Jenny Tarbuckle began life as a character in the Dickens Christmas Fair, a Living History Centre event that was held in San Francisco regularly until the 1990s and sporadically till the turn of the new century. Like many truly magical places, the participants would not let it die, and the tradition was carried on by smaller events. Recently it was reborn in all its glory and now takes place every year at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. As the years passed, Jenny's life story grew more and more detailed. Here is her original character story:

Jenny Tarbuckle was born in London on February 14th, 1837 to Sarah Gamp, a midwife. Her mother said that she had been taken against her will by a sailor by the name of Tarbuckle, and insisted that the daughter take the name of the absent father. Her early years were almost comfortable, according to the standards of the time, and her mother even managed to see to it that Jenny had a basic education, including the ability to read and write. Her mother made it clear that she expected Jenny to be both a means of comfort and support to her. Her mother probably intended for Jenny to follow her trade, and taught her some of it, but began to drink heavily before she reached an age to learn much.

As the situation at home began to deteriorate, and the bills began to mount, Jenny became the sole support for the two, finding employment in a telegraph office where her little education brought in barely enough for the pair to survive. She was respectable though, and when her employer offered her the choice of raising her skirts for him or the loss of her job, Jenny found herself without a living. Without a reference from her former employer, and with no experience in any other trade, she could not find another position.

The following winter was hard, the two spent it in various low lodgings, when they could afford it, but never two nights in the same place, it seemed. Sarah continued to drink heavily, and Jenny could not persuade her to stop, though she refused to take up the habit herself. She tried to support them by taking such sewing work as she could manage without regular lodgings, mainly garters and embroidery, reading letters to those who could not do so themselves,and writing their replies. Such folk could not pay much though and Jenny and Sarah often found themselves with no better place to sleep than the streets.

Sarah, broken by drink, tried to persuade Jenny to take up prostitution as a means of support but the girl refused, preferring to live on the streets rather than sell the only possession she still had, her respectability. Her mind spun tales of the man who would come and rescue her from this life, who would sweep her up in his strong arms and make her his bride. He would see her delicate, noble nature for what it was, and in return she would grant him her heart, and her virtue, and bear his children. Each night, his face was the last thing she thought of before sleep, and the first thing upon awakening. All this was shattered one night when she went into a low public house to fetch Sarah. The man was drunk, and much bigger than Jenny, and when he had taken her virtue he left her in an alley.

For once, Sarah actually proved herself useful. She found her daughter and took care of her. When Jenny recovered, she took to the streets as a tart. Nothing else was left to her. She took to drink as well, and found that she could easily support both of them and buy the gin that became her only solace. To her surprise, she actually began to enjoy her new life and the company of the other tarts she had shunned before. She was young and pretty and found that she had a way with men. Then she met the man of her dreams.

Jeremy Wolff was a thief, and a good one. He had been raised by a thief who expected a lot from his young charge and wasn't gentle when he didn't get it. The disappearance of his mentor one day was not exactly a tragedy, and Jeremy didn't waste time looking for him. He fell in love with the vivacious young tart on sight. When he saw her struggling with an assailant, he didn't think twice before coming to her rescue.

Jenny had expected only to trade one brute for another, but the young man actually bowed to her and led her to a public house where he bought her a drink, and dinner too! As the evening passed, the coming payment she was sure he expected faded from a chore to a moment she waited for with anticipation. She was very disappointed when he merely walked her to her lodging and bid her goodnight. She tried to persuade him to come inside, but he refused. She couldn't get him out of her head from that night.

Jenny took every opportunity to be in Jeremy's company from then on. She found his shyness irresistable, as well as his courtly treatment of her. She tried repeatedly to entice him to her lodging, but he would never go farther than the street door. He would never kiss more than her hand. She began to wonder if there was something wrong with her, or if he fancied boys instead. Finally, one night when they were both very drunk, she spoke plainly to him about it. He hastily assured her that it wasn't her, and at last told her about his only experience with a tart. He had been taken by his mentor, who had told a park woman to make a man of him, and be quick about it. It had been a miserable experience, and he never wanted to do anything that brutish to such a splendid creature as Jenny.

As he tried to get up to leave, Jenny sat in his lap, and refused to get up. By morning, she made him realize the difference between love and what he had experienced. From that moment on, he tried to make sure that Jenny had no need to practice her trade. She became a thief's woman, and found at last the man she had dreamed of.

For several years, they lived happily, if not too securely, on what Jeremy brought in. They dreamed of moving to the country, where Jeremy would buy a farm and never thieve again, and Jenny would keep their little cottage. He began to put money away. Then, tragedy struck. On Jenny's 21st birthday, Jeremy was attacked on his way home. She found him in the street in front of their lodging, a dozen red roses scattered in the muck.

It didn't take Jenny long to run through their savings. She gave money to anyone who asked for it, and took up tarting again with a vengeance. She would go with anyone, regardless of the danger, and none of her friends could make her see sense. In the end, it was only a year before she picked the wrong customer and ended up being beaten to death by him.

That was the first life story for Jenny. It's sad, but typical of the period and class of character I was playing. I wasn't going to present the tart's life and times as anything other than what it was; an occupation that women only took up out of dire necessity in a time when they had no alternatives. While there were better classes of tart, and all women who took up the occupation didn't have so awful a fate, Jenny wasn't equipped, either by education, breeding, or connections, to aspire to being an officer's mistress, or keep a house of her own.

I'd like to add that I don't think that there's anything inherent to the profession of prostitution that made Jenny's fate necessary, then or now. To my mind, it's the way society views sex, and the laws that have driven prostitution underground that have caused it to be seen as a sordid and demeaning way of making a living. Prohibition of any pleasure will always give predators a way to make a living. Perhaps soon we'll grow up enough to see that and let people make their own choices.

An excellent survey of Victorian prostitution can be found in volume 4 of Henry Mayhew's _London Labour & the London Poor_, published by Dover Press. I am indebted to this work for giving me background on both Jeremy and Jenny.

However, as the years went on, and I kept playing this character, I realized that some alterations would have to be made. After all, I was 16 years old when I first started doing Dickens Fair, and I'm well past thirty now. No way could I keep to the story that I was under 21. Of course, whenever Jenny is asked her age, she says she's 15, which doesn't help. Jeremy, who is played by my partner of many years, has also grown up. So we added the following alternate timeline:

The night of Jenny's birthday, Jeremy spent some time in a public house taking care of business matters with various low compatriots, including Joshua Baker. He ran another gang of thieves called the Baker Boys. Joshua and Jimmy, another of the gang, saw Jeremy get attacked and came to his aid. After a few celebratory drinks, they brought him safely home to Jenny as a birthday present. As drunk as they all were at the time, this seemed a logical thing to do.

Jeremy had been doing very well for himself in the thieving line, and had forged alliances with rival gangs. He had quite a network going by then, and he and Jenny had long since had a permanent lodging. As time went by, Jeremy realized that the farm was a childish dream he had no way of realizing. He knew nothing about it, and wouldn't condemn Jenny to such an uncertain future when he could easily make a good living right where he was. He was a good and careful thief, with good contacts, and was moving up in his profession. But it was a dangerous living, and what of Jenny? He decided to buy a brothel, and set Jenny up as madam. Then, if he were killed or transported, she would still have a means of support, and he could become a procurer instead. His head for business and the money he had saved made this possible, and he started by forming Jeremy's Escort Service. Don't know the end of this tale, but it works well at the fair, and so far, they live happily ever after.

Copyright 2000 Erin NhaMinerva
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