The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-06-01
Old THINGS LIVE THERE.
What visito-s to Center Market May
See.


The person who has occasion to visit
Center market regularly in search OF
materials for the days fare has doubt
less more than once been impressed by
the very considerable number OF SmaA
trades and curious wares that are !
distinct reminder of the days long gone
by In fact. the market is full of such
vestiges of a past period, so that in one
sense it might with truth be designated
a sort of museum of American antlqui-
'ties-not of the prehistoric sort-but an
tique in the American sense of the
term; that is to say, from so to 10O
years old.
The polite old man who has been sell.
ing the Hagerstown almanac near the
east door of the market for the last 30
years, is among the first to attract at
tention, for, although the entire modern
population of the city does not regard
the old HagerStown almanac as. next
after the Bible and Maryland code. the
third most infallible and profoundly
wise vehicle of truth as it did during
the infancy of the republic, still the
number Of Washingtonians, Maryland
farmers. Chesapeake oystermen ard
Nirginians who still pin their faith to
the old calendar is surprising in this
day of agricultural and scientific jour-
nails and weather bureau forecasts and
prognostica tons served out to the rural
public by the rural free delivery. carrier
A large proportion of those who con-
duct booths in the market have beer
IN the business all l0en lives, ana are
the sons of fathers. grandfathers and
REORGANIZATION who once conducted
meat, vegetable and fish stands in the
ancient markets of Alexandria, Fred
erick and Baltimore and who set UP
shop in the local market at the time
it was built in 1870.
The largest and. in fact, the principal
fish, terrapin and oyster booth in the
market is conducted by a man whose
father and grandfather kept a stall II.
the old Alexandria market. The father
set up in business when the local mar
ket was first erected and turned it over
to his son when he died. The grea t.
gro ndfather of this man was a great
fish dealer and oystermen in his day
and the at-grandson, the present
head of the business still maintains the
old herring fishing stations esta blished
by the first members of the family.
who settled in the new world at the
time they erected their log cabins along
the Potomac The excellent dried and
smoked alewives Called s'herrings''
throughout Virginia and AIaryland).
which one sees on sale at this STAND.
are dried and smoked at the old fishing
sta tions along the Potomac. which n.
this day are considered valuable prop
erty, Just as they were in the days OF
WASHINGTON. The work is done by ne
grces. the descendants of old slaves.
who have transmitted the art Of df-v-
ing and smoking fish from one genera
ton to another for two centuries.
But one does not begin to encounter
the real vestiges of the past until leav-
ing the interior of the market at the
Ninth street door he turns and saunters
down the B street front, under the wide
awnings to Seventh street. Here if
would seem that they have gathered in
a sort Of last stand against the onrush
CT progress and change. Like the buff
falO and the Indian they are gathered
together on a narrow area. surrounded
on every hand by the protuberent and
pushing institutions of modern civiliza-
ton. First one encounters the old lady
who has been selling, not only old fash
foned flowers but old fashioned bou-
quets, ever since the war These she
cultivates on a little plot of ground
north of the city. the produce of which
yields her a living. Old hollyhocks,
cockscomb, Canterbury bells blue bells,
posies, buttercups. dandelions and doz-
ems of others. No French names for her.
Even the work tbokay'' is a somewhat
new tangled conceit to her mind. Old
fashioned noSegay Us. buftonho1e bouquets,
Wrea tbs of holly and everlasting flow
ers, together with curious old crosses,
rocks of ages, doves and other conceits
worked out in old time everlastings and
eVergreens. reminding one of the par
Tor III the house beautiful of our fore
fathers, with its dismal cardboard and
Worsted scrolls hanging about over the
walls and above the doors. and hearing
such legends as God Bless Our Home, -
Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother. -
Handsome Is as Handsome Does and
various other lugubrious sentences. Such
is the old lady's stock in trade Nor is
her custom slack or scant Old residents
old timers, old women and old men stop
on their way through market to pur-
chase the flowers of their youth aud
young people and strangers contribute
their custom just for the novelty of the
thing and as an excuse for asking ques-
tons.
Farmers and country people with ev-
cry manner of vegetable and poultry, of
all ages and conditions fill in the gaps
until one arrives at another curious lit
tie stand. poised upon the tops Of woo-
bly, barrels and setting at every imagi-
nable angle. Here the visitor VIII me Ike
the acquaintance of S-r. John A. Nc
Conkey. If you please. John lives out at
FIT Fsoote, Nd. He IS not much CT a
man for style. fact that readily inn
presses itself on the observer the mo-
Inent he arrives before his stock of
wares, nor IS he given to high flown
rhetoric and ornate English. In fact, he
has red hair and a mustache that looks