Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-07

the sign Of a dentist, and on the far corner
cry church in New York is small sign
announcing that Henry Smith. or whatever
taker."
The doctors and dentists Of New York
DO not have offices down town and rarely
In the business blocks in their own neigh
borhood. They generally have a oircum-
scribed practice and their offices are IN
their houses In every block one will see
the modest sign of a doctor In the 'front.'
window of his home. Sometimes BLOCK
will contain two or three doctors and
dentist.
Now, for the cent and its subtle value.
Nowhere can the housewife OF small
family so exc out the contents OF her purse
as in New York There is no chappering
between buyer and tradesman to reduce
prices and save pennies. for everything has
it's stable value and a penny Is penny
with which no one Is ashamed to traffic
Out west an article worth three cents Is
paid for with q five cent piece and the buy
er is out two cents.
-
A New Yorker would raise a riot over
treatment of this kind. At the street vege-
table stand the customer buys cents
worth of this. two cents worth OF that
and cents worth of another. quite suf-
lcent for her needs. and the merchant puts
pennies gladly. The butcher cuts a steak
according to the desires of this customer
and says, perhaps, that will be seventeen
cents" He doesn't weigh his hand with
the meat to make 1t twenty cents, because
he doesn't happen to have pennies with
which to make change.
The little delicatessen stores Of Harlem
were created to add to the comfort and
Joy OF man. but more especially that of his
wife. One, kept by an Alsatian and his
curly haired wife, would make a family
move Its domicile two miles to be within
reach of Its delicacies. It is tiny bit OF
q store. hardly more than eight feet wide,
and bell tdnkles In the back whenever
the door is opened. Here one may find the
choicest morsels for delicate eating at a
price SO small and exact that he blesses his
government for creating the cent. Suppose
the tired housewife hasn't the energy to
cook an elaborate dinner. She goes to the
little dehcatessen shop and buys a thick
slice Of rare and tender cold roast beef
just large enough for two, for eleven cents,
Its exact value when weighed. Two picked
lambs tongues are put into a wooden
plate.
How much are they?" she asks. Five
cents for one, madam" replies the Alastian,
''or two for cents" That is the key to
the whole thing. A bit of imported cheese
for cents and small pot of homemade
preserves for cents complete the pur-
chases. Then to the little oyster shop
where she buys fourteen blue point oysters,
which the proprietor opens and puts into
| box and which cost exactly IA cents. A
pint Of hot clam chowder in a tin pail costs
10 cents To the bakery, where she buys
two cream rolls for cents.
X
She has gone around the corner from her
house and not more than twenty yards up
| the avenue to do all this shopping and
when she gets back to her fiat the dictates
sen man and the oysterer have delivered
her purchases She cooks some potatoes
and makes a pot Of coffee and her husband,
after he has eaten. lights his cigar con-
tentedly and swears that he has had a
capital dinner.
There are even subtler distinctions in
trafflcking with cents in Harlem. but these
occur in the dry goods stores and con-
Germs of that sort. or with vegetable mer-
Saturday night. There they stand one be-
hind the other for blocks. One cart con-
tains cauliflower. another celery. a third
apples. a fourth onions. and there are
others with sweet potatoes or bananas or
cabbage and what not. One can buy a
fine fresh cauliflower for g. or eight for IS
cents. according to the size of his family, or
he may purchase a hand" Of banenas for
6 cents.
In many instances 1t would really seem
that the cent is too large a coin with which
to do business in Harlem. because the
thrifty housewife often IS compelled to buy
| lack of it. Some time. perhaps, the big
| chiefs in Washington will wrangle over
| the creation of a coin that Is the fraction
| OF cent something like the English
aarlem and other parts Of New~York, but
| think of the sensation the Introduction of
such a coin would create in Cripple Creek
| or Dawson City!