The Evening post. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1888-1889, 1888-12-12

aNNhNish
The first class saloon is constantly
coming to be more like drug store. Aud
the drug store, by the way, is day by day
becoming more like a saloon.
The people who merely take an occa.
sional drink, or drinks, from time to time
have but n scant idea of what the re.
sources of saloon are.
1t is not the lower class of rum shops
that is meant, but the first class drinking
resorts in which barkeepers are paid
salaries half as large as Congressman
and can "knock down" twice as much.
These plate glass and marble palaces
have resources that arc astonishing to
novice.
In addition to their stock of alcoholic
drinkables they keep the wares of the
green grocer, the fruiter, the proyisioner,
the butcher and the druggist.
The supplying of these incidentals TO
saloonists has grown to be regular bus
mess. Most of the things outside the in
toXicants they sell are used in 50 small
quantities that 1t is not worth their while
to 90 into the regular markets to buy
these incidentals and SO half dozen men
and women make a regular business of
'huckstering" these things from saloon
to saloon.
In the summer months when the in
! sidious mint siulip and its more robust
| brother, the brandy smash, and other
| kindred drinks which owe their deli.
ciousness to the aromatic flavor Of
crushed mint, are at the heighth OF their
ever-increasing popularity-for the pub
lie palate, tired of the "new tangled"
| Ir;,,lys &c tpr,iyr, 1,ocl- 20 tho ,,rra civ,
pie drinks of our fathers-the supplying
Of mint to the saloons is an industry Of
itself
A little driedup old man, who lives
over in Virginia, holds the bulk of the
business so far as the better class of
saloons is concered the year round. lie
comes over across the new Free Bridge
into Georgetown early in the morning
with n basketful of crisp, fresh mint,
with last nights dew glistening on its
dark green leaves, on his arm, carefully
protected from the sun by several LAYERS
of damp white cloths.
The old man trudges sturdily down the
Avenue until he reaches one of the sa-
looms which is a customer.
He pushes open the spring doors and
pipes out, Fresh mint!' in a shrill little
voice.
The white.coated barkeeper comes
from behind the bar, breaks of stalk Of
mint from one of the punches of hun
bred or so stalks each, brushes it between
his teeth, and if it is satisfactory, as the
old mans mint almost always is. he buys
as many lunches of it us he thinks ht
will need for the day and pays the little
old man ten cents a bunch for it.
BY noon the little old man has dis
posed Of his big basketful and starts
home. And they say that the old MAJ
usually spends all the money he has go
for his mint with the very barkeepers hi
got it from. And the load he carries
home is apt TO be as heavy as the on,
he brings over in the morning.
Out north of the city is an old Irisl
woman, a widow, who has her yard anC
her house, too, for that matter full o.
slender, graceful white bantam chickens
-. ; TIE EGG-woMAN.
,.EyeEy morning the old Irish woman
gets up before the sun does. She goe
out in her little box Of barn, among he
5 cackling, growing brood of whit
? chickens and gathers up the eggs the,
have laid for her during the night
Small, very white eggs they are, just tn
size for an egg flip, which is easil,
spoiled by too large an egg.
She puts them carefully into a basket
!. eight or ten dozen of them, and afte
; scattering liberal breakfast of corn Of
the ground for her chickens, that she /
= as fond of as mother of her children
the old Irish woman makes q fruga
u breakfast Of eggs and bacon and start
y for a three miles walk to the city jus
i. about the time you and ] are getting VI
= She has her regular customers and sh
:; would have twice as many if she ha
! twice as many eggs. For the barkeep
. ers like TO buy her little white eggs OF
: account Of their size. A drink that
increasing in popularity is a glass Q
. whisky with an egg in it that peopl
who think they are troubled with dys
pepsia, swallow at n gulp. But the cg
u must be fresh and small, for big egg il
c too much for a single mouthful. Sh
}. gets five or ten cents more n dozen 70
n her eggs than the market price is, an
c she is contemplating buying lot adioir
:. ing the one she now lives on so that sh
u can keep more chickens.
There is a smart Italian whitehead lik
a eyes and gold rings in his ears who MAKE
Q regular business of supplying saloor
!, with bananas, pineapplcs, orange
y lemons, grapes, Strawberries, raspberrit
and cherries when they are in season
0 a lot Of the better class of saloons.
;. irony" AND THE BANANAS.
Old Antonio, or Tony" as the ba
e keepers call him, goes early every NOR
y ing to the wholesale fruit dealers pIac,
e OF business, and whenever he sees an G
: pecially fine bunch OF bananas, or
II dozen pineapples that strike his fame,
'' he buys them, loads them into his shak
WAGON. and Dcdlles them from snloon