San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-07-07
ON THE LoITER.
AT THE PLAZA MARKET.

CdTUS VI dIuUulduCcS UdChcu dSdlusU
the curbing OF the broad walk
around the city hall, hold forth the
garden truck peddlers of San Anto-
Mo. There may be a full hundred
vegetable and produce stanGs
and wagons on this plaza every
morning and every afternoon, and
they are all under police super
vision. At o'clock the square is
open to them, and at the first
stroke of the great city hall bell,
the vendors who have been wait
ing on side streets for over an
hour for the five o'clock bell,
begin to scramble for their
favorite places. First come
the men and women who
display on light collapsable
tables, a large variety and stock Of
garden truck, anything and every
thing imaginable that may be in
season. Then comes some peddlers
who have vegetables, but sell out
Of their wagons. Their stock usu-
ally is limited to a few varieties,
Sometimes they make speciality
of one thing. Today it's potatoes;
tomorrow it's cabbage, the next
day it's plums or oranges, as the
season might be. Adjoining these
peddlers stand the sellers of pro-
duce and next to them are the
fellows who deal in poultry and
eggs.
From o'clock until dark there
is jam of vehicles, often result
ing in a blockade in front of these
stands. Everybody buys and hum
dreds OF dollars are taken in by
the vegetable stands. to say moth
ing of the rushing business of the
men who sell melons and those
who deal in chickens and eggs. At
8 o'clock the peddlers pack up and
drive away, returning at 5 o'clock
in the morning to go through the
same kind of performance as that
of the previous afternoon. At 9
o'clock in the morning these out
door merchants again pack up, and
then peddle their truck, as usual
thing, from house to house, perpe-
trating in contra distinction to the
iceman's villian-voiced call, the
milkman's bell, the scissor grind
er's monotonous jingle, their reso-
nant, discordant bugle blast, in
which fiendish work the italian
peddlers rank foremost.
In fact, coming right down to an
honest, open confession, which ira
dition says is so good for the soul,
l must admit that the Italian
peddler is the queerest character
on the plaza market. II he is in
good spirits, he is the pleasantest
and politest man on the square.
His swarthy face beams with
smiles, and his conversation teens
with "yes, fine Teddy" this, or slime
leddy," that. But if his last meal
Of maccaroni is still lying heavi-
ly upon his stomach, he is
totally Indifferent and brutally in
sulting on the slightest provoca-
ton. / observed him in one of his
dyspeptic moods the other after
noon. A delicate young woman in
the finery of silks and plumes
stepped out Of her carriage and
approached his stand. Old Guissep-
pi stood in front Of his table with a
scowl upon his face. She did not
receive the accustomed greeting,
"Gooda day, fine Teddy, whatta |
kin sella you today" He simply
stood there, vacantly staring before
him. "Have you got any apples
today" the woman inquired, lay.
ing her hands on little pyramid
Of this red checked fruit. She ask
ed the question merely to attract
his attention, but the maccaroni
meal lay too heavily on Guisseppi's
stomach to take the remark in that
light and he fairly yelled back to
the delicate young woman, "Ha?
Don'ta you see de applas? Whatta
for you aska, when you gotta de
hand on? Ha"
The delicate little woman, half
out of fright and half out of real
ization that the surly Italian was
rather logical after all, laid down
the money for a dozen and hur-
riedly re-entered her carriage,
Old Guisseppi's feelings were
now completely ruffied, so that
when Joe Kohr, the popular night
clerk of the police station, came
along and raised up a bunch or
two OF grapes to examine them, the
Italian fidgeted around quite nerv-
ously.
"How you sell your grapes ?"
asked the night clerk.
III 60 hnnrn .,,Ir i l.