The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-10-12
MARKETING IN PARIS
THE COMMISSION SYSTEM AN INDEX
TO LIFE IN THE CAPITAL.

Nothing Is Done For Nothing. Although
All Picking and Extortion Must BE
Hedged About by Time uailowed Gus
toms-seiling n Harlequin.
The Halles Centrales, as they are called,
consist of vast iron structure situated in
the center of Paris, a few squares from the
river on the north side. The streets around
form an open square Other streets con-
tinue their course through it. Technically
it contains 10 great pavilions, to say moth
ing Of the cellars. Practically it is a series
of covered streets and cross streets, where
one wanders from the cabbage market to
the department of cheeses and from the
tripe market to the fruits and flowers. Its
actual divisions are as follows Poultry
and game, meat, fish, butter, eggs and
cheese, vegetables, fruits and flowers.
As to the selling, it is both wholesale
and retail. Before $ a, M, it is a bourse for
the provisioning of Paris, where not only
retail dealers come to get their wares, but
even exporting houses must find those
primeurs which their distant customers de-
mand. Thus the first peaches are usually
/ bought up for Russia, often at a dollar and
la half apiece. This example of peaches for
Russia when coupled with theinformation
that the mass of them from January to
May are not grown in France Mt all, but in
the extensive lighthouses outside Of Brus-
; sels, will indicate what manner of market
this place is.
Flower stands welcome you along the
streets before you reach the market, of
which they are the promise and the sign.
They share this office of harbinger with
the host OF returning servant maids, fow
er faced BONES of opulent contours, whose
|, stiff starched skirts crackle melodiously to
the healthy swing of their sturdy limbs.
/ They are coiffed in spotless muslin; their
| skirts are draped in volumiuous white
aprons; they bear their purchases in CO.
! quettish baskets and the commissions they
have extorted from the market people In
4 cold cash in their pockets.
This practice of giving commissions to
servants on all they buy for their masters
tables strikes keynote of Partisan habit
Nothing is done for nothing, though all
4 picking and eNtortion must be done accord-
ing to the time honored customs. Tho
! bonnie will do her best to market for her
mistress and fight vigorously with the la
dies OF the Halles about the prices. Only
after the money is paid and the goods are
delivered in her basket she coolly asks for
her commission, about which there is no
light at all.
What the bonnie does for her mistress,
he mistress, IL she be n boarding house
leeper, does for her guests. No matter
row much she may wish to keep you con-
ented in her establishment, she will black
nail your washerwoman into giving her a
commission on your weekly laundry bill.
20 It is also with the municipality of Paris,
which forces strangers to help pay taxes
ny means of city customs on every bunch
II radishes. So it is also with the retail
/ sellers of meat in this great market, who
N Though you should buy IS worth of roast
Ky from them, would not give you soup bont
y without an extra 5 cent piece.
So it is in the inclosed space of the poul
try market, from which no purchaser is al
lowed to take out anything for himself. /
it be only hare or a dozen larks, the.
must be given to "strong man" to carr,
ID to the street at n regulation charge of
es cents. So it is In the division of the butte
| market. Around the tables where butte
is sold the floor is kept strewn with cleal
A straw This is to receive the dabs of but
4. ter which intending purchasers have taste,
s on the ends of butter testing skewers an,
then thrown down. The straw is gathered
L up carefully twice a day by the porter
boys, whose perquisite it is, and they &c
! from it enough butter to bring them in so
I'll francs a month.
III AS a result Of these minute pickings ant
savings everybody is cheerful everybod
a. profits, every body is handling ready money
OF the GO,000 persons who are said to hay
10 some connection or other with this grea
I market, from the municipal inspector
i, I'll meats to the licensed facteur who carrie
Iv home your basket, there is scarce one VIII
8 does not get some little whack outside hi
regulation pay. Therefore the Halles a
ford a unique theater for the display c
hoe -t,a
Frenchmen are in the act of gaining Gel
times.
That it is almost impossible to hang abor
the Hallcs and not participate in some d
gree in this reign of plenty modified by ecol
lomy is well known to Partisan poor devi
l(pauvres diAbles), who, hustled out of I'll
unlicensed cent lodging houses at ocloc
y. in the morning to present "A colorado col
70 formation to the law concerning hotel
haunt this square around the lalles. III
Wholesale Ructioning, which goes on fro
II p. III. to u. m, they find cause for
version and an occasion to pick up sundl
fruits to cat and perhaps n few coins at tt
hands of generous peasants, who have mac
their market and are about departing
1aS their wagons for the country. Later
pr they are almost sure to gain stray sol
~ from the ladies, who come all gay and lus
RAJ III the morning with their servants and pc
ler hnps their children to cheaper flowers al
Ike fruit and meat and fish.
bls A harlequin, it will be remembered, is
tuil character in old pantomime distinguish
DIS by a costume of mixed and variegated c,
ors. At the Halles harlequin is a pla
i'a of broken victuals whose strange mixtul
old perhaps Of fish, sad sweet pastry and p
est kles, has given it the name. Petty traffic
rm ers make NJ business of collecting su
ep- cooked scraps from hotels, restaurants a.
> OF private houses and their sale througho
anu the poorer sections of the city correspon
,ti,, very closely to the function shop, not U
tbis known to eastern cities in America.
mem Twelve stalls for the sale of these har
in quius are philanthropieally permitted
gu, the municipality in one corner OF this gre
will rich looking market. Their proprict'
lar' have a semioflicial position; their scra
). o. are known to be cleaner and more in
val. ciously selected than those in ruder res0r
est so that even the shabby genteel poor a
It in even dead broke students of the univers
SIS do not disdain them. Seven cents will
lted n man up for the day aud give him leew
for a bowl of soup to wash the daint
,ea. down. Then the student goes off to
enc studies, and the poor deyil' betakes hi
Ii self again to tho lodging house to finish
COG interrupted sleep, for which no extra cha
is made him.-Sterling Heilig in New "
sun.
rday One Human Toe Disappearing.
inc. The little toe is disappearing from
,oug human foot. AT recent meeting of
and French Academy of Science it was dem
strated that in the last two centuries
4 ap. average size of the toe has decreased