The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-06-03

o clock in the morning. This is the one
very large stationary market of Paris
There are dozens of others, but they
b, long in the excellontly planned system
of movable markets that are never %
GATED two Gays in succession in the same
pace and this is done for the special
accommodation of the householders living
at too great a distance from the Central
market.
market location is set aside by the
city fathers in every ward or arrondisse-
ment of Paris, and somewhat in the gypsy
fashion. with their tables. tarpaulin COW
ers, big wagons and vegetable baskets,
these location lessees, who are women in
variably, wander from point to point, set
ting up their tidy stalls at In the morn
| Ing; on Monday. near the Trocadero Pal
aces, for example. striking camp at 4:30
! in the afternoon, TO reassenble on Tues
| day off the Avenue de la Grande Armee,
| while on Wednesday they viii be heard
calling out their bargains. cheerfuliy as
| ever, near the Palace Victor Hugo.
These itinerant markets are an infinite
convenience in a city that covers such an
| area as Paris. In them everything Is Of
| fered for SALE from chiffon neck boas and
beaded funeral wreaths to the NEST sea-
| sorable fish, fruits and dairy products, and
| as in the Central market, the business is
carried on almost exclusively by women.
Men in France may love corn and cook
it, but the market woman of Paris has
| been in power. since the days of Henry
the Fourth and even before his time.
| Women in Command.
Down at the Hales Centrales. save In
| the meat market. the women rule abso-
| lutely and preside over the most admira-
bly, arranged food depot in the world. No
| other city, European or American, shows
| anything to compare with that four acres
| of space, paved vii h stone, rooted loftily
with glass and iron, perfectly drained
| and Kept as faultlessly clean as Paris
historical Halles. From dawn until late
in the afternoon the business of the mar
| ket is In active swing. At five o'clock in
the morning the restaurant buyers are
| there; later come buyers for hotels, later
sti the p-oprietors of boarding houses
and then servants of private families.
Not very far from the market is the
Bcurse. or Partisan stock exchange,
which hardly does a bigger or noiser bus
mess than the hundreds of feminine pro-
pr.etors of the stalls pa-t.cu arly under
the fish shed, where purchaser can see
mis- lobster, shrimps, craw-fish, trout or
carp swimming merrily in tank, If he
pleased, to make sure of its freshness; or
choose it, prepared for the fire, from the
marble slabs over which all day the water
rushss in Geld, GEAR stream.
The noise and the keen bargaining are
due 20 the women in the stalls the red
I
la halle, who are as much a part of the
sights of Paris herself as the churches
and museums, and who for three CEN
turtles have played the part of chorus to
some of the most vivid events in Partisan
history. Last summer no one was in the
least surprised when these ladies of the
market openly discussed a plan for
marching to the rescue of NJ. Guerin, who
had shut himself up in a self-consituted
prison and was laughing at The police.
Few of the market women were Dreyfus
sympathizers; they are all warm admirers
of the army, and IL was only at the elev-
enth hour that they decided to let the
police and recognized authority have their
way, and remained in their stalls to knit
and scream their wares in strong, pierre
ing voices.
: Had they decided to gather and march
!. in body to Guerin's rescue, as they at
first proposed, it would have required more
than the police force to have held them in
check, for nearly all these Amazons are
direct descendants of the market women
who stood by cheering when the guillo-
tine did its bloody work over a century
;. ago. They are powerful, red-faced,
! large-lunged women, and now Justify their
, occasional interference in the public af-
fairs of the city on the ground that they
constitute one Of the oldest corporations
, of Paris. They are never recruited al
haphazard, and in many instances their
stalls have descended by will from
> mother to daughter for two or three
| centuries. The sons do not inherit
because men are not personae gra!a
in the market. Petticoats rule and
swish about authoritativeiy in every
nook of the vast sheds. The
heiresses to these valuable stalls get
y their training for business under the ma
, ternal eye, and begin life in very coquet-
fish guise, with their apple-red cheeks,
!. sharp blue or black eyes, smooth. high
rolled, pompadour head-dress and skirts
. tucked UP carefully out Of the damp and
to display slender ankles rising from feet
. shod in sabots, often with perilously tall
r Louise Quinz heels.
! Directly such a market girl marries she
settles down to business in her mother $
4 stall, the coquetry vanishes under a
o hard commercial manner, the down on her
lip often developes into sternly bristlins
a mustache and her one aim In life is ID
a horde her earnings. With very few ex-
I ceptons these brisk business women cen
/, trive to lay by comfortable sums, in spite
a | of the rent and tolls they have to pay the
| city, and few of them leave off working
. | until actually too decrepit TO make correct
/. | change Living out in the open air, WELD
: | ing their huge fish knives and bawling
their wares, these women are marvelousy
:. independent in speech and action, and ii
: | nowadays nobody reminds them of what
a | their mothers did In the revolutionary
: | days everybody takes a pride in pointing
!, out the stall of the direct descendant OF
!. the famous Madame Ladoucette, who left
. her fish one day, and, calling on Henry
= the Fourth, frankly insisted that he mus
!, pay greater respect to the wifely pride
!, OF his legitimate spouse, Marie de Medici
! Henry showed rank ingrautude for this
: well meant advice by fning the market
1 woman and forbidding her to sell at her
4 stall for six months. whereupon the cas-
= was laid before the Queen, who, naturally
= took the fish wife's side and checkmate1
!, the angry King by making Madame La
- doucette purveyor of fish to the court.
. Again, but thirty years ago, 1t was the
: market women. in body, armed with
o clubs, knives, pistols and even hay rakes
, who surrounded the Vicar Of st. Eustache
: the ancient church nearby, and protected
I, him from murder at the hands of the com.
= munists, and nowadays their charity IL
= quite boundless. Les Danes de la Helle'
!. give generously to the orphanages, hos
, pitfalls and churches, help each other with
= a lavish hand. and there has only JUS