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An Archaeology of Nineteenth-Century

Consumer Behavior in Melbourne,


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Pamela Ricardi
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Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology

Pamela Ricardi

An Archaeology of
Nineteenth-Century
Consumer Behavior in
Melbourne, Australia, and
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology

Series Editor:
Charles E. Orser Jr.
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN, USA

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5734


Pamela Ricardi

An Archaeology
of Nineteenth-Century
Consumer Behavior
in Melbourne, Australia,
and Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Pamela Ricardi
School of Archaeology and Anthropology
Australian National University
Acton, ACT, Australia

ISSN 1574-0439
Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology
ISBN 978-3-030-21594-1    ISBN 978-3-030-21595-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21595-8

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020


This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors
or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims
in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
For Marta and Duncan
Acknowledgments

I am truly indebted to a number of people, without whose assistance, this book


would not have been possible. This study stems from my PhD dissertation, so firstly,
my sincere thanks to my supervisors Professor Tim Murray and Associate Professor
Susan Lawrence for their guidance. Thanks also to La Trobe University staff mem-
bers Dr. Peter Davies for being part of my research panel and to Ming Wei for
arranging Figs. 1.1 and 1.2. For providing travel funding, I would like to thank the
(formerly named) School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University.
In Buenos Aires, many thanks to Dr. Daniel Schávelzon, Patricia Frazzi, and
Dr. Mario Silveira at the Centro de Arqueologia Urbana, Universidad de Buenos
Aires, for their assistance, generosity, and warm welcome. Big thanks also to Aniela
Traba for helping me obtain archival data from Buenos Aires.
Thank you to Professor Andres Zarankin, Federal University of Minas Gervais,
Brazil, for sharing his knowledge and experience regarding La Casa Peña and pro-
viding me with some useful papers.
At Museum Victoria, thanks to Dr. Charlotte Smith and to all the staff at the
Moreland Annexe for their assistance and patience. Special thanks to Dr. Sarah
Hayes and Paul Pepdjonovic for kindly sharing their knowledge and guiding me in
the right direction.
Thanks to Professor Charles Orser, Vanderbilt University, for the inspiration and
advice, and to Meg M. Walker for her work on Figs. 3.3 and 4.3.
Finally, my most wholehearted thanks to my family – especially my husband,
Duncan Wright, and mother, Marta Ricardi – for all the encouragement, support,
and steady patience. Thanks to Duncan also for the comments on the earlier drafts
of this manuscript.

vii
Contents

  1 Introduction����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    1
1.1 Casselden Place��������������������������������������������������������������������������������    5
1.2 La Casa Peña������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    6
1.3 Book Structure����������������������������������������������������������������������������������    7
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    8
  2 Consumer Choice, Class, Ethnicity, and Other Factors����������������������   13
2.1 Consumer Choice������������������������������������������������������������������������������   13
2.2 Class��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   17
2.3 Ethnicity��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   23
2.4 Gender and Childhood����������������������������������������������������������������������   28
2.5 Complexities of an Interpretative Approach ������������������������������������   30
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   31
  3 Marvellous Melbourne����������������������������������������������������������������������������   39
3.1 Setting the Scene: Early Melbourne ������������������������������������������������   40
3.2 Little Lon and Working-Class Life in Nineteenth-­Century
Melbourne ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   47
3.3 Previous Archaeological Work Conducted at Little Lon������������������   50
3.3.1 Development of the Commonwealth Centre
Site (1979 and 1987)������������������������������������������������������������   50
3.3.2 Little Lon: Archaeological Investigation of
the Commonwealth Block (1989)����������������������������������������   50
3.3.3 Mayne and Murray (1999–2003)������������������������������������������   52
3.3.4 Casselden Place Development Phase 3 (2001) ��������������������   54
3.3.5 Casselden Place Archaeological Excavations
(2002–2003)��������������������������������������������������������������������������   55
3.3.6 Post 2003������������������������������������������������������������������������������   56
3.4 Previous Archaeological Work Conducted at Lot 35,
Little Leichhardt Street (Casselden Place)����������������������������������������   57
3.4.1 Historical Overview��������������������������������������������������������������   57

ix
x Contents

3.4.2 Previous Archaeological Work Conducted at Lot 35������������   60


References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   62
  4 Buenos Aires: The Paris of South America��������������������������������������������   67
4.1 Setting the Scene: Early Buenos Aires����������������������������������������������   69
4.2 San Telmo and Working-Class Life in Nineteenth-­Century
Buenos Aires ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   78
4.3 Previous Archaeological Work Conducted at San Telmo ����������������   82
4.3.1 Defensa 751, San Telmo, Tercero del Sur Tunnel
(1986–1987)��������������������������������������������������������������������������   82
4.3.2 Balcarce 531–541, San Telmo (1988)����������������������������������   83
4.3.3 Lezama Park, San Telmo (1988)������������������������������������������   84
4.3.4 Defensa 1469, San Telmo (1988)������������������������������������������   84
4.3.5 The Jesuit Church, San Telmo (1989)����������������������������������   85
4.3.6 Perú 680, San Telmo, the Coni Press (1989)������������������������   86
4.3.7 Balcarce 433, San Telmo, Michelángelo (1996)������������������   86
4.3.8 San Juan 338, San Telmo, La Casa Naranjo (1999)�������������   87
4.4 Previous Archaeological Work Conducted at Defensa 774
(La Casa Peña)����������������������������������������������������������������������������������   88
4.4.1 Historical Overview��������������������������������������������������������������   88
4.4.2 Previous Archaeological Work Conducted
at Defensa 774����������������������������������������������������������������������   92
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   95
  5 Methodology of an International Comparative Analysis ��������������������   99
5.1 La Casa Peña Dataset������������������������������������������������������������������������ 100
5.2 Casselden Place Dataset�������������������������������������������������������������������� 100
5.3 Artifact Processing: Casselden Place������������������������������������������������ 100
5.4 Artifact Processing: La Casa Peña���������������������������������������������������� 101
5.5 Exploring the Archaeology of the Modern City (EAMC)
Database�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 101
5.6 Ceramic Ware Types ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 102
5.7 Manufacturing Location�������������������������������������������������������������������� 102
5.8 Date Range���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 104
5.9 Conjoins�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 104
5.10 Minimum Number of Vessels����������������������������������������������������������� 105
5.11 Matching Sets������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 105
5.12 Function�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 106
5.13 Previous Cataloguing Work: Casselden Place���������������������������������� 107
5.14 Previous Cataloguing Work: La Casa Peña�������������������������������������� 107
5.15 Documentary Research �������������������������������������������������������������������� 107
5.16 Methodological Limitations�������������������������������������������������������������� 109
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 113
  6 La Casa Peña�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 117
6.1 Context���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 117
Contents xi

6.2 Artifact Assemblage�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 118


6.2.1 Ammunition�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 119
6.2.2 Beverage Service������������������������������������������������������������������ 119
6.2.3 Beverage Storage������������������������������������������������������������������ 122
6.2.4 Clerical���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 124
6.2.5 Clothing�������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 124
6.2.6 Collectibles/Decorative�������������������������������������������������������� 125
6.2.7 Domestic ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 126
6.2.8 Economy ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 126
6.2.9 Food Preparation������������������������������������������������������������������ 126
6.2.10 Food Service ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 127
6.2.11 Food/Beverage Service �������������������������������������������������������� 130
6.2.12 Food Storage ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 130
6.2.13 Food/Beverage Storage �������������������������������������������������������� 130
6.2.14 Hygiene �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 131
6.2.15 Jewelry���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 131
6.2.16 Manufacturing���������������������������������������������������������������������� 131
6.2.17 Personal�������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 132
6.2.18 Pharmaceutical���������������������������������������������������������������������� 132
6.2.19 Recreation ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 134
6.2.20 Sewing���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 136
6.2.21 Unidentified�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 136
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 138
  7 Casselden Place���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 141
7.1 Context���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 141
7.2 Artifact Assemblage�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 143
7.2.1 Beverage Service������������������������������������������������������������������ 143
7.2.2 Beverage Storage������������������������������������������������������������������ 146
7.2.3 Clerical���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 148
7.2.4 Clothing�������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 148
7.2.5 Collectibles/Decorative�������������������������������������������������������� 150
7.2.6 Domestic ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 151
7.2.7 Economy ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 151
7.2.8 Food Preparation������������������������������������������������������������������ 152
7.2.9 Food Service ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 152
7.2.10 Food/Beverage Service �������������������������������������������������������� 154
7.2.11 Food Storage ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 155
7.2.12 Food/Beverage Storage �������������������������������������������������������� 156
7.2.13 Garden���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 156
7.2.14 Hygiene �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 157
7.2.15 Jewelry���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 157
7.2.16 Manufacturing���������������������������������������������������������������������� 157
7.2.17 Personal�������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 158
7.2.18 Pharmaceutical���������������������������������������������������������������������� 158
xii Contents

7.2.19 Recreation ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 158


7.2.20 Sewing���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 160
7.2.21 Unidentified�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 161
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 163
  8 Trade and Consumer Goods ������������������������������������������������������������������ 165
8.1 Melbourne ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 165
8.1.1 The Artifact Assemblage������������������������������������������������������ 165
8.1.2 An Overview of Trade Networks������������������������������������������ 166
8.1.3 Local Manufacturing Industries�������������������������������������������� 168
8.1.4 Where Goods Could Be Purchased�������������������������������������� 169
8.1.5 Types of Goods Imported������������������������������������������������������ 171
8.2 Buenos Aires ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 173
8.2.1 The Artifact Assemblage������������������������������������������������������ 173
8.2.2 An Overview of Trade Networks������������������������������������������ 174
8.2.3 Local Manufacturing Industries�������������������������������������������� 176
8.2.4 Where Goods Could Be Purchased�������������������������������������� 177
8.2.5 Types of Goods Imported������������������������������������������������������ 178
8.3 Two Globally Integrated Market Economies������������������������������������ 180
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 181
  9 A Site Comparison ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 185
9.1 Food and Beverage���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 185
9.2 Personal Appearance������������������������������������������������������������������������ 188
9.3 Health and Hygiene�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 190
9.4 Work and Leisure������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 191
9.5 Other Items for the Home ���������������������������������������������������������������� 192
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 193
10 Discussion: Consumer Behavior in Nineteenth-Century
Melbourne and Buenos Aires������������������������������������������������������������������ 195
10.1 Consumer Choice���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 195
10.2 Class, Ethnicity, Gender, and Childhood���������������������������������������� 199
10.3 Other Factors Influencing Consumerism���������������������������������������� 207
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 209
11 Conclusion������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 213
11.1 Final Thoughts: Toward a Greater Comparative Approach������������ 215
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 215

 ppendix 1: La Casa Peña: Start and End Dates of Artifact


A
Manufacture ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 217

 ppendix 2: La Casa Peña: Food Service Vessels by Form


A
and Ware Type�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 221
Contents xiii

 ppendix 3: La Casa Peña: Decoration, Pattern, and Color


A
of Whiteware Vessels in the Food Service Category ������������������������������������ 223

 ppendix 4: La Casa Peña: Decoration, Pattern, and Color


A
of Pearlware Vessels in the Food Service Category�������������������������������������� 225

 ppendix 5: La Casa Peña: Matching Sets in the Food Service


A
Category������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 227

 ppendix 6: Casselden Place: Start and End Dates of Artifact


A
Manufacture ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 229

 ppendix 7: Casselden Place: Decoration, Pattern, and Color


A
of Whiteware Vessels in the Beverage Service Category������������������������������ 233

 ppendix 8: Casselden Place: Decoration, Pattern, and Color


A
of Whiteware Vessels in the Food Service Category ������������������������������������ 235

Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 237
List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Location of the Casselden Place site within the


Commonwealth Block, Melbourne. (Source: Ricardi 2018;
Murray and Mayne 2001:91; Figure by Ming Wei)��������������������������    5
Fig. 1.2 Location of the Casa Peña site in the Suburb of San Telmo,
Buenos Aires. (Source: Ricardi 2018; Figure by Ming Wei)������������    6
Fig. 3.1 “Behind the Scenes” 1935, F. Oswald Barnett, Housing
Investigation and Slum Abolition Board. (Source:
State Library of Victoria)������������������������������������������������������������������   49
Fig. 3.2 17 Casselden Place, Melbourne. (Source: Ricardi 2018;
Photograph taken by the Author)������������������������������������������������������   51
Fig. 3.3 Plan of Lot 35. (Image by Meg M. Walker based on Original
by Godden Mackay Logan 2004 vol. 3:55, used with permission
from Godden Mackay Logan, Industry Superannuation
Property Trust Pty Ltd., and Heritage Victoria)��������������������������������   61
Fig. 4.1 Large conventillo located at Piedras 1268, with
104 rooms and housing 500 people. (Source: Biblioteca
Nacional de España 2019)����������������������������������������������������������������   80
Fig. 4.2 “La Casa Minima,” 2010. (Source: Ricardi 2018;
Photograph taken by the author)�������������������������������������������������������   91
Fig. 4.3 Map showing the locations of House 1, House 2,
and House 3 and the rooms within La Casa Peña.
(Image by Meg M. Walker based on original by Pablo
Lopez Coda and used with permission obtained by the Centro de
Arqueología Urbana, University of Buenos Aires, 2010)����������������   93
Fig. 6.1 Minimum number of vessels by activity group.
(Source: Ricardi 2018)���������������������������������������������������������������������� 119
Fig. 6.2 Prosser buttons with piecrust decorative motif.
(Photograph taken by the author)������������������������������������������������������ 125
Fig. 6.3 Willow dinner plates. (Photograph taken by the author)������������������ 128

xv
xvi List of Figures

Fig. 6.4 Unadorned black glass beads. (Photograph taken


by the author)������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 132
Fig. 6.5 Extract of smart weed bottle. (Photograph taken
by the author)������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 133
Fig. 6.6 Modern therapeutic sulfur bars sold in Argentina.
(Photograph taken by the author)������������������������������������������������������ 134
Fig. 6.7 Bone lace-making bobbin. (Photograph taken
by the author)������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 136
Fig. 7.1 Minimum number of vessels by activity group
(combined cesspit and subfloor units).
(Source: Ricardi 2018)���������������������������������������������������������������������� 144
Fig. 7.2 Aerated water, torpedo-shaped bottle. (Photograph
taken by the author)�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 147
Fig. 7.3 Stoneware inkbottle. (Photograph taken by the author)�������������������� 148
Fig. 7.4 Kaolin smoking pipe (two conjoining fragments).
(Photograph taken by the author)������������������������������������������������������ 159
Fig. 7.5 Clay marble with purple painted lines.
(Photograph taken by the author)������������������������������������������������������ 160
Fig. 8.1 Percentage of originating ports for vessels arriving
in Melbourne between the years 1848 and 1900.
(Source: The Argus Newspaper [Online])����������������������������������������� 167
Fig. 8.2 Percentage of originating ports for vessels arriving in
Buenos Aires during the nineteenth century.
(Source: Registro Estadístico Del Estado De Buenos
Aires [Segundo Tomos])������������������������������������������������������������������� 175
List of Tables

Table 5.1 Attributes and definitions of ceramic ware types


identified in this study����������������������������������������������������������������������� 103
Table 6.1 Beverage service vessels by form and ware type������������������������������ 120
Table 6.2 Decoration, pattern, and color of Pearlware vessels������������������������� 121
Table 6.3 Decoration, pattern, and color of Whiteware vessels������������������������ 121
Table 6.4 Decoration, pattern, color, and other identifiable
features on glass vessels�������������������������������������������������������������������� 122
Table 6.5 Decoration, pattern, and color of bone china,
stoneware, Majolica, earthenware, and porcelain vessels����������������� 127
Table 6.6 Summary of objects in the unidentified category����������������������������� 137
Table 7.1 Beverage Service vessels by form and ware type����������������������������� 145
Table 7.2 Decoration, pattern, and color of Whiteware teacups����������������������� 145
Table 7.3 Food service vessels by form and ware type������������������������������������� 153
Table 7.4 Summary of objects in the Unidentified category (cesspit)�������������� 161
Table 7.5 Summary of objects in the Unidentified category (subfloor)������������ 162
Table 8.1 Summary of retail premises listed on the Sands and
Kenny (1857) and Sands and Mcdougall (1890)
Melbourne directories for the Commonwealth Block���������������������� 170
Table 8.2 Summary of import entries by category listed in
The Argus newspaper (online) 1848–1900��������������������������������������� 171
Table 8.3 Summary of import entries by category listed
in the statistical returns for the years 1852–1854����������������������������� 172
Table 8.4 Summary of import entries listed in the statistical
returns for the years 1894 and 1895�������������������������������������������������� 178
Table 8.5 Summary of total value of imports in Argentinean
pesos for the year 1857��������������������������������������������������������������������� 179

xvii
Chapter 1
Introduction

When we think of Melbourne and Buenos Aires in the mid- to late nineteenth cen-
tury, we imagine two very different places. Buenos Aires had by then experienced a
long and diverse history. The city had been settled (twice) by Spain in the sixteenth
century. Steadily, it became an important port city due to the growth of local indus-
tries such as cattle grazing and a lucrative trade in contraband (Brown 1982:3). Its
population predominately consisted of people of European, Indigenous, and African
descent (Gutman and Hardoy 1992:41). However, by the mid-nineteenth century,
Buenos Aires had undergone radical changes. Independence from Spain was
achieved in 1810 leading to a period of civil war and political instability (Lewis
2003:38–41; Rock 1986:76–104). When this subsided, the city experienced a period
of unprecedented growth marked by free trade, foreign investment, and (predomi-
nately European) immigration (Cortés-Conde 1993:54–55; Rock 1986:131). It was
during this period of growth, when French and Italian architectural styles dominated
public building works, that Buenos Aires began to be referred to as “the Paris of
South America” (Scobie 2002:170).
Melbourne had a short history in comparison. The city had been settled in 1835
by a small group of pastoralists from Launceston, in what today is known as
Tasmania (then Van Diemen’s Land). Official authorization to settle the area was
not granted until the following year by the governor of New South Wales represent-
ing the British Crown (Blainey 2013:18–23). As with Buenos Aires, Melbourne
became an important port city due to the growth of local pastoral industries. The
city’s growth accelerated further following the discovery of gold in the Port Phillip
district in 1851 (Priestley 1984:30). This brought an influx of immigrants, predomi-
nately from Britain, but also from other Australian colonies and other nations
throughout Asia and Europe (Blainey 2013:44). During this period of growth, as
public buildings with grand facades were erected throughout the city, journalist
George Augustus Sala dubbed it “Marvellous Melbourne” (Davison 1978:11).
Although we initially imagine two very different places, this very brief history of
each city has already highlighted some similarities as well. But what was life like

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 1


P. Ricardi, An Archaeology of Nineteenth-Century Consumer Behavior in
Melbourne, Australia, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, Contributions To Global
Historical Archaeology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21595-8_1
2 1 Introduction

for working-class people in the cities’ urban spaces? What was life like for the many
recently arrived immigrants to “Marvellous Melbourne” and the “Paris of South
America”? What were people buying? What was available for them to buy? This
book examines these questions through the archaeology of two household units by
focusing on what the material culture and documentary data reveal about consumer
behavior. In doing so, it makes a transnational comparison of two diverse cities at
the edge of the world.
Historical archaeological studies in the past have extensively explored themes
such as class (e.g., Beaudry 1989; Karskens 1999; Leone 1996; Mayne and Murray
2001; McGuire and Paynter 1991; Mrozowski and Beaudry 1990; Orser 1996;
Wurst 1999; Wurst and Fitts 1999; Wylie 1999; Yamin 1998, 2001a, b), ethnicity
(e.g., Brighton 2004, 2006, 2011; Fesler and Franklin 1999; Greenwood 1980;
Jones 1997; Lydon 1999; McGuire 1982; McGowan 2003; Milne and Crabtree
2001; Orser 1996; Praetzellis and Praetzellis 1998, 2004, 2009; Rains 2003; Staski
1990), and consumer behavior (e.g., Crook 2000; Mullins 1999, 2001; Spencer-­
Wood 1987). Some historical archaeologists have looked internationally to compare
results (e.g., Brooks 2002; Lawrence 2003), and others have stressed the importance
of such comparisons (e.g., Deetz 1991; Murray and Mayne 2001; Orser 1996). It
has even been suggested (Deetz 1991:2) that international comparison is valuable in
everything we do as historical archaeologists, because we focus on a period in time
marked by the spread of people across the world.
However, when dealing with urban sites within the British Empire, comparative
studies in the past have tended to focus on other British colonies, former British
colonies, and Britain itself. At least in the English-speaking literature, comparative
studies have tended not to stray outside these confines, ignoring other cities outside
the British Empire (e.g., Crook 2011; Karskens 2003; Klose and Malan 2000;
Murray 2006). This absence points to an entire area of research that has been left
unexplored.
Researchers (e.g., Brooks and Rodríguez 2012; Schávelzon 2000) have high-
lighted the potential of South American urban archaeology for broadening our
understanding of consumer culture and global interactions during the nineteenth
century. It is clear that valuable information can be gained by comparing British
colonial sites to South American sites and this is what the current volume aims to
provide. The book compares consumer behavior at two sites, Casselden Place in
Melbourne and La Casa Peña in Buenos Aires, with a focus on establishing the role
that consumer choice, class, ethnicity, and other factors had on consumer behavior.
Both sites were located in nineteenth-century working-class urban neighborhoods
and are discussed further below.
Exploring these questions through material culture is complex in nature.
Interpretations may be hindered by multiple or changing meanings and a range of
factors that affect the types of data that can be used (e.g., discard patterns, site for-
mation processes, and field methodologies). Critics of global-scale analysis have
also warned that such an approach can mask the diversity of local experience
(Gilchrist 2005:333). However, others (e.g., Murray 2006; Orser 1996; Wilkie and
Farnsworth 1999) have stressed that historical archaeology needs to focus on both
1 Introduction 3

the macro- and microscales of analysis – the local and global experience in order to
provide a thorough understanding of a site, which is what this book does. In addi-
tion, the study of consumer behavior, ethnicity or the working class are not novel
themes or unique to this book. However, the significance of this study lies in its
comparative approach, which crosses sociopolitical divides and moves beyond
comparing sites solely within the British Empire.
The first theme explored throughout this book deals with consumer choice. The
question of why particular goods are chosen for acquisition and the idea that goods
are carriers of meaning have been explored in the past through a range of disciplines
(e.g., Appadurai 1986; Douglas and Isherwood 1980; Spencer-Wood 1987). The
aim here is to explore whether there is any evidence in the assemblages that goods
were selected for specific reasons, such as fashion and self-expression. Exploring
choice in consumer behavior has the potential to reveal much about people’s daily
lives and the kinds of things that mattered to them. However, the data may reveal
that choice was in fact limited. If this is the case, it is important to explore the rea-
sons behind it. Was class/poverty a major reason (Wurst and McGuire 1999) or were
other underlying factors limiting choice? This book considers the factors that may
have restricted consumer choice for the residents of Casselden Place and La Casa
Peña.
Another theme explores the role of ethnicity on consumer behavior. Previous
historical archaeological studies have recognized the potential of artifacts in reveal-
ing ethnic identity, group membership, and cultural continuity (e.g., Brighton 2004;
McGowan 2003; Milne and Crabtree 2001). Nineteenth-century Melbourne and
Buenos Aires were cultural melting pots. However, different ethnic groups made up
the majority of inhabitants in each city (Anglo-Saxon/Anglo-Celtic in Melbourne
and Hispanic/Mediterranean in Buenos Aires). This study considers whether differ-
ences in ethnicity influenced consumer behavior. For instance, is there evidence of
cultural preferences and continuity in everyday things such as food and beverage
options? If evidence of cultural preferences and continuity are few or not visible in
the assemblages, then it is necessary to ask why. In two such culturally different
cities, what factors other than ethnicity influenced consumer behavior?
The impact of class, gender, and childhood on consumer behavior is also explored
in order to gain a more complete understanding of life at the two sites. Issues of
class and poverty have long been recognized as an integral part of modern world
archaeology (e.g., McGuire and Paynter 1991; Mayne and Murray 2001; Mrozowski
2000, 2006; Orser 1996). Recent trends focus on not losing perspective of the hard-
ships faced by people living in poverty (e.g., Mayne 2011; Orser 2011; Symonds
2011; Walker et al. 2011). The residents of two working-class urban neighborhoods
such as Little Lon in Melbourne and San Telmo in Buenos Aires would certainly
have endured hardships. Poor sanitation, disease, harsh working conditions, and low
economic means are some of the pressures people would have faced from day to
day. This applies to all residents at the sites. Recent studies on gender and childhood
(e.g., Brandon and Barile 2004:7; Wilkie 2000:100), along with other power strug-
gles such as class and ethnicity, call for a fluid and holistic approach that considers
the assemblage as a whole. This approach is taken here, where the aim is to explore
4 1 Introduction

what the assemblages reveal about the daily lives of all of the sites’ residents. For
instance, what do the artifacts reveal about work and leisure, health, and hygiene?
What do they reveal about the lives of women and children and family life more
broadly? By exploring such questions, we gain a more complete picture of working-­
class urban life and how people’s experiences shaped consumer behavior. Once
again, however, if we encounter two similar urban working-class assemblages at
opposite ends of the world, we also need to consider the reasons why.
In considering the abovementioned themes, it will also be necessary to reflect on
the role of globalization and international trade networks during the period under
study. Globalization can be defined as the interconnectedness of the world and trade
expansion that resulted from western imperialism and technological advances such
as the introduction of steamships, rail infrastructure, telegraph, and mechanized
methods of production (Engerman 1996). International trade experienced unparal-
leled growth during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with goods reaching
vast distances in shorter amounts of time than ever before. But what trade networks
reached periphery cities such as Melbourne and Buenos Aires? How did they differ
from each other and how did this impact the types of goods that were available for
people to purchase? This book looks at the types of goods that were traded in
Melbourne and Buenos Aires and the trade networks operating at the time.
Establishing the impact of these larger factors on consumer behavior will assist in
understanding the role of consumer choice, class, and other factors. Did these have
an impact on consumer behavior at all or were they overshadowed by the impact of
globalization?
The methodology used in comparing these sites incorporates archaeological and
documentary data. The archaeological component involves the analysis of the
domestic artifact assemblages from the two sites. Organics and building materials
were not analyzed due to the unavailability of these artifact types at one of the sites.
Artifacts were sorted and then catalogued using the Exploring the Archaeology of
the Modern City (EAMC) database.1 Artifact attributes recorded in the database
included color, decoration, minimum number of vessels (MNV) counts, place of
manufacture, and date range, among others (see Chap. 5 for further details).
Primary and secondary documentary sources such as newspaper entries, statisti-
cal returns, and economic histories were also consulted. Documentary data was
collected with the aim to understand the economic condition of nineteenth-century
Melbourne and Buenos Aires. What imports were arriving and where were they
coming from? This was necessary in order to understand the types of artifacts we
find at Casselden Place and La Casa Peña and to place them in the wider context of
international trade and industry.

1
The EAMC database was first developed as part of the Australian Research Council (ARC)
Linkage project “Exploring the Archaeology of the Modern City, 1788–1900.” This project was
conducted by La Trobe University and Industry partners; the Historic Houses Trust of New South
Wales (NSW), the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, Godden Mackay Logan, the Heritage
Office of NSW, the City of Sydney and Heritage Victoria (Crook and Murray 2006:5).
1.1 Casselden Place 5

1.1 Casselden Place

In Melbourne, the site explored is Casselden Place. This site was located within the
“Commonwealth Block” in the northeastern corner of the Melbourne Central
Business District (CBD), bounded by Spring, Lonsdale, Exhibition, and Little
Lonsdale Streets (Fig. 1.1). Numerous archaeological studies have been undertaken
within the Commonwealth Block (discussed later in Chap. 3). However, this book
focuses on the archaeological investigations conducted in 2002 by Godden Mackay
Logan et al. prior to major redevelopment works occurring at the site (Godden
Mackay Logan et al. 2004 vol. 1:1). The 2002 project involved the excavation of an
extensive area encompassing a residential and light industrial neighborhood dating
from mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Specifically, this book looks at the
artifact assemblage from a single allotment within the Casselden Place site, Lot 35
Little Leichardt Street.
Historically, the Casselden Place site was part of an inner-city neighborhood col-
loquially known as “Little Lon.” This was a working-class locale predominately

Fig. 1.1 Location of the Casselden Place site within the Commonwealth Block, Melbourne.
(Source: Ricardi 2018; Murray and Mayne 2001:91; Figure by Ming Wei)
6 1 Introduction

housing recently arrived British and Irish immigrants. It was also home to people
from a range of other nationalities (e.g., Germany, India, Lebanon) to a lesser extent
(Mayne 2006:324). Little Lon was essentially a poor and multicultural neighbor-
hood that was considered by many middle class contemporaries and portrayed by
later historians, as a slum. In 1914, the poet Dennis (2012) mentioned Little Lon in
one of his most famous works, “The Sentimental Bloke.” He summed up this con-
ventional view of Little Lon in the following couplet:
But when they deals it out wiv bricks an’ boots
In Little Lon, they’re low, degraded broots.

The presence of brothels, pubs, and opium dens in the area fuelled such allegations,
and as a result, Little Lon was considered a place of vice, disease, and immorality
(Murray and Mayne 2002:7).

1.2 La Casa Peña

In Buenos Aires, the site explored is La Casa Peña, located on the corner of Defensa
and San Lorenzo Streets, San Telmo, south of the Buenos Aires CBD (Fig. 1.2). The
site was excavated between 1994 and 1995 by the Centro de Arqueologia Urbana
de Instituto de Arte Americano e Investigaciones Estéticas M. J. Buschiazzo (Centre

Fig. 1.2 Location of the Casa Peña site in the Suburb of San Telmo, Buenos Aires. (Source:
Ricardi 2018; Figure by Ming Wei)
1.3 Book Structure 7

for Urban Archaeology at the Institute of American Art and Aesthetic Studies),
University of Buenos Aires (Zarankin and Senatore 1995: no pagination). The proj-
ect was undertaken as a rescue excavation prior to redevelopment works carried out
on the property.
Following the arrival of Europeans, the site was inhabited since the eighteenth
century. During the 1840s, it became the residence of the upper middle class Peña
family. Part of the original Peña dwelling is still standing today. During the 1870s,
however, the family moved out, and the dwelling was subdivided into three rental
properties. Two properties became what are known in Argentina as conventillos.
These were a typical form of working-class tenement housing. Individual rooms
were leased to singles, families, or groups with shared bathroom facilities and yard
space. Conventillos were popular in major Argentinean cities throughout the nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries. They often housed recently arrived European
immigrants (Italian, Spanish, and French). However, many immigrants from a range
of other nations and other Argentinean provinces lived in conventillos (Ramos
2005:11). This type of housing accommodated the poor and, similarly to Little Lon
in Melbourne, conventillos were considered to be slums by contemporary observers
and later historians. Conventillos were also portrayed negatively in popular culture
and were a recurring setting for many tango lyrics such as “El Conventillo” (de la
Torre and Rolón 1965
):Yo nací en un conventillo
de la calle Olavarría
y me acunó la armonia
de un concierto de cuchillos

I was born in a conventillo


on Olavarría Street
and I was lulled to sleep
by a concert of knifes

Due to their overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions, conventillos were


seen as disease-ridden and destitute and their inhabitants as lacking in moral stan-
dards (Sabugo 2005:54).

1.3 Book Structure

The first four chapters of this book provide background information. This chapter
forms the introduction and defines the problem statement, aims, scope, and over-
view of the study. This is followed by Chap. 2, which explores the background lit-
erature and theory for the major themes that guide this study and their application in
historical archaeology. These themes include consumer choice, class, ethnicity, gen-
der, and childhood. The final background chapters (Chaps. 3 and 4) essentially set
the scene. Each of these chapters begins by providing a brief history of Melbourne
and Buenos Aires (respectively) and then discusses the archaeological work
8 1 Introduction

previously conducted in the suburbs of Little Lon and San Telmo. The chapters
close by looking at the previous archaeological work conducted within the sites of
Casselden Place and La Casa Peña.
Following the background chapters, Chap. 5 presents the methodology. This
chapter describes the two artifact datasets and the procedures involved in artifact
processing (e.g., sorting, separating, and labeling). It then discusses how the arti-
facts are analyzed and catalogued using the EAMC database and includes a list and
explanation of specific fields. The chapter also outlines the types of primary and
secondary records used for the historical research component of the study and where
these records were sourced. This is followed by a statement discussing the limita-
tions of the methodology and how they were managed.
The next three chapters present the results including the artifact analysis for La
Casa Peña and Casselden Place presented in Chaps. 5 and 6, respectively. Discussions
of artifact types in both chapters are divided by activity type (e.g., “Beverage
Service,” “Clothing,” “Recreation”), and within each activity type, artifact attributes
are discussed (e.g., form, decoration, manufacturing technique). This is preceded,
however, by a general discussion on context including stratigraphic data, the spatial
distribution of artifacts, and datable objects. The last of the results chapters, Chap.
8, presents the results of the archival research. It explores the types of goods arriving
to the ports of Melbourne and Buenos Aires, where they originated, and the trade
networks and restrictions relevant to each city. It also considers the main local
industries that were operating at the time and the shopping practices in each city.
The three final chapters use the information gathered in previous chapters to
interpret the results. Chapter 9 provides a comparison of the two sites and the two
cities in terms of consumer goods using the artifact material and archival research.
Chapter 10 is broken up into three sections, which explore the role of consumer
choice, class, ethnicity, and other factors on consumer behavior. The concluding
chapter summarizes the study and its main findings, highlighting the significance of
a comparative approach that looks beyond sites within the former British Empire
and points to the need for further studies of this kind.

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Chapter 2
Consumer Choice, Class, Ethnicity,
and Other Factors

This chapter looks predominately at the background literature and theory for the
themes of consumer choice, class, and ethnicity. Gender and childhood are also
explored in order to gain a fuller picture of life in Little Lon and San Telmo. The
chapter addresses how these themes have been applied in historical archaeology,
their limitations, and ways in which they may help to achieve a greater understand-
ing of consumer behavior in the nineteenth century. The last section of the chapter
explores some of the complexities associated with an interpretative approach.

2.1 Consumer Choice

In order to understand consumer choice as a concept, it must firstly be defined. To


put it simply, the consumer choice paradigm is a concept established as a means to
understand why particular goods are chosen for acquisition over others (Spencer-­
Wood 1987; Miller 1987). The concept stems from various sociological studies
(e.g., Appadurai 1986; Douglas and Isherwood 1980; Friedman 1994; Kopytoff
1986; Miller 1987) that have made the connection between the acquisition of goods
and the outward expression of the self. In this light goods were seen as carriers of
meaning and as an active part of culture.
Earlier studies (e.g., Simmel 1957 [1904]; Veblen 1994 [1899]) tended to focus
on class divisions and emulation as the driving force behind consumer behavior.
Veblen (1994) developed the theory of conspicuous consumption to explain the lav-
ish spending on goods in people’s attempt to define their social position. Similarly,
Simmel’s (1957) trickle-down theory proposed that elite groups control changes in
fashion in order to differentiate themselves from subordinate groups. McCracken
(1988:93–103) adapted Simmel’s theory to modern-day society arguing that emula-
tion can be used as a means to explain power struggles in all forms of social rela-
tions, including class and gender.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 13


P. Ricardi, An Archaeology of Nineteenth-Century Consumer Behavior in
Melbourne, Australia, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, Contributions To Global
Historical Archaeology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21595-8_2
14 2 Consumer Choice, Class, Ethnicity, and Other Factors

Since the time of Simmel and Veblen however, social scientists have tended to
focus less on ideas of emulation and competitive display. Douglas and Isherwood
(1980:72), for example, argued that goods are carriers of meaning and that the
meanings different people attach to goods can vary. They maintained that differ-
ences in meaning are governed by choice and that rational human thought is respon-
sible for creating a space where choice can take place. Later, Bourdieu (1984:1–7)
saw cultural consumption as a deliberate and predisposed way to carry out a social
function and legitimize social differences. However, he argued that this is achieved
through “taste” and that consumer taste is acquired through education and social
influence.
Appadurai (1986:3) and Kopytoff (1986:64) regarded commodities as having
social lives and as the cultural contribution within a system of mass production. This
link between consumption and culture was further elaborated on by Miller (1987)
who saw goods as part of the process of objectification by which people create
themselves as a society. Such an approach links consumer behavior to the construc-
tion of the self by stressing that goods are representations of people’s identities,
social affiliations, and part of everyday practices (Miller 1987:215; Young 1989:76–
77). This book largely takes this viewpoint when exploring consumer choice.
Friedman (1994) expanded this approach by arguing that “One is what one makes
oneself to be. Consumption in such a situation is a grand experiment in life style, the
creation of alternative existences” (Friedman 1994:21). Consumption according to
Friedman (1994) is both an opportunity to express oneself and a form of escapism.
A number of historical studies began to develop work around the concept of
consumer choice in order to help explain the major changes in consumer behavior
that occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. McKendrick et al. (1982)
observed that as goods became increasingly affordable to all social classes, they
also came to be viewed as “fashionable” and not just as necessities. Following
Simmel (1957) and Veblen (1994), McKendrick et al. (1982:1–6) attempted to
explain this trend as driven by social competition (see also Glennie 1995:167).
Others (e.g., Smart Martin 1996; Weatherill 1988) however challenged McKendrick
et al.’s argument that emulation is the only driving model for consumer practices.
Weatherill’s (1988) study considered a more nuanced approach looking at other fac-
tors influencing consumer behavior such as location (urban vs. regional settings)
and occupation (tradespeople owning a greater number of most consumer goods
than the gentry, for instance). Despite this criticism, fashion remains an important
factor driving purchases today, so it would be dangerous to completely ignore it in
the past. This book will also explore fashion as a potential driver for consumer
choice.
Smart Martin (1996) looked at the consumption of household goods through the
analysis of probate and store records from eighteenth-century Virginia. Following
Miller (1987) and Bourdieu (1984), Smart Martin (1996:75) saw material goods as
being imbedded in culture and as carriers of their own meanings. Focusing on the
social construction of gentility, (discussed further in the following section on class)
Smart Martin (1996:76) argued that knowing how to act also meant knowing what
to buy and use. However, she challenged the link between gentility and the
2.1 Consumer Choice 15

p­ re-­prescribed need to purchase matching ceramic sets. According to Smart Martin


(1996:99–100), the apparent interest in purchasing matching sets by wealthy
Virginians was more likely the result of buying in bulk than a conscious predeter-
mined choice to display matching sets of ceramics.
Numerous historical archaeological studies have also dealt with the concept of
consumer choice. Spencer-Wood (1987) following on from the work of Simmel
(1957) and Veblen (1994) attempted to establish why different cultural groups pur-
chased goods of different quality and price. Although important, her work has been
criticized for having failed to really probe into what drives consumer choice by
focusing primarily on the socioeconomic means of the consumer and associating
expensive goods to the conscious display of status (e.g., Mullins 2004:206; Cook
et al. 1996).
Moving away from socioeconomic-driven research, Mullins (1999, 2001)
stressed that consumer choice can be influenced by race. For example, while exam-
ining the archaeological assemblages of African-American consumers in the years
post-abolition, Mullins (1999) demonstrated that African-American consumers
regardless of socioeconomic means, purchased national-brand products instead of
local produce. He argued that this was a conscious action to evade defilement by
racist shopkeepers or short supply and to seek the same opportunities promised by
marketers to all consumers (Mullins 1999:22, 34–35). Likewise, he argued that the
consumption of bric-a-brac in the nineteenth century was abstract, contextual, and
shaped by the consumer. For instance, a post-Reconstruction figurine of Abraham
Lincoln found in an Irish-American assemblage in West Oakland, California, repre-
sents both an anti-black historical vision (by focusing on Lincoln’s role in preserv-
ing the American Union as opposed to his role in emancipation) while at the same
time expressing Irish desires to become American citizens (Mullins
2001:158–175).
Similarly, Cook et al. (1996) have stressed the need to move beyond strictly
socioeconomic focused research agendas. They argue that consumption or the act of
shopping can be seen as a social dance, a purposeful, meaningful action, whereby
individual expression can take place. Their approach to consumerism puts agency
back with the consumer, irrespective of their economic means (Cook et al.
1996:50–65).
Shopping as a theme was also explored by Crook (2000:17–25) through the anal-
ysis of documentary and archaeological data from the working-class site of
Cumberland/Gloucester Street in Sydney. She also considered this an important
avenue of research and called for a closer inspection of the signatures of shopping
in the archaeological record. Her analysis demonstrated that while the dataset had
limited capacity to establish where goods were purchased, at a broad assemblage-­
based scale, the signature of a market bazaar or small store trading in second-hand
and factory seconds was visible. While noteworthy, her approach focused more on
what was available to consumers and identifying where goods where purchased,
rather than looking at choice as a determining factor in shopping. Later, Crook
(2008:279) undertook a study of cost, quality, and the value people place on con-
sumer goods. Here she found that factors such as social interaction, cultural
16 2 Consumer Choice, Class, Ethnicity, and Other Factors

c­ onditioning, and taste have a greater influence on consumption than cost. It is the
types of goods selected for consumption, however, which change across time, place,
and class.
Critics of consumer choice studies (e.g., Wurst and McGuire 1999) have argued
that the study of consumer choice blurs the realities behind social relations, power
struggles, and control. According to Wurst and McGuire (1999:194), the reality of
the concept of “choice” is only available to certain individuals and not others.
Although socioeconomic factors certainly affect consumer behavior, consumer
choice remains an important field of analysis. It contributes to our understanding of
the past motivators in consumer behavior available to people of all different social
classes as Crook (2008) found through her study. Rather than obscuring social rela-
tions, the study of consumer choice helps to distinguish them.
This book considers the concept that goods have the potential to carry meaning
and reveal aspects of people’s identities as explored by previous research (Appadurai
1986; Cook et al. 1996; Douglas and Isherwood 1980; Kopytoff 1986; Miller 1987).
Also taken into account is the view that fashion plays an active role in consumer
choice (McKendrick et al. 1982). Although this is influenced by earlier theories of
emulation and social display (e.g., Simmel 1957; Veblen 1994), fashion remains an
important factor in consumer choice today in everything from clothing to cars to
soft drink varieties. It should therefore not be ignored when attempting to study
consumer behavior in the past. This book, however, will also consider what factors
other than choice influenced consumer behavior.
Other than class (e.g., Wurst and McGuire 1999) and race (e.g., Mullins 1999,
2001), researchers have suggested numerous factors that affect consumer behavior.
Site location, for example, can greatly impact the availability of goods according to
LeeDecker et al. (1987:233–235). This, however, plays a greater role in rural or
isolated settings as opposed to inner-city sites such as Casselden Place or La Casa
Peña. LeeDecker et al. (1987:233–257) further suggested that household structure,
life cycle, home ownership versus tenancy, and income strategy can also influence
consumer behavior. Generally, tenants tend to accumulate fewer possessions than
owner/occupiers. We know that tenants rather than owner/occupiers resided at
Casselden Place (Lot 35) and La Casa Peña. However, other than this fact, not much
detail is known about the individuals or nature of the household structures or the
income strategies employed by the residents (see Chaps. 3 and 4). Other factors that
may contribute to consumer behavior include marketing, sociocultural environ-
ment, and a range of internal factors (e.g., ethnicity, age, gender, religion, political
affiliations) according to Henry (1991). All of these factors may have affected con-
sumer behavior for the residents of Casselden Place and La Casa Peña, but some of
these would not be visible in the archaeological record. De Cunzo (1987:261) sug-
gests that larger factors such as industrialization and urbanization influence con-
sumer behavior, and this concept will be explored further throughout this book.
Combining different concepts from consumer choice theory (e.g., goods as car-
riers of meaning, as an expression of identity, and as fashion statements) leads to a
greater understanding of the factors that drive consumer choice. This is expanded by
Another random document with
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When Toodles was left alone he started out on a tour of inspection.
The first objects of interest were the dead chicken and the peach-pit
basket, but his attention was soon detracted from these by the bright
pan that held the cream; it had been pushed to the edge of the table.
As Toodles approached it he saw the reflection of a chubby baby
face on the outside.
“Baby,” said Toodles. He smiled and the pan baby smiled, and he
concluded that the pan must be full of pretty, smiling babies, and he
wanted them to play with. He could just get his little fingers over the
edge of the pan. He pulled and tugged with all his might to get the
pan baby down.
He succeeded, for the pan toppled over and deluged the
immaculate Toodles with thick, yellow cream. His pretty curls were
filled with chunks of oily coagulation, and cream ran in rivulets down
his little back and bosom.
He seated himself in the middle of it and paddled and spattered in
great glee.
The calf pen took longer to fix than Jack had expected, and as he
neared the house he heard the clock striking twelve, and, looking
fieldward, he saw his wife coming to dinner.
“Jumping Jupiter! what will she say?” was his mental comment.
“But she will soon fix things, I’ll bet.”
As he entered the kitchen what a sight met his gaze. The room
was dark with smoke from burned prunes, the table piled full of
unwashed pans and dishes. The cream. Heavens, the cream! The
dead chicken lay in the middle of the floor and the pit-basket was
upset, as Toodles had left it for the pan baby. The open-mouthed
churn stared at him.
Mr. Telfer opened the oven door; his pie was a black mass.
“I can see now why women sit down and cry sometimes. I’m
blessed if I don’t feel like it myself,” he said.
Toodles, drenched but happy, called from the middle of his cream
puddle, “High me, papa; high me.”
Mrs. Telfer called out as she passed the house: “Hello! Dinner
ready? I’m awful hungry.” But her husband was not visible.
She had enjoyed her morning’s work and was in excellent spirits.
She watered and fed the team, then started for the house. The
novelty of the situation amused her. She expected Jack would have
some surprise ready, some extra dish for dinner, the table decorated
with flowers or, perhaps, be tricked out in one of her white aprons
with his hair curled and a pink ribbon around his neck to show how a
wife should greet her husband.
He was such a wag it was impossible to tell what he might do. As
she entered the house she stood dumb with amazement. Her eyes
took in the situation. The breakfast dishes, the burned pie, the
creamy Toodles, the dead chicken, the littered sitting-room with the
remains of Toodles’ toilet and the distracted-looking man.
“How soon will dinner be ready?” she asked. But her husband did
not answer; he was busy picking up peach pits. “I’ve got to get back
to work as soon as I can,” she continued.
Crossing the room, she took up a paper and went outside and sat
down in the shade to read.
Toodles, greasy and dripping, trotted after.
“Oh, baby, go to papa and get cleaned up. Go tell papa to clean
baby up, darling,” said his mother. And the little fellow hurried into
the house, saying: “Keen baby up, papa; keen baby up.”
Poor Jack, he had lost out. He was hopelessly balled up. He was
mad. He had felt somehow that his troubles were over when he saw
his wife coming, but when she took the paper and sat down to read,
leaving him in that awful muss, the iron entered his soul.
Yet he knew that was exactly the way he did, and only yesterday
when she asked him to get a pitcher of fresh water for dinner he had
said:
“It’s a pity a man can’t get a moment to rest without having to
chore around the house.”
“Keen baby up, papa; keen baby up!” reiterated Toodles. Jack
looked down at the greasy, smeary child with its cream-matted curls
and capitulated.
“Say, Jennie,” he called, “I’ll give up. I know when I’m worsted. It’s
my treat. If you’ll come in here and help me out of this mix-up you
can name your own price and I’ll pay it. I’ve worked all the morning
and haven’t done a blamed thing but get all balled up. I never would
have believed a woman had so much to do if I hadn’t tried it. I am
dead sore at the whole deal.”
“Why, Jack,” laughed his wife, as she came to his assistance, “you
don’t seem to like paper-flower work. I guess you forgot to tie one
hand behind you and so used both to throw time at the birds.”
“Now see here, Jennie, don’t strike a man when he’s down. I’ll
admit that I’m not nearly so smart as I thought I was this morning,
but how things ever got in this shape I can’t tell,” said Jack with a
grim smile.
Together they soon brought order out of chaos, and as they sat
eating their picked-up dinner Jack said:
“If it is all the same to you, Jennie, I’ll finish the orchard this
afternoon.”—The Los Angeles Times.

A BAD NIGHT
By J. Ross Browne
I gradually dropped off into a doze, a mere doze, for I scorn the
charge of having slept a wink that night. The grating of the
grindstones, the everlasting clatter of tongues, the dust, the chaff,
smoke, and fleas, to say nothing of the roar of the water down below,
were enough to banish all hope of sleep; I merely closed my eyes to
try how ridiculous it would feel. How long they remained closed I
scarcely know; it was not long, however, for I soon heard a heavy
breathing close by my head, and felt the warm breath of some
monster on my face. I knew it to be no Arab; it blew and snuffed
altogether unlike anything of the human kind. Thinking it might be all
fancy, I cautiously put out my hand in the dark and began to feel
around me. For some moments I could discover nothing, but in
waving my hand around I at length touched something—something
that sent the blood flying back to my heart a good deal quicker than it
ever flew before. To tell the honest truth, I never was so startled in all
the previous adventures of my life. The substance that I put my hand
on was bare and warm; it was wet also and slimy, and had large
nostrils which seemed to be in the act of smelling me, previous to the
act of mastication. With the quickness of lightning I jerked up my
hand, and felt it glide along a skin covered with long rough hair; the
next instant my ears were stunned by the most dreadful noises,
which resembled, as I thought in the horror of the moment, the
roaring of a full-grown lion. But it was not the roaring of a lion; it was
only the braying of an ass.—From The Mill of Malaha.

AN UNTHANKFUL ORPHAN
By Kate Langley Bosher
My name is Mary Cary. I live in the Yorkburg Female Orphan
Asylum. You may think nothing happens in an Orphan Asylum. It
does. The orphans are sure enough children, and real, much like the
kind that have Mothers and Fathers; but though they don’t give
parties or wear truly Paris clothes, things happen.
To-day I was kept in. Yesterday, too. I don’t mind, for I would rather
watch the lightning up here than be down in the basement with the
others. There are days when I love thunder and lightning. I can’t
flash and crash, being just Mary Cary; but I’d like to, and when it is
done for me it is a relief to my feelings.
The reason I was kept in was this: Yesterday Mr. Gaffney, the one
with a sunk eye and cold in his head perpetual, came to talk to us for
the benefit of our characters. He thinks it’s his duty, and, just
naturally loving to talk, he wears us out once a week anyhow.
Yesterday, not agreeing with what he said, I wouldn’t pretend I did,
and I was punished prompt, of course.
I don’t care for duty-doers, and I tried not to listen to him; but
tiresome talk is hard not to hear—it makes you so mad. Hear him I
did, and when, after he had ambled on until I thought he really was
castor-oil and I had swallowed him, he blew his nose and said:
“You have much, my children, to be thankful for, and for everything
you should be thankful. Are you? If so, stand up. Rise, and stand
upon your feet.”
I didn’t rise. All the others did—stood on their feet, just like he
asked. None tried their heads. I was the only one that sat, and when
his good eye stared at me in such astonishment, I laughed out loud. I
couldn’t help it, I truly couldn’t.
I’m not thankful for everything, and that’s why I didn’t stand up.
Can you be thankful for toothache, or stomachache, or any kind of
ache? You cannot. And not meant to be, either.
The room got awful still, and then presently he said:
“Mary Cary”—his voice was worse than his eye—“Mary Cary, do
you mean to say you have not a thankful heart?” And he pointed his
finger at me like I was the Jezebel lady come to life.
I didn’t answer, thinking it safer, and he asked again:
“Do I understand, Mary Cary”—and by this time he was real red-in-
the-face mad—“do I understand you are not thankful for all that
comes to you? Do I understand aright?”
“Yes, sir, you understand right,” I said, getting up this time. “I am
not thankful for everything in my life. I’d be much thankfuller to have
a Mother and Father on earth than to have them in heaven. And
there are a great many other things I would like different.” And down
I sat, and was kept in for telling the truth.
Miss Bray says it was for impertinence (Miss Bray is the Head
Chief of this Institution), but I didn’t mean to be impertinent. I truly
didn’t. Speaking facts is apt to make trouble, though—also writing
them. To-day Miss Bray kept me in for putting something on the
blackboard I forgot to rub out. I wrote it just for my own relief, not
thinking about anybody else seeing it. What I wrote was this:
“Some people are crazy all the time;
All people are crazy sometimes.”

That’s why I’m up in the punishment-room to-day, and it only


proves that what I wrote is right. It’s crazy to let people know you
know how queer they are. Miss Bray takes personal everything I do,
and when she saw that blackboard, up-stairs she ordered me at
once. She loves to punish me, and it’s a pleasure I give her often.
She thinks she could run this earth better than it’s being done, and
she walks around like she is the Superintendent of most of it.
But she’s taught me a good deal about Human Nature, Miss Bray
has. About the side I didn’t know. I think I will make a special study of
Human Nature. I thought once I’d take up Botany in particular, as I
love flowers; or Astronomy, so as to find out all about those million
worlds in the sky, so superior to earth, and so much larger; but I
think, now, I’ll settle on Human Nature. Nobody ever knows what it is
going to do, which makes it full of surprises, but there’s a lot that’s
real interesting about it. I like it. As for its Bray side, I’ll try not to think
about it; but if there are puddles, I guess it’s well to know where, so
as not to step in them. I wish we didn’t have to know about puddles
and things! I’d so much rather know little and be happy than find out
the miserable much some people do. God is going to have a hard
time with Miss Bray. She’s right old to change, and she’s set in her
ways—bad ways.
Did you know I wrote poetry? Umhm. I do. Last week I wrote one.
This is it:

“In the winter, by the fireside, when the snow falls soft and white,
I am waiting, hoping, longing, but for what I don’t know quite.
And when summer’s sunshine shimmers, and the birds sing clear
and sweet,
I am waiting, always waiting, for the joy I hope to meet.

“It will be, I think, my husband, and the home he’ll make for me;
But of his coming or home-making, I as yet no signs do see.
But I still shall keep on waiting, for I know it’s true as fate,
When you really, truly hustle, things will come if just you’ll wait.”

Miss Bray was to get married. When I grow up I am going to marry


a million-dollar man, so I can travel around the world and have a
house in Paris with twenty bathrooms in it. And I’m going to have
horses and automobiles and a private car and balloons, if they are
working all right by that time. I hope they will be, for I want something
in which I can soar up and sit and look down on other people.
All my life people have looked down on me, passing me by like I
was a Juny bug or a caterpillar, and I don’t wonder. I’m merely Mary
Cary with fifty-eight more just like me. Blue calico, white dots for
winter, white calico, blue dots for summer. Black sailor hats and
white sailor hats with blue capes for cold weather, and no fire to
dress by, and freezing fingers when it’s cold, and no ice-water when
it’s hot.
Yes, I am going to marry a rich man. I will try to love him, but if I
can’t I will be polite to him and travel alone as much as possible. But
I am going to be rich some day, I am. And when I come back to
Yorkburg eyes will bulge, for the clothes I am going to wear will make
mouths water, they’re going to be so grand.
It seems like every time Miss Katherine goes away from the
’Sylum I’d be bad. Last time she hadn’t been gone two days till I’d
invented more trouble. It was this way: In the summer we have much
more time than in the winter, and the children kept coming to me
asking me to make up something, and all of a sudden a play came in
my mind. I just love acting. The play was to be the marriage of Dr.
Rudd and Miss Bray.
You see, Miss Bray is dead in love with Dr. Rudd—really addled
about him. And whenever he comes to see any of the children who
are sick she is so solitious and sweet and smiley that we call her, to
ourselves, Ipecac Mollie. Other days, plain Mollie Cottontail. It
seemed to me if we could just think him into marrying her, it would be
the best work we’d ever done, and I thought it was worth trying.
They say if you just think and think and think about a thing you can
make somebody else think about it, too. And not liking Dr. Rudd, we
didn’t mind thinking her on him, and so we began. Every day we’d
meet for an hour and think together, and each one promised to think
single, and in between times we got ready.
Becky Drake says love goes hard late in life, and sometimes
touches the brain. Maybe that accounts for Miss Bray.
She is fifty-three years old, and all frazzled out and done up with
adjuncts. But Dr. Rudd, being a man with not even usual sense, and
awful conceited, don’t see what we see, and swallows easy. Men are
funny—funny as some women.
I don’t think he’s ever thought of courting Miss Bray. But she’s
thought of it, and for once we tried to help her, and the play was a
corker; it certainly was. We chose Friday night because Miss Jones
always takes tea with her aunt that night, and Miss Bray goes to
choir practicing. I wish everybody could hear her sing! Gabriel ought
to engage her to wake the dead—only they’d want to die again.
Dr. Rudd is in the choir, and she just lives on having Friday nights
to look forward to.
The ceremony took place in the basement-room where we play in
bad weather. It’s across from the dining-room, the kitchen being
between, and it’s a right nice place to march in, being long and
narrow.
I was the preacher, and Prudence Arch and Nita Polley, Emma
Clark and Margaret Witherspoon were the bridesmaids.
Lizzie Wyatt was the bride, and Katie Freeman, who is the tallest
girl in the house, though only fourteen, was the groom.
Katie is so thin she would do as well for one thing in this life as
another, so we made her Dr. Rudd.
We didn’t have but two men. Miss Webb says they’re really not
necessary at weddings, except the groom and minister. Nobody
notices them, and, besides, we couldn’t get the pants.
I was an Episcopal minister, so I wouldn’t need any.
If anybody thinks that wedding was slumpy, they think wrong. It
was thrilly. When the bride and groom and the bridesmaids came in,
all the girls were standing in rows on either side of the walls, making
an aisle in between, and they sang a wedding-song I had invented
from my heart.
It was to the Lohengrin tune, which is a little wobbly for words, but
they got them in all right, keeping time with their hands. These are
the words:

Here comes the bride,


God save the groom!
And please don’t let any chil-i-il-dren come,
For they don’t know
How children feel,
Nor do they know how with children to deal.

She’s still an old maid,


Though she would not have been
Could she have mar-ri-ed any kind of man.
But she could not.
So to the Humane
She came, and caus-ed a good deal of pain.

But now she’s here


To be married, and go
Away with her red-headed, red-bearded beau.
Have mercy, Lord,
And help him to bear
What we’ve been doing this many a year!

And such singing! We’d been practicing in the back part of the
yard, and humming in bed, so as to get the words into the tune; but
we hadn’t let out until that night. That night we let go.
There’s nothing like singing from your heart, and, though I was the
minister and stood on a box which was shaky, I sang too. I led.
The bride didn’t think it was modest to hold up her head, and she
was the only silent one. But the bridegroom and bridesmaids sang,
and it sounded like the revivals at the Methodist church. It was
grand.
And that bride! She was Miss Bray. A graven image of her couldn’t
have been more like her.
She was stuffed in the right places, and her hair was frizzled just
like Miss Bray’s. Frizzled in front, and slick and tight in the back; and
her face was a purple pink, and powdered all over, with a piece of
dough just above her mouth on the left side to correspond with Miss
Bray’s mole.
And she held herself so like her, shoulders back, and making that
little nervous sniffle with her nose, like Miss Bray makes when she’s
excited, that once I had to wink at her to stop.
The groom didn’t look like Dr. Rudd. But she wore men’s clothes,
and that’s the only way you’d know some men were men, and almost
anything will do for a groom. Nobody noticed him.
We were getting on just grand, and I was marrying away, telling
them what they must do and what they mustn’t do. Particularly that
they mustn’t get mad and leave each other, for Yorkburg was very
old-fashioned and didn’t like changes, and would rather stick to its
mistakes than go back on its word. And then I turned to the bride.
“Miss Bray,” I said, “have you told this man you are marrying that
you are two-faced and underhand, and can’t be trusted to tell the
truth? Have you told him that nobody loves you, and that for years
you have tried to pass for a lamb, when you are an old sheep? And
does he know that though you’re a good manager on little and are
not lazy, that your temper’s been ruined by economizing, and that at
times, if you were dead, there’d be no place for you? Peter wouldn’t
pass you, and the devil wouldn’t stand you. And does he know he’s
buying a pig in a bag, and that the best wedding present he could
give you would be a set of new teeth? And will you promise to stop
pink powder and clean your finger-nails every day? And—”
But I got no further, for something made me look up, and there,
standing in the door, was the real Miss Bray.
All I said was—“Let us pray!”—Abridged from “Mary Cary,”
copyrighted by The Century Company, New York, and used by the
kind consent of author and publisher.

A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR A LADY


By Myra Kelly
It was the week before Christmas, and the First-Reader Class had,
almost to a man, decided on the gifts to be lavished on “Teacher.”
But Morris Mogilewsky, whose love for Teacher was far greater than
the combined loves of all the other children, had as yet no present to
bestow. The knowledge saddened all his hours and was the more
maddening because it could in no wise be shared by Teacher, who
noticed his altered bearing and tried with all sorts of artful
beguilements to make him happy and at ease. But her efforts served
only to increase his unhappiness and his love. And he loved her! Oh,
how he loved her! Since first his dreading eyes had clung for a
breath’s space to her “like man’s shoes” and had then crept timidly
up to her “light face,” she had been mistress of his heart of hearts.
That was more than three months ago. And well he remembered the
day!
His mother had washed him horribly, and had taken him into the
big, red schoolhouse, so familiar from the outside, but so full of
unknown terrors within.
He was then dragged through long halls and up tall stairs by a
large boy, who spoke to him disdainfully as “greenie,” so that his
spirit was quite broken and his nerves were all unstrung when he
was pushed into a room full of bright sunshine and of children who
laughed at his frightened little face. The sunshine smote his timid
eyes, the laughter smote his timid heart, and he turned to flee. But
the door was shut, the large boy gone, and despair took him for its
own.
Down upon the floor he dropped, and wailed, and wept, and
kicked. It was then that he heard, for the first time, the voice which
now he loved.
“Why, my dear little chap, you mustn’t cry like that. What’s the
matter?”
The hand was gentle and the question kind, and these, combined
with a faint perfume suggestive of drug-stores and barber-shops—
but nicer than either—made him uncover his hot little face. Kneeling
beside him was a lady, and he forced his eyes to that perilous
ascent; from shoes to skirt, from skirt to jumper, from jumper to face,
they trailed in dread uncertainty, but at the face they stopped. They
had found—rest.
Morris allowed himself to be gathered into the lady’s arms, and
held upon her knee, and when his sobs no longer rent the very
foundations of his pink and wide-spread tie, he answered her
question in a voice as soft as his eyes, and as gently sad.
“I ain’t so big, and I don’t know where is my mamma.”
Thereafter he had been the first to arrive every morning, and the
last to leave every afternoon; and under the care of Teacher, his
liege lady, he had grown in wisdom and love and happiness. But the
greatest of these was love. And now, when the other boys and girls
were planning surprises and gifts of price for Teacher, his hands
were as empty as his heart was full. Appeal to his mother met with
denial prompt and energetic.
“For what you go und make, over Christmas, presents?”
“All the other fellows buys her presents, und I’m loving mit her too;
it’s polite I gives her presents the while I’m got such a kind feeling
over her,” said Morris stoutly.
“Well, we ain’t got no money for buy nothings,” said Mrs.
Mogilewsky sadly. “No money, und your papa, he has all times a
scare he shouldn’t to get no more.”
So Morris was helpless, his mother poor, and Teacher all
unknowing.
And now the great day, the Friday before Christmas, came, and
the school was, for the first half-hour, quite mad. Room 18, generally
so placid and so peaceful, was a howling wilderness full of brightly
colored, quickly changing groups of children, all whispering, all
gurgling, and all hiding queer bundles.
Isidore Belchatosky was the first to lay tribute before Teacher. He
came forward with a sweet smile and a tall candlestick, and Teacher,
for a moment, could not be made to understand that all that length of
bluish-white china was really hers “for keeps.”
“It’s to-morrow holiday,” Isidore assured her; “and we gives you
presents, the while we have a kind feeling. Candlesticks could to
cost twenty-five cents.”
“It’s a lie! three for ten,” said a voice in the background; but
Teacher hastened to respond to Isidore’s test of her credulity.
“Indeed, they could. This candlestick could have cost fifty cents,
and it’s just what I want. It is very good of you to bring me a present.”
“You’re welcome,” said Isidore, retiring.
And then, the ice being broken, the First-Reader Class in a body
rose to cast its gifts on Teacher’s desk, and its arms around
Teacher’s neck.
Nathan Horowitz presented a small cup and saucer; Isidore
Applebaum bestowed a large calendar for the year before last; Sadie
Gonorowsky brought a basket containing a bottle of perfume, a
thimble, and a bright silk handkerchief; Sarah Schrodsky offered a
pen-wiper and a yellow celluloid collarbutton, and Eva Kidansky
gave an elaborate nasal douche, under the pleasing delusion that it
was an atomizer.
Jacob Spitsky pressed forward with a tortoise-shell comb of
terrifying aspect and hungry teeth, and an air showing forth a
determination to adjust it in its destined place. Teacher meekly
bowed her head; Jacob forced his offering into her long-suffering
hair, and then retired with the information “Costs fifteen cents,
Teacher.”
Meanwhile the rush of presentation went steadily on. Cups and
saucers came in wild profusion. The desk was covered with them.
The soap, too, became urgently perceptible. It was of all sizes,
shapes and colors, but of uniform and dreadful power of perfume.
Teacher’s eyes filled with tears—of gratitude—as each new piece or
box was pressed against her nose, and Teacher’s mind was full of
wonder as to what she could ever do with it all. Bottles of perfume
vied with one another and with the all-pervading soap, until the air
was heavy and breathing grew laborious. But pride swelled the
hearts of the assembled multitude. No other Teacher had so many
helps to the toilet. None other was so beloved.
When the wastepaper basket had been twice filled with wrappings
and twice emptied; when order was emerging out of chaos; when the
Christmas-tree had been disclosed and its treasures distributed, a
timid hand was laid on Teacher’s knee and a plaintive voice
whispered, “Say, Teacher, I got something for you”; and Teacher
turned quickly to see Morris, her dearest boy charge.
“Now, Morris dear,” said Teacher, “you shouldn’t have troubled to
get me a present; you know you and I are such good friends that—”
“Teacher, yiss, ma’am,” Morris interrupted, in a bewitching and
rising inflection of his soft and plaintive voice. “I know you got a kind
feeling by me, and I couldn’t to tell even how I got a kind feeling by
you. Only it’s about that kind feeling I should give you a present. I
didn’t”—with a glance at the crowded desk—“I didn’t to have no soap
nor no perfumery, and my mamma she couldn’t to buy none by the
store; but, Teacher, I’m got something awful nice for you by present.”
“And what is it, deary?” asked the already rich and gifted young
person. “What is my new present?”
“Teacher, it’s like this: I don’t know; I ain’t so big like I could to
know”—and, truly, God pity him! he was passing small—“it ain’t for
boys—it’s for ladies. Over yesterday on the night comes my papa to
my house, und he gives my mamma the present. Sooner she looks
on it, sooner she has a awful glad; in her eyes stands tears, und she
says, like that—out of Jewish—‘Thanks,’ un’ she kisses my papa a
kiss. Und my papa, how he is polite! He says—out of Jewish, too
—‘you’re welcome, all right,’ un’ he kisses my mamma a kiss. So my
mamma, she sets und looks on the present, und all the time she
looks she has a glad over it. Und I didn’t to have no soap, so you
could to have the present.”
“But did your mother say I might?”
“Teacher, no, ma’am; she didn’t say like that, und she didn’t to say
not like that. She didn’t to know. But it’s for ladies, un’ I didn’t to have
no soap. You could to look on it. It ain’t for boys.”
And here Morris opened a hot little hand and disclosed a tightly
folded pinkish paper. As Teacher read it he watched her with eager,
furtive eyes, dry and bright, until hers grew suddenly moist, when his
promptly followed suit. As she looked down at him, he made his
moan once more:
“It’s for ladies, and I didn’t to have no soap.”
“But, Morris dear,” cried Teacher, unsteadily, laughing a little, and
yet not far from tears, “this is ever so much nicer than soap—a
thousand times better than perfume; and you’re quite right, it is for
ladies, and I never had one in all my life before. I am so very
thankful.”
“You’re welcome, all right. That’s how my papa says; it’s polite.
Und my mamma,” he said insinuatingly—“she kisses my papa a
kiss.”
“Well?” said Teacher.
“Well,” said Morris, “you ain’t never kissed me a kiss, und I seen
how you kissed Eva Gonorowsky. I’m loving mit you too. Why don’t
you never kiss me a kiss?”
“Perhaps,” suggested Teacher mischievously, “perhaps it ain’t for
boys.”
“Teacher, yiss, ma’am; it’s for boys,” he cried, as he felt her arms
about him, and saw that in her eyes, too, “stands tears.”
Late that night Teacher sat in her pretty room and reviewed her
treasures. She saw that they were very numerous, very touching,
very whimsical, and very precious. But above all the rest she
cherished a frayed and pinkish paper, rather crumpled and a little
soiled. For it held the love of a man and a woman and a little child,
and the magic of a home, for Morris Mogilewsky’s Christmas present
for ladies was the receipt for a month’s rent for a room on the top
floor of a Monroe Street tenement.—From “Little Citizens,”
copyrighted by Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, and used by
arrangement.

THE CAMP-MEETING AT BLUFF SPRINGS


By Justin Truitt Bishop
Bascom Barnard paused on the kitchen steps, and looked in at the
door with suspicion and irritation in his eyes.
“Bakin’ chickens, air ye?” he asked. “Now I’d like to know what
ye’re wastin’ chickens fur at this rate? An’ pies an’ lightbread an’
puddin’, well the land, Ma’ Jane, did ye think we was millionaires?”
“I didn’t know but ye’d change your mind about goin’ over to the
camp-meetin’ an’ it would help along to have most of the cookin’ for
Sunday done at home,” she said humbly.
“It does seem to me, Ma’ Jane, that it takes more talkin’ to
convince you of anything, than any other seventeen women I ever
have saw. I’ve tol’ you every day for the last week that we warn’t
goin’ to that dratted camp-meetin’—that we couldn’t both leave, and I
was bound to go over to the corners and see Bink Denny about that
land—that a woman’s business was at home, stid of gallivantin’
’round the country ’tendin’ camp-meetin’s; cain’t you ever learn
anything, Ma’ Jane?”
Ma’ Jane shut the oven door and stood up; she wiped the
perspiration from her face with a checked apron.
“I’ve been hopin’ for years that they’d have a camp-meetin’ near
enough for me to go. I’ve not ’tended since I was a girl. Mother
always had a tent an’ you was glad enough to come to camp-meetin’
then, Bascom, an’ this one’s not more’n six miles away—an’ I want
to go.”
“Well, you know good an’ well you cain’t. Somebody’s got to stay
on this place to take keer o’ things—an’ since it cain’t be me, it’s got
to be you.”
“Mary Hopkins tol’ me she’d save one end of her tent for me; it’s
built o’ boards—two rooms and a hall between—an’ there’s a big
shed at the back for a dining-room, an’ I wanted to go worse’n I ever
wanted to go anywheres, I guess.”
“Fur’s that’s concerned, I reckon I wanted to go, but you don’t see
me throwin’ our livin’ away so’s I could gallop off to every camp-
meetin’ that comes along, do ye?
“I won’t be back for three days,” he stated, as he went away. In
deep silence Ma’ Jane sat down and looked at the kitchen table. It
was heaped with the good things she had prepared for the great
Sunday dinner at the camp-ground, where it was the joy of every
tenter to keep open house and entertain all who would come.
True, Bascom had said all along that they could not go, yet she
had gone on cooking and planning. She had even packed most of
the things which she would need for housekeeping in the other end
of Mary Hopkins’s tent.
Ma’ Jane went out to the barn and looked at the cows, which were
ready to eat again, having been fed fully an hour before.
“Drat ye,” said she vindictively. Coming from Ma’ Jane, this might
have been considered mild profanity.
Her heart stood still for a moment, then she wept remorsefully on
the outstretched nose of the nearest cow. “It’s about time I was goin’
to camp-meetin’,” she said. “If I ain’t gettin’ to be a heathen, I dunno
who is.”
As she slowly walked out of the barn, the two cows followed her,
and it was at the barn-door that an inspiration came to Ma’ Jane
Barnard.
Her face paled a moment, and then flushed crimson. She put her
hand to her throat—“them cows lead like dogs,” she whispered.
Bascom Barnard’s work at the corners was over in less time than
he had contemplated. In fact, he met Bink Denny coming out of the
“First and Last Chance” in such a state of intoxication that Bascom
was glad to tear himself away and set forth on the homeward road.
He went slowly and sorrowfully, because if he went home, Ma’
Jane would insist on going to camp-meeting and he would be left
alone over Sunday. The few times when he had been left to look
after the house had been brief but memorable. Of course, it was no
trouble for Ma’ Jane to run the place. She was already reconciled to
the staying at home now, anyway, and did not expect to go to the
camp-meeting.
Bascom was silent on his way home—only two or three miles off
the road—and he really felt that it would do him good to see what a
camp-meeting was like once more. He felt that he might finish up the
day there at any rate, and then go home and give Ma’ Jane a
chance; or he might stay over Sunday at the camp-grounds, and
then go back to the corners, find Bink Denny sober, and transact his
business according to the first arrangement.
Bascom Barnard turned into the road that led to Bluff Springs. The
sound of hammering and sawing, and the merry clatter of tongues
proclaimed the camp-ground before he was in sight of it. He rode
into the busy little city where board and canvas tents were going up
like magic. Brother Wilkins, the minister, called cheerfully:
“Hello, Brother Barnard, where’s Sister Barnard, ain’t she
coming?”
“She kinder thot she wouldn’t come. Ma’ Jane sets a lot o’ store by
the cows and things, ye see—so she reckoned she’d stay.”
He rode hurriedly down the line of tents, where a fire of questions
met him at every turn.
“I jes couldn’t get Ma’ Jane to come,” he explained to Miss
Mirandy Barr. “It don’t suit her to come away and leave things at six’s
and seven’s, as she says, so she jes stays by the stuff, Ma’ Jane
does.”
Bascom Barnard began helping people to get their tents in order.
Before noon, he told his friends that Ma’ Jane didn’t know what
she was missing, and immediately after dinner—chicken-pie and
fixin’s—if they thought it would do any good, he would go after Ma’
Jane yet and make her come, whether or no.
Just before the afternoon service, he said it was an awful mistake
to have a body’s mind on worldly things.
In the still hours of the night Bascom reasoned it out. He had not
treated himself to a holiday this many a year, and now he felt he was
entitled to one. Ma’ Jane could take hers some other time; besides, a
woman’s work was never wearin’ like a man’s—keepin’ house was
like play compared with what he had been called upon to do. He
turned over on the fragrant hay mattress, with which Sister Clark had
provided him, and went comfortably to sleep.
The clear notes of a horn roused everybody for the sunrise prayer-
meeting, and Bascom hurried arbor-wards with the others.
“Will Brother Barnard please lead us in prayer?” said the minister,
when the first hymn had been sung. Brother Barnard found himself
on his knees stumbling over a few familiar phrases; as he went on
he gained confidence and his voice became assured. He remarked
upon the fact that our days are few and evil.
After a few similar remarks, he got in full swing—time was no
object—scraps of forgotten phrases from prayers heard in his youth
tumbled forth in picturesque confusion. The hour for prayer-meeting
to close had come when he began to pray for the heathen, and this
took time of itself. When he had worked around to the sinful and
depraved of our own land, everybody would have been impatient,
but for the fact that something had happened—something that
Bascom could not see, as his eyes were shut. There were some who
kept their eyes open when they prayed; these nudged each other
excitedly.
“An’ now, Lord,” pleaded Brother Bascom Barnard, pounding the
bench in front of him with a clenched fist, “be with all that’s near and
dear to them that’s gathered here to worship Thee. Be with them
that’s stayed by the stuff—an’ if they’ve stayed away from this
blessed place because they’re cold or hard-hearted—as we fear
some of ’em has—O Lord, melt their hearts of stone an’ make ’em
see that they’re hangin’ over eternal punishment prepared for the
devil and his angels.”
“Amen,” said a clear voice, undeniably feminine, which seemed in
some unaccountable way to come from the wrong direction.
Bascom was kneeling in the sawdust near the altar, and facing the
congregation. The voice came from behind him. Involuntarily he
looked back over his shoulder. At the same moment a faint giggle
arose somewhere down among the benches where the congregation
was kneeling.
An old horse and wagon had drawn up close at the edge of the
arbor, and Ma’ Jane, her best bonnet tied under her chin, held the
reins. The wagon was piled high with a medley of things pertaining to
housekeeping. Three coops of excited chickens topped the pile, the
anxious mewing of a cat came from a basket behind the seat, and
tied to the back of the wagon were two cows, both intimating that
something to eat would be quite acceptable. Under the wagon sat
the black puppy, its astonished head to one side as it viewed its
master under these unaccustomed circumstances.
Every one had arisen and was looking with might and main. The
minister hastily pronounced the benediction.
“I’m sorry to move in on Sunday,” explained Ma’ Jane, “but it’s took
me all night to get ready an’ to come. My husband couldn’t help me
because he was over to the corners, makin’ a trade with Bink Denny.
I warn’t goin’ to stay at home tendin’ the cows and things while
camp-meetin’ was goin’ on only six miles away, so I brung ’em all
along. ’Long as Bascom’s not here, if some of you would help me
unload at Mary Hopkins’s tent, I’d be thankful, an’ you’ll take dinner
with me to-day, Brother Wilkins—an’ as many more as can crowd in.”

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