The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-03-16
SKETCHES BY A COSMOPOLITAN.
Aristocracy Mt n Discount.

| Aristocracy Mt n Discount.
One of the prominent features of the
market are the market produce wagons
that come in nightly from Long Island,
Jersey, and Westchester, laden with the
choicest vegetables, which, as is we'll
known, are grown to the greatest per-
fection in those celebrated gardening
regions asparagus, radishes, caulfower,
pie plant, celery, kale, cucumbers, peas,
ETC., together with the finest specimens
of small fruits: currants, gooseberries,
cherries, plums, pears, etc.; all for the
delectation of the favored residents of
the Empire City; and it is certainly as
tonishing to see the immense quantity
of fruits and vegetables required daily
to satisfy the rapacious nav of the insa-
tiate monster. Although this particular
style of farming has its fluctuations, yet
in the main it is highly remunerative,
most of those engaged therein for any
considerable time becoming wealthy and
prosperous. They exhibit much taste
in the style of their wagons and teams,
the wagons, many of them, being built
in the neatest manner platform springs,
iron axles, and the bodies, which are
generally double decked, and have tre-
mendous capacity for stowage, are got
ten up and finished in very superior
manner. Early in the evening they be-
gin to arrive, rolling smoothly down
the various streets, and ranging them
selves side by side, close together, with
the back end toward the curb, the horses
being unhitched, and their heads turned
toward the wagon, where they are fur
nished with hay.
During the spring, summer, and au-
tumn, all the streets in the vicinity OF
the market are thus lined on either side,
leaving only an open space in the centre
for travel. They occupy West, Wash
ington, and Greenwich streets from
Cortland to Canal, and are found in
every cross street, so that when in the
morning other vehicles begin to pour in
to take part in the business of the day,
the streets are entirely obstructed for
hours.
A PERFECT BLOCKADE.
Drivers are sitting on their boxes, or
standing on their trucks, looking at
each other and swearing all the oaths
known to the language, besides forcing
heavy contributions from other idioms
with which they are most familiar.
"Why don't you move on there 2" ia
cetiously inquiries the specimen New
| Yorker from his perch upon the top OF
hotel coach, where he has been broil-
ing for the last hour without moving an
inch ahead. You glance at the speaker,
and you see representative man of his
class, putting away at cigar as he
stretches lazily out on his box, said ci-
gar being held at an angle of forty-fve
degrees, or rather more. With the great
| est GOODNESS aud sang .froid he merely
| propounds the question to create sem
sation.
The Dutch grocer just ahead looks
round with supreme disgust (Which is
all lost on the imperturbable Jehu), and
exclaims contemptuously, "Donder nit
blixen, what for shall l trive toP You
pc Won great shackass. Oh, mein Cot,
mein Cot, pc gone dead NIT de heat. l
shall pc sun shtroke NIT mine head"
"Arrah, be jabers," shouts the ire
pressible Celt on the truck ahead,
"hould aisy, me lad yes can take no
harrum with so much lager under yer
jacket; it's only risin' up, it is, inter yer
hat. Wait till we have Misther O'Don-
ovan in the Board of Aldthermen, and
then, honey, We'll have an ordinance
passed for your own special conva-
nience."
"Sacre," mutters the French baker
from his neat cart labelled Hot Rolls" !"
for which his customers are likely to
wait in vain for that mornings break
fast.
Down the street the drivers are still
more demonstrative. Several have left
their teams and are having social
game of fsticutf, the indulgence in which
pastime, by the by, seems necessary to
the existence of your regular New York
carman. The horses, meantime, are run
ming into and smashing up matters gen.
orally, in emulation of their masters ex-
ample.
Presently, however, a movement is
apparent down the street, the surging
mass gives way, the blockade is raised,
the impatient drivers urge their horses
to the right hand side of the street, and
soon two living streams are flowing, one
on either side, one on their way up
town, the other down. We look for the
magician who has so soon and with such
comparative ease brought order out of
chaos, and we readily recognize the neat
blue uniform, brass buttons and badge
of Office belonging to member of the
Metropolitan police force, who, grim
and mud bespattered, passes hastily
through the crowd, ordering each team
into position by mere wave of the
hand, and in few moments after he ap-
pears upon the scene, everything moves
along with as much regularity as is con-
sistent with human life in general, and
city life in particular.
But am depressing again. The farm
ers do not drive in over night with any
expectation of selling their load before
morning as general thing. They soon
retire to the various lodging houses in
the vicinity, leaving their property i'll
care of set of special watchmen, who,
for a nightly fee, guarantee its safety
until morning. One Nichols, from
Northport, Long Island, had charge of a
section in our immediate neighborhood.
A bluff. old fisherman was this same
Nichols, who had resided in such close
proximity to the Nutmeg State that he
had adopted all the peculiar pronuncia-
tion and nasal twang that characterizes
the universal Yankee nation. When he
first came among US his style was so
SQUIRE" and his drawing, sententious
speeches SO provocative of laughter, that
he was numerically quizzed, all of
which he took with the greatest good
nature; but he proved to have such a
vein of humor, and withal such kindly