Morning journal and courier., 1892-08-27

waiting to load, for which privilege they
are taxed one penny each. Every manner
of rude ingenuity has been exercised In
the patching up of donkey carts and the
construction of donkey harness. Rope,
rushes and rags are good enough for some.
Neckerchiefs and corduroys are transform
ed into saddle pads for others. Many are
Respondent In brass ornaments all togeth-
er of half the donkey's weight. And still
others have seen nobler uses and disclose
bits of old carriage harness bedecked with
ccronets In gold and silver plate.
would write of the coster's home life,
but he has none. The Gypsy, even the
poor London gypsy of the loathsome van,
Is vastly his superior in this respect. In the
past three years have visited more than
thousand costers' haunts and hsbitaions.
In them all have not found a dozen gen.
uine homes. The nearest approach to the
home is where the coster is fairly well-to
do, and owns the donkey and cart or q
couple or three. In these extremely rare
instances you will often find the coster,
his wife or mate, their children and the
donkeys in one basement room together.
But the character of the mans and the
woman's work keep them upon the street.
They eat at cheap chop houses and coffee
stalls. Their evenings are passed at the
taproom, the "penny gsff" shows, the rat
pit and the cheap music halls.
Boys and girls leave their parents and
mate at from fourteen to sixteen years.
They take furnished rooms in the coster
districts of Leather Lane, Drury Lane,
Shoreditch. Old Street Road, Marylbone-
lane, Dockhead, Bethnal Green, White
chapel, Csmbsrwell and the like, and are
at once full fedged costers. Children are
born to them, and are minded" for the
first year or two. Then they take their
chances for life and education in the slums.
At six or seven they accompany their pa
rents, or are hired out to other costers- In
few years more, some fancied slight or
too severe q beating occurs, or the coeter
youth or lass have met their affinity, and
they are away for themselves without part
ings or regrets.
However luck may 60 with the coster
folk they are stictlers for their anuse-
ments and holidays. Every evening will
find them at the music hall, the rst-pit or
their tap-room hsunts. There are more
than 300 of the latter exclusively patron
lied by coster men and women. In near
ly all of these are rude grills where they
may cook their own food: all are provid-
ed with cards and other games for their
amusement; and with each is a backyard
or shed well protected from the eyes of
the police, where rat and dog fighting, of
which they are extremely fond, may be
INDUCED in, and where boxing and prize
fighting are eagerly cultivated. On Sun
day they will be found in great numbers
at Battersea Fields, Hampstead Heath
and Epping Forest; but the great yearly
London outing for costers is at the Derby.
More than a Thousand carts, each con-
tanning from four to ak coster women and
men, set out from the Seven Dials and
Whitechapel- The donkeys are all be-
decked with paper flowers, their faces gro
tesquely painted and hung with tow whisk
ers, and their legs encased either in the
trousers of the men or the bifurcated gar
ments of the women. Then with great
stores of food and liquor, anu hundreds of
horns and concertinas, after grand pro-
cession through the aristocratic West End,
"to show the nobs how swell costers can
be" on occasions, as a coster proudly con-
fessed to me, this outlandish cavalcsde,
with wild coster music, shouts and laugh
ter, sets out in merry scramble for
breezy EPSON Downs.
EDGAR l. WAKKxAS.