The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-09-19
APPLE WON EN-.
DISAPPEARANCE OF the Variety which Pre-.
vailed In Childhood.


Among the prettiest. most attractive,
most dece.ving, yet withal the most
captivating Of the fresh green products
the country sends to town at this time
of the year is the green apple. 1t:
shiny coat, mixed with just enough red
to make it tinted, hides the cholera
germ which careful mothers say exists
within. and gives it a position in the
minds of youth far ahead of that
occupied by plain but substantial diet,
the shaggy but healthful potato. or the
''roasting-ears" with their harsh. green
coverings topped with the faded ''silk. "
Despite its delicate appearance, the
green apple is hardy. and it is a very
bad season that does not produce it in
great numbers, SO when it does begin to
come to town it comes in quantities. and
the supply keeps up until in the natural
course Of events it gives way to come
other product.
OF course. these green apples are sold.
Many are carted from market-houses by
heads of families with view to apple.
pie for lunch or dinner, but countless
thousands-to use an expressive but
ancient expression-ar dealt out one
by one to the small boys and others who
patronize the fruit-vender.
When the men of to-day were boys
they bought their apples from the cold
apple woman" but the boys of to-day
have less dealing with what their fathers
considered an immovable fixture in the
worlds progress. 1t is fact that the
apple-woman is passing slowly but sure
ly away. Where she could be counted
by tens and twepties the same number
OF years ago, she is now only found at rare
intervals. She has been crowded out.
Her well-filled basket is superseded BY
the more commodious corner stand. and
she herself is superseded by the dark.
complexioned Italian, whose race seems
to have emigrated to this country to
make fruit-selling and rag picking theil
specialties. The Italian at the best is
lazy. If he does hard work he goes
about it in slow, measured way that
makes an active man nervous. The
fruit business just suits. and when he
can sit and dose in his little box. keep
ing one eye half open to guard his stock
from the onslanghts of the tormenting
gamins, he is happy. His limited vo-
cabulary of English words enables him
% tell the price of his wares and he has
cunning enough to keep the bruised side
of his apples, pears, and peaches turned
away from the customers. His whole
mind is on his business, and that has its
effect. He makes vigorous war on the
dust that settles on his fruit. for he
knows the American people admire
cleanliness, no matter how far his nat
ural disposition may lead him in a con-
trary direction.
But the apple-woman is different.
She leans toward the over-ripe and
calculated, and by sheer force of per-
sistence compels the public to take
them off her hands. She has an I'M
dying antipathy to fresh apples and
oranges. The way she sits on the
public's prejudices and forces it to take
what it doesn't want marks her genius
for dealing with that untractable beast.
She never advances; has no ambition to
have an attractive or prosperous-look-
ing stand; prefers to pose as figure for
the generosity of the benevolent rather
than be factor in legitimate business
She is but bungler in business at best.
She lacks tact and skill and pride.
If she begins business with a barrel
covered with board. or with a basket.
when she retires from business her out
fit is the same. She does not depend
on attractiveness for her trade. She is
patient-very patient. Sometimes she
depends upon the whines in her voice,
the respondent look in her face, and
her poverty-stricken appearance, be
lieving that it is not in human nature to
resist a stationary and persistent appeal
In this she judges Alright. She lives
and that proves success. Sometimes
she grows wealthy. and that proves
greater success: but unless you have the
same amount of patience that she has
and watch her day after day, you cln
not but wonder whence comes
her custom. Sometimes you will
watch her for hours without see
ing customer approach. Ye,
she has customers, else her career
would not be so protracted. She win:
them by patient waiting, which the
proverb says is never loss. She sets
up her small establishment and sits con.
tentedly down beside It to wear out the
public's patience, anil succeeds. At first
people in the vicinity of her location re
sent her presence among them. She is
considered in the nature of a blemisl
upon the landscape-a blot upon its
record of prosperity. But they get ovel
that, and get used to seeing her there
day after day, and at last they are SC
impressed by her quiet pat ence thai
they are impelled to buy something OF
her as reward for her perseverance
Then they buy a second, and third
and fourth time. because they see she
expects it, and would feel small not te
crafty her. BY that time the habit Of
buying from her is formed. and habit il
really the cog-wheel of the machinery
that moves human kind. The habil
kept up becomes sort OF duty. and the
apple-woman's future is fixed beyond
peradventure. She is now what the re-
porters call identified with the local.
ity." In her own language, she has
worked up trade,
The apple-woman is paradox in hei
way. She is patent and persever' ng,
but not ambit ious. No matter how
lucrative her trade. she never retires
from it. If she have children she sends
them to school. They grow up more
educated than she and fitted for higher
place in society. Sometimes she has
copo uho hold mood ,Noo;f;opo ord co,,,o
times she has daughters who marry
well. The prosperity of her children is
a qualification to her. but she continues
''at the old stand" just the same. They
may own house or two, paid for by
the careful storing up of the pennies
that came so slowly into her hands, but
she is not satisfied. She has become SO
accustomed to her business that she can
not leave it. Her children may invoke
her to retire. but she will not. The
sidewalk has attractions for her that the
pleasures of palace would not supply,
and that continues until physical in
firmties deny her the privilege.
Contentment with her life is one OF
the character sites of the fruit selling
woman. She's perfectly happy. She
wouldn't exchange her place behind her
small merchandise for anything on
earth. 1t is the point of observation
from which she looks out upon the
panorama Of life as it rolls necessarily
past. Her expression of detection, or
at least submission to hard fate, is but
a mask put on to play upon the sympa-
thies of the unwary.
Gradually she is d disappearing. The
Italian does not educate his children,
and when he passes away they fill his
place, and there is too much competition
for the apple woman. Once in a great