The Saint Paul globe., 1899-03-21
VIEWS OF A GARDENER.
lis Strongly Opposed to the Proposed
Eagle street Site.


Being engaged to some extent in farm
Ing near st. Paul, | am taking an interest
III the locating of the market. A meeting
at old Market hall last week was we'll
attended by farmers and gardeners. AS
number of locations were being offered
to the city it was thought best not to
designate any particular location. 1t was
the sense of the meeting that some place
east or Wabasha, north of Eighth and
west or Olive street would be desirable
further than this to leave it to the pleas
nre t0d,. or the eoy city council There were a
numper present shouting for the Eagle
street site When the test came six sign
ed Tor the Eagle street place and a large
number, estimated at from $50 to 20O
| signed for location east of Wabasha
street, can say that most of those
present would willingly go a little west
OF Wabasha if block for that purpose
could be had suitable. The real object of
the meeting was to protest against the
proposed Eagle street place.
hen a gardener comes into town with
MS load he is willing to go to any part of
the city if thereby he meets his customer
Inc farmers and gardeners around St
Raui are like those around other cities
h dhe consumer, seeing that the profit
charged by the grocer or middle man
can % oe divided between them and the con-
sumer. In this way the housekeeper is
sure he is getting the fresh Homegrown
article. Sometimes he gets it just as good
t from ms grocer and many times he does
AoI. IL - grown sometimes hundreds Of
miles away and consigned to the commits
sion houses to sell to the grocers All of
Inns Inns, IS IN competition with the fresh
nbSimeogroWn nbirg m. article. The proceeds of the
| ducer hundreds of miles away; the bro
| ceeds of the farms and gardens around
fha Fl: Paul a,nah Is much of 1t sure to go into
sne purchase of the necessities of life
found among our merchants When a
granger sells his load at a good price he
mas mas more to spend for the necessities
tn
say half price. So it is to the interest
| OF our merchants to see that our farmers
are sustained.
There Is movement, it would SEEM
on the part OF some designing men to
break up the trading between the garden
er and nd, the citizens of our city, and soon
one steps in. The old Market house was
turned Tl over recently to the library board
Inc proceeds cannot be used in building
public market. Not all of the city
councli members are responsible-at least
not all have seen what was going on; but
you you VIII remember m that the new market
ola market ma was disposed Of Then, and
not till then, it came out that there were
no FUNDS for market house. The old
market was created and belonged to the
FARMERS and their customers in our citv
and the proceeds should have gone to
the Market house fund Many Of the
men interested in maintaining a marker
haXe no interest in public library.
NOW to cap the climax just see What is
Spaered as location for a public mar
Some of the council members were taken
with that Eagle street property early in
thinlxa thH cay ~ one asssemblyman says he
the grocer and shipper only, and 1 think
ne states his mind, If he has any. An
er oIner memDer arose In his place at the
Guy council meeting last week and said
ne was not there to transact business
Tor lot of gardeners. This gentleman
goes not have very exalted opinion of
the men who grow his green's and garlic
Another gentleman spoke at the famous
Hleeting. He carried the house by storm
when he told them that he had the cast
ing vote and they could depend on him
70 give them what the majority wanted
He diverged somewhat later on and told
us about what an enormous sum Of
money the Third street commission men
had invested in the way of refrigerators.
Some of the farmers did not see the
point just then, but do now
! Why this great design to put the mar
because you know it will kill it, that no
trade can be done there between the
farmers and the citizens. The farmers
co.. oouid o go there ne Sand and would if the city peo
1t Is the enemies of the market house
that are locating it. The same influence
that put the old market out of the way
to keep the proceeds from going, into the
establishing Of new one. Col. Kiefer
and others say that no respectable wom-
an an should be seen in that part of the
city That the property is not suited for
a market then why invest in it? Add to
the purchase price Of it a sufficient sum
to make 1T a temporary place only and
mayor would then use it for hay-mar-
ket A pretty expensive hay market.
One per se .oe cent r,o on this sum is $780, per
better place, and this is not all The
property is not worth one-fourth Of the
price asked for it. There is not gentle
man in the council who would pay one
fourth of the price asked. 1 think not a
man in st. Paul could be found in the
next month to give one-fourth of that
It is a good place to kill a market house
A good place for hay market says the
colonel. No, it amt good for that, eth
er; to much hill. You have not handled
much hay yet.
1t won't do for a dog pound. either,
colonel, on account Of the surroundings,
you know. 1t is not a decent place for
ladies to go, and one whose pet was
astray would become very nervous long
before her husband could recover the
dog .No money for ma r,.e+ n,rnosss .
Well, then, how will it do to wait lit
tie while? There has been nothing in
these many years that could be called a
market m here Don't you people go too
bury the market in. If you can't find
standing room on the street for tempo
rary use little longer, the farmers can
rent block on or near Eighth street
that will suit better than that Eagle
street block, no matter how much mon
ey you put on it, OF course, we all
know that you haven't got a cent for
market purposes since you gave the old
property away.
If farmer should succeed in selling
his load at the Eagle street site, it would
be late in the day: He would go home
as soon as possible, as he would not
have time to come up town to do trad
ing. Next day ''the woman would go
to Minneapolis and lay in the family
supplies.
Yes. we have a great representation
in the council chamber. Election time
seems to be the fool creating period
We put a lot of men in office to buy
hay markets at $4,000 apiece and then
kick about high taxes. And we have
got to where we can have a market
house or Brussels carpets, either saws
the colonel. Yes, colonel, the Washing
ton market is on Pennsylvania avenue,
In the exact center Of the city, mad 1t is
this way wherever you go; in Mime
apolis three blocks from the West hotel.
not as central as they generally have
them. How many squares Is this pro-
posed location from the Ryan and Mer-
chants? This market site is the tail end
of a suburb, and very low hanging
tail at that.
didn't want to write this letter and
have waited till the last day in the aft
ernoon. hoping that 1t would not be recess
sary. The Library society is not to be
blamed that I know Of. Were glad to
get the old property, valued at 100000.
times without much effort on our part.
We are glad of it, of course--very glad
But are we getting what honestly belongs
to others.
I wish you would see Col Eiefer and
get him to give the gardeners and house
keepers, some of them very poor, CEN
trail market place. We can get along
the council can't give you the old prop
erty If the opponents step in.