The Washington critic., 1890-03-13
THE CRITICS" CAMERA
PICTURES OF MEN AND THINGS AT
THE NATIONS CAPITAL.

street Vendors as weather Prophets
Their Varying Cries--A Scbeming
Lawyer-Boarding- House Keepers
Grievances--"Dan" and His "PIug."
These bright spring mornings, the air
in the industrial portions of the city is
filled with cries of street venders, many
of which are by no means unmusical,
and all more or less curious. Who ever
heard one of this class crying his wares
by their right name2 They generally
manage to distort II into some uuintelli.
gible combination of sounds as unlike
the real name of the article they are
selling as the preverbial chalk is differ
ent from the suppositious cheese.
When one of them does call out the
right name of his goods he is sure to
follow it up with some variation of the
word, as If ashamed of having been
caught in the act of being ineligible.
For instance, an old colored man
passes through the street with push
cart between z and s o'clock, singing:
'Hominy, hominairy Homiuy, hom.
inairy p while another who, however,
is in the purchasing instead of the
vending line, yells in startling tones:
Soap grease, sofa p' By.the.way,
what becomes of these street venders In
cold weather? On morning with any
tinge of frost in the air, quiet reigns in
the up town streets, but the moment the
weather moderates again, out come the
peddlers, with their lungs in full
working order So noticeable has this
become that some people declare that,
when they get up in the morning, they
can form pretty accurate idea as to
the temperature without going out, by
the absence or otherwise of the sounds
from the knights of the pushcart
The CRITICS Camera" yesterday
obtained a negative of well-known
member Of the legal fraternity, who
has bad reputation for honesty, in the
act of beating a street car company out
of fare. His method was simple and
original He stood on the Avenue, q
few yards from Seventh street, and as
car came along he boarded it. "Is this
Navy Yard carr" he asked the con-
ductor. When informed that it was
not he stepped off, remarking that he
didn't like the bother of changing cars
and would wait till the one he wanted
came along. By this time the car had
reached Seventh street and the lawyer
stepped off, but instead of waiting for
a Navy Yard he, together with num-
ber of other passengers, stepped over to
the transfer agent, obtained from him q
check and a moment later was bowling
merrily up Seventh street with grin Of
satisfaction ON his face.
For several days past number of
women, with don t-see how i M 60
ing-to-make both ends meet expression
on their faces, have been going in and
out of the District Assessors office.
They are boarding house keepers look
for licenses, regular lease having been
caused by the recent arrest of the pro-
prietor of the Hotel Webster for not
having the necessary official permit to
run it. There is but one opinion among
the boarding house keepers about the
law which requires them to take out
license, and that is that il is unjust
The same opinion prevails largely
among people who are not boarding
house keepers. To many women who
are struggling hard to make living
out of boarders it is great temptation
when, during dull season, transient
visitor comes along and offers good
price for few days accommodation.
TO these people 1t is great hardship to
be obliged to pay an extra tax Of S25 a
year out of their meagre profits.
X +
There is probably no man in town
not dealer in tiles who has larger
collection of silk hats than Dan
Currie of the District Commissioners
executive staff. He always wears s
plug and makes it rule never tc
appear on the street with one that is the
slightest degree out of date. AS the
style of this description Of beadgear
changes oftener than that of any Other
article of wearing apparel, he is Obliged
to buy new one every few weeks. The
very latest thing in tiles is one with thu
top considerably smaller than the bot
tom, and a narrow brim with very
slight curl. The first man TO wear one
was, of course, "Dan," who appeared
under it yesterday and caused half the
jeunesse dore of the city to turn greer
with envy as they observed the manne
in which he had "scooped" them all.