19th C spammers & scammers

Loretta reports:

Spam, apparently, is nothing new.  In 1839, in Every day life in London, James Grant tries to track down the number of Begging Imposters:  people who make their living by writing fake letters of distress.  It was a high-volume trade and, as is the case with our spammers, they were hard to catch.  The majority, he notes, write exclusively to the upper classes, because (1) aristocrats have too much else to do to bother with ferreting out and prosecuting imposters and (2) they give more money per letter than the middle classes. 

“… I saw a letter from a nobleman of a very humane and benevolent disposition, in which it was stated that, in the course of the year, he had received nearly three hundred and fifty begging letters, all of which were dated from London, and detailed trumped-up cases of the deepest distress.”  This nobleman did investigate:  49 out of 50 letters were fakes.

Grant estimated that about 250 people in London lived on these fake begging letters, that the highest income from the business was £1000 per annum, the lowest £100, averaging out, over the 250 scammers to £200 pa.  “This, then, would give no less than 50,000l. out of which the benevolent public of London, chiefly the nobility, are annually swindled by the begging-letter imposters.”

There were also imposters who wrote mainly to the clergy and other known benevolent sorts of the middle ranks.  Grant knew one who wrote at least 20 such letters a day. 

“Not long since, sixteen letters of this description, all sealed and ready for delivery, were found in a basket at the house of one of these persons, in Blackfriars Road ;and it was ascertained that all the sixteen had been intended to be forwarded to their respective destinations within a few hours after the discovery.  If then some of these rogues are so indefatigable in their epistolary attempts on the pockets of the charitable and humane, as to pen twenty letters in one day, surely, considering their number, and after making every allowance for the comparatively contracted labors of the least industrious portion of the swindling community, there is nothing extravagant in the supposition that 1000 such letters are daily indited and forwarded to their several destinations in London."

Guy Fawkes Crosses the Atlantic & Becomes Transformed into Pope Night, 1745

Susan reporting:

As we discussed last week (and we thank our many readers for so many excellent comments), Guy Fawkes Day is a holiday that may have a dark past, but is certainly alive and well and full of bonfires and fireworks in 2010. Yet while it may seem a quintessentially British holiday, there's also a strong history of the celebration in New England as well as Old.

The Massachusetts colony was largely settled in the early 17th c. by English Puritans, and those conservative Protestant values continued to rule the colony. The bonfires and effigy-burning of the Fifth of November was one of the transplanted traditions that prospered, but by the middle of the 18th c., it had developed a few distinctly Yankee quirks. Several colonial wars against the French served to increase distrust and fear of Catholics. While the memory of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot weren't forgotten (the "Remember, Remember" song was duly sung), in all the northern colonies the celebration was now called Pope Night, and a rowdy time it was.

In Boston, crowds of  young men, sailors, and apprentices thronged the streets, dividing into two rival gangs, while costumed boys thumped on doors and begged money for drink. Each gang had their own procession and effigies of the Pope, friars, priests, and devils, and after a fierce brawl between the two gangs (ah, American contests of sports supremacy!), the winners captured the losers' effigies, and everything was finally burned in a satisfying bonfire. Special noisemakers, fashioned from conch shells and called "Pope's horns", added to the din, like 18th c. vuvuzelas.

As political tensions in Boston increased with England in the years before the Revolution, other effigies of unpopular public figures found their way into the procession, including the Catholic Stuart Pretender, Lord North, and Lord Bute. Later infamous traitor Bendict Arnold earned his place in the flames, too. A 1745 newspaper described the scene:

Tuesday last being the Anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, two Popes were made and carried thro' the Streets in the evening...attended by a vast number...armed with clubs, staves, and cutlashes, who were very abusive to the Inhabitants, insulting the Persons and breaking the windows, &c., of such as did not give them money to their satisfaction...the two Popes meeting in Cornhill, their followers were so infatuated as to fall upon each other with the utmost Rage and Fury. Several were sorely wounded and bruised, some left for dead, and rendered incapable of any business for a long time to the great Loss and Damage of their respective Masters.

For more about Pope Night in the American colonies, check out this excellent site commissioned by The Bostonian Society. Also see one of our favorite history blogs, Boston 1775, which has numerous posts on the subject.

Above: Detail from Extraordinary verses on Pope-night, or, A commemoration of the Fifth of November, giving a history of the attempt, made by the papishes, to blow up king and Parliament, printed in Boston, 1768. Collection, Library of Congress

Amusements from a ladies' magazine

Loretta reports:

As we've shown, the ladies' magazines of the early 19th century contained a variety of material:  fiction, poetry, and politics as well as fashion, beauty advice, and helpful household hints.  Some offered their readers little puzzlers every month, with the answers provided in the following month's issue.  Here's a selection for you to play with this week.  Answers—and the source—will appear next weekend.   (Hint:  Most though not all will test your punning skills.)

1.   Why is a chronologist like a palm tree ?
2.   Why is education like a tailor?
3.   What was the first thing Adam set in his garden!
4.   Which is the greatest Friday in the year ?
5.   Why is a nobleman like a book ?
6.   Why is avarice like a bad memory ?
7.   What is the only thing a liar may be said to do after he is dead?
8.   Why is an inn in sight like an inn out of sight ?
9.   If I want my daughter Nancy to carry a pair of stockings to the tallest person in company, how would I address her in the most religious manner ?
10.  What is that which binds people together, and touches only one ?
11.  Why is the paper from which the banns of marriage are published like a daily journal ?
12.  Why is a knock-kneed person like a poor man soliciting alms ?
13.  Why is an egg overdone like an egg underdone ?
14.  Why is a contented man like a rebel ?
15.  Why is Sir Walter Scott like galvanism ?
16.  In what month do ladies talk the least ?
17.  Why is a parson's horse like the king?
18.  Why is a pawnbroker like the devil ?
19.  What is that which is always invisible, yet never out of sight ?
20.  Why is a good housewife like a powerless man ?
21. Why is Virgil, translated, like hatred ?
22.  Why should peas of a bad color be sent to Knightsbridge ?
23.  Why is a blacksmith's apron like the gates of a convent?
24.  Why may fruit be said to be the origin of swearing ?

Guy Fawkes Night, 1678: Bonfires, Fear, & Intolerance

Susan reports:

In Britain today, the Fifth of November – or Guy Fawkes Day, or Bonfire Night – is marked with fireworks, bonfires, and hot roasted potatoes, a fun frolic under the autumn night sky.

The origins of the holiday as an official "Day of Thanksgiving" is lost on most modern revelers. In 1605, a small band of English Catholics conspired to assassinate the Protestant King James I by blowing up him and the House of Lords with a sizable store of gunpowder, and setting a Catholic ruler on the English throne. The plot was discovered, and Guy Fawkes and his supporters were arrested, tortured, and executed. Soon after, the Thanksgiving Act was passed, with the day to be set aside for reflection and rejoicing at the king's deliverance.

But in the politically charged climate of 17th century England, thanksgiving quickly acquired uglier overtones, and the holiday became noted for anti-Catholic demonstrations. By 1678, fear of Catholics had reached a feverish pitch. Catholics were blamed for starting the Great Fire that had burned a large part of London in 1666, for planning to murder King Charles II, and for plotting a French invasion that would result in forced conversions of all English Protestants, and massacres of those who resisted. It didn't help that Charles's brother and heir, James, had converted to Catholicism, and was set to marry an Italian Catholic princess. Nervous Londoners saw menacing Papists and Jesuits lurking behind every corner. Protestant pulpits thundered warning sermons, and innocent foreigners were accused of being Catholic and beaten by mobs in the streets.

As a result, the London celebration of the Fifth of November in 1678 was a lavish affair, attended by huge crowds. A long parade, above, of participants mockingly dressed as Catholic priests and cardinals with a smattering of devils, threaded through the streets, with the loudest jeers reserved for the effigies of the Pope. Here is an excerpt from a tract* describing the event:

"On this present Fifth Day of November, they caused several of the said Effigies, or Resemblances of the Pope, to be made; some of them displaying him in one posture, and some in another; but all of them were followed with loud and numerous acclamations to their several places of Execution.


"He of them who might best pretend to the priority in point of Workmanship and Invention, was raised on a small Pavilion, born like Pageants on Men's Backs, with a large Cross filled with Lamps, which in much majesty stalks before him, whilst the Effigies, curiously adorned with his Triple Crown, Necklace of Beads, and all his other superstitious Accouterments, came very sumptuously behind, in procession from  the Royal-Exchange to Temple-Bar....


"So frollick was [the effigy], that he danced before the Flames, and when he came near the place of Execution, cut a Caper into a great Bonfire, provided on purpose to entertain him, whose abominable civilities had been so great, as heretofore to provide such large ones for others. In time after this feigned Pope had been sufficiently exposed to the Vulgar Reflections, he was hurl'd, Canopy, Triple Crown, Beads, Crucifix and all into the Bonfire...where a world of People celebrated his fall with a general cry, that all his Majesties Enemies, or the perverters of the Protestant Religion, or English Government, may ere long be reduced to some such Fate."

Guy Fawkes Day ceased to be an official holiday in Britain in 1859, and while there will still be bonfires, no religious effigies will be consigned to the flames – not that we modern folk are entirely past burning symbols of the faiths of others.

Above: Detail of The Solemn Mock Procession of the Pope, Cardinalls, Jesuits, Fryers &c., through the City of London. Published by Samuel Lee, London, 1680.


* "The Manner of the burning of the pope effigies in London on the 5th of November, 1678, with the manner of carrying him through several streets in progression to Temple-Bar, where at length he was decently burned: also a particular of several bloody massacres done by the papists upon the bodies of English, Irish and French Protestants" by Anonymous: London, 1678

Fashions for November 1832—for evening

Loretta reports:

Yesterday, we looked at some 1832 daytime wear.  Today, for your viewing pleasure, I present two evening dresses. 

~~~
No. 3.
Ball dress of white mousseline de soie over satin, the corsage is cut low, plain, and square, and is completely covered by the pélerine, which is of pink satin edged with blonde. The front and back pieces are separate, and shaped en fichu, the short point reaching even below the band, while the other ends, which are much longer, cross over the sleeve, and are fastened to the strap which confines it round the arm; this pélerine is without opening behind, and is fastened on each shoulder by a nœud of six coques of ribbon ; the band round the waist is of satin like the pélerine, and finishes behind with a nœud like those on the shoulders. The skirt is trimmed with large slanting scallops, formed by three rouleaux; to each of the points, placed uppermost, is fastened a sprig of pink reine marguerite with foliage, issuing from a leaf of satin edged with blonde. The hair is dressed in Grecian plaits, with a marguerite on each side, and one rising from behind the comb; the jewellery should be gold or pink topaz. White satin gloves and shoes.

No. 4.
A dress of oiseau de paradis satin, the corsage is drapé across the bust, with a stomacher in front, edged with narrow blonde delicately quilled; the sleeves are short, and fall in very full bouffants over a double ruche of quilling which confines it to the arm; just above it. in the middle, is placed a bow of satin ribbon, with long ends. A blonde chemisette shades the bust.

The skirt set on in deep double plaits, en colonnes, and is finished by a superb flounce of blonde, headed by a row of triangular fan-like ornaments, edged with quilling.

The hair is dressed plain in front, with a full spreading coque on the crown of the head, behind which is placed a plume of white feathers; one, the longest, is brought more in front, so as to fall over the right temple. Necklace, sévigné, and aigrette of pearls and emeralds. Shoes and gloves of white satin.
~~~
From The Royal lady's magazine, and archives of the court of St. James's, 1832.

Fashions for November 1832—for Day

Loretta reports:

Most of the historical fashion I post here comes from Ackermann’s Repository or La Belle Assemblée.  These are from The Royal Lady’s Magazine,  which contains some fine fashion prints for the 1830s.  Since they showed four dresses for November, I’m posting two today (day dress) and two tomorrow (evening dress). 

Today I’ve included their note regarding the illustrations, which I found extremely intriguing.  Have any of you ever seen any of these paper models?

~~~
FOR 1832.—No. XI.
PUBLISHED IN NUMBER XXIII. OF THE ROYAL LADY'S MAGAZINE, AND ARCHIVES OP THE COURT OF ST.JAMES's.
EMBELLISHED WITH FOUR PORTRAITS OF LADIES IN FASHIONABLE COSTUMES FOR NOVEMBER.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
Our Fashionable Readers should know, that the drawings of the fashions are made from beautifully-formed paper models, which may be seen and purchased—as, for the purposes of the Magazine, they are useless after the copies are published.

This portion of the Magazine being completely detached, and paged for binding, alone, may be had separately, at One Shilling per number, generally with three or five figures or dresses, entirely new and English inventions.

FASHIONS FOR NOVEMBER.

No. l.
Pelisse of arbre de Judée, gros des Indes; the corsage is made high, plain, and covered by a double cape, broad on the shoulders, each cape is edged with a band of satin, of the same colour as the dress; plaited or crimped into minute folds, and edged with cording. Another and similar band heads the hem of the skirt, which is fastened down in front, by bows of satin ribbon; hat of green velours épingle, trimmed with satin ribbons, and a plume of elegant white feathers; bottines of kid.

No. 2.
A dress of bleu Adélaide merino, trimmed with rouleaux, high corsage, and plain, full Amadis sleeve, collar of beautifully embroidered net or muslin ; amber-coloured Cachemire shawl, with a rich double border, of a delicate pattern on a white ground. Hat of white moiré, ornamented with a bunch of laburnum, and tied with white figured ribbon; a deep blonde curtain surrounds the brim, which is also trimmed inside with a blonde ruche.
~~~
From The Royal lady's magazine and archives of the court of St. James's, 1832.

Random Pictures: An 18th c. Autumn Day in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia