The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-03-06
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
The apple women Of New York are pass
ing away. The business they once monopo.
Lied IS falling into the hands Of the italians
In a few years these picturesque figures Of a
cosmopolitan city will be largely tradition
airy. They will have an ideal existence on
canvas, in the drama, in rhyme and
story. Art, which is ever in pursuit of the
vanished and vanishing, will make them its
own forever, and reality will know them no
more
The law Of the survival Of the flttest is the
enemy that is exterminating the apple
woman. The swarthy, dirty, laconic
italian. who knows just enough English to
tell the price of his merchandise, and under
stands the art of keeping the decayed side Of
his fruit hidden from the buyers gaze, sup
plants her by reason of his superior business
skill and sagacity. He puts whatever mind
he has unremittingly on his business, and
that tells, even in the management of a
fruit stand. No matter how humble his
little stock, he arranges it tastefully. Be
his establishment portable or stationary, it
has certain air Of style about it; it looks
business like and prosperous. Much as he
enjoys filth he knows that the American
IL.
he continually makes war upon dust and
whatever initiates against the good appear
ance of his outfit, and he sorts up his stock
often; gets fresh fruit every day and as
many kinds as he can proftably handle.
This is something the apple woman never
does, if she can help it. She leans toward
the over-ripe and calculated, and by sheer
force of persistence compels the public to
take them off her hands She has an undying
antipathy to fresh apples and oranges. The
way she sits out the public's prejudices, and
forces it to take what it doesn't want, marks
her genius in dealing with that untracta-
BILE beast She never advances; has no am
bition to have an attractive or prosperous
looking 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. She begins with
a barrel with board over it, and after
lowering beside it twenty years, it hasn't
single attraction more than it had the day it
began its careers less attractive. if any
thing. She depends more for patro age upon
the whine In her voice than the excellence Of
her wares. She makes Of herself an embodied
and stationary appeal to the kind impulses
Of humanity. She does not operate on the
principle Of supplying public need, but on
the fact that she has need which the public
must supply. Her method of forcing sales
is, not to tempt the hungry pedestrians, but
TO impress upon everybody, by an attitude
of abjsct ppeal, that there are hungry
"childers" to be fed.
Who buys from the applewomanl Very
Roxx ~ ri fIEp
watch her for hours without seeing the phe-
nomenon of a customer approach. Yet she
has customers, else her career would not be
so protracted. She wins them by p. tient
waiting, which the proverb says is never a
loss. She sets up her small establishment
and sits contentedly down beside it to wear
out the public's patience, and succeeds. The
fact that she is kept alive Is irrefragable
proof of the power that lies In steadfastness
of place and purpose alone.
At first people in the vicinity of her loca-
ton resent her presence among them. She
is considered in the nature of blemish upon
the landscape-a blot upon its record of
prosperity. But they get over that, and get
used to seeing her there day after day. and
at last they are so impressed by her quiet
patience that they are impelled TO buy some
ance Then they buy a second, and third,
and fourth time, because they see she ex-
poets it and would feel small not to crafty
her. By that time the habit Of buying from
her is formed, and habit is really the cog
wheel of the machinery that moves human
kind. The habit kept up becomes a sort of
duty, and the apple woman's future is fixed
beyond peradventure She is now what the
reporters call identified with the 1ocality.n
In her own language she has worked up q
trade"
Curious and varied are the motive springs
of human action, and the ignorant woman
Of the fruit stall excels all philosophers in
O knowledge OF them. She knows she can
bring the obstinate public to pour its small
coin into her hands by simply keeping her.
self before it in one place day after day.
from seven o'clock in the morning until
nine in the evening" waiting till it comes to
her. She can we'll afford to wait through
the long hours of the first days unrewarded
by single penny. The future will make it
all right. By and by every soul within the
immediate neighborhood would figl. for
her, and resent her removal with indignant
protest. Nor IS that to be wondered at
Her ofPenses are negative, her virtues posi-
tive. Her patience has had its effect on
them. They can't find it in their hearts to
disappoint her faithfulness in their benevo-
lence; and so they buy of her, and to reward
them she remains with them forever.
The strength of the bond between the
fruit seller and her neighbors was demon
strated few weeks ago on Avenue A. An
apple woman who had long been land
mark there was the custodian of a stand so
unsightly and rickety that it was voted an
obstruction and ordered removed by the
authorities. A new stand was at once con-
structed, all in the vicinity contributing
literally, and the first evening CT its COM
mercial career was celebrated by patron
age which run the receipts steadily up to
the magnificent sum of $3.50, without a
halt This was a testimonial Of the good
will of the neighboThood and general de-