The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-08
AT THE FRENCH MARKET.
An Early Visit to One of the Chief
.'GLiOns" of New Orleans.
A Misty Silhouette of the Moist Morning
Tone Pictures for all Artists Brush
Among the Market People.

y
the uncertain light that wanders over the top of
a Saguenay river steamers state-room door; l
have possessed myself of them by the equally
unreliable illumination of tallow candle in the
region Of Thunder Cape but never got UP early
in this city before, and SO long as Morpheus
waves a wand III never do it again! Always an
unrighteous thing to do, here one suffers the full
penalty of the transgression. There is a pre-
medtated disappearance Of hairpins and button
hooks; buttons fly off as by conspiracy; with
malice aforethought the furniture upsets, and
you invariably tumble down stairs, to the Sc
rious agitation of the old lady boarder the
first floor. Last Sunday morning Theophila and
/ did this thing, fired, of course, with a French
marketing ambition; and as met in the misty
grayness of 6 precisely at our rendezvous, on
narrow, damp stone banquette, we compared our
melancholy experiences and found that they
were the same.
The tall, dark baiconied houses rose silently
out Of the mist as we hurried along; an &C.
casional ghostly regiment of pillars upheld
broad white veranda with guarding air; now
and then a eatiess branch silhouetted its tracery
of twigs upon tightening sky-patch. ten
minute shlYer on street corner, for February
isn't balmy in New Orleans till the sun is up,
and we joined street-car company that carried
prayer books and market baskets and looked de-
yout and business like with refreshing alterna-
ton. Then the street lamps began to go out,
and the foggy deSolation to lift its wings. A
great, gray, ragged old church doomed up on one
side of the way with dark, beggar outlines
clustering about its shadowy entrance, and then
down broad street vista there came glow in
the eastern sky, stealing along the brown house
fronts and flashing up from the glorified cutters.
Another, ard we saw, far down, the noble lines
of many tall masts and sails reefed in a tender
radiance. Ah the street distances of the Cres-
cent City! Where else, l pray, can you look
away and afar to the very brim of o the world,
and find ships in port there to take you to
anothers
Canal street, and you change cars From the
pillared modern elegance of Southern American
homes to the characterize dinginess of-'creUfe'
habitations, Many clothes-lines pendant from
one chimney to another swing and sway across
the fat roofs. Tall houses and stately, short and
souatty, crowd together with funny old fra
ternty. The untidy stairways are pleasantly
warped, the stained stucco coloring is indescrib
ably mellow; and the generous old Spanish tiled
graceful antique iron lamps that have flashed
over the narrow, dark paving since the day of
Ulloa are only to be reproduced canvas
Hear me, 0 men and women of the brush and
palette who every summer arise in your linen
busters and your longing after the unattainable,
and join the great European exodus! Turn your
eyes to the southwark and behold! Here is color
and character, form and force and sweetly pen.
etrating it all subtle suggestiveness, the soft
footed centuries lovelicst legacy, that you ali
o.~I Thann oil ;,rvtxy
predisposed toward the amateur in numbers
She told me all this as we ratified along the mar
row streets and watched the sky glory widen
and deepen through the quivering screen of
glistening magnOlias and the iron gates or nigh
walled courts.
1t has been much the fashion lately to remark,
in tone of intense fatigue, that the French
market has been vastly overdone. 1t is consol-
ing to reflect. in this connection, with ones pen
poised for further perpetration that the same
languid utterance is invariably upon the lips of
society when any beautiful, marvellous, or
PERTAINING thing is under discussion, from the
Mammoth Cave to the Coliseum. I will spare
YOU our emotions, but nothing else.
First" said Theophila, ito the Marquis for
coffee"
We entered the nearest broad rooted shed and
pandemonium. Absolutely the only human
creatures not shouting, singing, reckoning and
bargaining were the half-dozen stolid Choctaw
sGuaws that squatted on the pavement in the
sun, with their baskets of gumbo ''fillee' and
other herbs. They were positively non Gem.
initial upon every subject especially that so
sat and shook their brown old faces, hs,f hid in
great masses Of black hair, aid said not q word
at all. But for Indian taciturnity creole volu-
bility made ample amends.
"Get down oat o dat!' cried Dago game deal
er wildly 70 q dead rabbit placed conspicuously
on bar above his stall, to the vast amusement
of the lookers-on. The fellow worked himself
into a perfect storm of passion, and at every
fresh invective the crowd about him grew larger
and more appreciative. At the same stall hung
two skinned animals Of CHASTITY appearance and
horrible grinning teeth. ''Wid cat said the
dealer in response to my inquiry. ''To eatW in
Mortified amaze from Theopha. "Yah, good
eatn-fo de Chinese!" he answered, with the in
evtaOle shrug and quick glance of impatieuce
at our Improbable curiosity. These game stalls
and their swarthy, red-shirted proprietors make
magnificent studies Rabbits by the hundred
woodcock in festoons, Spanish snipe, blackbrds
"killallee,' teal, ''fne nice chicken turkee
geese!" even cranes, their great white wings and
long legs dabbled in gore, and here exposed
for the gastronomic temptation of the multi
tude.
Whats this2' demanded of an old dame in a
red sunbonnet eingery poking very. hairy, de-
funct animal with my%arasol, "a ratW
'Mais non" she returned irately, IF ever you
see de tail rat, you know very well dat is no rat
Dat is coon--mos' splendid COON"
The only dogs in New Orleans. to all appear
ance. hang about these stalls, and the red fasci-
nations of the butchers. They are sleek meek
insnuating brutes, and readily accept the slight
est suggestion Of intrusveness. The fish mar
ket is marvel of glancing color Great heaps
of shrimps, snappers, sheep'shead, blue and
brown intricacies of crab baskets. the gaslisht
flashing upon the scales with the most bewlder-
ing effect And the flower stands, each with its
comely proprietress. who firts in the most un-
disguised manner with every buyer of button
hole adornment Dewy violets, waxen cameliias.
starry jasmine and the royal magnolia are
among her fragrant wares. And she is every
where, the poetry of the place. Her bent old
grandmother presides over the vegetable stand
a riot of greenery. Listen to the cries beseech
ing, expostulating, argumentative, chanting;
"Get EN- for no money"-'two bits"-"Calas cal
only "a nickle" "Banan' banan, la
bella banan! Beautiful banan, only
five cents de doz!' 'Achetez lei au bon marched