The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-27

ionable homes in town but with the city's growth all that has changed. The mar ket is now in the French quarter, well down toward the river; and the French quarter, once the center of the Crescent City's social life, has become hopelessly commonplace.
 The American invasion" first affected the outskirts of the city and in the course of time the better Creole families followed the Americans, leaving the neighborhood in which the market is sit uated to newcomers from Europe. But when they went they carried their ale glance to the old market with them. and gradually the "Americans' them selves. learned that it was only at the French market squalid enough though it's surroundings were, that the best and dantiest edibles were to be procured.
 Street Car Facilities.
 Meantime as the city increased in size, the street car system grew apace; but there were many of them and the old market found itself handicapped through lack of transfer facilities in competing for the uptown trade. A year or two ago, however all lines were merged into one, and transfers were issued from all parts of the city to that section of the French quarter containing the market. As an immediate result, business at the old stand at once began to pick up, though the improvement was not due to the issuance of free transfers alone. The consolidation of the various lines had brought about a better service. People living in the fashionable quarter found that they got down town much quicker than before. A trip to the French mar
 tsles S t@:e I0 iG IA lG GI@ oiA 10, time. Besides that, servant, dispatched with a basket, could be counted upon to get home with the purchase in time for breakfast. It is doubtful if the founders of the French market, which by the way is under city control, ever conceived that It's future usefulness to the community at large would be dependent upon med ern methods in street railroading; but such is the fact. Its location on the levee makes the transportation of it's products easy. All sorts of craft loaded with vege- [ tables, fruits. fish. meats and game of a wide area land almost at it's doors. The market as a whole is divided into four parts the first being devoted to meats, and the other three respectively to fruits, vegetables and fish. The meat stalls are occupied mainly by Gascons,
 otherwise known as the yankees of France. The Gascons have a monopoly ol lIS ltldll meat DuSlueSS III NeW UT leans. Concerning them one sometimes hears an interesting observation. What is the use of getting up early in the morn- ing if one is to meet a Gascon?" is a question asked with Creole naivete.
 Italian Squatting Ground.
 One division of the market is the squat ting ground of the Choctaw Indians, who sell medical plants, as well as various herbs used in concoeting "gumbo' soup, which is a famous Creole dish. Oblivious of the pushing crowd, they sit silent and dejected, forming a strange contrast to the hustle about them. On nearly any pleasant day one may see papooses strap ped to boards and propped against near 1 by stall, just as Indian babies were tended hundreds of years ago. This l tribe, which regularly invades the mar ket, lives on the further shore of Lake Pontchartrain, under the beneficient rule | of Chief Mahot-Aby.
 | The average visitor to this quaint old market place seldom finds it in his power to repress a smile when he sees a fash l ionably -gowned young lady bent on mak- I ing a good purchase step up to a chick
 en tethered to a coop and judiciously feel 1 its breast for evidence of plumpness. The I fowl may squack and flap it's wings as much as it pleases; the young woman l generally makes a thorough inspection
 of the chickens avoirdupois If it is l ''up to weight" the usual hagglng takes place; and, after the money is paid. the chicken is thrust head downward into a capaeious basket and la demoiselle passes on to other stalls
 Rich and poor alike patronize this old market; the one for the delicacies it offers, the other for low prices charged for necessities. For surprisingly little money the toiler on the levee may buy Sunday dinner that. for variety at least, is truly princely Many of the rich do not visit the market in person, preferring to send a servant, usually an old colored nanny; and one of the most amusing l sights the place affords is to see one of these old women of a by-gone regime dickering and hagglng with the shrewd vendors of today. 1t can safely be said to ''mammy's' credit that she rarely gets the worst of the bargain.
 Little Modern Progress.
 i The French quarter has been very little l invaded by the spirit of modern progress.
 Round about the market place one sees
 things today practically as they were 150
 years ago-the same conglomeration of l languages the same old buildings the same QudlHl CuStOlhS. 0PtOWn d kTtdl I city is swiftly leaping into world promln- 1 ence by virtue of it's marvellous expan- l sion of commerce and its growth in
 manufactures. Nearby skyscrapers raise 1 their lofty heads, trolley cars pour l through the broad streets in endless pro cession, new and modern buildings are being erected, and on every hand one
 sees in the tireess energy and hustle of l the people evidences of the splendid bus I mess enthusiasm that is fast converting ! the old south into the new.
 l But of all this, the old French market l knows nothing. and evidently cares less. It's ways are the ways of a century gone. Its army of small 'marchands' still cry 1 Bon Marche, Madame, Bon Marche"
 Beneath it's wide-spreadng roof the Ba- 1 bel of strange tongues still goes on. and above the din of human voices and the l shuffle of human feet there still rises the I shrill protest of countless tethered fowl, l just as in the days so long since gone A visit to the French market is really not | unlike taking a stroll into the Eighteenth | century