San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-12-28
THE LONDON COSTER.
sOME OF THE LIGHTS AND SHADES
OF HIS LIFE.

fecunar 10 LonuOn-SeillnS EataDleS OF
the Streets-FoIk Lore and Tradition
Queen of the Costers.
The costermonger is a being peculiar To
England and most peculiar to London. He
is neither more nor less than seller of eata-
bles about the streets Strictly in accord
ance with his name, he should traffic only in
apples, for "costard" is a sort of apple, and
''monger" a trader, for the Saxon "mangian, y
to trade. Thus we have ironmonger, cheese
monger, fishmonger, etc, words used here to
designate those pursuits.
THE CoSTERMoNGER'S VOCATION.
The costermonger sells all sorts and con-
ditions of things--fruits, vegetables fish,
poultry, flowers and green meat" as water
crosses, chicken seed, grounded and turf are
called. There are in London, roughly com
puted, something like 40, 600 street sellers or
hawkers of market produce. These are men,
women and children. OF these a large pro-
portion are sellers of fruits vegetables and
flowers. Old Covent Garden market is
crowded with them on market days. fire.
quently as many as 5000 being assembled at
once in the gray morning hours, when the
market practically extends clear around into
the busy Strand, past the world of newspaper
offices and down to Charing Cross railway
station. Here the traveller, embarking on an
early train to Paris, may pause to purchase
polite of fruit or nosegay from some mar
ket wagon, whose proprietor never hesitates
to turn the honest English penny.
From o'clock in the morning the market
wagons have been toiling slowly into town
from the adjoining rural counties A later
hour has seen others emptying their verdant
freight into the market vans of the early
trains into London. And again. even as the
supply has been put out into the market on
sale, the people to be supplied have gathered
their clans. For in nothing is that old saw
so completely exemplifed, namely, 1.-THE
early bird catches the worm" as in the eager
ness with which buyers, high and low, take
up their places in order to compass an advan-
tageous barter. There are unwritten laws Of
"place courtesy" here, as well as elsewhere in
the worlds hive Of human bees Certain
stands, selected by the coster, with his quaint
donkey barrow, he acquires a right to retain.
This right is never disputed if he is "on time"
at his post But a five minutes laggard dis
covers a rival on his vantage ground. The
utmost good nature prevails. Chaff is heard,
and the coster would not hesitate to banter
the Prince of Wales were he to pay an early
market visit. Nor would such banter signify
any want of respect to his royal highness.
No, the only reason for the banter is that the
market per Sc is the street mart for trader
and buyer, and he thus is monarch on his
own chosen ground, nor will he consent t.
be any respecter of persons there.
A QUEEN OF THE CosTERs.
He has, by the way, certain folk lore and
traditions These are variously poetic One
is that he elects queen of the costers. A
year or two ago the recognized queen died,
and as yet no one has been found a worthy
successor to her. She was woman with
romantic history. Very handsome of face
and figure in her early youth, in her age still
strong and roughly grand of visage, and her
wisdom was Minerva like She was called
the virgin queen of the costers." In her
massive grasp Of subjects in general, she
proved herself the Anna Dickinson of the
Slums Her advice was sought by all herself
Tlected subjects Her charities were enor-
nous, comparatively speaking. She died at
the age of So By her will, which long before
she had placed in charge of a well known
London solicitor, all her mourners wore
white They received the funeral dress,
and provision was made for a bounti-
full feast after the burying. Two
hundred were thus provided for. The
few hundreds of pounds she left were de
voted. after the outlay mentioned, to
dividing up into small sums toward a
Christmas dinner to each of the
mourners. 1t was a strange, fantastic fu-
neral So great was the crowd gathered to
look on at Highgate cemetery that the police
were kept within call to prevent any possible
disorder or rows. But no disturbance oc-
CURED. Some of her sayings are very quaint.
It is said they are being collected into book
form by an eccentric enthusiast. The COS
tiers, by her wish, attended her funeral Oh
their donkey carts. She was not an igno-
rant woman and in her character resembled
some Greek oracle. Like another some time
English queen, her name was Ann" and
as "Queen Ann" she was followed by her
tribe Whether she will ever have a success
sor is doubtful; and perhaps the increase Of
education among the masses would in any
case cripple such self assumed despotism.
Costers are not amazingly ignorant. They
learn to read and write somehow. They
have slang dialect, as thieves have. Some
of these words are utterly unintelligible to
educated ears. If they desire to mask their
conversation they drop into their slang in
stantly. They are not a dishonest people.
They are no great care to the police. They
have horror of ending their days in the
workhouse, as also Of pauper burial. Oc-
casionally they turn up at the police courts,
but not as often as do other neither side folk.
They patronize a form of entertainment
known as the Penny Calf, J." and unknown
outside of London. This is a sort of amateur
variety show of a strangely mixed character
of amusement.