The times., 1899-11-05
CATERERS TO TEE CLERKS
Vendors Who Sell Things to the
Department Employees.
All Sorts of Articles, From Berry
jam to Shoulder Brace@-The We
men Their Best Pntrons-Some Spe-
cfaI Characters Who Supply the
Wants of the Fair Sex-settIing Up.


ciaI Characters Who supply the
Wants of the Fair sex-settIing Up.
In Washington there is a small army of
people who make their living catering to
the wants of the department clerks, and a
large part of this army has the ll-being
OF the women clerks alone in view. In no
city in the world is there such an aggre-
cation of women doing regular service in
the public offices as here. The women who
make it their business to supply
them with their little daily wants
and needs find a harvest of small
change awaiting their cleaning in
the by-ways and hedges of the great
Government departments with their thou
sands of female clerks.
In some of the departments there are
strict rules that no one shall be admitted
during office hours, except on official busi-
ness, and in others the door is kept closed
to the venders of fruit, flowers, and knick-
knacks. but during the time allowed for
lunch they usually make their way through
the buildings and succeed in disposng Of
their stock in trade and return TO the
open air gratified and triumphant Clerks,
too, whose spirits daily yearn for the deli
cacies of some old yender's uneXcelled
cuisine make it a point to hunt them up
outside, if they fail to meet them within
doors and so a person with an article of
merit in his or her basket is sure to sell
the days supply, and often twice the guam
tity could be disposed of.
An old colored woman who makes the
best doughnuts ever tasted by mortal man
has her basket emptied and her pocket filled
with nickles in a trice. She is jolly per-
son and laughs hilariously as the clerks
grab at her doughnuts and begin eating
them before they have had time to bring
forth the customary fee Another woman
vends delicious angelcake. but she takes
her orders day ahead and her little book
is always full. Two little girls stagger up
to one of the large buildings undera load OF
apples and pears that have been rubbed and
polished until they are too tempting for the
average clerk to pass and return in few
minutes TO their nome with coin jingling
in their pockets.
"Mammy" Jones' Wares.
The homemade jams and jellies brought
by a certain Nanny Jones are bought
by the clerks even if on the verge of bank
ruptcy. They say that no living woman,
having tasted Nanny Jones blackberry
jam, Will let a glass of it go begging if it
takes her last penny. The children of the
nanny pick the berries in Virginia and
nanny makes gallons of the toothsome
article and puts 1t up in little jars and
tumbers In the winter this same nanny
brings little oyster pies. and as the supply
is not equal to the demand. the rush at her
first appearance is suggestive of a football
team going down the garden after kick
off. Deviled crabs in summer keep the
old womans popularity in the top notch.
In one department there are about a
dozen women who supply the clerks in a
large part women. with nearly everything
that has been devised for keeping human
beings alive. At Y o'clock each day they
come in with baskets, wash boilers, buck
cts, and lard cans, filed with all kinds of
delicacies, such as three or four kinds of
soup, ham and cabbage hard boiled eggs,
chicken, roast meats. pies, cake, coffee,
and tea They stand together at a pre-
scribed place and the clerks go up and
purchase what they want-a bowl of soup
for cents, a large plate Of ham and cab
bage for 10 cents and so on. The clerks
who depend on these venders for their
lunch make the widest scriulnage for
/ something TO eat for the demand is gen
orally greater than the supply.
Many OF the clerks however, do not pay
cash for what they buy. At the end of>the
I month the women make out their bills and
! present them, and then follows the inevi-
table argument, for the bills are almost
| invariably larger than the feeders think
! they ought TO be.
Articles Sold to Women.
But other things than such as cater to
/ the appetite are sold TO the women element
/ Of the department clerical help. Constant
+ leaning over a desk develops round Shout
/ ders in the fair workers and recognizing
the injury to appearance they resort tc
shoulder braces, which are offered them
by woman who plies the business with
many sales. 1t would be inconvenient tC
buy this article and have it fitted in q
store. but with Shoulder Brace Mary, as
she is called, at hand, the fit is made anC
money turned over during the lunching
period.
A lame girl finds considerable remuner-
alton in selling cheese-cloth busters 10 the
women clerks. for they insist upon having
| their desks nice and clean and this work
1 is not done to suit them in many instances
An old lady. with snow-white hair, is {
welcome visitor in a large department or
/ Pennsylvania Avenue, in the business par
of town. She carries with her the dain-
/ tiest violets all through the winter. These
she receives by mail each morning from
Virginia She puts them up in small but
hole bouquets for cents each anC
larger ones for Is cents, or two for quar-
ter She does an extensive business anC
/ all the fair employees il the department
look for her arrival with delight 1t il
the duty of the chief clerk to prohibit
such traffic in the department, but the ageC
flower yender meets her patrons il
the lunchroom of late, and her trade ha:
not suffered from the new arrangement
On the MonteneGrin Border.
(From the Church Gazette
This little line OF stones marks the linii
between the great, heterogeneous
III