The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-06-10
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright, 1891

Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright, 1881
LONDON, May %, 1898.
In that most unsavory portion of Lon
don lying between Bethnal Green, Bill
hngsgate Market and the London Docks,
l have passed many strange days and
stranger nights among those most curl
GUS and interesting folk known as the
London costermongers.
1t all came about in an accidental way,
as most pleasant things are sure to hap
pen to the vagrant traveller who loiters
rather than rushes through old-world
scenes, and so cheap withal that when l
came to figure expenditure and found
that not ten pounds had been required to
give me permanent status with the entire
fraternity, felt some twinges of con-
science that my footing made so beggarly
a showing. Two pounds ten were invest
ed in coster's cart and donkey; three
pounds went to prevent a domestic trag-
edy; eighteen shillings bought a second
hand coster's barrow outright; four shiI-
hngs were paid for ''pegging'' chaffinch;
twelve shillings siXpence took me TO the
Derby as coster in the costers' annual
parade; another two pounds was lost on
the SuppoSltltlouSly unimpeachable judg-
ment OF coster companion who intro
duced me to several brilliant contests in
the Whltechapel districts; and the re-
naming hfteen-siX was squandered with
out compunction in cOster tea-parties, by
the side OF coster rat-plts, in coster pen
ny gatts," and at coster tap-rooms-all of
which, as l have taken the reader thus
far into personal confidence, should
be susceptible of rigid explanation.
To begin with, that all this and these
London folk may be understood, there
must be something said about costers in
the abstract. There are from $4,000 to
6O,OJO OF them in the great metropolis.
They are hawkers of fish, vegetables and
fruit. 1t is not true as with us when
anyone who hawks is a hawker that any
one who "costers" in London would be a
coster. The costers are separate race
They are the only hawkers here They
are distinct, characterize and integral
part of this great and ever wonderful
Babel of London. 1t is known that they
have been precisely what they are now
for nearly 500 years.
The earliest record of London coster-
mongers' cries is said to be in Lydgate's
poem of London Lyckpenny," in the
time of Henry v, about 475 years ago.
Shakespeare refers contemptuously to
these costermonger tines; Ben JON
son makes his Morose swoon if he hears
costermonger's cry, and DIR. Johnson
gives the derivation of 'costardmonger''
as originating in the street sale of apples
or costards round and bulky like the
head"
The result is that the costermongers of
the London of to-day form almost lit
tie realm of their own, ever changing in
confines yet changeless in character and
antiquity; with purer strain of blood
of its kind, than half Of the English no.
bility; and with ancient customs and ira
dltlons remaining iueXorable laws of
guidance to themselves; all to more
marked degree than is true of any equal
number OF people in any corner OF Eu-
rope.
At his daily Iabors the coster will have
on his head a small cloth cap, well to one
side, with the visor either pointed to the
sky or swinging one side of his neck.
lie is never without his black or hashily
colored silk "kingsman," or heavy,
loosely gathered neckerchief, always tied
in sailors knot and the ends tucked in
the folds of his gay wooden shirt, the
whole exposing line, well corded and
often hairy neck and chest. His waist
coat is long, like a Jockeys, with capa-
clous pockets and huge tabs, and always
of corduroy or velveteen. His trousers
are half Mexican in cut, of corduroy or
coarse ducking, and their wide bottoms
flap over the best shoes worn by any
lowly men in London. Added TO this are
pearl or polished metal buttons innumer-
able.
In the matter of buttons their "best
togs' for Sundays and holidays are truly
startling. Whether of metal or pearl
they are from a half-inch to an inch in
diameter, and are set as thickly as they
can be placed around the cap-band and
vlsor-edge, down the edge of the waist
coat from throat to point, above every
pocket, and along the edges of all lapels
Slaves
elbow, and along the wide plush side
stripes of the trousers, from Just below
the knees to the very edge of the trousers
leg, so that the last button clicks and pat
tiers against the pavement and the shoe.
The coster women are none the less
striking in their garb and appearance
Like the men they are all well shod, and
wear short coarse serge pettcoats show
ing their ankles and shapely feet. Their
waists are always low at or are left omen
in the neck, and usually the latter, as
with the men, is adorned with flashv
silk neckerchief, while a small wooden
plaid or silk shawl covers the shoulders
its ends crossed upon the breast where it
is always fastened with a brooch of huge
dimensions.
But the hair and the headgear are most
distinctive. From these alone a coster
girl is anywhere recognizable. The hat
is of straw or felt, and always as large as
q coster'S cartwheel. 1t protrudes alarm
ingly in front, and above this canonv
waves forest of ostrich plumes. Coster
girls belong to clubs for the purchase of
these priced feathers, and there is no or
binary sacrifice they will not make to
possess the largest plumes that can be
bought. The hair is bestowed behind in
q large braid. \ part" extends from
this Immediately over each ear, and a
heavy, straight tab lies against either
cheek. Above the forehead the hair falls
straight almost to the brows, but is then
frizzled and curled until it stands up-
ward and outward like INDUSTRIOUS mat
ted cheUdtLc dc Erase.
The nearest approach to a home among
the costers Is where the coster is fairly
well-to-do and owns the donkey and cart
or a couple or three. In these extremely
rare instances you will often find tie
coster, his wife or mate, their children
aud the donkeys in one basement room
together. But the character of the mans
and the woman'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
gaffv shows, the rat-pit and the cheap
music halls.
Boys and girls leave their parents and
mate at from II TO is years. They take
furnished rooms in the coster districts of
Leather Lane, Drury Lane, Shoreditch.
old Street Road, Marylebone-lane, Dock
head. Bethnal Green, Nhitechapel, Cam
berwell and the like, and are at once full
tiedoed costers. Children are born to
them, and are minded for the first
vear or two. Then they take their
chances for life and education in the
slums. At 6 or Z they accompany their
parents. or are hired out to other costers.
in a few years more, some fancled slight
or too severe a beating occurs, or the cos