OF THE EDUCATION OF COSTERMONGERS' CHILDREN.
I have used the heading of "Education," but
perhaps to say "non-education," would be more
suitable. Very few indeed of the costermongers'
children are sent even to the Ragged Schools;
and if they are, from all I could learn, it is
done more that the mother may be saved the
trouble of tending them at home, than from
any desire that the children shall acquire useful
knowledge. Both boys and girls are sent out
by their parents in the evening to sell nuts,
oranges, &c., at the doors of the theatres, or in
any public place, or "round the houses" (a
stated circuit from their place of abode). This
trade they pursue eagerly for the sake of "bunts,"
though some carry home the money they take,
very honestly. The costermongers are kind to
their children, "perhaps in a rough way, and the
women make regular pets of them very often."
One experienced man told me, that he had seen
a poor costermonger's wife — one of the few who
could read — instructing her children in reading;
but such instances were very rare. The educa-
tion of these children is such only as the streets
afford; and the streets teach them, for the most
part — and in greater or lesser degrees, — acute-
ness — a precocious acuteness — in all that con-
cerns their immediate wants, business, or gratifi-
cations; a patient endurance of cold and hunger;
a desire to obtain money without working for it;
a craving for the excitement of gambling; an
inordinate love of amusement; and an irrepres-
sible repugnance to any settled in-door industry.
