Thursday March 6, 2025

Introduction to Dandy's Discovery, Part Two

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. Occasionally, I will also publish some of my shorter fiction in this newsletter to read for free.

Daily Diary, Day 1646:

Throughout the month of March, I will be offering, for free, the sixth short story in my Victorian San Francisco mystery series, Dandy’s Discovery. But first I am going to post a little more on Victorian’s attitudes towards pets (the first post on Tuesday focused on dogs, so this one is about cats.)

Right from the beginning of my Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, the old black cat, Queenie, was an important presence in the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse. The cat first show up in the Maids of Misfortune, as various characters give their opinion about whether they should let the young boarder, Jamie Hewitt, keep the young Boston Terrier pup, Dandy. As you can see from this quote, Dandy’s ability to get along with cat Queenie was paramount in making this decision.

“Beatrice responded by looking significantly at the extremely alert cat in Annie’s lap. “It seems to me that the deciding vote must come from that old puss, for if she won’t put up with him, there will be no peace in this household. I know she is getting old and crotchety, but I won’t have her bothered, even to please the young lad.”

As if she knew she was being spoken about, the cat sat up in Annie’s lap, drew herself tall, and then sprang lightly down onto the kitchen floor. After arching slowly, she walked sedately across the floor until she stood facing the young bull terrier. He sat very still, without blinking. Annie could see that the effort he made not to bark was tremendous. Then, with a swiftness she found remarkable, the cat stretched out her right paw and lightly batted the dog on his forehead, right between his ears. Beyond emitting the smallest of yips and producing the fleeting impression that he had gone cross-eyed, the dog did not stir. The cat then stalked majestically across to her basket in the corner, circled twice, and curled up into instant sleep.

A collective sigh of relief from both Beatrice and the dog followed this performance, and then the sound of laughter came from the doorway leading to the front part of the house.

“I could have told you they’d get along, Ma’am,” said her servant Kathleen. “That old cat already showed him who is queen of the castle this afternoon in the backyard. No, Ma’am, as long as he stays in his place and acts the gentleman, they’ll get along just fine.” Maids of Misfortune

While Queenie didn’t have a large role in the series, certainly not compared to Dandy, I often inserted her in scenes where stroking her gave comfort to female characters like Annie and Nate’s sister Laura. Certainly this was a role cats played for me throughout my life. My first pet was a cat, who not only slept with me, but also was a prodigious hunter.

I was not surprised then, when I did background research on cats, to discover that the Victorians definitely saw cats as as both utilitarian (keeping mice and other vermin in check) and beloved pets.

Pets that were consistently associated with the female members of households. I found it interesting that one researcher argued that the way in which cats kept homes free of vermin, plus their fastidious attention to keeping themselves clean (in contrast to dogs!) meant that advertisers often used cats and kittens in their advertisements for household goods like soap. (see photo) This, in turn, reinforced the idea that there was a particular affinity between women and cats since the home and keeping things clean was seen as women’s special realm in the 19^th century.

What I didn’t expect to discover is that there was a whole business that emerged in the 19^th century to ensure that there was cheap but easy source of food for urban cats to make sure they didn’t stray.

When I was doing a key-word search on cats several articles popped up about a person called a “cat’s meat man.” At first, I was disgusted, thinking this meant people were selling meat made from dead cats. However, I was relieved to learn that this sort of individual was someone who traveled around cities selling meat from carts (usually horse meat or meat that was slightly off) for people to feed totheir cats!

These cat’s meat men (and some women) seemed to catch the fancy of newspaper reporters, because there were lots of articles written about them…particularly about those who sold this meat in London. And these articles made it clear that not just wealthy Victorian families used this source of cat food.

“During the middle years of Victoria’s reign, the cat’s meat man, in his livery of blue apron, shiny black hat, and corduroy trousers, had become a gift to investigative journalists of an anthropological turn. In his London Labour and the London Poor(1851), Henry Mayhew plunges deep into their visible yet still mysterious world. According to Mayhew, there were a thousand such traders in London, serving about 300,000 cats, one for every house (allowing for multiple cats in some homes, plus strays).” Kathryn Hughes, The Cat’s Meat Man

London wasn’t the only large city that employed these men (and some women) to deliver meat for cats door to door, and when I searched the San Francisco newspapers I even found articles about the cat’s meat men in places like Paris and U.S. cities like New York City or Chicago.

However, I only found one mention of someone following this occupation in San Francisco, with this article in the 1886 San Francisco Chronicle. See below.

I confess, when I read that the man apparently was paid by local businessmen to keep cats in their premises, I couldn’t help but think I should figure out how to work this into a future story!

If you are interested in this whole cat’s meat men story, I strongly recommend reading in the article by Kathryn Hughes. It has great pictures of the period, as well as an interesting side discussion of how this occupation played a role in early speculations about Jack the Ripper in London.

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