OF COSTERMONGERS AND THIEVES.
Concerning the connection of these two classes
I had the following account from a costermonger:
"I've known the coster trade for twelve years,
and never knew thieves go out a costering as a
cloak; they may have done so, but I very
much doubt it. Thieves go for an idle life, and
costermongering don't suit them. Our chaps
don't care a d — n who they associate with, — if
they're thieves they meet 'em all the same, or
anything that way. But costers buy what they
call `a gift,' — may-be it's a watch or coat wot's
been stolen — from any that has it to sell. A
man will say: `If you've a few shillings, you
may make a good thing of it. Why this iden-
tical watch is only twenty shillings, and it's
worth fifty;' so if the coster has money, he buys.
Thieves will get 3d. where a mechanic or a cos-
ter will earn ½d., and the most ignorant of our
people has a queer sort of respect for thieves,
because of the money they make. Poverty's as
much despised among costers as among other
people. People that's badly off among us are
called `cursed.' In bad weather it's common
for costers to `curse themselves,' as they call
having no trade. `Well, I'm cursed,' they say
when they can make no money. It's a common
thing among them to shout after any one they
don't like, that's reduced, `Well, ain't you
cursed?"' The costers, I am credibly informed,
gamble a great deal with the wealthier class of
thieves, and win of them the greater part of the
money they get.
