The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-28

Q
and cart, possessed by the more well 70 DO.
/ have seen the latter loaded with from
1900 70 500 pounds weight ct Coyent Gar
den market. The women when hawking
alone are sometimes provided with donkey
carts or barrows. but oftener with
"shallows," or shallow baskets, which with
their heavy contents are carried on their
heads.
A curious sort Of business has always
been in vogue owing 70 the impFovidenee OF
the cUstermongers as q class. This Is the
hiring out to them OF baskets, borrows ana
carts. Out Of the $4,000 or 10000 coster-
monger population of London fully l5,OoO
are actually engaged in daily hawking, the
remainder being old folk or children unable
to WORK save at odd times. Fully one-halI
of the daily workers own their own snai.
lows, barrows aud carts. The other halt
hire them at ruinously usurlous rates Inc
donkey and cart are seldom hired, nearly
all these outfits being owned by tho costers.
But the hand carts or barrows are usually
hired at pence per day or l shilling tor
the week, for barrow originally costing
less than 60. More than ego, 600, or $lOO,"
900, is annually paid III barrow ana 'shal-
low" hire by the London costers.
Quite recently coster provident cluos
have been formed. These, by trinln2
weekly pay ment from members, insure tne
opportunity of hiring borrows at reduced
rates, and Of purchasing donkeys and carts
on the installment plan. But, as rule,
they like the old way best me
old way with London costers is, as a rule,
after a nights dissipation ae drink or
gambling for all costers, without exeep-
ton, are hard drinkers and inveterate
gamblers in a small way. TO borrow the
days stock money" at assixpsnoe or
shilling interest, secure the hand barrow at
threepence hire, the scales or measures at
another outlay Of twopenee and trust 70
heavy pushing, loud calling and gullinie
customers to retrieve their fallen fortunes.
They are scrupulously honest in repaymeno
OF loans, and harder working people do not
live. But they are irredeemable in thrift
lessuess, and all their good qualities ana
traits, considering their associations and
ignorance, are hopeless slaves OF the usurers
and taprooms.
Any one desiring O superficial observa-
ton of this class can find ample studies OF
costers at the chief London markets. Daily
; ,000 come to CoVent Garden market, about
1000 secure fish at Billingsgate, fully 2,OOo
are at Spitalfelds, perhaps 800 each Will be
found at Borough and Leadenhan, and
fully 5000 are distributed among
the lesser city and suburban markets.
COven5 Garden market is the
most int resting place to visit, not only for
its historic associations, but for its greatest
throngS Of costers. From the opening at 2
o'clock in the morning until or o'clock,
from 5000 to 1000 coster carts will have
come and gone. The remainder IN attend
ance wait until afternoon to decker with the
"heggl-rsn or spectators, who have bought
unsold loads from farmers "in the lump"
In these morning hours interest Will not
only center IN the costers, but IN their don
keys and carts. Hundreds upon hundreds
ere packed Ia corner Of the open market,
waiting to ad, for which privilege they
are taxed penny each Every manner or
rude ingenuity has been exercised in the
patching up of donkey carts and the oon-
struction of donkey harness. Rope, brushes
aud rags are good enough for some Neck
erohiefs and corduroys are transformed into
saddle pads for others. Many are resplend-
ent in brass ornaments all to ether OF half
toe donkey's weight. And still Others have
seen no Ter uses and disclose bits OF old car
riage harness bedecked with coronets in gold
aid silver plate
would write Of the castor's home life,
but he has none. The gypsy, even the poor
London gypsy Of the loathsoIne van, is
vastly superior in this respect. In the past
three years 1 have visited more than 900
casters haunts and habitations. In them
all have not found dozen genuine homes.
The nearest approach to the home is where
the coster is fairly well to do, aud owns the
donky and cart or couple or three. In
these extremely rare instances you will
often find c0ster, his wife or mate, their
children and the donkeys in one basement
room together, But the character Of the
mans or the womsn's work keep them upon
the street. They eat at cheap chop houses
| and coffee stalls. Their evenings are passed
at the tap room, the penny gaf" shows,
| the rat pit and the cheap music halls.
Boys and girls leave their parents and
mate at from IA to l6 years. They take
| furnished rooms in the coster districts OF
! Leather Laue, Drury Lane, Shoreditoh, Old
M 1akE nR, lrhn
| Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Camberwell
and the like, and are at once full-hedged
| 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 or Z they ac-
| company their parents, or are hired out to
| other costers In few years more, some
| fancied slight or too severe q beating occurs,
or the coster youth or lass have met their
affinity, and they are away for themselves
without partings or regrets.
However luck may 90 with the coster folk 4,
| they are sticklers for their amusements and
| holidays Every evening will find them at
| the music hall, the rat pit or their tap-room
| haunts. There are more than 800 of the lat
ter exclusively patronized by coster men
and women. In nearly all Of these are rude
| grills where they may cook their own food :;
| oil are provided with cards and other games
| for their amusement, and with each is a
backyard or shed we'll protected from the
eyes Of the police, where rat and dog fight
ing, of which they are extremely fond, may
be indulged in, and where boxing and prize
| fighting are eagerly cultivated. On Sunday
they will be found in great numbers at Bat
tersea Fields, Hampstead Heath and Epping
| Forest; but the great yearly London outing
for costers is at the Derby.
More than l 900 carts, each containing
from four to six coster women and men, SET
out from the Seven Dials and WhitechApel.
| The donkeys are all bedecked with paper
| flowers, their faces grotesquely painted aud
| hung with tow whiskers, and their legs en-
cesed either in the trousers OF men or the
bifuroated garments Of the women. Then
with great stores of food and liquor, and
hundreds of horns and ooncertinas, after a
grand procession through the aristooratic
West End ito show the nobs how swell
costers can beh on occasion, as a ooster
proudly confessed to me, this outlandish
cavalcade, with wild ooster music, shouts
and laughter, sets out in q merry scramble
for breezy EPSON Downs.
EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.