The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-07-05
SCENES FROM
LIFE In TEXAS.
A View of the Saturday Evening
Market Held in Houston.
The Market House in Which the Vendors
Alone Represent Every Nationality, Ameri-
cans Being in the Minority.


Lee c. Hardy, in Texan Types and Con-
trasts" IN Harper's Magazine for July, and
this the only place to see it. small markets
not being allowed here as In other cities.
Houston also holds Sunday market, but
inaugurated the Saturday movement for
the benefit of those who were too lazy or
too religious to rise early on the Sabbath
morning. 1t has borne good fruit, opening
out great and new fields for trade, as the
German farmers soon came in from dis
ances of TIVE nty miles and more, hauling
heir produce in wagons, and wholesaling
it to the many small dealers, who now de-
pend on this supply. their "praire schoon-
ers" and slow ox-teams of four and five
yokes of oxen filling the streets with an
element usually unknown in city life.
The market-house itself. standing in the
midst of its square, is fne-look ing build
ing, with crouching lions at the corners
and fountains in the grass-plat at the side !;
but 1t is the people who congregate here
that make 1t such remarkable scene, the
vendors alone representing every nation
atty, Americans being far in the minority.
The market-wagons occupy one side of
the thoroughfare which bounds the square.
They stand drawn up in line, their hind
wheels touching the curb. the horses heads
turned to the middle of the street. 1t is
supposed, and in some few cases correctly,
that as the owners Of these wagons pay no
stall rent, but only a small license to sell,
they will dispose of their commodities at
lower prices than do those vendors within
the building. 1t is only in this outer row
that we find the negro market gardener. He
raises all that he offers, from the fat tur-
Keys, ready-dressed or alive in coOps, to the
tin y bird-leppers, brilliant In hue, small as
pea, hot as fire, and delightful in flavor
" hieh grow wild along the bayou that Dor
ders his land.
Near by on the sidewalk a Chinese
peddler displays his wares.
FAT, YELLOW MAN,
AS greasy as his own plucked geese, is
chaffering by his cart with slip of girl
who believes, and rightly, that he Is cheat
ing her in both price and measure as she
buys from him supply of okra for gumbo
on the morrow
sharp and puckered into ihnumerable
wrlnk les. but her balls of hand-eheese
strewed with caraway seeds are white and
appetlzng. She has some put away in a
can which she tells you is 'schmeck gut"
but when uncovered they are as yellow as
gold and smell to heaven" yet these her
German customers prefer.
This thin-faced Italian has wagon laden
with game, all killed close by. Mule-eared
rabbits and "molle cot.oH-tails"; squirrels,
red, black and gray, some skinned some
not; lunches of cartridges, braces of prai-
Tle-chlckenS and dozens of Snipe tied to-
gether by the neck, some wild geese, ducks
of all kinds, from canvasback to didapper;
and here is single sand-hill crane-fine
eating the bird is, too, ana handsome fell
low to shoot. The owner is a good sales
man, and an eager. He calls to each passer-
his stock. Small, swarthy, 1.-THE and dirty,
he is q type of his class, always asking
higher than he will get, and dropping little
by little to the offered price at last.
Many others are in line, but they are but
repetitionS Of these. it we except the strap
ping brown yirago. with her poultry and
eggs, turnlps and cabbage, who is too busy
joking coarSely with the cOlored men and
abusing the vendors around her to pay much
attention to her trade.
Within the building stretches a quad
ripple row Of vegetable stalls, all tended by
women, German and Irish exclusively,
clean-dressed and hatless Their wares
make pretty show; no hot-bed products
are here, no garden truck from other States,
but
ALL HoME-RAIsED.
The fresh green and white of the succulent
spring vegetables are seen in the midst of
December, the pale pink radishes lying in
the crisp, curly leaves of chicory: the
purple kohl-rabi against the piles of creamy
wax beans; the long slim pods of Caro-
ma Ohld arc utdHtu utAL w hOlueu Car
rots and red spring beets; piles of purple
elephants are ranged between cabbage
heads, proverbialiY hard; while great
punches OF cool, white celery keep company
with baskets of fresh green peas and pink
skinned new potatoes. The women are
very artistic in their arrangement of these
things, and they make a fine display of
color; but fruit they do not touch Here
again the Italian comes TO the fore. You
find him in stalls stocked with West India,
Northern and California fruits; only what
other States draw from the Antilles Mexico
supplies to Texas.
'IemOna tawenta centa dozna appe-
lay, banan, grapa-all cheepa," they as
sure one as he goes by.
Very foreign they look, with gold rings
in their ears men though they be, and red
mufflers around their thrOats. They seem
to give endless amusement to the respect
able-looking colored man and woman oppo-
site. who keep a stall where they sell cold
food-fried catfish and tender chicken,
hard-boiled eggs and heaps of golden corn
sliced sandwiches, all appetising indeed.
and where many darby stops to, eat
Beyond is the meat market the butchers
nearly all Germans. with Frenchman and
an American or two to mix the nationals
ties. Passing through that we enter what
may be called the bazaar-little stores of
ready-made clothing, both male and female,
tinware, cutlery, baskets, fancy articles
candy, all separate, and the last-named
stalls presided over by handsome Italian
and pleasant German girls. 1t is a very
OLA PoDRIDA OF MERCHANDISE.
Back of this again, the fish market and
game Of various kinds and here once more
does the Italian find an occupation. There
are shrimps. crabs, oysters and all sorts of
fish, but the catfish, in infinite variety,
stands out in marked prominence, for it is
the favorite OF the negro race, and they are
rare good customers.
In and out of the building surge the
crowd, for all OF Houston is here. 1t is
singular custom, this making a fashionable
promenade of the market, yet it obtains,
and the fine ladies do not seem to mind the
mixture of peoples or the place itself, but
dress in purple and fine linen" for the
occasion. The dude is in force and the
"masher' is not wanting; the men who
stare and the girls who love to be stared at:
sober matrons on housekeeping thoughts
intent; hlrtatious maidens who push
through the crowd and seem to have no idea
that their manners are not of the best;
natty negro wenches, pert of tongue and
loose OF demeanor; respectable colored
"maumas," ample of glrth, in spotess white
aprons; strapping negro men and saucy
bootblacks; merchants, lawyers and physi-
clans; servant girls and cooks; the haute-
voice and the demimonde, both in their best
attire, policemen and tramps, old women,
men on crutches and babies in arms. black,
white, brown and yellow-negroes, Amer
leans, Mongolians Irish, Dutch, French,
Germans, Italians and Spanish-they are
all there. laughing, talking, cuarreling,
gesticulating, bargaining, gossiping, staring,
keeping appointments and making new
ones, being proper or improper, polite or
rude, as the case may be. And this goes on
from four to niue in winter, from five to
ten in summer. Every Saturday evening it
is re-enacted the people never tire it seems,
but congregate weekly. year in and year
out, In an endless repetition of the same
thing. 1t is wonderful scene, bustlng
moving picture Of contrast and characters,
and helps the traveller to better understand
the prosperity of the State, which attracts
one, and its rudenesses, which repel.
GEMS OF NORTH AMERICA.