Henry Mayhew (1812-1887), a London journalist, published an extraordinary account of the people he encountered on the streets of London in the mid-1800s. These accounts were published in three volumes in 1861 all with the title London Labor and the London Poor: A Cyclopaedia Of The Condition And Earnings Of Those That Will Work, Those That Cannot Work, And Those That Will Not Work. Among the street-folk he interviewed and reported on in his three volumes are beggars, tumblers, vagrants, artisans, dustmen, sewer hunters, lumpers, clowns, costermongers, rat-killers, and conjurors. "It is curious," writes Henry Mayhew in his first volume, "[that] the public has less knowledge [of London street-folk] than of the most distance tribes on the earth-the government population returns not evening numbering them among the inhabitants of the kingdom"-and for this reason surely the literate public will want to read these volumes (Mayhew, 1861: Volume I, iii). In the fictional world of Numbering, a gentleman reporter called Mr. Gray has collected some curious and alarming facts about the folks he has encountered on the streets of London, folks like Geordie, a castaway boy who passes in and out of people's lives until he finally goes underground; and other folks like Willard and Johnny, who struggle to make a living but gain strength from each other; the Jewish boy Baxter; and Jenny, whose life is dominated by her violent and drunken husband Bulger. In Numbering, fictional folks like these and others gain significance in ways actual street-folk likely did not in their lifetimes, significance only you can ascribe.
