, 1889-05-01
MARKET OF ALL NATIONS.
A COSMOPOLITAN SCENE ON LUDLOW
STREET, NEW YORK.

A Picturesque Gathering of Curious People.
How the orthodo1 Hebrews Select Their
Sabbath Food-Tho Rabble That Always
Follows a Crowd
Have you ever been In the vicinity of
the Ludlow Street market on a Friday
morning? Well, If you have not you
have missed a sight Ludlow Street
market comprises that portion Of the
city bounded by Hester and Canal and
by Essex and Orchard streets. Every
Friday, from sunrise to sunset, it Is the
l~iveliest n~eighborhood in this city.
The yells and whoops of an army of
Comanches or D~onnybrook fair itself
never furnished the noise found here
every market day, as Friday Is called.
Tho sons and daughters of Israel flock
from all portions of the city, and mingle
with the denizens of the down town dis
tricts. Hobokon and Jersey City send
their delegations ready for bargains, and
before noon the street is impossible.
Ragged jackets and scant wraps mingle
with sealskins and silks, while white
bearded patriarchs jostle elbows with
the bright eyed and red Tipped Jewish
mnidens and their swarthy, stalwart
brothers and fathers, all keen for a bar
gain and totally unconscious of the pict-
uresque feature they make in the middle
of Gotham.
THE UNLEAvENED BREAD.
Every man, woman and child bears n
basket, and they are out for material for
their Sunday dinner, the Kosher food
for the "Shabes" table, killed and cured
according TO rites prescribed when the
race was young Notwithstanding the
semi-religious errands of the marketers,
the traditional shrewdness of the race Is
the chief feature of the bargaining.
The first places visited by every one of
the market men and women are the
sands where the barches, or ~unleavened
bread, Is sold. The loaves are first given
q thorough inspection, and her the
price Is asked. This is followed by an
offer of n cent or two lower, and, after
haggling a few minutes, n purchase is
made. There Is reason for the haggling
and the close inspection.
The barches ~loaves, like other pro-
auctions, are subjected to n rejuvenating
treatment before being offered for sale,
when they are stale, and knowing ones
can tell this by looking them over care
fully. When not fresh the loaves are
squeezed and handled so as to make
them soft, then scented to prevent the
urn from being detected, and then
put on the stands.
The purchaser feels of the loaf, smells
1t, and then balances 1t In his hand to
sec that it Is not under weight. Then 1t
Is turned over, as though 1t were some
precious metal instead of q five cent
loaf, and then the driving commences.
The dealer Is told that he Is nothing
short of a highwayman-that the same
article could be purchased somewhere
else for half the money.
The fish stands are highly important,
for every orthodox Hebrew must have
fish with his meat on SHADES. Here,
also, the bargains are tightly driven and
the inspection thorough and searching.
Like the bread, the fish, too, are ONE
times doctored- They are perfumed, the
gills painted red and plenty of sailed Ice
water thrown over them to make them
fresh and firm, and 1t takes n good judge
to detect the deception.
TELLING TRINKETs AND PRAYER BOOKS.
These, with most stands and notion
| EJtlIlUb anu UIle IIlOISIllu anu OIle IdhlTS,
take up every available Inch of ground,
sidewalks and even the middle of the
street. Venders' wagons are strung along
the cutters and display vegetables, sal
ads, potatoes and all other articles of
food, including garlic sausage, that meat
so dear to h Kosher palate. Not alone
do tho vendors confine themselves to cat
ables. Everything from n turtle back
comb to q dishpan Is on sale, and its
merits arc hawked IN half a dozen
languages; for this is a cosmopolitan
gathering. There are Polish and Ger
man Hebrews, Germans, Hungarians,
French and italian housewives out for a
bargain, besides the keen but dirty rab-
Bile that always gather from no one
knows where, wherever there Is a crowd.
Small boys, with tattered trousers and
torn coats, but eyes keen as a hawks,
dodge In and out selling collar buttons
and matches. lettering old fellows vend
second hand clothes, old cloaks and an
Client hats; altogether forming q scene of
indescribable confusion.
One of the old time characters Is an
ancient and wretched looking woman,
who usually sits on an old ash barrel and
in cracked tones invites the shoppers to
buy some "Shabes lights" the wax can
dies used In their religious ~observances.
Another character Is q venerable old
man, who parades Essex street on q
market day with never more than four
brooms on his shoulder, family crying
out his goods.
But there Is another class Of wares on
sale. They are supposed to furnish sus-
tenance for the spiritual nature, as the
other does for the physical. On every
side on small stands are prayer books,
to gellim, or prayer belts; cloaks or tails,
for the rabbis; prayer ribbons, misrachs,
channaka lights, Talmuds, etc. One
thing in particular is noticeable so far
as the religious articles are concerned,
and that is that the buyer pays big prices
for them withouta murmur.-New York
Star,
The Editors Visitors
To the person who comes into our