Evening star., 1901-12-21
CHRISTMAS MARKET
Washington Buyers Have the Pick Of
Choice Supplies.
TIE STALLSBEAUFlFULLY DECORATED
An Abundance of Fruits and Game
and Vegetables.
PRETTY FLORAL. DISPLAY

PRETTY FLORAL DISPLAY
The Washington markets took on this
morning the full aspect of Christmas. Long
aisles of holly and Christmas trees. antlered
deer, lard and butter nodded into groups of
statuary, uncounted thousands of turkeys
and ducks, dressed and undressed, and for
lists stands hidden beneath wreaths of
scarlet and green with a crowding, hurry
ing throng of shivering purchasers, gave the
Saturday before Christmas all the appear
ance and character of the usual oath of
December. A view of any one of the mar
kets was a goodly sight, certain to fill the
heart of the onlooker with the spirit of
the season, but tour through the Center
Market captured him, heart and purse.
In the course of twenty years the display
has rarely been so fine. The Christmas sup
ply is practically unlimited For a week
past the boats from Norfolk and the Poto-
mac river landings have been loaded to the
waters edge with vegetables, southern
fruits and game. The farmers along the
Branch and in the neighboring counties OF
Maryland and Virginia have been aided by
the most helpful kind of weather in gath
ering and making ready the largest contri-
button they have sent to Washington in
years. Good prices for meats and dairy
products have brought to the city the
choicest and most appetiZng butter and
dressed game.
With such material almost any market
man in the world could decorate his stand
attractively. The marketmen of Washing
ton have seized the opportunity and devel-
oped it. Along the aisle in the Center
market where the fish dealers have their
stands huge halibut, slender Potomac
mackerel, plump bluefish, founders. red
drums and river bass hang in repnlar lines
almost as picturesque as a display of jew
elry.
Where the Turkeys Are Displayed.
Nearby are big turkeys, with black wings
oTtstretched and an occasional eagle hover
ing over the whole brood. Mallard ducks
make up border for stand, and quails
and ducks alternate through tier after tier
of another. Beautiful pheasants are So
hung from the top piece of a third as to dec
crate half the aisle with their brilliant
tail feathers. Stuffed and dressed animals
are everywhere. There are 'possums by the
score. Occasionally muSkrat bangles
among the turkeys and game. One can
count half a dozen black bears with their
fur left on. swinging round and round.
There are three or four exceptionally large
bucks. Rabbits and squirrels are as plenti-
full as chickens There is hardly man in
the District of Columbia who could look
down lane of such wares. with abundant
decorations of holly and laurel and not
have the Christmas spirit rise within him
and take complete possession of all his
faculties.
Pretty Floral Display.
The flower stands more than hold their
own. Christmas bells of scarlet "everlast-
ing spice berries, holly wreaths, brown
laurel leaves ferns, palms nd delicate lit
tie japanese primroses abound. One dealer
has almost covered his stand, with jars of
exquisite narcissus blooms Another has
suspended strawberries from a frail and
slender line of smiaX and marked them
81 2J per box
The perennial green of the holiday season
is this year plentifuly intermingled with
red. Holly and mistletoe have come into
the market in unprecedented quantities.
This display is, of course, largely outside
the market buildings but the florists have
turned it to most account
If any one thinks butter and cheese are
prosaic commodities let him walk through
the main building of the Center Market.
Dealers in butter assuredly understand the
value of an attractive display of their
wares. 1t is safe to say men bought butter
today whose wives have monopolized the
purchase of dairy products for twenty
years past. The commodity is shown in
many strange forms-in rich, yellow sugar
loaves,' rising out of a bed of holly leaves,
in molds of flowers and sheayes of grain,
and in little blocks wrapped in wax paper
and tied daintily with a red ribbon and a
sprig of holly. Butter can sometimes be
made to look like candy. Cheese has been
fully as advantageously treated. When a
man passes a stand where butter and
cheese exhale so true a Christmas atmos-
phere he looks ON dairy products in new
light. They are henceforth potential pos
Fibilities in midwlnter decorations.
They "Take the Cake"
But the palm for artistic displays must
be yielded this year to the dealers in fresh
nra ofto
turned into an object lesson for the house
holder. From sight of any one of dozen
stands an ingenious housewife could make
her refrigerator a thing of wondrous
beauty. On one stand hang successive tiers
of legs of lamb. legs Of veal legs Of NUT
ton and dressed turkeys, all touched VITA
holly here and there, and as regular in for
nation as soldiers on parade. Not far
away the dressed meats are surmounted
by line Of sheep with their wool skins SO
cut as to drape half way down. their backs.
A firm which deals exclusively in Wash
ington dressed meats has filled all it's hooks
with quarters of lamb. Everywhere the
neatest, most inviting, most beautifully col
ored cuts of meat meet the eye. But the
harmony of color induced by decorating or
dinary red and white meats with red and
green holly branches, must be seen to be
appreciated at all.
Outside the market the cold weather
plays more important part. Marylanaers
stand by the hour and freeze when there
are fires and warm rooms at home. But
the representation is large. enough. The
temperature of Greenland could not keep
away the old colored women and young
colored boys of Prince Georges and Mont
gomery counties and Virginia just across
the river.
As They Have stood Every Year.
They stand as they have stood every
year since the market was built, laughing
and arguing over a fire in an old iron pot,
eating sandwiches bought from push CARTS
and occasionally selling holly or ever
greens. They are ready to laugh uproari-
ously at anything. This morning one Of
them set fire to a bag in which he had
half dozen cabbage heads, and the wild
uproar which followed made everybody
laugh within half block. Every one has
mice green holly wild plenty O. berries"
and the 'bes' mislingtoe yo' eveh seem
None Of their wares will ever wither or
fade. Their evergreen rope is the most
beautiful ever brought to market.
They have brought to market the most
Gal