The Portland daily press., 1870-03-16
DAILY PRESS.
CORTLAND.
Wednesday Morning, March l6, 1870.
Marketipg in Dixie.

Marketing i'm Dixie.
| 10 the Editor of the Press.
The particular part of Dixie in which do
my marketing is Portsmouth, Va, on the out
skirts of which is Gosport Navy Yard, where
uncle Sam" used to build and fit out ships
| oi-war, for what Gin the good old times of
slavery" was known as the "Noriolk NAVY !"
named thus from the fact that then about
one-third of the officers were virsinians. or
husbands of Norfolk girls.
Our market is located in the middle of a
wide street, and is about 25O feet long, the
first half being enclosed, and the rest merely
platform of brick raised little above the
street. On one side of this platform the lit
tie one-horse carts from the country are rang
ed, the animals being in the stables near by.
On the other side are the stands of hucksters.
These carts, the animals that draw them
and the harnesses, are all unique and con-
trast widely with the market wagons one sees
in the vicinity of Washington market, New
York. Indeed, on one of these wagons you
could easily place half dozen of these, with
their contents.
The dimensions of one of those country
carts is about six feet by three, and is drawn
by only one animal. Look at this team! The
animal drawing the cart is COW; the har-
uess is nearly all made of rope, and the reins
you perceive have done duty as clothes line.
The driver you see is female of unmistaka-
BILE African descent. Her load is made up
mainly Of cabbage and potatoes land here
let me say, by way of parenthesis, that Vir-
ginia potatoes are not half so good as those
raised in Jersey.) The next cart is drawn by
a horse blind in one eye; and the driver is
thin, pale man, apparently shriveled up with
chill and fever. And look along the line of
carts, and you will see that rope harness is
the style, and that steers as well as cows are
used to draw the load. The carts having
reached the "market-space," the animals are
stabbed and the business Of disposing of the
"truck" commences. I approach cart to
buy cabbage. Noticing that the young
mans right arm was disabled, 1 asked him
how it happened. He replied Ga minnie ball
did that, sir" 1 inquired "where were you
when you were shot?" SIN Petersburg" was
the reply. 1 suggested that the war was an
unfortunate affair for Virginia, and in brief
conversation discovered that he knew Just
about as much in regard to the principles
settled by the war as did the cabbage he was
selling me. Lowell truly defined Southern
Democracy when he said, "One half of it is
ignorance, and t'other half is rum" How
these these poor whites suffer from the effects
OF slavery without knowing it!
In the market-house, animal food is almost
exclusively sold. And may here say that
the cows and steers, after having "outlived
their usefulness" as draught animals, soon
find their way to the butchers stalls. These
are the only stalled animals that butchers
buy, and their only experience in the stall is
while their owners are selling truck out of
their little carts. Much of the beef we find
in this market comes from the Dismal Swamp
where the cattle run wild, till purchased an
slaughtered by the butchers. hardly need
say that none but frst-class dental-work can
make a successful assault on beef of this de-
scription. True, the price of this beet is not
dear, it you leave out of the estimate your
probable dentists bill; it is New England
shilling per pound,-six pounds of sirloin
steak for dollar.
Eggs and poultry are sold in the open air
along with vegetables; and over the street at
the head of wharf, oysters and fish are also
sold-
Speaking of poultry, reminds me of dis
cussion on ornithology which took place at
my table over pair Of fowls. The question
was on the probable age of the birds. There
was no doubt of their gender, because they
evidently travelled on their muscle, and un-
questionably were males, since. in the days
when they were in their shells, woman's rights
were unknown, and females did not travel on
their muscle, as now. Was this "the cock
that crowed in the morn, who walked up the
priest all shaven and shorn?" After brief
discussion, the previous question was moved,
and the vote, tie.
The most satisfactory transaction with poul-
terers is done in the purchase OF fresh laid
eggs, which at this writing are twenty-three
cents per dozen.
The dealers in fish are all colored people,
and while the other market people close busi-
ness at - NJ, these dealers in fish and BIZ
valves ply their trade from daylight in the
morning till dark. Oysters are the leading
article of their business, and these women
(nearly all in the trade are women) sit all day
and open oysters, selling about as fast as they
can open them. Those poor women have to
pay the city of Portsmouth thirty-one dollars
and twenty cents year for permission to sit
out of doors and ply their trade; while the
rum-seller on the next corner pays less money
for license to make business for the police
courts, and furnish tenants far the alms-house.
Besides this heavy city license, these oyster
sellers pay government tax of one cent on
every gallon they sell. A gallon of oysters
sells for only seventy-five cents; but they are
no more like the oysters you buy in Fulton
Market, New York, than the Dismal Swamp
beef is like that I used to buy in Brighton
market, Mass. US.
Portsmouth, Va, March 10.