University of Virginia Library

OF THE BOYS OF THE COSTERMONGERS,
AND THEIR BUNTS.

But there are still other "agents" among the
costermongers, and these are the "boys" de-
puted to sell a man's goods for a certain sum,
all over that amount being the boys' profit
or "bunts." Almost every costermonger who
trades through the streets with his barrow is
accompanied by a boy. The ages of these lads
vary from ten to sixteen, there are few above
sixteen, for the lads think it is then high time
for them to start on their own account. These
boys are useful to the man in "calling,"
their shrill voices being often more audible than
the loudest pitch of an adult's lungs. Many
persons, moreover, I am assured, prefer buying
of a boy, believing that if the lad did not suc-
ceed in selling his goods he would be knocked
about when he got home; others think that they
are safer in a boy's hands, and less likely to be
cheated; these, however, are equally mistaken
notions. The boys also are useful in pushing at
the barrow, or in drawing it along by tugging at a
rope in front. Some of them are the sons of the
costermongers; some go round to the coster-
mongers' abodes and say: "Will you want me
to-morrow?" "Shall I come and give you a
lift?" The parents of the lads thus at large are,
when they have parents, either unable to sup-
port them, or, if able, prefer putting their money
to other uses, (such as drinking); and so the lads
have to look out for themselves, or, as they say,
"pick up a few halfpence and a bit of grub as
we can." Such lads, however, are the smallest
class of costermongering youths; and are some-
times called "cas'alty boys," or "nippers."

The boys — and nearly the whole of them —
soon become very quick, and grow masters of
slang, in from six weeks to two or three months.
"I suppose," said one man familiar with their
character, "they'd learn French as soon, if they
was thrown into the way of it. They must
learn slang to live, and as they have to wait at
markets every now and then, from one hour to
six, they associate one with another and carry
on conversations in slang about the "penny gaffs"
(theatres), criticising the actors; or may be they
toss the pieman, if they've got any ha'pence,
or else they chaff the passers by. The older
ones may talk about their sweethearts; but
they always speak of them by the name of
`nammow' (girls).

"The boys are severe critics too (continued
my informant) on dancing. I heard one say
to another; `What do you think of Johnny
Millicent's new step?' for they always recognise
a new step, or they discuss the female dancer's
legs, and not very decently. At other times
the boys discuss the merits or demerits of their
masters, as to who feeds them best. I have
heard one say, `O, aint Bob stingy? We have
bread and cheese!' Another added; `We have

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steak and beer, and I've the use of Bill's, (the
master's) 'baccy box.' "

Some of these lads are paid by the day,
generally from 2d. or 3d. and their food, and as
much fruit as they think fit to eat, as by that
they soon get sick of it. They generally carry
home fruit in their pockets for their playmates,
or brothers, or sisters; the costermongers allow
this, if they are satisfied that the pocketing
is not for sale. Some lads are engaged by
the week, having from 1s. to 1s. 6d., and their
food when out with their employer. Their
lodging is found only in a few cases, and then
they sleep in the same room with their master and
mistress. Of master or mistress, however, they
never speak, but of Jack and Bet. They behave
respectfully to the women, who are generally
kind to them. They soon desert a very surly
or stingy master; though such a fellow could get
fifty boys next day if he wanted them, but not
lads used to the trade, for to these he's well
known by their talk one with another, and they
soon tell a man his character very plainly — "very plainly indeed, sir, and to his face too," said one.

Some of theśe boys are well beaten by their
employers; this they put up with readily enough,
if they experience kindness at the hands of the
man's wife; for, as I said before, parties that
have never thought of marriage, if they live to-
gether, call one another husbands and wives.

In "working the country" these lads are put
on the same footing as their masters, with whom
they eat, drink, and sleep; but they do not
gamble with them. A few, however, go out and
tempt country boys to gamble, and — as an almost
inevitable consequence — to lose. "Some of the
boys," said one who had seen it often, "will
keep a number of countrymen in a beer-shop in
a roar for the hour, while the countrymen ply
them with beer, and some of the street-lads can
drink a good deal. I've known three bits of boys
order a pot of beer each, one after the other,
each paying his share, and a quartern of gin each
after that — drunk neat; they don't understand
water. Drink doesn't seem to affect them as it
does men. I don't know why." "Some coster-
mongers," said another informant, "have been
known, when they've taken a fancy to a boy —
I know of two — to dress him out like themselves,
silk handkerchiefs and all; for if they didn't
find them silk handkerchiefs, the boys would
soon get them out of their `bunts.' They like silk
handkerchiefs, for if they lose all their money
gambling, they can then pledge their handker-
chiefs."

I have mentioned the term "bunts." Bunts is
the money made by the boys in this manner: —
If a costermonger, after having sold a sufficiency,
has 2s. or 3s. worth of goods left, and is anxious
to get home, he says to the boy, "Work these
streets, and bring me 2s. 6d. for the tol," (lot)
which the costermonger knows by his eye — for
he seldom measures or counts — is easily worth
that money. The lad then proceeds to sell the
things entrusted to him, and often shows great
ingenuity in so doing. If, for instance, turnips
be tied up in penny bunches, the lad will open
some of them, so as to spread them out to nearly
twice their previous size, and if any one ask if
that be a penn'orth, he will say, "Here's a larger
for 1½d., marm," and so palm off a penny bunch
at 1½d. Out of each bunch of onions he takes
one or two, and makes an extra bunch. All that
the lad can make in this way over the half-crown
is his own, and called "bunts." Boys have made
from 6d. to 1s. 6d. "bunts," and this day after
day. Many of them will, in the course of their
traffic, beg old boots or shoes, if they meet with
better sort of people, and so "work it to rights,"
as they call it among themselves; servants often
give them cast-off clothes. It is seldom that a
boy carries home less than the stipulated sum.

The above is what is understood as "fair
bunts."

"Unfair bunts" is what the lad may make
unknown to his master; as, if a customer call
from the area for goods cried at 2d., the lad may
get 2½d., by pretending what he had carried was
a superior sort to that called at 2d., — or by any
similar trick.

"I have known some civil and industrious
boys," said a costermonger to me, "get to save
a few shillings, and in six months start with a
shallow, and so rise to a donkey-cart. The
greatest drawback to struggling boys is their
sleeping in low lodging-houses, where they are
frequently robbed, or trepanned to part with
their money, or else they get corrupted."

Some men employ from four to twelve boys,
sending them out with shallows and barrows,
the boys bringing home the proceeds. The men
who send lads out in this way, count the things,
and can tell to a penny what can be realised on
them. They neither pay nor treat the boys well,
I am told, and are looked upon by the other
costermongers as extortioners, or unfair dealers,
making money by trading on poor lads' necessi-
ties, who serve them to avoid starvation. These
men are called "Scurfs." If the boys working
for them make bunts, or are suspected of
making bunts, there is generally "a row" about
it.

The bunts is for the most part the gambling
money, as well as the money for the "penny
gaff," the "twopenny hop," the tobacco, and the
pudding money of the boys. "More would
save their wages and their bunts," was said to
me on good authority, "but they have no
place to keep their money in, and don't under-
stand anything about savings banks. Many of
these lads are looked on with suspicion by the
police, and treated like suspected folks; but in
my opinion they are not thieves, or they wouldn't
work so hard; for a thief's is a much easier life
than a costermonger's."

When a boy begins business on his own ac-
count, or "sets up," as they call it, he purchases
a shallow, which costs at least 1s., and a half
hundred of herrings, 1s. 6d. By the sale of the
herrings he will clear 1s., going the round he
has been accustomed to, and then trade on the
2s. 6d. Or, if it be fruit time, he will trade in

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apples until master of 5s., and then "take to
a barrow," at 3d. a day hire. By this system
the ranks of the costermongers are not only
recruited but increased. There is one grand
characteristic of these lads; I heard on all hands
they are, every one of them, what the costers call
— "wide awake."

There are I am assured from 200 to 300
costers, who, in the busier times of the year,
send out four youths or lads each on an
average. The young men thus sent out gene-
rally live with the costermonger, paying 7s. a week for board, lodging and washing. These
youths, I was told by one who knew them
well, were people who "didn't care to work for
themselves, because they couldn't keep their
money together; it would soon all go; and they
must keep it together for their masters. They
are not fed badly, but then they make `bunts'
sometimes, and it goes for grub when they're
out, so they eat less at home."