The record-union., 1893-06-17
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright, 1891

LONDON, j une ., 1875.
During the somewhat extended period
in which l actually lived the daily life of
a costermonger in London, my interest
ing observations and experiences, aside
rom those connected with the immediate
concerns of buying and hawking veg
etables, fish, flesh and fowl, were nat
urally resultant from my association
with ''Slumpsy Jim," the coster, and his
wife, Becky, and what may be regarded
as the aristocratic coster society, to which
our signal financial success speedily gave
US admittance.
1t may not have been an original dis
covery on my part, but l was soon con-
WINGED of the correctness of curious Sc
ries of surmises growing out of much
previous observation and study of the
habits, manners and speech of London
folk in general; a conclusion which seems
worthy of extended discussion by others
more able to make exact and authorita-
tive comparison. This was, in brief, that
the generic things we call "cockney-
Isms," in speech and manners, really
have their origin chiefly among London
costermongers.
1t is exceedingly difficult to make this
London and also in large cities of
other countries, long enough to have
caught that exceedingly winsome feature
OF all great, old and compact commune
ties which, for better name, may be
called 'local color" Observation will
nearly always disclose it to largely con-
slst OF the retiexive influence upon higher
classes from unique or outlandish lower
classes, that genial diGbLeTie and humor-
Gus 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 commOner coIloquial eX-
presslons and even distinctive manner
lsms, become fixed and characteristic
with and upon that grade of folk closest
IN mind, feeling and vocation to the char
acterful lowly people whom they have
consciously or unconsciously initiated.
Thus L have heard in noted Paris salons
the common jibes of the canaille and the
boulevardiers, from lips quite uncon-
sclous OF the origin; IN American clubs
and drawlng-roOms, countless cant and
patter expressions already long previ-
Ously discarded in New ork's Bowery
slums, where they first took form; in the
finest Edinburgh homes, the wise, curt
and drol sayings of Newhaven fish
wives and the denizens of Cowgate and
GraSSmarket, and from London concert
halls, up through London clubs, past
English castles and noblemen's CITY
homes, to the floor of Parliament itself.
the latest epithet and newest catch
phrase OF London cOstermongers, coined
by my cOster friends in moments of
-four ale'' inspiration at free smoking
room concerts, at 'penny-gatfs" or in
valiant Safeguarding battles with Co.
vent Garden porters and the glib-tongued
"mobbers" or tish-carriers of ancient
and odorous Billingsgate.
A to 'tpagl- & pDIo,, FCII- ,,,l
low, clear and distinct lines may be
drawn. The coster is the typical, indeed
the genuine, cockney. His vernacular
which is 30 outlandish that one has to
have long acquaintance with it to under
stand 1t at all, IS not slang, because it is
his original and unaffected mode of ex-
preston. His swagger, his unctuous
oaths, his terrible objurgatious, his i'm
pulslve generosity, his reckless gamb-
ling his tondness for pets, his rowing
ways within the great city, his grotesuue
apparel, his aversion to a fixed habitatiOu
his suspicion of anything savoring of re-
nglon, his unconquerable AgnOsIicism,
his self-reliance, his fatalism, his fond
ness for his kind and kin and vet his
seeming brutality in all domestic rela-
tons, his hardness and his tenderness.
and his almost stern and Spartan loyalty
to his friends, his race and his traditions.
are all neXphcable and tautaliZiuer To one
:
they are absolutely and inviolably his
own. There is not an iota of pretense.
hypocrisy or atfectation about him. Be-
cause of this, millions OF London lowly
next him in the social scale have in from
400 to 500 years time been unconscious
imitators of much of his speech, some of
his manners, a good deal OF his swagger
and buster, ana not a little OF his hard
ness and brutality. All these latter folk
are often generically regarded as cock
neys." But their Cockneyism is assumed,
copied. unreal. Consequently il is as
offensive to the intelligent Englishman.
who often errs in installing 10 for the
genuine article exclusively possessed by
the costermOngers, as ii IS to the wonder
ing American, who knows nothing what
ever about its origin.
There is another class of folk in Lon
don and throughout England immeasur-
ably less in number and real ilnportance
but lneNpresslbly more omnipresent and
offensive, who masquerade as ''cockneys''
and who, more than all others, bring the
true coster cockney into permanent dis
repute. They are a sort of chrome cock
neys when the genuine Turneresque reds
and solemn Millet grays of the true cock
ney cOster are brought into analytic COM
parIson. they comprise a mixed and
murrained multitude of London men,
aOOut-tOwn, answering somewhat to the
dude Cholly Wobblers of America
young noblemen and other choice aristo-
Gratis who go in for a long and a strong
pull, Y kneow." To these are added a
few flash journalists, l am sorry to saw.
fellows who are on the outskirts of even
the lowest OF London Bohemians: not
many actors, for London actors are al
most invariably London gentlemen:
some hangers-On OF clubs; all pugillsts
sprinters, horsemen, jockeys and pro
fesSlonal sporting men generally; thou
sands OF music-hau performers and the
other thousands OF Tommy ROtsp
gulped out Of the free smoking-room
concerts OF public houses, who are found
every Monday morning at their weekly
Poverty junction" symposium at the
corner OF y Ork and Waterloo Roads: and
tens of thousands more OF London clerks
and apprenuceS-Vacuous and vainglori-
Gus "Simon Tappertits'- with tine
frenzy and mock heroics that they NAV
ever bear the, to them, true British stamp
OF the cOck-sure cockneys and berry
ruffians of the hour.
All of these chrome cOckneys never
open their mouths without effort TO Guido
their moral and mental superiors, the
,,osterrnongers. They occasionally break
loose from their London environment
and travel in Ireland, in Scotland, on the
continent and in America. Their oaths
are .Strike me lucky - Cor bli me p
and other unprintable coster impreca-
lions Their Calculations are "Gawd's
truth - and the like. Their qualifying
and emphasizing adjectives are "blawst-
Ell - "bloomin'.r and bloody" A good
man or thing is "a rum un." \ shilling
is a -bob"; a sovereign Is 'quld''; a
donkey is ''moke''; cab-horse is
..catss-neat'.: to drink liquor is to take
a xet'': a glass OF ale is q 'tankard O. Bit
teri: every one accosted is ''guv-er-nor.h
-, a ,,-o,nan is a s'dOuah' or q "cOW -