Wichita eagle., 1888-03-11
A MEXICAN MARKET.
Fried Grasshoppers and Many Other DELI
cacies offered for Sale.

Fried Grasshoppers and Many Other DELI
cacies offered for Sale.
The articles seen in the market l will
here give as they were written down dur
ing recent Sunday morning visit. says
CORES pondent of the Detroit Free Press,
writing from the City OF Mexico. One de-
partmcnt is under cover, and is filled with
assorted fruits, including oranges, lemons,
lines pineapples, pears, peaches, plums,
bananas, ounces, alligator pears, cocoa
nuts and many other tropical fruits, most
of which, owing to the high market tax
and costly transportation, sell at about
New York prices. The streets and side
walks in the vicinity are lined with men,
women and children, who are seated on
the ground surrounded by their market
products, which include, besides the ordi-
nary vegetable m arket products, pigeons,
unweaned puppies, game chickens, pet
lambs, battered pigs and kids Then
there are heaps of old iron, bird cages,
cheap calico, brass jewelry, boiled corn,
potatoes, stewed pumpkins, beans,
pepper, cooked and raw pigs feet,
sheep heads, hearts, lights and entrails.
There are also tiints and finder for start
ing fire, metal mounted stones for grind
ing corn, roots, bark and medical herbs,
and dye goods. Close by we see fried
shrimps and grasshoppers; each are
cooked whole and eaten so. The latter
are about the size of our common grass
hopper, but are entirely red, but as to
looks would just as soon try to go the
common chopper of the north. Besides
these, the natives gather the eggs of the
swamp-iy and boil them into a paste and
eat them with salt, chilli (pepper), and
tortillas. The fly and its eggs are each
sold in the market. The former is ONE
what smaller than the house-fy, while
the eggs are about the size and color of
hay-seed. In fact, everything is eaten
here that the human stomach will digest
or any thing that is capable Of being
converted into soup Passing on we
see women selling flowers, in
cense, gum, cane and corn-stalks,
cigarettes, cigar stumps, pul9ue, stale
bread, bulrush mats, secondhand combs
and tooth-brushes, Aztec images of gods,
sacred images and pictures, hot soup, ice
cream, toy collins, candy skulls, prayer
books, wax images. hairless blush poodle
dogs, cakes made for the dead, also others
made in the form of the crucifix. the
Virgin, saints, and the angels. Among
this motley mixture there are to be seen
naked running at large. In fact nu-
merous entire families OF Mexican ci;i-
1ens come and spend all day in the mar
ket place. This is their home, and they
usually bring all their domestic animals
along. The market presents continued
babble, as every veuder keeps up a con-
slant cry, in which they give IN Spanish
and sometimes in the Aztec or native
Indian dialect the kind, quality and price
OF all they have 70 sell Each stand has
a pole about eight feet high, upon
the top Of which there is fat
framework covered with a bulrush mat
This is the only protection from sun and
rain, and under such shelter we find the
hash and soup stands. II these popular
eating stands every article Of food that
will not scald or burn is dished out BIZ hand:
FOR other things they use large wooden /
and brass spoons While not otherwise 1
engaged, these women are hunting feas
among their poodle dogs and puppies. and
com bIng the children's heads for what |
they seldom fail 10 And Then there are |
scores Of lepers or beggss sleeping and |
iounging about gathering the vermin 1
from their filthy rags Some of them are /.
playing lame, while others are covered /
with sores which they pointedly exhibit, /
but more often in place Of sores are layers /
OF acquired filth Thus with as few rags |
as the law will permit, and as much flth |
as they can live under, these bezgars |
crowd the markctplace, confront every
class Of visitors, and expect TO be paid for 1
sae exhibition heY n1esa2. |