The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-26

Eels, carp, founders and other varie-
 ties crowd together in the same tank, and the housewife is sure of fresh ar tiele when she trades here. The old woman in charge feels about in the
 water with her hand until she succeeds in capturing the slippery fellow select ed, The next thing she does is to knock him on the head, dress him and put him into the netted bag of her GUS
 toner, along with potatoes, butter and
 other purchases. Live Holsters and crabs are also found at these stalls crawling and squirming about in their baskets.
 About the sides of the hall runs a balcony, and here the true peasant ele- ment is to be found, with it's butter, cheese and eggs spread out in abun- dance. The peasants are in their na-
 tive costume, the men in blue frocks, falling to their knees, leather legghgs,
 laced up at the sides, and queer little hats as flat as pancakes on their heads The women have full skirts to the knee, With white woolen stockings and immense thick shoes, with buckles showing below. Some wear poke bon
 nets, coming up in a sharp peak be- hind and others have comical affairs, no larger than teacups and looking like pincushions tied on the top of their heads. The old wrinkled egg woman holds up an egg in her hand and squints through it while she declares in bad German that every egg in the bas- ket is ''furchtgar frisch." She is only one of the many here who will sell at any cost to her conscience. Sometimes the butter is made into neat balls, or sold from tub, but more often 1t is Tn large Jumps. done up in dirty white cloths and the peasant with huge knife hacks off the desired quantity. Most of the frequenters of the market carry spoons along, with which they sample the different bundles of butter Of all the things in the market the cheese is decidedly the worst and it is often dreadful to contemplate, when 1t is remembered it is for edible purposes only. One kind is an unsalted curd,
 much like what is known as cottage cheese to an American. This is in large tubs and looks palatable enough, but the ''laudkaese' is what causes ones heart almost to fail him. This Is made up in soft disks or long rolls with caraway seeds, and the worst specimens look as if they had met with an accident on the way and fallen into a mud puddle, or had lain forgotten in a garret, collecting the dust of years, so grimy and uninviting are they in | appearance These, moreover, are sold | in large quantities, though the atmos- phere is so strong near by that the per- son who has not grown up with them rushes out of it as speedily as possible. l All German cheese, of course, is not so repuIsive, but these two kinds are the
 most common of the peasants booths. Oftentimes there are other cheese
 booths not kept by peasants, with the | home products, together with those of Holland and France, done up neatly in | tin foil.
 I The already mentioned motley array
 of stalls is the most typical of the mar
 ketsJ though now and then the visitor
 runs across an old woman selling
 cakes, rolls and candy, or another with
 stall full of earthen pans and dishes
 of all sorts. Tn a few places live geese are penned and killed and dressed to
 order, while the customer waits, and
 sometimes roly poly Great Dane and
 mastiff puppies are exhibited for sale.
 The dog trade must rank next to the
 horse traffic in importance, one would
 think, because so many dogs are used
 all over Germany to drag about carts,
 and are really turned into valuable
 beasts of burden here.
 One of the most commendable rules
 about these markets is that everything
 brought to them is first inspected by
 officers appointed for that purpose, 50
 naturally all the produce offered for sale is wholesome The meat is
 known to be healthy by q certain blue stamp on it. showing it had been in
 spected.
 Both men and women are in the mar 1 ket, but the women are in the majori- | ty, and often stay in the market all day. During the less busy hours after their stalls are in good order, many of 4 them are seen knitting, sewing, gossip ing together and eating. Most of them
 have small heating apparatus by
 which they make tea, and the inevita- l bIe beer mug is always on hand.