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7
The colony is largely made up of young men. In 1861 the Holborn registration district
contained, as has already been pointed out, 598 male Italians and only 31 females. At the time of
the 1891 census, however, the want of proportion between males and females was, as has been seen,
less marked, there being 1,069 males and 382 females.
The houses in the streets just described are rented in some instances by " padrones," and are
occupied by the padrone, his family, and the " chaps." The last-named are the young men who in the
ice-cream season are to be seen presiding over the barrows at street corners in various parts of London.
A padrone employs on an average about a dozen " chaps," and his establishment is practically a
common lodging-house—unregistered, however, and providing accommodation of an order considerably
inferior to that insisted upon in the case of registered houses; the bedrooms occupied by the Italians
being overcrowded and the cellar used as a day-room quite unsuited for that purpose. A
different form of establishment is that in which an Italian rents a cottage with perhaps three small
rooms, one used as a living room, one as a bedroom for the use of the master and his family, while the third
room is devoted to the use of three, four or more barrow-men. The financial relations existing between
the latter and the padrone seem to vary in different cases. In some instances the men are said to pay
so much a week—about eighteenpence—for sleeping accommodation, and "something extra" for
washing. In other cases the young men are said to enter into an agreement to give their services for
a certain period in return for board and lodging and a small allowance of pocket-money. The padrones
have so far succeeded in keeping outside the scope of the Common Lodging Houses Acts. In an account of
the Italian quarter given in the Lancet in 1879 it is stated that it is with this object in view that "the
padrone is careful not to charge any rent for the sleeping accommodation he gives." The action taken by
the police, when the administration of the Common Lodging House Acts was in their hands, is referred to in
the evidence given by Inspector Bates and Sergeant Powell before the Housing of the Working Classes
Commission in 1884. An attempt had, it appeared, been made to deal with certain houses in the Italian
quarter as common lodging-houses. Mr. Barstow, however, the magistrate before whom the case was
tried, held that the barrowmen were servants, and that the police could not deal with the overcrowding
in the houses under the Common Lodging Houses Acts. The attempt to regulate the houses as " houses
let in lodgings " under the Sanitary Act of 1866, or later under section 94 of the Public Health Act of
1891, does not appear to have been made, and thus evils of a serious character have been allowed to remain
in this locality practically unchecked. The seasonal fluctuations of the ice-cream trade lead to corresponding
variations in the extent of crowding in the Italian colony. The bedrooms almost always
contain double beds, and on the supposition that each of these is occupied by two persons, the cubic
capacity of the rooms is altogether insufficient in almost all instances for the number of individuals
accommodated. The Italians allege, however, that these double beds are often only occupied by one
person, and in the slack season this is no doubt the case, though in some instances even under these
conditions the by-law limit of overcrowding is exceeded. During a series of inspections made in April
last I found evidence pointing to the existence of a great deal of overcrowding in the colony, but night
inspection during the busy season would alone reveal the extent to which rooms are occupied at that
time of year in this neighbourhood.
The manufacture of " ice-cream "—The ingredients from which "ice-cream" is made are eggs,
milk, sugar, a little cornflour and some vanilla or lemon for flavouring purposes. Colouring matter is
not as a rule added by the Italians. In former times cochineal and aniline red crystals are said to have
been used ; now the street vendors usually state in reply to any inquiry on the subject that the only
coloured ingredient of the " cream " is yolk of egg. It will be seen that the term " ice-cream " is really
a misnomer, cream only comes in question in so far as it enters into the composition of the milk used.
The so-called " ice-cream " is really frozen custard.
As regards the quality of the materials employed it is said considerable care must be exercised
to avoid the use of milk which is sour or eggs which are too stale, as if certain limits are
transgressed the flavour of the " ice-cream " is affected. It was at one time a common practice to
" blow out" the contents of the eggs used by making punctures and applying the mouth to one
end of the egg. The empty egg-shells had at one period a value, as much as 1s. per gross, in
connection with rifle practice at shooting galleries. Their value has, however, greatly depreciated of
late years; in some cases 3d., 4-d., or 5d. per gross is still procurable at times, but 1s. per thousand
seems to be the common price obtainable. It is the exception rather than the rule for eggs to be
blown nowadays.
The custard which is made one day is used generally on the next day. In the process of
preparation it is boiled for twenty minutes or half-an-hour, and it is then left in a cool place overnight.
It is said that it is only essential that the eggs should be well stirred up with boiling milk, and that
if this is done there is no need to keep the mixture "on the boil" over the lire for a number of
minutes. As a rule, however, the custard is subjected to about twenty minutes boiling. The heating
process is generally conducted over the fire of a living room, which in many instances is also a
bedroom, and the mixture is oftentimes left to stand overnight in the room in which it is prepared.
In some cases, however, preference is given to a situation in the open air, partly apparently with the
idea of keeping the mixture cool, and in some instances, as I was informed, because this practice is
regarded as "more healthy" than keeping it indoors. The material, if there be any, left over at the
end of the day is sometimes utilised as a part of the next day's supply. This cannot be done, however,
in the height of summer, as the flavour of the whole bulk of material would be affected.
The process of freezing is carried out early each morning, the custard being placed in a tin or
galvanised iron cylinder, and surrounded with ice. The ice is not, of course, as is commonly supposed,
mixed with the material to be frozen. A small vendor in the Italian quarter, whom I consulted in
April last, was using daily 6 quarts of milk, 12* eggs, 2 penny packets of corn flour, and 3 lbs. of loaf
*Three eggs to a quart of milk are sometimes used.