The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-16

ting and squawling. There are black
faced women in white or gay calicoes,
with bandana handkerchiefs about their
heads. There are market men wearing
nothing but shirts and pants, the former
cut very low at the neck
Women squat on the floor with vegeta-
bles and fruits piled around them. Here
Is one selling egg plants, some of which
are as big as pumpkins. She Cffers mo
one the size of football for Q cents,
and, seeing 1t does not attract me, she
picks up a squash the size of a peck
measure and asks me to buy. Over there
is woman selling tomatoes. They are
no bigger than marbles and have proba-
bly, grown wild. 2 q
I ask the price of eggs of a man at
one of the counters In the building, and
am told they are centavos apiece, or
about Is cents of our money q dozen.
Eggs are high all over Porto Rico. The
chickens, as you can see from the little
ones all about us, are game fowls, and It
occurs to US that there might be money
in an American chicken farm near San
Juan. Chickens are easily raised here,
but such a thing as one the size of a
Langshan, Plymouth Rock or a man.
moth buff Cochin is unknown. 1t would
be as great curiosity as an ostrich.
QUEER MARKET SCENES.
Get out of the way of that goatl There
are goats wandering about through the
court picking up what they can get. They
are stray goats belonging to the city.
and do not seem to bother the ped.
dlers
Let us go over there and visit the
butchers. They sell chiefly beef, and
we look in vain for mutton or lamb.
There are but few lambs in Porto Rico,
and the only meat Of the town is beef
and pork. The hogs are of the black.
razor-back variety. They are lean and
scrawny, but their meat is delicious
You seldom see them in the market, for
when one is killed in the country the
neighbors come in and all have a great
feast. A common way of cooking the
hog is to stick q sharp stick through
1t from one end to the other and roast
it as a whole over the Goals. Don't
turn up your noses. It is by no means
bad, I can tell you.
AMONG THE BUTCHERS.
The staple meat, however, is beef.
There is no better beef in Chicago than
that which is furnished by the cattle
of Porto Rico. The only trouble is that
there are no cold storage plants nor ice
houses in which to keep 1t and freeze it,
and 1t must be eaten the same day 1t Is
killed. All the meat Of San Juan comes
from one man. He has bought the right
to furnish the meat for the city for so
much a year, and the butchers have to
take the cattle which are brought to the
city slaughter houses by him. The meat
is all subject to government inspection,
and at present 1 believe the prices are
fixed so that each butcher sells at the
same rate Over each meat stall this
morning we see the figures "2S." This
is the price per kilo for which beef Is
selling. A kilo is is pounds, so that
beef is selling at about q shilling of our
money per pound
In another part of the market we find
dried beef for sale. Thfs IS brought here
in great quantities from Venezuela and
otherwheres and 1t often brings a bet
ter price than fresh meats. The most
of 1t Is saltier thans thee brine of the
Caribbean sea, but the Porto Ricans like
it. They cook it up IN stews and eat
1t with rice and in sother ways. An
other favortte articleas coafish, which is
every city and yillage and all over the
country.
LIFE SAVED BY GOLDFISH.
1t is curious thing that these people
do not like our way of cooking. The
poems will not eat our soup and meats.
They prefer Goldfish and dried - beef.
Among the native soldiers Whos enlisted
hear Ponce was a man who became very
sick. He was offered the best of An1eri.
can soups, out refused them He was
tempted by all sorts of dainties from our
commissary department in vain. At last
when he was thought to be- dying, his
wife. who lived flvekmiles away, was sent
for. She came and cookedfh him stew
of stale Goldfish ana rice, Which he greed
lily swallowed. and on athlsHdIet recoY.
cred. ;ftRs tkl
In this same connection 1t is hard to
get the Porto IEcan horses to eat Ameri-
can oats or corn. They prefer the rough
lard grass Of the fields ana turn up their
I,eses at bran and 5b3led hay
--F,:ruk e. tCNart,enfo-