The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-03-26
A HESTER STREET GROCERY.
Pen Picture of an Out-of-Door Supply
ShOn

Pen Picture of an Out-of-Door Supply
Shop.
over on Hester street is queer little
out-of-door grocery and supply shop
1t Is one of, many queer little stalls
crowding the sidewalks to the cutters
edge, and like the majority of the rest,
is presided over by sturdy looking Rus
sian JeWs-the type of nationality
which throng the quarter, talking, ges-
ticulating, bartering, haggling, buying,
laughing, crying and sometimes swear
ing, though for the matter of that, to
the American stroller it is all one, for
no tongue but that foreign to his ears 10
heard, save he stops to buy or ask
question. Even then the reply is
mixed jargon of mutilated English and
peasant Russian and Hebrew, though
when it comes down to a matter of
finance, the language is more compre-
hensive.
This particular little out-of-door gro
Gerry has for it's proprietor a stocky,
rough-bearded little Russian Jew sixty
years old perhaps. but quick and ener-
getic. He stands buried to the waist in
a confusion of sacks, boxes and barrels,
each containing some article Of food for
the household. from a Lima bean to
bar of yellow soap, and he is constantly
dipping in this and digging in that with
small scoops filling small bags and sup
plying small needs A little tin scoop
no bigger than claret glass, dishes out
d cents worth of beans; fruit knife
ships off an equal portion of garlic; the
palm of his hand contains like value
in corn meal, while big bread knife
slices off a similar measure from the
large, round, rough, brown loaves upon
which the children of the Ghetto MUNICH
with their tea and stew.
Here may be seen the odd types Ito
Americans) of the peasantry of northern
Europe. A tall, blond bear ded, flat
nosed, STOPPING man stops for a mo-
ment and purchases cents worth of
grits. AS he walks away his gait Is the
perfect embodiment of the slouching
movement ascribed by Tolstoi to the
Russian peasant. A wrinkled old dame
creeps up and buys her little portion of
tea and goes mumbling away. d.
minutive urchin curly-headed and
black-eyed, concludes a momentous
bargains in two pennies worth Of dried
apricots, and young mother, with
tOSy SHCChSy oillLlo llCI oiilell UuHulS VI
humanity from one arm to the other to
take up the snare package of dirty
flour that is handed her. A buxom,
bright-faced woman out in the street at I
tracts the attention Of those in the i'm
mediate vicinity by playfully belaboring
small man over the shoulders with
the handle of her broom. The little
out-of-door grocery-keeper, white like
the dusty miller, chambers out of his
standing hole and goes across the
crowded thoroughfare at the reckoning
of a handkerchief vendor. A fat,
shawi-headed woman, his equal in
years and wrinkles, scrambles over to
his place and the bargaining buying,
haggling, chattering laughing and
crying goes on without a moments in
terruption.
A couple of men standing in the small
clothing shop, in front of which the +,
little out-of-doo grocery spreads itself,
and to which it pays a sidewalk rental, |
turn to attend to the needs of a stray |
customer, and one Of them looks curl |
ously at the stranger standing with his |
back in the doorway, watching the
throng. Little drunkenness here. The
frugal habits of the people, bred to pow
erty and plainness of fare, give little
time or opportunity to the extrava-
gance of drink. The greasy oft-hngered |
little cigar box, serving as till and cash !
register combined, will some day grow
too small for it's contents, as will the |
pavement grow too cramped for thriv-
ing commerce, and the small out-of-
door grocery keeper of to-day will be
the opulent proprietor Of to-morrow-if |
thrift and economy and small decep- |
tins count for aught.-New York Mail I