Only in the Rippersphere

[Tom_Wescott]

Batty street lodger
Squibby
Jolly bonnet
carrotty mustache
high rip gang (still dont know what it means)
"codding"
char woman

Yes! Many of the professions of the time were new to me. I'm still stumbling across new ones. Also the various kinds of hats (wideawake? billycock?).

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Abby Normal]

Yes! Many of the professions of the time were new to me. I'm still stumbling across new ones. Also the various kinds of hats (wideawake? billycock?).

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

lol. yup... the hats threw me off too and def the professions. I thought knacker was a slur, like wanker.
and cats meat . of course i thought that meant meat from a cat.

But then again Im just a dumb Yanker.

[Pcdunn]

Yes! Many of the professions of the time were new to me. I'm still stumbling across new ones. Also the various kinds of hats (wideawake? billycock?).

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

A billycock hat is just a variant name for a bowler hat (derby to Americans).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wideawake_hat

A slouch hat, sometimes with one side of the brim pinned up, or wide brimmed like a cowboy's hat.

[PaulB]

thank you Mr Begg.

If I may add a follow up question...but why were they called "high rip"? what does high rip mean?

I'm afraid that I have no idea. Sorry. It's a question I have often asked myself and never managed to find an answer. May a newspaper search might tell us...