The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-28
FORTY YEARS OF KRAPPEL.
TEE OLD WOMAN VINO SELLS CAKES
ON THE PARK BANK STEPS.

Tor Horty IenFn IN One bochhNS-Mhhea tho
Cake Rierseir-Mer Procession or Custouaers.
Tho lot of tho street wonder, particularly
tho wonder who pays no license, Is shifting and
migratory. Every half dozen years or so finds
either tho character Of his wares changed or tho
vonder removed to a different part Of town In
pursuit Of custom. Few Of tho craft can boast
the long prerogative of trade in tho same locali-
ty that attaches to the orullor seller on the
Park Bank stops. She is the dean OF all tho
street sellers In New York, and sold cakes to
frcquenters Of that part Of Broadway long be-
fore many Of her present competitors and Gus
toners were born.
"Do you see that woman with the poke bon
net on, sitting there with her baskoti bought
cakes from her as much as thirty years ago."
remarked an elderly man the other day, as he
passed the spot.
Are you sure It 10 the Same womani' asked
his companion. Thirty years Is q long time"
The very s~ame:woman and, l would Q .willing
to wager. tho very Same cakes, made and
baked by tho same rule and measure that sho
used then. / have seen the old soul sitting
hero winter and summer all these years as 1
passed, and now l have got into the habit Of
looking out to SEQ II sho is In her place. When
tho weather 10 cold and stormy / miss her.
sho isn't 30 vigorous as she was years ago."
Thirty ycarsi Think Of the crullers she must
have made and sold in t~hat.time."
Millions, and I'll bet tho basket she keeps
them in 10 the self-samo basket .sho used then.
Sho looks Just that kind, thrifty and careful. !
have wondered latoly who arc her customers.
Thirty years ago she was q boon to the neigh.
borhood, and many well-known business men
bought Of her hnbitually. Now the restaurants
and lunch counters have crowded her out.
Sometimes I buy Q dimes worth of :cakes just
for tho sake of old times"
TITS close onto forty years since I first came
down hero to sell krappel," the quaint old mer-
chant tells o customer who has won her conf
dence. II used to sit In front Of Barnum's
Museum first, where tho Herold building after
ward stood; that was long years ago. 1t was
just after the war ended that Barnum's build
ing burned down. When that happened I sat
across tho street by the church for q year or
two until this bank was built. There was q
bank hero before that, but not this one, nor such
o big building.
II have never boon asked for o license
in all the years I've been on tho street, and
often whom tho policemen make other sellers
move away they lot me stay. Do they like moi
Perhaps; but you sec my coming only in the at
ternoons makes q difference. Up to two years
ago I had not missed o dozen weekday after
moons In the whole time since I started to sell.
I'm 76 years old now and the cold weather
cripples me mp. When 1t storms hard 1 have to
keep indoors.
do 1 sell as much as I used TOT Oh, no; not
by one-auarter. Sometimes in a half hour now
I don't have one customer. / remember 30 we'll
tho first week I begun to soil krappel here. In
two hours on the first day. from 8 o'clock to s.,
I made $1.50. In these days l often do not
mako 20 cents, and I bake up three pounds Of
-four every day. In those times there were not
30 many, people selling things, no apple women
and candy men. Those gentlemen who used to
buy from me. hne-looktng gentlemen they were,
too, are many Of them moved away or dead.
The best customer l ever had was an old gentle
He used, to buy five cakes nearly every after
noon and take them home to the children. He
made Saad no ont k Of Eod 6aa ih my cakes Hs b wsF9 clear! e n. and md
any more and I heard he was dead. Yes, bust:
and 1 am out until : O'clock at Il o"Ae' non''
1t is in East Houston street, on the top floor
her home. A visitor in the morning finds her
busy busy over her wares, watchful that her GOV;
s9sins sa out e J yfFa sst Is fannr Of ia tFo oTea ID tSs dnsn f fIra
in the chimney place. Tho hoor of her two
rooms Is, as clean as scrubbing can make 1t, the
deal table and chairs are rreproachable and
the name Bray written on a piece of brown
pasteboard and affixed to tho centre panel Of
certain assured position among her neighbors,
q %ps3sition which she intends to uphold;
room an,""'s she ssgs. ' ss she d issxo of F a chain In w fbHse
does not need busting for her visitor. II would
not like to leave them. and the landlord. since 1
stay lay 80 long ana, ana pay MIN regularly, makes my
II get all the pork for my lard making fresh
Depths DE- a t Of the kettle ct curry X SdI oa't bclior fco IN this his
ready-medo lard you buy at tho stores. This
sugar in them. only what is busted over on
the top, and l fry them in boiling lard so they
wont nave any chance to be greasy
W nat Time DO YOU set out for dOWntOwnl'
AT 2 o'clock. I start my yeast. at 8 in
take a couple of hours to rise, and then make
up the cakes and fry them fresh Just before /
carried my basket Of cakes covered witt a rub.
Der cloth in all the slcet and snow, Always on
e s%y m ntsssn0S Sou P seel { hsSo ht tn roant pn my w car
fare both ways in my expenses now. Before / had
rh F%ItSdI mi, ! G S}vII WALL IA always one way"
Munich that the cakemaker came here.
M husband was a Bavarian. too. n shoe.
earn much at his trade, and when we got hard
Up for money 1--WE lived IN Third street them l
there would like something to eat in between
down there then. I had five children, but all
are are gone gone now except one. Ny name was Theresa
p ptnnIsa S MaSW We h @is a s C. Rafl; BIZ h f"anSF T Xfte "a
learned e make good bread and irappel, /
l used to have: After i was married we never
got along good. SO that was why we came to
America 10 try our luck"
The ncighborhood where Mrs. Bray lives
would seem to offer n far better market for her
cakes than her familiar perch on the Park Bank
steps. East Houston street is alive with chill.
dren and haif-grown boys who would very
likely be appreciativc Of her wares; but so bound
to. her idols is the old woman that she would
think 1t. out of all character to offer u penny
worth of sweets to any other market than that
to which she has catered so long. In face OF
competition, distance and falling health. not to
say lack Of patronage, she starts out for her
wonted destination each afternoon. The car
conductors all know her and know exactly
where she Is going to get Off. and all her neigh
bors anticipate her setting out and her return
at nightfalI..
''She don't mako nothin' much these days.
It's hardly. worth her while to CO." says an
interested looker-on, land her daughters
crippled, or else catch her death a.cold sittin'
out doors on those marble steps In all sorts OF
weather. We've cautioned her about IL. and
advised her to try "a stand close by homo. where
she might sell mere, but you can't argue with
old people. They're SCI, in their ways, and
she'll keep on going with them cakes as long
as she can make out to mix EN- and put one