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OF THE MORE PROVIDENT COSTERMONGERS.

Concerning this head, I give the statement of
a man whose information I found fully con-

[Description: 915EAF. Page 047.]

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 twenty such, and you'd find
them very decent men, sir — very. There's one
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."