The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-06-10

gambling. Some go to the dogs conf
pIeley from it. Then they commit sui
cue composedly. This very curse of their
character enabled me to become one of
them for so long as l liked. l had I'M
aValilngly tried all means of which L
was capable TO become familiar with
them. While CHEEKY and friendly
enough, they would never be their selves
IN my presence. But l kept among them
doggedly about 1.-THE joyous ne1ghbor-
mood OF Covent Garden" market, where
from 5000 To 1000 may daily be seen, until
opportunity at last came.
used to sarnter for hours about the
famous market in the early morning. On
a certain May morning of last year l
found among the peashellers under the
market colonnades, opposite the ancient
IaVlstock Hotel, one of the women,
comeIy enough for wonder among
these who are generally indiscribable
hags, Smelling in desperate sort of way
and crying as though her heart would
break. More tears than pennies fell in
her bowl, and the old JaZabels about her
were, after quite the fashion of women,
adding to her misery by haunting her
with the toolishness of her marriage
which had evidently gone amiss. When
these taunts became insufferable she
would quietly punch one or another of
their heads, when there would be a little
savage scutfiing and then she would re-
sumo her tears and peas. | could see she
was costerwoman; and in a few min
utes' waiting l gathered enough to know
that the weeping peasheller had run
away from coster father and mother.
married a coster youth of "iancy'' or
sporting procllVlties, and that the latter
possessed OF frenzy over some chatlinch
or dog, had stripped the pair, time alter
time, OF donkey, cart and home belong
Ings, as often lost all; and, worse yet,
mad become so infamous among his kind
that In all London he could not borrow
half crown to start anew, usually an
easy thing for coster to do. nor so much
as "thrpenny btu with which to
quench his thirst and drown his de-
spondency. That very morning Becky,
the weeping peasheller, had tragically
left her incorrlgible husband for good
or lip; and at That very moment the lat
ter, known as ''Slumpsy Jem" for his ill
luck and incorrigibility, was turning
away from gIbIng coster groups, one after
another, the picture of irretrievable de-
spair.
The language of these folk is simply
unprlntable, not because of the costcr's
Intentional obscenity and profanity, as
they have the deepest pride in their own
speech and ways. "Slumpsy Jem" him
self quailed under the fusillade that
morning. He skunk away like one pur-
sued, and l followed him. Half way
down southampton street he made a last
effort to retrieve himself by begging
loan from Jenny Williams, the Mind
era hinder of whips for the last thirty
years for all the greengrocers' carriers who
crowd that thoroughtare between the
strand and the market. Jenny was "up
to snuff" and beat him off with her
whips. Then he plunged into the Strand
at run; squirmed among and through
the numbering vehicles, St. Pau's way,
fN Int n~lr, AlN.Vgl
ment or could not have over;aken him;
and then started doggedly towards the
Surrey side. He afterwards told me it
was for "a header into the Thames.
But soon ran alongside him, and be-
fore he was half way to the middle of the
bridge had him by the shoulder, and
then, telling him he could attend to the
little matter he had in mind Just as well a
little latter in the day, marched him. a
willing and wondering prisoner, to a
cheap grllI-house in the Strand for break
fast. Even an outcaSt cOstermonger filed
with good food and i'll company where
the clink of silver is, is different sort of
fellow than one just on the point of tax
ing a header" Off Waterloo Bridge. But
he could do little else than bulge his ewes
nd after much emotional effort squirt ont
his establishment in,
''Gor bli me, but 'ere's gor'
1t was a still greater ''go' when, a half
hour later, had him help me ransacE
every foul pawnshop in the Minories and
we gathered up all the poor shreds of
their home beiongings, even to his own
brilliant Sunday ''kIngsman," or neck
cloth, the veritable tour-shilling "peg-
ging'' chaffinch which had been his
downfall, and Becky's famous ostrich
plume, the erst pride and envy of Shore
ditch; and after such a charwoman's
scrubbing and securing as the place mad
never before known, got the broken
home together again in the self-same spot
before st. PauPs bells had struck the
midday chimes.
''Gawd strike me lucky! hits likelier
pallus than the Lud May'r's. One gazo
o. h'1t'd put h'out poor domains darling.
mistress. wife) h'eyes-Gor bli me SOFT
would" was Slumpsy's parting apos-
trophe, as we mounted four-penny bus
cityward way, though the dazed coster
was still ignorant OF our destination.
We We're soon at Drury Lane. I knew
an ale-house, hard by Long Acre where
the peashellers drowned their woes
when their work was done, and some
times danced and fought. Sure enough
Jenny was there, still weeping over a Dot
OF four ale and cold sausage; but the
greatest ''go' Of all was these costers'
meeting, drenched in tears, drowned in
full gallon o. bitter for parting cheer
among the now enthusiastic peasheller
companions, and storm-swept with Cor
bli mes =" Strike me deads, or luckeys!''
and other still more unctouS coster oatbS
The poor domains h'eyes'' were quite
put out' on seeing her little, and loved
if little, home rebuilt as if by magic, and
all the rueful prophecies OF her napging
companions so marvelously put to naught:
and TO do the poor soul justice. her graft
tude and delight were inexpressibIv
greater to discover that the magic. the
rota1 of which no
pound four, had been wrought on the
untiinching condition that Slumpsy .Jetn
was reformed gambler now and ever
more.
left them alone, with the greatest iov
that had ever come to London costers.
until evening. Then we dressed in our
best and Joined in cOSters' tea-partv at
a near coster friends; for in few hours
their good fortune had been noised about.
and, as with other folk of higher grade
the silver key had unlocked unwilling
doors; and afterwards passed a thrilling
hour at genuine WhitechapeI penny
gatf,' where from 400 to 800 costers. Bill
hngsgate porters, Lambeth butcher bows
and Whitechapel ritfratf were packed in
noisome old shed, to witness ''gaff.D
or outrageously ridiculous pautomime.
or yolcoIeSS melodrama, or WOrdless trap-
edy, in which there were understandable
murder, highway robbery and other lurid
crime, but all enacted without spoken
word, to evade the law governing dra-
matte representations; and got to our
beds in Bell Lane before midnight-for |
had determined to house, live and be after
the coster fashion completely until the
pair were well on their feet in this strange
London coster world.
on Sunday there is a crazy sort Of fair
of goats, fowls, terrets, rats for destroy
ing beetles. rats for the pit, chatlinches.
rabbits and much other unsavorv live
stock, held in the rear of Shoreditch
Church in Hare street, hard by our coster