News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-10-23


with long lines of these vehicles slowly
converging toward one common point
New York.
By ten o'clock the advance guard
reaches the North and East -rixers. and
s~en then until c. se.-.
morning the Bridge
are packed with heavily loades VelleSsll,s
which when once they reach the city go
rumbling over the stones until they
gather in one great mass at the Farmers
midnight market.
Here, in the streets near the junction
of Dey and Washington, is to be found
one of the most picturesque phases of
night life in New York-long rows of
immense wagons backed up against the
curb, their tired horses standing with
dropping heads meeting in the middle of
the street-great piles of produce
blocking the sidewalks, where every
spare foot of space is occupied by the
farmers, grocerymen and spectators,
bargaining with each other rapidly in
seventeen different languages-checked-
shirted Carriers" pushing along, each
one pushing, dragging or carting bag
or barrel, and above all the faring oil
lamps against the awning posts, throw
ing their light in through the windows
of the deserted shops.
For two hours and more the bargain
ing continues and then, all the loads
being sold-for New York quickly con-
sumes the vast production-the delivery
commences. This is the work of the
boss Carriers" one of whom, for dol
lar, engages to deliver wagon load to
its purchaser or purchasers. "Tim the
Horse" Savannah" pretty Jack"
and "Mustache," as the carriers are
called in the cheerful idiom of the
street, gather their men together, put
one or two on each wagon, and the
breaking up of the market begins.
The greater part of the produce hav-
ing been bought by the speculators or
middle men, who the next day sell it to
the grocerymen, the majority of the
wagons are driven down to West Wash
ington Market. This is the stronghold
of the spectators. Over four hundred
of them occupy the queer little double
decked booths which line Country row,
Broad avenue, Vesey pier, Merchants
row and the dozen other narrow little
lanes which make the market miniature
town
Forty years ago the North River came
up to West street, and the New Jersey
farmers brought over their produce in
boats and carried it across the narrow,
unpaved road into old Washington Mar
ket. Now the river has been filled in
for quarter of mile further out, and
the made ground is occupied by the
wholesale or West Washington Market,
which is entirely distinct from the old
or retail market. and is as little known to
the average New Yorker as the top of
st. Paul's steeple.
Many of the curious little shops are
built on piles, and not few on old
scows and canal boats. The city, how
ever, owns all the space, and the booths
pay ground rent into the municipal
treasury which aggregates $780, 900
year.
From sunset until midnight, Country
row and Garden lane are silent and de-
serted. The booths are all open and the
contents thereof, from the boxes of eggs
to the barrels of pickles, are apparently
unguarded. On the floors, on boxes
and on the cobblestones outside lie the
porters, sound asleep. One could walk
through every lane of the market with
out seeing a moving thing.
But when at two o'clock the farmers
wagons come down from the market
in Greenwich and Washington streets,
and the carriers" begin to deliver the
variegated loads which the spectators
have just bought, each lane falls into
condition of apparent chaos to which
jam on Broadway is an easily solved
problem. There is, however, no actuaT
confusion, for the omnicient carrier
reigns supreme, and under his guiding
hand, a wagon uhloads its cargo at
half dozen different booths, and starts
away over the ferry in an hours time.
Many of these carriers are paid $50
week by the bosses, because of their
transcendent ability to dump load of po-
tatoes or apples on the floor of specu-
lator's shop so as to bring the best points
of the stuff uppermost.
"Some of our men are mighty smart,
said one of the boss carriers to re-
porter, early on recent morning, as he
watched the unloading of a thousand
punches of radishes from a wagon 10
shop floor. "If that man was green
hand he'd make those radishes look
fifty per cent. smaller and more wilted
than they look now-it's in the way he
sort of sizes up each bundle as he takes
hold of it, and throws it on the heap
Just where it viii do the most good. OF
course we pay such men high wages.
The farmers won't give their jobs of uu-
loading to carrier that has poor men,
for they make his stuff look poor, and
he loses custom"
Just as the first gray light of the
morning appears the sleepy farmers and
ferryboats and begin their long journey
home, while the boats on their return
trips are packed with milk wagons COM
ing from the milk depots at the railroad
stations. The three roads which termi-
nate in Jersey City bring in every nigh
from the neighboring counties of New
Jersey ten thousand cans of milk. AS
much more is brought in by the Hudson
River, the Harlem and the New York
and New Haven roads from New York
and Connecticut, but it is all drank be-
fore the next morning comes again.
eyes," said one of the middlemen-or
spectators, as they call themselves-as
he rubbed his eyes and stared at the
first red ray of sunlight aero s the sky
behind Trinity steeple, "it's been agood
summer for growing things-too good
for the farmers and us. There's so much