The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-09-02
A DEcADsNT INSTITUTION.
The French Market ii New Orleans ana
Its Departing Glory.

The French Market ii New Orleans and
Its Departing Glory.
The glories of the French market IN
New Orleans have been told for two
generations. The time has seemingly
come when its requiem is to be sung.
The French market is there IL all its
popularity Of shape and stall offerings
There are the same golden heaps OF
oranges from the Indian river, lemons
from Messina and California, tropical
grapes with their purple color SO rich
in them that nothing imperial Cesar
ever wore could vie with their beauty.
Pyramids OF yellow sqEashes tscn the
Louisiana low lands and beans and
beets and berries in endless --ssusion
and confusion. There is the same
noisy chatter Of foreign Tongues, there
is no d;railution OF the crowds who
diclier and chatter aroErdt1le wooden
stalls, but, according to the Philadcl-
phia Press, the glory Of TIE market,
the old crcolcs, the beautoocS naide2s
with stout NANNY and chunky
negro boy, basket-ladcned, tagging
after them: slender. why, nervous
man with n gray haired colored nan
trudging along al his side with basket
filed with the good things of the earth
all are gone and the French market
is French now in nothing but name.
Another tongue is fast supplanting the
liquid tones of the language OF old
France. The Italians, dark-hued,
scowling men, with fierce Neapolitan
and Corsican oaths in their boards:
stout women of swarthy race, heavy
features, bare arms and ponderous girth
stand and call their goods and wares
to the passer-by. These are the peo-
pie known by the discriminating sail
ors and careless Americans as ''da-
goes" and they almost rule the mar
ket.
To those who have never seen the
French market in its glory it may be
said that it is simply e. succession of
roofs upheld by great, square, squatty
pillars Of brick work beyond Jackson
square and within stones toss of the
yellow Mississippi. Its proximity to
the old French quarters of New Or
leans; the fact that in its beginning
stI1ti It's III lI4C d-itt pSiLstt
Of the creoles of antebellum and post
bellun days, and that even now in it's
decadence the favor of its fornor
prestige in the markets OF the world
still clings to it in the strange and fas-
cinating tongue Of the e1nigres, makes
it place worth visiting. There was
time when these great vaulted arcades
,NaonJaI ID
black and white, rich and poor, all of
whom spoke the pathos that George
W. Cable has enshrined in "Old Creole
Days" Then were the times when the
Marchandes were picturesque figures
in the midst Of the wealth of color that
stood out in glazing masses, from every
known edible product of the vegetable
world, against the black background
of the old buildings themselves. Those
were days worth recalling. Those were
the times when the mighty racers of
the Mississippi, the Lee and Natchez,
vomited volumes of black smoke from
smokestacl alcoves, while down below
a dozen darllies were passing coal, and,
as the legend goes, smashing up tiorces
of hams to feed the flames, with a
Observation-Disclosures rousta
bout roosting on the safety valve 1t
was in this period that the French
market was al it's best, hut the racers
will race no more as in the old days,
and the beauteous naidens and hand
some men and gentle matrons of the
creole days are sleeping in the old
Bayou. cemetery.