National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1880-06-02

To The Editor Of The National Republican.

To the Editor Of The National Republican;
SIR: The complaints Of tho hucksters' street
cries, which have led the District commits.
sioners TO forbid them the privilege of thus
vending their wares, seems to me very one
sided, and hope you will allow housekeepor
to state In your columns the other side Of the
case. In the first place. the man who has paid
license to the government for the privilege
of selling fruits, vegetables, oysters etc, on
the street, is particularly deprived of the
value Of his license If he cannot call out his
wares To ring the bell Of every house and
wait for its answer would consume so much
time that he could earn no profit for his labor,
while to tho housekeepers Obliged to answer
such bells the nuisance would be intolerable.
In a warm climate 1t is necessity to purchase
little at time and often aud to drive huck.
sters from the streets and compel tho house,
keeper to 60 to tho market every time she
desires fruit and oysters fresh would be an in
toerable burden. There is n large class of
people who have no carriages or servants to do
this work. There are many excellent ladies
in Washington who keep house in limited
quarters, perhaps in single room up stairs, and
but for the fact that many of the things that
aid in good living are brought to the door and
called ont, they would fiud this economical
mode of life impossible. 1t is one of the good
things TO be said of life in this city, that a
clerk on $1,000 per qnnum can afford to have
his wife with him by adopting economi-
cal methods Of housekeeping. Is that a
wise movement OH the part of our rulers which
makes the everyday life of the middlinR
classes expensive and uncomfortable? IL is said
that the hucksters' cries injure tho sick, but
without tho help to the housekcepcrs which
these cries bring fear many persons now
we'll would be made sick. The burden OF
dressing for the street and going out for every
article OF food that huclssters bring, of going
to answer the bell every time that they have
| anything to sell, is enough to wear out the
| strongest woman in short timo. If there
| had been one woman on the board OF District
| commissioners, and that woman had ever KEEP
| house in a warm climate, this new order hat
| never been passed; or at least 1t would hav,
waited until every housekeepor had carriages
| and plenty of servants. 1t is rule that mus
| please only the rich.
Il think" said a huckster, who showed me
| his license, and told me that he was forbidden
to call his strawberries, that there are people
who do not want poor man to have chance
to make an honest living, and they mean Il
drive us to steal for one."
Think, Mr.. Editor, of carload of straw
| berries reaching this city on Saturday after
noon. If called on the streets tho consumer
the huckstor and the fruit-grower are all bene
| flied. If this cannot be, the two last classes
make no money and the poor do not eat frui
at moderate price. There was time wher
it was reckoned Il blessing that "the poor haC
the gospel preached unto them" Wise mor
and women will reckon il a blessing when tn,
poor can have fruit reached out to them. /
is step backward in civilization that makes
this difficult. III. G. /.
MAY 30, 1880.