London Labour and the London Poor, Volume 1
Mayhew, Henry
1861
Of the More Provident Costermongers.
CONCERNING this head, I give the statement of a man whose information I found fully con- | |
47 | firmed:—"We are not such a degraded set as some believe; sir, but a living doesn't tumble into a man's mouth, now a days. A good many of us costers rises into greengrocers and coal-sheds, and still carries on their rounds as costers, all the same. Why, in Lock's-fields, I could show you such, and you'd find them very decent men, sir—very. There's man I know, that's risen that way, who is worth hundreds of pounds, and keeps his horse and cart like a gentleman. They rises to be voters, and they all vote liberal. Some marry the better kind of servants, — such servant-maids as would'nt marry a rag and bottle shop, but doesn't object to a coal shed. It's mostly younger men that manages this. As far as I have observed, these costers, after they has settled and got to be housekeepers, don't turn their backs on their old mates. They'd have a nice life of it if they did—yes! a very nice life." |