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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Volume 3: Our Street Folk.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is a "Patent American Air Preserver"?
(a) An instrument that measures the amount of pollution in the air.
(b) A way of keeping insects off your person.
(c) A bogus product the photographer sold.
(d) A Patent that the photographer applied for in the patent office.

2. What is one thing crossing sweeps did for tips?
(a) Watch for cops when something illegal was going on.
(b) Run numbers.
(c) Run errands.
(d) Tell someone who has been by their home.

3. What did the fire eater have to do once to win five shillings on a bet?
(a) Kill a cobra with his teeth.
(b) Jump into the Thames River while on fire.
(c) Kill 20 rats in a cage with his teeth.
(d) Walk on a tightrope forty feet off the ground while eating fire.

4. Where did a coster sleep if sales were bad?
(a) In the homeless shelter.
(b) In the doorway of a shop or church.
(c) In the debtor's prison.
(d) In the city parks.

5. When did the magician's father die?
(a) When the magician was 2.
(b) He was still alive at the time of the interview.
(c) When the magician was 10.
(d) When the magician was 25.

Short Answer Questions

1. What were costermongers called who carried their wares on their backs?

2. Who usually watched Jewish girls who peddled fruit?

3. What did some of the bolder boys do?

4. How does Mayhew describe the Punch and Judy show?

5. Who does Mayhew say are well paid compared to others profiled in the book?

(see the answer key)

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