Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-10-17
CITY AND DISTRICT.
ON A MARKET nay.
What May be Seen About the Mark es
Building.


What May be Seen About the Mark ct
Building.
SCENES INSIDE AND oUT-rHE cURBsToNE Ex-
CHANGE FOR FARM AND GARDEN PRODUCTS
How THE TRUCKERS DO BUsINESSEBoGUs
CoUNrRYMEN AND THEIR FRAUDS.
People who never go to market or who trust
their marketing TO buffers or servants miss
much that is interesting. When ones spirits
droop, nothing will revive them quicker than
trip through the Center market on a market
day. All is bright, bustling, and animated. To
stand in the gallery in one of the wings of the
market Saturday morning and watch the NOV
Ing throng below will afford a man who loves
scenes full of life and rich with suggestion a
pleasure which never flags. The hundreds of
hgufes below one ever shifting like the bits of
glass In a Kaleidoscope. and constantly making
new pictures and new combinations of form
ana color Then you hear only murmur-a
musical hum-and can distinguish no words, so
the imagination is stimulated. All the little
scenes around each stall APPEAR as panto-
mime You see the stout butcher cieanly
aproned up to the chin, take down a featherless
chicken from a hook and, holding il at arms
length towards an angular lady with specta-
cies, ana IL Is easy 10 Imagine the glowing eu-
logy which he is pronouncfng upon the chicken.
Then the angular lady tests the chicken by
near it, The stout butcher with "a slow, sorrow-
Ili movement hangs ii up again on the hook.
Inc angular lady passes on The assemblagei Is
democratic, and its feminine part, and nearly
all the passing throng is feminine, represents
every social degree and station. 1t is easy 10
pick out the young hOuSekeeper, TO whom mar
keting is a new experience by the readiness
with which she buys. Milling her basket before
she gets half way down the aisle and then turn
ing back. The dealers behind their stalls seem
TO recognize her readily. too, for they have their
best bows and smiles for her The regulars the
veteran marketers, are not caught by smiles,
but examine most minuteiy into price and
quality Busting women, busy dealers, small
i've of stalls, each heaped with It's riches from
the garden, the dairy, the oven the poultry
yard or the butchers block make up II scene
almost unriyaied for color. variety and life.
THE CURBsroNE MARKET
Outside the market building, on the south, on
market day and the day before, an artist in
search of subjects for studies materials for
character sketches can find an inexhaustible
supply. Here the farmers and truckers congre-
gate to display the vegetables and fruits which
they have brought in to tempt the city palates.
Many degrees OF wealth-frOm the old negro
who brings in half a crate of tomatoes and a
few punches of green's and a cabbage or so, to
the wei-to-do truck gardener, who has small
caravan OF wagons, drawn by wellfed horses
and heavily laden with farm products-are rep
resented in this outdoor market. The farmers
and truckers come in Friday morning, and
most OF them leave Saturday morning having
disposed of their wares. street, at the south
side of the market, all along from 9Th street to
18th, Is appropriated TO the use of the country
men. Their wagons, many of them dilapidated
affairs. drawn up to the curb, the horses taken
the pyramidal heaps of cabbages, SquaShes and
other products along the sidewalk. and the men
and women themselves in their bucolic attire
form most picturesque sight-a strong con-
trast with that a lew PAGES distant, on Penn
sylvania avenue, with its weIl-dressed loungers
and elegant equipages. The countrymen,
whose wagons and heaps of produce line the
south curb and who lounge on Il sunny day
against the high iron fence of the Smithson ian
grounds pay no toll to the city or to the market.
Their business is mostly of "a wholesale charac-
Ter. They come in early Friday morning and
secure their stands. Green-grOcers and hucksters
come down with their wagons and drive bar
gains with them. The street is wide and little
Travelled, SO the District authorities do not In
terfere with the squatter rights OF these dealers
The law permits a man to sell his own product
without license All the city requires is that
refuse. Three or four individuals, as
matter OF private enterprise, ply broom
Prevent anx a11a 'he place
toll Is requited by the farmers, who voluntarily
pay tax of ten cents each every market day
unwritten law OF this exchange is that a man
can take up any space he fluids unoccupled. The
tion and his right is not questioned IT is sell
dom that any strife occurs among the farmers
and wagoners, as the rules of the exchange. es-
tablshed by usage. are strictly observed. Some
OF these men have two or three wagons going
and coming, and sell three or four loads i'm a
and before tSe Truckers break camS on
day receive several fresh supplies of produce
from their farms.
WOLVES IN SHEEP 8 CLOTHING.
The genuine countryman Is hard to counter
felt His well-worn clothes, faded by many a
scorching sun, till they are about the color of
the dust of the road; his heavy brogans and hat
with Hopping brim, may, indeed, be initiated,
his plug, and bis general expression are sui
generis, and cannot be initiated 80 as to deceive
an expert Yet, occasionally, a wolf is found in
sheeps clothing. That 4, sharp hue ksters attire
themselves as eountrymen, put hay seed in
their hair, get an old wagon. plastered with
m In "a hIlh- fot~0 rt,as,
places along the curb as cOuntrymen. In this
guise they palm off old stock, bought
up at commission houses and other places
at low rates, as fresh country produce.
They not only deceive the purchaser, who
thinks ne Is buying directly from the man that
but he defrauds the city out OF a license fee
S"me OF these counterfeit countrymen take
their wagons and go abroad through the city,
disposing of their stale wares to gulIible house.
wives fresh vegetables Just in from the coun-
try. Not long ago several OF these bogus farm
ers went through the city with wagon loads of
oleomargarfne, which they sold readily and
rapidly as fresh country butter just arrived in
sheepskin OFT from these wolves and take them
before Judge Smell.
ALONG THE MARKET WALL.
On the market side of the street, under the
awning which stretches from 9TH to 9th street.
Is another class of dealers from the country
They come In on Friday morning and remain
until one or two o'clock Saturday. The space
they occupy Is controlled by the market com
Pany. The rule Is '.first come first served"
So those Who arrive early Friday morning
get the choice places. Wagons are backed up
To the gutter and their freight Is placed along
the curb. Before eleven O'Clock the space along
the whole length of the market building
Will be crowded with wagons. None, however
l. allowed To cross the sidewalk To- the coveted
positions next to the market wall until eleven
o'clock. AT that hour. any Friday morning
one can witness very interesting scene 4
long line of men and women can be seen toeinp
an Imaginary mark, and grasping crates, boxes
bags and other articles with their hands AtIi
o'clock Mr.. Mckay, the market officer after
surveying the line like field marshal sings
out 'all right and there Is a rush across the
sidewalk. Rude stands are quickly erected
crates, barrels and boxes are emptied and the
eurbstone market Is speedily ready for business
The market company collects ten cents for each
space OF about six feet along the wall. No
places are reserved, and a man TO keep his place
has TO remain at his stand or have some one
stay there Tor him. Some of these small deal
ers secure a place Friday morning, but do not
put more than peck or so vegetables on their
stands, Just enough to give them a claim. Then
colored women, with strings OF peppers
and q few lunches of greens and parsley, come
IN, attended generally by number of members
OF their family, representing several genera
tons down TO the latest addition to the house.
mold. Next TO such family group fate NAV
throw a comfortably dressed, buriy weii-to-
farmer, who has come down with a "bar'P' or
two OF cider and vinegar. These country peo-
pie come. some Of them, twenty miles or more
and start from their homes to market Thursday
night They lead a sort of gypsy life In going to
ana from market The collection of wagons
south or the market looks very much like a
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