New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-02-26

from our Special Correspondent. !
L. G..

i MATAMoRos, MEXICO Feb. u, 1866.
This is news letter; it is merely scribble
about the Plaza Mercadio, or market place, of Fl
Matamoros. So, gentle reader, you may read OF
if you choose. azszsl-
This market interests me- a newcomer lust As
the French market in New Orleans interests all
newcomers there. 1t is the most artisticalIy ar
ranged and convenient market 1 have yet seen
1t covers an entire square. The four sides of this
square are rows of brick buildings, occupied as
refreshment saloons, groceries, and stores and
shops of all kinds; their back doors opening on
the main streets, and their arcaded fronts facing
the market in the interior. One of these brick
ranges displays Mexican taste in being painted all
over like gaudy wall paper in figures not larger
than the hand. At the four corners of the square
are diagonal passage ways. and four other passages
in the middle of the sides. In the center stands
the market house, stout brick arcade of six
avenues. This is filled by the butchers and more
opulent hucksters, with coffee stands, a la New
| Orleans, and dainty little cantinas, or whisky
stands, confectionaries, and the like.
Between the market house and the surrounding
buildings, the avenue, Or open space, is about tif
teen yards wide. All around this space, with their
rear to the outer buildings, are ranges of booths
and shanties of all descriptions, containing little
OF everything under the sun; very like those be-
tween the French markets in your city. Opposite
these are ranged the cheapest of the cheap buck
sters, with their comestbles and varieties spread
out on mats on the pavement. The officers of the
market compel all these to keep in straight lines,
and within the mathematical space allotted to
each, not encroaching an inch upon any of the
multltudlnous cross passages. All this shows why
| consider it a very artistcally arranged market
place. Both sides of the avenue for one entire
square, are occupied by the bread sellers, whose
stalls are piled up with all the sorts and sizes of
loaves andstwists and cakes that cafihe imagined.
The MeXlcans having sweet teeth in their heads 6,
great part of this bread is sweetened though look
ing like ordinary bread. In the vicinity of the
bread-men are the milk-men, who retail goals
milk chiefly, at picayune a tea-cup full. All this
is because the bakers and milkmen do not visit
their customers with their carts, as in American
cities; for your bread and milk, unless you are an
clearinghouse or hotel keeper, you must send to
market.
feature that strikes the strangers eye. is the
monopoly the whole business by native Mexcans:
butchers, hucksters, variety dealers and, ALL It
strikes the eye, especially to walk around the ranges
of dry goods and shoe and variety stands, and not
meet a solitary Israelte. How the Hebrews have
failed TO- pitch in here, or how they have been
pitched out, surpasses my comprehension. And
thing that strikes the New Orleans eye is the en-
tire absence of negroes but if this thing hurt tbs
eye, and relief must be sought in gazing at soms-
thing dark, there are numbers of poems around,
much darker in hue than many "cullud persons'
in your city who don't mind being called niggers.
The coup d'eesl of the market place is animated
and gay enough; the brown faces and gaGdy cos.
tunes of the natives predominatipg with fair in
termxture of United States and other nstionaties.
Among the cheap hucksters there are things
enough couldn't understand at first. Chief among
these are the numerous heaps Of sheed corn often
cart-load in heap, which the vendors retail at
three reals the almud, or thirty-seyen and half