 At the age of sixteen , he found work as a factor 's clerk in a warehouse at Horseley Fields , Wolverhampton , until the early 1880s when he left the warehouse after failing to repay a loan . He then worked for a lock manufacturer called Osborne in Lord Street , Wolverhampton , until he was dismissed for theft in either 1884 or 1885 . For the next few years , his whereabouts are not known for certain , but he appears to have lived an unsettled life in the English Midlands and Yorkshire . In 1887 , he was making a living as a hawker , selling small items such as lead pencils and key rings on the streets of Snow Hill , Birmingham . 
