Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-04-14

mussels-all eaten in profusion by the work.
ing people, who demand as strong u flavor as
possible for the money-can boil them before
starting out 10 their rounds with these deli
cacies. Wrinkles are the alfcctionate dirninu-
tive of periwinkles, sold by the bushei. and
boat loads go off on the market days On
such days the wharf is covered with fish,
landed with marvellous speed from tieis OF
boats lying there, all known as boats"
though many are big enough for ships. But
all are squat and square as to rigging, and
very tubby as to general effect. Planhs are
placed from boat To boat, and over thess mar
row, slippery bridges the porters rush, laden
with dripping fish and shouting strange
caths in strange tongues to all who ncum-
ber the way.
Ii is not on wharf or at auctioneer's stand
that the women who have made Billingsgate
a synonym for their mastery of unpleasant
English are to be found. Now and then one
owns a coster's barrow, but they are few.
They sit in the market before stalls given
over to trade on a smaller scale than that OF
ths auctioneeT, such proprietors, whether
man or woman, being known as ''bum-
barees.- Why ''bumbaree,n nobody knows,
or, at any rate, nobody tells 1t is u simple
professor, requiring no license, and consists
in buying Us largely as capital admits from
the auctioneer, and retailing at as high a
profit as can be extorted Thus a natural
conflict is born at once between bumbaree
and buyer, who may have fallen from that
high estate himself, and thus knows the
theory and practice. 1t is here that the
real "Biilings.;ate" may be heard, and
as it is said that 5000 costers visit
Billingsgate on Friday, it is not difficult to
imagine that there rs full opportunity. But
it is a good natured crowd intent only on
getting away as fast as possible. There are
well defined classes, even among the costers.
Sprats, for instance, are given over chiefly
TO women, a man choosing more substantial
fish, while whelk and winkle sellers are re-
garded as the lowest order in the ranks. But
for ali alike it is an unutterably Shiny, slip
perry business, and he who has once seen and
snelled the market will never seek to dupli-
cate the experience 1t is a picturesque MEM
ory, however, this mixture of red capped
sailors, ''ropes, spars, baskets, oakum, tar
paulin, fish, canvas trowsers, osier baskets,
loud voices and tramping feet, but better in
memory than fact.
1t would he easy to give here a table Of the
amount of fish sold in 1856, but forbear. l
have read it, and reflected upon the amount
of wriggle in 100000 pounds of eels, and
the probable ultimate effect upon Eaglish
characteristics. How the eater elects TO lake
them shall be told farther Jon, and neither
antiquity nor any sight Of today holds an
odder corner than that whose story shall pre-
sently be chronicled. For the rest-the bill
ion OF shrimps, the million of periwinkles,
the tons of mussels and whelks and crabs and
Holsters, and all the list of creatures that ply
fin or seek to hide in shells from man, the
destroyer-let us forget with such speed as
may be the fate to which they were born,
and be glad that hungry London has form
of food still cheap and beyond question sat
isfactory. HELEN CAMPBELL