Sunday Washington globe., 1902-06-01
The Rabbit Momnn.

One of the most picturesque figures
in New York is the Rabbit Woman
who stands on Broadway, near Twen-
tieth street. She is at her post rainy
days and fair ones, in snow or in sun
shine, always smiling and contended.
Her broad German face beams with
good nature when one stops to speak
with her; and she gladly shows her
wares, whether you mean to buy or
rot. BY her side is a large covered
basket. hiding away a number Of tiny,
warm white rabbits who sleep con
tentedly all snuggled down together.
When the Rabbit Woman is not busy
with q customer, she is whispering to
these pets or smoothing their fur or
feeding them bits OF carrot with as
tender a care as any maternal rabbit
could show.
AS a passer-by stops to admire The lit
tie creatures, she beams with the de-
licious complacency Of a mother show
ing her first baby. One sometimes
wonders how she keeps up this In
terest in her small charges year after
year, but her affection never grown
tired. She has stood in her sheltered
corner for ten years now, the familiar
friend Of the children Of New York;
and today she thinks her rabbits as
charming and novel is she thought
them decade ago. She willingly
hands out one to be hugged by the
child who stops to admire and then
passes on, just as a mother stops
wheeling her bay carriage to let a
chance admirer see her darling's face.
When she parts with one of her
bales. she wraps It up carefully, and
tucks it in bittle box, all warmly
lined and perfectly ventilated, and
charges it's purchasers TO be very care
full of it and very kind to it. Often,
when some one stops to tell her OF
some rabbit which is we'll and happy
in its new home, she will inquire par
tcuIarly OF its growth and intelli-
gence, and comment on its remem-
bered beauty and grace. Her child
has been adopted. but it is her child
still.
Down in the basket beside the rab-
bits there sometimes snuggle tiny
Maltese kittens; and such beautiful
kittens! Each is blue-gray, with
bright, kitten-blue eyes; and each
wears with distinct pride a little pink
nock-ribbou. When It is wakened
from its nap to promenade on the side
walk before the eyes Of some posi-
BILE buyer, it holds it's tail erect, like
a banner. A rabbit put down beside
it crouches and blinks its pretty pink
eyes in helpless timidity, but not so
the kitten: that marches about with
an air Of unmistalIable conceit. The
contrast at one OF these exhibitions is
one of the delicious bits of the per-
Torrance.
The owner Of these pets lives on a
email farm on Long Island, aud comes
into town every day. She raises both
rabbits and kittens herself, and says
she sells every one Of them. She ia
always spotlessly dressed in a quaint,
foreign fashion and one Of her most
attractive garments is her apron Of
blue and white checked gingham, en-
broidered with a pattern Of kittens or
rabbits in crossstitch. This apron she
is often urged to take off and sell; and
she complies with bushes and shame
faced smiles, only to appearon the NOR
row with another even more elaborate.
Fascinating as the her little pets, she
is more fascinating herself, with her
lovely, old-world quiet and content.
and her love for her little charges and
the children who love them, too
Christian World.