A lot of these jobs still seem to exist, we just don’t use the same name.
People still buy food from farmers to be resold in markets.
Mercenaries definitely exist.
Alnagers are just a very specific kind of quality assurance.
People still collect and deal with chamber pots, just mostly in hospitals. We call them orderlies.
I’m sure there are people who still do the three-card-monte scam with thimbles rather than cards.
Gong farmers sound very much like septic tank cleaners.
We still have people who go after delinquent debtors. They’re called repo men and collection agencies.
People still make harnesses and candles.
Haberdashers still exist, too. Sure, they are pretty rare, but how much effort does it take to to Google something before declaring it extinct?
Otherwise, another fine Mental Floss video.
Furthermore, my phrenologist assures me that I am a fine man of upstanding character.
Also, at least one of these jobs still exists under that title today:
Herb strewers still exist for royalty. They’re called PR people now.
Weir keepers exist all over the world still.
Arkwrights. Millions of 'em. Egglers, haberdashers, ackermen, just to mention a few that haven’t already been mentioned. Seems to me like most of these jobs still exist.
We even still have scribes (albeit in a far reduced form).
Regarding hobblers, a related job was the “legger”. In Britain, canal boats were towed by horses but sometimes the canal would go through a tunnel where there was no towpath for the horse. In these places, the boat would be propelled by leggers hired at the entrance of the tunnel, who would lie on their backs on the boat and propel it by pushing with their legs against the walls and roof. One of the crew of the boat would lead the horse over the hill to meet it at the other end of the tunnel.
In Russia, riverboats were pulled upstream by people- the Russian word for this job is Бурлак (burlak). One of the songs they sang as they worked is the famous “Song of the Volga Boatmen”.
No mention of the saggar-maker’s bottom-knocker there, so I assume bottoms are still being knocked for saggars. Which makes me happy.
Well, apart from the rapid-fire delivery (way tooooo fast) and the drop in tone at the end of sentences, which makes them barely audible at times… interesting, if slightly inaccurate, video. FYI Lamplighters would supplement their meagre pay by (when turning the lamps off in the morning) being knocker-uppers - my granddad was one… or both (which ever way you look at it)…
And then there’s me sitting here with a sinister bump on my head from a low-hanging cabinet. Quietly plotting the final destruction of the world. The phrenologist warned me to keep my head shaped in a docile way, but now I gotta kill everyone.
Jobs That No Longer Exist
they forgot the most important one: my non existent job.
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