The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-21
PEOPLE WHO SELL TRUCK
THE COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS OF
STREET AND LANE.

How They Convey Their Wares
from Place to Place Street Calls
Harsh and Seductive, Queer and
Quaint-How Prices Are Bulled IN
der tho Shades Of the Trees-The
Street Peddler Def1es the Ordinance
and Goes Unlicensed in a Free Fold.
There are not less than 800 street peddlers
in Savannah, of all ages, sizes, sexes, and
conditions in life, and who supply demand
reaching all the way from the homes of the
wealthy, to the lowest resort in the OFF caste
localities, These peddlers are indefatigable
and alert, or indolent and Indifferent, &C
cording to their varying temperaments. In
the main, they are noisy. Not few of
the, are impudent and with the possible
exception of half dozen Italians, all of
them are negroes.
The majority Of street peddlers are fe-
males, whose ages range from 10 years to
60 years, and they sell everything edible
that is grown on land or taken from river
and sea. Willow and reed baskets
containing their stock in trade are carried
on the head, for negro will not attempt to
carry anything in the hand that can be got
on the head.
AFRICAN HEADWoRK.
1t may be necessary to have
help TO place well-filled twO-bushel ba9ket
on Negroes head, but once there it appar-
emily becomes part of the negroes anat-
omy, and the duskY peddler would as soon
think of seeing the head drop off as the
basket. So expert are they in carving
various artic es in this way that they are
very entertaining to up country and North
ern visitors, who Will stand in open -mouthed
wonder and watch the negro street Vender
dance without inconvenience with the bas-
ket or package on his head. The shape of
tie article makes no difference, and it is no
uncommon sight i'll the melon season to see
cOlored delivery mon CARRYING big round
watermelons on their heads without the
least danger of an accident to the melon.
In fact nothing would be more humiliating
TO street peddler than TO lose his balance
and let a package fall. They will romp and
play, spar. and occasionally engage in a
street fight, but the basket or the bundle
must not be permitted to become displaced.
They sit down and rise, fall down and get
up, preserving special rigidity Of partial
equilibrium, which keeps the unshitting
basket in place.
A FREE FIELD.
The number of street peddlers varies
with the seasons. 4 license is
seldom paid, so that the field is
comparatively free, and they come and go
according to their inclinations and finan
cia straits. The laundress Of to-day NAV
be the street peddler of tomorrow and
Sam Johnsing may be on the chain-gang
tomorrow and peddling fish the next day.
They come from the country, from the
islands, from Thunderbolt, and from every
conceivable quarter Of the city. The stand
ard OF morals is not excessively rigid and
negroes from the Old Fort, Yamacraw,
Smithville, the denizens of Lovers
lane and the habitues of Cooper
shop lane, meet under the bluff
and fraternize in laying in their morning
stock from the produce and fish boats. They
are on the streets early and late except on
Monday mornings, on Sundays and on Sat
nrday afternoons. Saturday afternoon, in
negro pe1dler's calendar, is set apart as
sacred to the god of pleasure, Sunday to
absolute Incidence, while Monday is spent
in earnest mental calculation how to get
through the rest of the week without over
taxing the physical system.
BULLING PRICES
The indolent characteristics of the latter
day African are more noticeable among the
street peddlers than among any other class
They approximate very closely to European
lazzaroni. They get under the shade Of a
friendly oak and spend hours calculating
as the sun gets hotter, how much they must
increase the price of their vegetables so that
on light sales they will have the same gen
eral average Of money for the days ped
ding, and by the slow process of their cal
culation their vegetables, in many instances,
become withered and unstable to white
patrons.
1t is this which defles any housekeeper to
get articles for the dinner table at uniform
prices. She is nearly always asked the
highest price fixed in the peddler'S mind,
and, as obstinacy is one of the peculiarities
of their class, they will, in three cases out
of five, refuse to take any reduction, al
though the value placed upon their wares
is wholly fictitious, and may be anywhere
from 10 to 200 per cent. higher than those
of pedder of the same article following
not ten steps in the rear.
This is noticeable more particularly dur
ing the blackberry season. Prices range
all the way from two quarts for Sc up to 15c.
per quart on uniform days, while for
chickens. what one peddler will sell at the
rate of 81 so per dozen the next peddler
coming along is just as apt to demand SO
for, although the chickens may be from the
same coop and the same brood.
CRYING THEIR WARES.
The street peddlers are necessary adiuncts
TO the domestic economy, although their
prices vary, their noise sometimes almost
intolerable and their chorus Of cries often
wholly unintelligiole to all save tho trained
ear. Some voices are harsh, some musical
even TO sweetness. One negro woman
from the neighborhood of the
Old Fort, who peddles oysters prawns,
shrimps and crabs in their seasons, moves
with great CELEBRITY through the streets and
calls out in little more than an audible
whisper, rising pitch higher to a tremu-
lous G. Her voice Is so musical
that she soon disposes of her stock. TO
hear her voice o Q would expect to see
features to harmonize with the melody of
her tongue, bat she is we'll advanced in
years and black as ETH, p. She is indus
trious, polite and, after al pretty is as
pretty d es" applies to her.
A Negroes voice is either a medley of me-
lodies or a medley of discords. Some calls
are coarse to harshness, some are subdued.
One fresh meat peddler wore out pair of
lungs last summer with most nerve-rack-
ing cry of "E yah-up," which those who
knew his cry interpreted to mean fresh
meat. 1t could be heard six blocks away,
but as it has not boon heard this year the
conclusion is natural that he either burst
a blood vessel or that some one, tortured
into desperation, assassinated him.
Tho street cries Of the different peddlers
are recognized by their patrons with half
intuitve intelligence and familiarity, while
strangers could hardly distinguish between
either the peddlers or their different sounds
ODD TERMS EMPLOYED.