The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-28

servatiOn- The c0ckney is fast becom- ing a charaster of past time. and cock neyism is a matter of history" The truth is in some respects quite the op- posite; the tremendous advance of in- dustrlallsp. which (as Mir. H. c. Wells so truly pointed out in 'Anticipations9 has caused the greatest social changes yet known in our history as a nation. has enabled the cockney to be multi piled a thousandfold. Until a hundred years ago England resembled France, in that there was only one great city in the kingdom: now there are a dozen. and wherever men gather together in such enormous masses the immense
 pressure this let in force brings about changes in the nature of the unit which may be generally described as a cock neyfying process. The new character istics thus produced are more subtle in their nature than those attributed to the coclEneys of old. Sam Weller, for instance, may perhaps be fairly taken as type of the early Victorian cock ney, but, although isolated specimens of Wellerisms may be found to-day, the race as a race is fast becoming extinct, and will probably pass away with the buses. Something the same may be said of MT. Wrinkle. the cockney sports man, who is dead and forgotten every where.
 l Cockneyism is no longer topograph- ical fact, but a particular tendency of character. A man may live in the city, not merely from ten till four, but all
 ttu e 1. sess longings and ideals which redeem | him from any suspicion of cocknayism; while on the other hand a villager may pass from cradle to coffin far from the | busy haunts of men and yet be cock ! ney in posse, lacking only the opportu- nity to develop himself. Both these ex- captions are rare perhaps, but they can and do exist. The new cockney, if we may call him so, has acquired at least superficial knowledge of the country and sport; but none the less his citi- l fled nature is strongly in contrast with those Englishmen who have, as it were, kept in touch with the soil He still en-
 joys much greater luxury, and (after a certain level has been reached) earns his living more easily, so that some of the old meaning clings to his nickname. i But 1t has accumulated others, as, in
 the natural order of things, every type of mankind becomes more complex with 1 the development of civilization. He still thinks London the center, and not only the center, but also the measure of the universe; he has inevitably come
 to believe in speed rather than in thor oughness, in snartness rather than
 strict honesty. He thus sees many things in false perspective; re ludi- crously over-estimates the value of money, and the importance of caste
 and other social distinctions. He is in danger of losing sight of mans primal needs of existence, and, in the struggle for the uppermost which is naturally more acute in crowded masses of men, his heart Is apt insensibly to harden against the gentler sentiments that
 abide with humility and content. He
 may or may not be superior on the whole to the contrifled man. Perhaps
 he can with justice be said to rise high
 CT at his best. and sink lower at his worst. Thus the word "cockney," as Will be seen. has travelled far since first it took it's birth in the land of Cock aigne, the secular Canaan, flowing with
 red wine and white Now 1t is best represented by "1he man in the street"
 who looks down in scorn, on all that is
 not within his narrow sphere of knowl- edge and understanding as a towns
 man, on all that is primitive, and slow and unambitious. commercially unpro- 1 fitable, unpretentious and quiet It is
 to be hoped that the cockney's next in-
 carnation will be on a still higher plane, l--London Standard