Evening journal., 1897-12-20


side Of the street many other women
shoppers were gazing on the marvels
of art in a jewelers. window, or stand
ing in small groups and talking oyer
the shopping experiences OF the after
noon
Under these conditions and with
such surroundings a man of say 80
years Of age essayed to walk across
Market street from Robinson's to Ru-
dolnhs corner. He was not stylishly
dessed or anything of that kind Mere
ly rough-and-ready, warmly-clad in
dividual who loves home, sweet home,
and not a "ladys man" in any par
ticular In his hand he carried a big
brown paper bag, filled to it's utmost
capacity with something. What its
contents were no one knew or cared to
know at that time; but by the time he
had reached the middle of the north
bound tracks more interest was mani
Tested in that bag and its contents than
in anything else on the street. To get
down to the roclx-bottom facts, the bag
burst and the bananas went down on
the dirty cobbles between the rails and
scattered themselves over considerable
space.
Thirty feet away was the Eighth
street car, buzzing along at a clever
clip towards the pile of bananas. On
the crossing in front Of the unfortu-
nate man and his pile Of fruit was a
tall and beautiful woman Of the blonde
type, handsomely gowned in d tailor
made costume of light blue cloth. With
her was a pretty little boy. presumably
her son. There were women to right of
him, women to left of him, women back
of him and women in front of him. Ho
accepted the situation gracefully until
the beautiful young woman in front of
him smiled at his predicament; then
| he blushed like q schOOl-boy, stopped
and hastily gathered up the fruit in his
arms and beat a hasty retreat towards
Shipley street, smiles greeting him all
I along the line of march. just before
the Eighth street car reached the
crossing a light-hearted newsboy came
along whistlng. He saw the torn
paper bag, which the man had left in
his flight and gave it a kick which
sent it several feet away, and thus
closed an incident which had afforded
no end OF amusement while it lasted.
Perhaps when the man reached home
he threw the bananas down on the table
and said
Take the blamed things out of my
sight, and if you want any more OF
them, go and buy them yourself"
And then he feels like kicking him
self for hurting his little wife's heart
and, TO soothe her wounded feelings
tells her all about it. and gets a jolly
good laughing at for his pains.
THE CHRISTMAS TREE SUPPLY.
On the streets of Wilmington at the
present time thousands Of Christmas
trees are exhibited for sale to father.
and mothers who have children who
are still believers in Santa Claus anC
his annual pilgrimage as a dispenser
of gifts and juvenile happiness. Thes'
trees nearly all come from Massachu
sets, and from FIVE to six thousand o.
them are sold TO supply the household
demand.
The hilly districts of Maine, New
, Hampshire, Vermont. New York an,
Pennsylvania, as we'll as Massachu
sets, supply the market in other cities
5 but the local Christmas tree men dea
almost exclusively in the Old Bay Stat
product and cOnfne themselves princi
pally to handling balsam frs am
j young spruce trees.
: About the first Of December they g
, to Massachusetts,, leave the train at
point convenient to the scene of thei
+ | prospective labors and then wande
around the country until they find
o promising place to cut. After lookin
o ( the trees over they go to the owne
and strike a bargain with him. The
o they arrange with him to haul tn
e trees to the nearest railroad station q
l. soon as they are cut and tied up. Afte
q securing a number Of men to do tn
|. chopping and binding the desirabl
e trees are marked and the work of des
p truction begins. Wagon-load afte
d wagon-load is hauled to the static
|, and the trees are packed in freight car
IS ready for their reception. When tn
: dealers have all that they think the
G can sell they start for home and tn
d trees follow them. AS soon as they al
rive they are set up in the streets an
e. SO arranged that their beauty an
1t symmetry will show to best advantae
e and yield the largest profit.