The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-06-18
|QQl COSTERMOAGERS'
lrs no Only True Cockneys
b. Found IN tbs
Biz City.
yakernan Makes Clear tho Dis
tinction Between Cockney
md the Cad.
IsMuslc HAL Coster Impersonntor who
e Thirty Makes a. Much ~ Presl.
dent Cleveland.

E&rsIfMftEA HAsfEEA 4HMN HNIst NhMN. ~ +Ea+N-#A
EpeciAl Correspondence OF The independent.
LONDON. juno 6.-During the somewhat
extended period In which actually lived
4he daily life Of 4 costcrmonger In London,
many intefssting observations and exper.
fences. aside from those connected with
thc immediate concerns Of buying and
hawking vegetables, fish, feah and fowl,
we're NATURALLY resultant from M nssocia-
sion with .sSlumpsy Je,n." the coster. and
his wife Becky. and what may be regarded
as tho ~aristocratic oosser society. TO which
our financial success speedily gave us ad-
mittnnce.
Itmay not have been nm original discov-
cry on my part. but was convinced OF the
correctness OF . curious series OF surmises
growing out Of muoh previous observation
ana study Of the habits. mannots and
speech OF London folk in general; a conclu-
aion which seems worthy of extended dis
icussion By others more able to make exact
md author itative comparison. This was.
In brief, that the generic thing we call
as.cockneyisms,' in speech and manners
really have their origin chiefly among Lon
don costermongers.
Il is exceedingly difficult to make this
clear to those who have not lived in Lon
don ana also in large cities Of other coan-
tries long enough to have caught that ex-
ceedincly winsos,e feature Of all great, old
ma compact communities which. for a bet
ter name, may be called 'looal color"
Observation will nearly always disclose IL
TO largely consist of this reflective influence
upon higher classes from unique or out
ln,ndieh lower classes, that general diabletie
and humorous or tragic realism OF the lowly
almost instantly transformed into the wit.
lhumo.. repnrtee and ''alang' OF those above
them: until, in degree. habit of speech.
form az the cornmoncr c~olloQuial express
Seions and even distinctive nannerisrns, bs-
fixed and characteristic with n
that grade Of folk closest in mind,
feeling and vocation 10 the charac.erful
3lowly people whom they have consciously
or unconsciously initiated.
D Thus ] have heard In noted Paris salons
the common jibes Of the cansille and tho
~boulevardieres, from lips quito unconscious
sof their origin; in American clubs and
drawing-rooms, countless cant ana pattor
expressions already long previously dis.
scarded in New York's Bowery slurns. where
they first took form; in the finest Edin-
bureh homes, the wise. curt q droll say
iugs of Newhavsn h~sh-wiv8s and the deat-
xens Of Cowgate and Grassmnrket; and
from London concest-hails, w Though
London clubs. last English castles and
noblemen's city homes, to tho floor Of par
lament itself, the latest epithe: and newest
Catch-phrase of London costermonge:s,
coined by my costcr friends in moments OF
"four- aie'' inspiration at free smoking
room concerts, at 'Ienny-gaffs." or in
valiant Safeguarding battles with Covent
Garden porters and the glib-tongned mob
bers'' or tish-carriess o: ancient and odor-
Gus Billingsgate.
r .Aa tn ..,cocknes" London folk high and
low. clenr and distinct lines may be drawn
The coster is the typical, indeed thu genu-
Inc, cockney. His vernacular which Is sc
o~utlandish that one has to have long nc-
quaint8nce with il to understand it Of Gil,
il not slang. because il IL his original and
unaffected mode of expression. His swag-
ger, his unctuous oaths, his terrible objur-
cations. his impulsive geneyosisy. his rack-
less gambling, his fondnoss for pots, his
rowing ways within the great city. his gro
tesque apparel, his aversion to q fixed hab-
~itation, his suspicion OF anything savot ING
of religion. his unconqusrable ngnosticisn,,
his 0el.-reliance, his fatalism, his fondnegs
for kind and kin and yet his seeming bru-
tally in all domestic relations, hiE
hardness and his tendernass and
his almost stern and Spartan loyalty
to his friends. his race and his traditions
are oil inexplicable and tantalizing to one
studying his character little o. long; bu
they are absolutely and inviolably his own.
There is not an iota OF pretense. Hypocrisy
or affectation about him. BECAUSE OF thi!
millions of London lowly next him in thu
social scale have in from 400 to 800 years
time been unconscious imitators Of muei
OF his speech, some OF his manners, a goos
deal of his swagger and buster, and not
little of his hardness and brutalitr. All thes
latter folk are often Renerically regarded
as 'oockneys." Bnt their ccckneyism i
assumed, copied, unreal. Consequently j
is as offensive to tho intelllgent English
man. who often errs in installing it for tn
genuine article exclusively possessed b
the costermongers. as 1t ID to the wonder
ing American. who knows nothing what
ever about ito origin.
There is another class of folk in Londol
md throughout England immoasurabl
less In number and real Importance but in
e1pressibly moro omnipresens and ofon
sive. who masquerade as 'cooknoys" an
who, moro than all others. bring the tru
Coster cockney into permanent Giareput,
They are a sort of chtomo coekneys who
the genuine Turneresque reds and solem
Millet grays of the true cockney cosser al
brought into analytic comparison. The
comprise q mixed and murrained multitud
somewhat to the dude Cholly Wobblors {
America-youug noblomen and other chol.
eristocrets who go in for a long and stror
pull. v kneow." To these are added q fe
flash journalists, 1 nm sorry to say. fellow
who are on the outskirts of even tt
lowest of London. Bohenias, n
many actors. for London actors are O
most invariably London gentlemen; SON
hangers-on of clubs; all pusilists. s~printer
horsemen, JOCKEYS and professional soor
ing mon generally; Thousands of music-hl
performers and the other thousands
.Tommy Rots" guiped out Of the fr
amoking-room concerts of the publ
houses, who are found every Monday NOR
ing Mt their weekly Poverty junction
sym postum at the conner of York al
Waterloo roads; and tens OF thousan
more of London clerEs and apprentices
yacuouB and vainglorious Simon Tape
tits''-flled with fine frenzy and mo
heroics that they may ever bear the,
them, true British stamp of the cock-su
cockneys and berry ~rufians OF the our.
All of these chrome cocknsya never op
their mouths without an effort to out
their moral and mental s~uperiots, the COS
They occasionally break lee
from their London ~nvifonme and tfa'
in Ireland. in Scotland, on the contine
and in America. Their oaths are "Stri
me lucky ~ .Gor hli me!n aud other e
lntions are "Gawa's truth!' and the lii
Their qualifying and emphasizing ado
ives are .'blawsted," .~'bloomin'," q
BLOODY" A! good man or thing 10 "a ri
nm" A shilling is a bob" t sovereign
q "quid;" u donkey Is n ''moke;" a C;
horse ia 'cnt's-msat;" 30 drink liquor is
take q wet;'' a glaas OF ale il n 'tanknrd
o~lttei;" every one acooste! is "eu
er-nor." ana a woman is q "dona
or a Cow" This sort of thing IL
poasess a certain sociological aud lit.
airy interest when confined 10 thu charaet
1nl class Il ON which it emnnates; but evs