The Florida agriculturist., 1889-06-19
MARKET OF ALL NATIONS.
A COSMOPOLITAN SCENE ON LUDLOW
STREET, NEW YORK.

SaOOaC0 FOOO-Lne haDDl0 1naC Always
Follows a Crowd.
Have you ever been in the vicinity of
the Ludlow Street market on Friday
morningP 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
iveliest neighborhood in this city.
The yells and whoops of an army of
Comanches or Donnybrook fair itself
never furnished the noise found here
every market day, as Friday is called.
The sons and daughters of Israel flock
from all portions of the city, and mingle
with the denizens of the down town dis
tricts. Hoboken 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
maidens and their swarthy, stalwart
brothers and fathers, all keen for 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
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
stands where the barches, or unleavened
bread, is sold. The loaves are first given
a thorough inspection, and then the
price is asked. This is followed by an
offer of cent or two lower, and, after
haggling a few minutes, purchase is
made. There is reason for the haggling
and the close inspection.
The barches loaves, like other pro-
ductions, are subjected to a 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
sourness from being detected, and then
put on the stands.
The purchaser feels of the loaf, smells
1t, and then balances it in his hand to
see that it is not under weight. Then it
is turned over, as though it were some
precious metal instead Of "a five cent
loaf, and then the driving contsences.
The dealer is told that he is nothing
short of ahighwayman-tha 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 some
times doctored They are perfumed, the
gills painted red and plenty of salted ice
water thrown over them to make them
fresh and firm, and it takes a good judge
to detect the deception.
SELLING TRINKETs AND PRAYER BOOKS.
These, with most sta dis and notion
stands and the thousand and one fakirs,
take up every available inch of ground,
sidewalks and even the middle of the
street. Venders' wagons are strung along
the crI1tters and diSDlaV vegetables sal