The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-07

three 70 be bought from the same person,
a check apiece. Chickens, very old and
tough, ID to 20 cents each.
I'm short time this fare became tire
some, and began to haunt the market
Few northern visitors arrived and
business looked up a little. 1t was ne
cessary to go to market very early in the
morning, and l would meet three or four
whlte men, business men, buying their
days supplies. All the rest, buyers and
sellers were colored. When mywife went
with me to market we made a sensation,
Tor no white woman in Nassau goes to
market. Nine-tenths of the stuff, includ-
ing all the beef, was imported from
New York. One of the first things we
saw was lot of heads of American cab
huge, each head cut into quarters like a
pie
What do you slice your cabbages that
way fore" / asked the marketman.
Oats de way our people does mostly
want it, sah,' he replied. One gemman
does buy one slice, anoder gemman an
oder, an so it goes. Does you want some
nice fresh cabbage, sah2 Two checks a
slice, sah7"
IT objected to buying cabbage by the
slice, and found some that had not been
cut; but the price was the same, two
checks a slice, making it cost from "a 10
30 cents head, according to size. On
one stand we found about half a bushel
OF small native tomatoes. some of them
counted out into heaps.
How do you sell the tomatoes9" ]
asked
"'Check lot, sab ~ the woman said.
But for the whole lotl What do you
want for all you havel'
"'Can't just say, boss, till count 'em
out the woman replied, and she i'm
hEanrln n mt IN
heaps, check heap, to see what they
were worth.
"Onionsl Well, it would make you
smile to go to market and buy quarter
of an onion. but they all do it down there.
Big ones they slice like the cabbages, and
sell them by the slice, check a slice. All
imported from New York, of course. The
soup lots were equally funny-little
heaps of stuff, each containing two or
three very small tomatoes, a slice of
onion, and small punches of herbs.
Check lot, sah.' They were used for
making soup.
Buying beef was the funniest of all.
You had to go to market very early in the
morning to get good beef. Hear me talk,
will your Good beef! Nobody in the
West Indies knows what good beef is ex-
cept in the tourist hotels. The cattle are
all right, good American cattle, brought
down alive and fattened after landing.
The tro1ble is in the butchering. No
butcher inthe West Indies has any idea
of cutting up beef. The animal is
killed before daylight, and the last shred
of it must be sold and eaten before noon,
or it spoils. 1t is cut into chunks and
slices, just as it happens, without any re-
gard to roasts, steaks, boiling pieces or
soup bones. Every part of the animal
sells at the same price, whether porter
house or shin bone-all shilling a pound
a cents, and take it as it comes. The
little strips that are left in cutting, odds
and ends of bone and fat, are piled in
little heaps for the colored gentry
check heap.
Mutton is sold in the market some
times, but generally by private butchers
The butcher comes to the house the day
before, and says, Mr.. Smith, I'm going
to kill a sheep tonight. Would you like
little mutton in the morning?' The
West Indian sheep is fearful raZor-bacR
spectre, with hair instead of wool, and
before breakfast the butcher brings you
what you have ordered, killed an hour OF
two before, and still warm. It's enough
to make you sick to think of eating such
stuff, but that's the way the natives eat
it. 1t must be eaten early in the day, too
If you keep it till dinner time, the butler
is very likely to come in and say, Very
sorry, sir; the mutton's spilled, STRIP
eve found that the native mutton was
very fair when we could keep it a few
days. But TO keep it required ice, and tC
keep ice required-well it required in
domitable industry and considerable cash
Ice is a government monopoly in most Of
the West India islands. Nassau among
the rest and it comes high. The govern
meut builds an ice house and sells the
privilege of keeping il. The ice house
is great institution, and generally has a
grocery and provision store connected
with it. The common price is three
cents pound, and the natives use it very
sparingly. The popular way is to wait
till dinner is on the table, then send a
servant down to the ice house to buy a
pound. He rushes up to the counter,
slaps down his three cents, and orders in
a loud and commanding tone;
Check iceP
"The ice man saws off slab that he
thinks will weigh pound, for to chop II
would involve too much waste, and the
darlxey starts for home with it. Nassau's
sun is hot, and by the time the pound Of
ice reaches the table il is lump about
the size of an egg, which is dropped into
the water pitcher. At meal hours the lee
house is full of these customers, all knock
ing their coppers on the counter and yell
ing, "Check icel' They are in hurry
for dinner is waiting.
1--WE soon found that existence without
ice was not worth the bother, so l sent up
to New York for refrigerator. OF course,
none are to be bought in a country where
ice is used so sparingly. But think Of ice
at $50 a ton! went to the ice house and
learned that by taking it in such an I'M
heard of quantity as fifty pounds day
could have it for 2 cents pound. In that
climate it had to be wrapped in blankets
and kept in sawdust or fifty pounds would
disappear in an hour. AS soon as we be-
gan to keep ice, the cry was heard: Who
left that refrigerator openl' 1t was gen
erally nv voice, too. Let me look at the
refrigerator twenty times a day, and
every time l would find the door open.
Nothing would induce the darkeys To
keep it shut, and of course the warm air
admitted wasted the ice. The question
rings in my ears yet, Who left that re-
frigerator openP
.sWith plenty Of ice, we always had
good mutton, buying it warm and keeping
it two or three days. But the beef ques-
ton was not settled until the hotel opened,
The hotel had to have New York beef, for
the guests were all Americans, who would
not eat slabs of Nassau-killed meat. Not
only beef, but almost everything else, ex-
cept fish, had to be brought down from
New York The system was to keep four
big iceboxes, each about six feet square,
constantly under way-two going up TO
New York empty, and two returning full