Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-04-26

spring, with it's numerous short-lived bluffs
at warm weather, was diminished early in
the present week by the quite general APP
pearance of the hokey-pokey ice cream
man. He has shown up on all the down.
town streets but down town his cart alone
serves as his advertisement and he does
not shout his commodity. Uptown, how
ever, he belongs to the category of howl
erS. Not alone does he howl himself, but
he gets all of the children to how.ing in
imitation of his call. To the childish mind
there is something humorous in that mean
ingless, non-descriptive, two-syliabled
hodge-podse, hockey pokey,' and the YER
nal appearance of the white-capped and
spotless-aproned man who uses the phrase
to get custom for his mysterious product
is a signal for the young ones to parade
all of the blocks of their neighborhood
with that nerve-unseating slogan, Hockey
po-key ice cream" issuing in piping ire
bles from their threats.
The hokey-pokey ice cream man, by the
way, derives most of his uptown profit
during these early days of the warm wealth
er period by lurking close to the schools
around the recess hours. AT such times
his cart is the center of a thriving bust
ness, and the young ones who are in that
state of affiuence to permit of their getting
hold of one of the hard wedges of the
hokey-pokey are regarded with deep-rooted
envy by their less fortunate playmates.
Shaved Ice and FIavorinC,
<AiSo has liic SlfOWDdll man ltdpeu IOrIn
from his winter Information likewise i'm
maculate in four-cornered cap and dazzling
apron, to awaken the echoes on quiet
streets and tempt the eyes of youth. 1t is
steadfastly maintained by man of known
veracity that Justice Harlan of the United
States Supreme Court became addicted last
summer to the SNOWFALL habit and that he
made no bones about standing on a curb
and eating his penny SNOWFALL when he
felt like it.
As a matter of fact, there seems to be
nothing particularly insidious in a ball of
shaved ice favored with a coloring of some
sort of extract, but it shows the independ-
ence of the great judicial mind, and of JUS
uce Harlan's mind in particular, in that he
takes his SNOWFALL in full view of all hands
when he is athirst. The SNOWFALL mans
call is of the short, choppy variety with
the accumulation almost entirely on the
SNOW" and on hot day the sound is real
ly not unpleasing. 1t tells of cool and
fever-reducing breeZeS, of the low-laughing
water and the murmuring tree.
A Blithesome Bark.
The saltwater taffy man is a denizen of
the downtown streets, and his blithesome
bark, mingled as it is with the noises of the |
busy thoroughfares. does not prey upon
the nerves of the passersby. There are al |
ready three or four of him behind stands
along Pennsylvania avenue. He is barker |
of the Ceney Island sort, with a spiel to |
Dack up nus simple announcement, Salt |
water taffy.' Right out of the sea-" he |
says, pink as coral, warranted to improve |
the teeth and complexion, only feeve oh, |
feeve. cents, one half dime, a bunch-now |
is there anybody else?" The saltwater |
taffy man is an innocent grief distributor (
along toward midsummer, when the DAYS |
are sizzling and the concrete yields to the /
pressure of the foot, for the sweltering /
man, unable to break away from the CITY
has many vision of curling breakers and I
basking mermaids on the beaches when he
passes the taffy vender and hears that in
reference to the waters of the
sea-
From Sunny Sicily.
The banana-purveying Siciian takes his
cart to the outermost bounds of the CITY
during these early months when the banana
steamers are dumping millions of punches
Of the fruit at the seaboard wharves, and
there is a note Of pleading in his cry. Dur
ing the high noon hours, when his cart is !
piled high, he may be simply blithe with
his cock-sure call, "Bananz, Is centa de
duz, but when, weary and footsore and |
with his stock only half sold, he pushes his |
cart about under a sun that is nearing the |
verge of the western horizon dismally cry |
ing, Banana, on'y fiva centa de duz" there |
Is an imploring timbre in his tones that often !
wins him customers in the shape of SYM
pathetic persons.
Small but Noisy.
1t would be interesting to know il any |
is ever expended upon the huck-
sters Of chickens, vegetables and the like. |
who employ small black urchins with |
piercing voices, to do their shouting for
them A small black boy, with q brace of