WHEN COSTERS ORDER CLOTHES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 10

WHEN COSTERS ORDER CLOTHES.

The. coster and his ''pearr.es" are per- ! baps more familiar figures on the sta<'e than in real life but, according to an East End taih-. what a coster will p;iv for hi-; clothes is astonishing. He insists on having the very best of everything; even the little trianenhir pieces of velvet at the corners of each pocket must, be real silk velvet, or the goods will be rejected. As much as thirty-six I shillings were paid for the buttoils (sev-enty-two of them) that decorated one young coster's suitWhen a coster orders clothes he exjiccts his tailor to treat liini to a big. strong cigar—with a band. A coster seldom smokes cigars at any other time, but a tailor would soon find his customers dwindle if lie omitted to produce the cigar-box from under the counter, gtjcb a°coster is vety suspicious, too, and must have a tiny bit of the raw cloth a = a sample pattern to compare when t' "•oods are made up. One custom he regards as essential—the privilege oi dropping into the shop on the first Sundav morning that he wears his new "pearlies" to get the free drink which he knows he will be invited to have ficm the tailor.