Morning journal and courier., 1893-06-17
wAKEMAN,s WANDERINGs.

Days ana Nights With London Cos termoneers-The Coasters of LondoI Its only True Cockneys-Wakema Makes Clear the Distinction Re tween the Cockney and the Cad Costers, Life and Ways an Untitled Field for Dramatist and Novelist Albert Chevalier, tho Great Music Hall Coster Impersonator who. al Thirty, Earns an Income Equal tt President CIeveland,s-Cusiou Cos ter Dialect.
 LONDON, June 5. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 During the somewhat extended period ir which actually lived the daily life of 6 oostermonger in London, many interesting observations and experiences, aside from those connected with the immediate con csrns of buying and hawking vegetables, fish, flesh and fowl, were naturally resul. tant from my association with "Slumpsy Jem," the coster, and his wife Becky, and what may be regarded az the aristocratic coster society. to which our signal financial success speedily gave us admittance.
 It may not have been an original diecov- 0iy oh 0y pal bus WRu oOOh SOAf4aOeo of the correetnsss of a curious series of surmises growing out of much previous observation and study of the habits, man. ners and speech of London folk in gene ral; conclusion which seems worthy of extended discussion by others more able to make exact and authoritative oompari. son. This was, in brief, that the generic things we call 'tcookneyisms," in speech and manners, really have their origin chiefly among London costermongers.
 It is exceedingly difficult to make this clear to those who have not lived in Lon don and also in large cities of other ooun- tries long enough to have caught that e1- eeedingly winsome feature of all great, old and compact communities which, for q better name, may be called "local color" Observation will nearly always disclose 1t to largely consist of the refexive influence upon higher classes from unique or out landish lower classes, that general diable- rie and humorous or tragic realism of the lowly almost instantly transformed into the wit, humor, repartee and "slang" of those above them; until, in degree, habit of speech, form of the commoner collo- quisl expressions and even distinctive msnnerisms, become fixed and chsracteris- tic with and upon that grade of folk closest in mind, feeling and vocation to the char sciously or unoonsciously initiated
 Thus have heard in noted Paris ealons the common jtbes of the cansilles and the boulevardieres, from lips quite uncon. scious of their origin; in American clubs and drswing-rooms, countless cant and batter expressions already long previously discarded in. New York'e Bowery slums, where they first took form; in the finest Edinburgh homes, the wise, curt and droIl sayings of Newhaven fish wives and the denizens of Cowgate and Grassmsrket; and from London eoncert-halls, up through London clubs, past English castles and mo- blemen's c!ty homes, to the floor of parlia ment itself, the latest epithet and newest catch-phrase of London costermongers, coined by my ooster friends in moments of "four- ale" inspiration at free smoking room concerts, at 'tpenny- -gaffs," or in val isnt blsckgusrding battles with Covent Garden porters and the glib tongued
 uObU6Ib UT ubu-SdITt6TB OI huClbut duU odorous Blllingsgate.
 low, clear and distinct lines may be drawn The cos.er is the typical, indeed the genu- inc, cockney. His vernacular is so out landish that one has to have long aequaint- ance with it to understand 1t at all, is not slang, because 1t is his original and unaf- footed mode of expression. His swagger, his unctious oaths, his terrible objurga- tions, his impulsive generosity, his reok less gambling, his fondness for pets, his rowing ways within the great city, gro- teseue apparel, his aversion to a fixed hab- itation, his suspicion of anything savoring of religion, his uncorquerable Agnosti- cism, his self-relIanoe, his fatalism, his fondness for his kind and kin and yet his eeeming brutality in alldomestic relations, his hardness and his tenderness, and his almost stern and Spartan loyalty to his friends, hls race and his traditions, are all ine1plicable and tantalizIng to one study ing his character little or long; but they are absolutely and inviolably his own. There Is not an iots of prstense, hypocri- sy or affectatioD about him. Because of this millions of London lowIy next him in the social scale have in from four to five hundred yesrs' time been unconscious i'm itators of much of his speech, some of hIs manners, good deal of his swsgger and bluster. and not little of his hardness and brutality. All these latter folk are often genericany regarded as "cockneys." But their oockneyism is assumed. copied, unreal Conse quently 1t is as offensive to the intelligent Englishman, who often errs in mietsking it for the genuine article ex- clusively possessed by the costermongers, as 1t is to the wondering American, who knows nothing whatever about its origin. There is another class of folk in Lon don and throughout England immeasura. bly, less in number and real importance, but inexpressibly more omnipresent and and who, more than all others, bring the true coster cockney into permanent disre- pute. They are 6 sort of chromo cock neys when the genuine Turneresque reds and solemn Millet Rrsys of the true cock ney ooster are brought into analytic cem- l parison. They comprise mixed and murrained multitude of London men. | about-town, answering somewhat to the dude Cholly wobblers of America-young noblemen and other choice sristoerats who | Ego in for @ loBg and strong pull, y knsow." To these are added a few flash journalists, I am sorry to say, fellows who are on theoutskirts of even the lowest of London Bohemians; not many actors, foI | London actors are almost invariably Lon- don gentlemen; some hangers on of clubs
 all pugilists, sprinters, horsemen, jockeys | and professional sporting men generally
 thousands of music hall performers and the other thousands or Tommy Rots' gulped out of the free smoking room con
 certs of the public houses, who are found every Monday morning at their weekly
 "Poverty Junction" symposium at the GOT ner of York and Waterloo roads; and teni | of thousands more of London clerks and | spprenttcee-yacuous and vsingloriou | tSimon Tappertfsp-filled with fine freu
 zy and mock heroics that they may eve bear the, to them, true British stamp O
 the cock-sure oockneys and beery rufisn
 of the hour.
 All of these chromo oockneys neve
 open their mouths without effort to outd
 their moral and mental suPsriors, the eos
 termongers. They occasionally breal
 loose from their London environment anl
 travel in Ireland. in Scotland, on the con
 tinent and in America Their osths ar
 "Strike me luckyl" "Gor bli mel" an
 other unprintable coater imprecstiont
 Their ejaculations are "Gawd's truthI" an 1.-the like. Their qualifying and emphas
 zing adjectives are .'blswsted, !" fbloomin' 4, add "bloody." A good man or thing Is q rum un." A shilling is "bob;" . sove eign is a "quid;" donkey Is "moke;" cab-horse Is "cat's neat" to drink nqut is to "take e wet;" glass of ale is
 "tankard O bitter;" every one accosted ''guv-er-nor;" and woman is "donal