that I heard assigned was that the penny song-books - styled `The Universal Songbook,' `The National,' `The Bijou,' &c. - were reputed to be so much alike (the same songs under a different title), that people who had bought one book were averse to buy another. There's the `Ross' and the `Sam Hall' song-books, said one man, the `eighteenth series,' and I don't know what; but I don't like to venture on working them, though they're only a penny. There's lots to be seen in the shop-windows; but they might be stopped in the street, for they an't decent - 'specially the flash ones. One of the books which a poor man had found the most saleable is entitled, `The Great Exhibition Songbook; a Collection of the Newest and Most Admired Songs. Embellished with upwards of one Hundred Toasts and Sentiments.' To show the nature of the songs in street demand, I cite those in the book: `The Gathering of the Nations,' `Bloom is on the Rye,' `Wilt thou Meet me there, Love?' `Minna's Tomb,' `I'll Love thee ever Dearly' (Arnold), `When Phoebus wakes the Rosy Hours,' `Money is your Friend,' `Julia and Caspar' (G.M. Lewis), `That pretty word, Yes' (E. Mackey), `Farewell, Forget me Not,' `The Queen and the Navy' (music published by H. White, Great Marlborough-street), `I resign Thee every Token' (music published by Duff and Co.), `Sleep, gentle Lady;' a serenade (H. J. Payne), `The Warbling Waggoner,' `The Keepsake,' `A Sequel to the Cavalier,' `There's room enough for All' (music at Mr. Davidson's), `Will you Come to the Dale?' `Larry O'Brian,' `Woman's Love,' `Afloat on the Ocean' (sung by Mr. Weiss, in the Opera of the `Heart of Mid Lothian,' music published by Jefferys, Soho-square), `Together, Dearest, let us Fly' (sung by Mr. Braham, in the Opera of the `Heart of Mid Lothian,' music published by Jefferys, Soho-square), `The Peremptory Lover' (Tune - `John Anderson, my Joe'). There are forty-seven songs in addition to those whose titles I have quoted, but they are all of the same character. The penny song-books (which are partly indecent), and entitled the `Sam Hall' and `Ross' Songsters, are seldom or never sold in the streets. Many of those vended in the shops outrage all decency. Some of these are styled the `Coal-Hole Companion,' `Cider-Cellar Songs,' `Captain Morris's Songs,' &c. The titles of some of the songs in these works are sufficient to indicate their character. `The Muff,' `The Two Miss Thys,' `George Robins's Auction,' `The Woman that studied the Stars,' `A Rummy Chaunt,' `The Amiable Family,' `Joe Buggins' Wedding,' `Stop the Cart,' `The Mot that can feel for another,' `The Irish Giant,' `Taylor Tim,' `The Squire and Patty.' Some titles are unprintable. |