Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-04
A CANADIAN MARKET
ODD THINGS THE FARMERS
WIVES BRING TO QUEBEC.
Roots and Herbs That Cure Many Dis
eases-Home-wove Hats and
Rag Carpets.

One who would see the open-air market
OF Quebec in Its full glory must rise on a
Saturday morning at o'clock. when lazy
tourists are still four hours from breakfast
From Dufferin terrace the sight well re-
pays the sacrifice of the morning nap.
Last night the terrace was crowded with
home folks and visitors promenading to the
music of the military band. Now 1t is
empty, and the upper town lies In silence
all around.
Within a stones throw stand some OF the
oldest houses In Canada. Down below be-
yond the edge of that mighty precipice lies
a panorama of river and rolling country,
yet with huge ocean liners lying quietly
at dock. 1t Is curious impression to the
New Yorker that after travelling nineteen
hours inland by rail he finds here city
300 miles from the coast which Is seaport.
where the tides rise eighteen feet
The early riser turns eastward on Buade
street, and, 10! 1t ends In staircase 1t is
common ending for streets in Quebec,
which wander up and down stairs as UNI
concernedly as they turn a corner.
Down the long stairs she plunges into
the lower turn, and there finds the people
all astir. She has only to follow the first
housewife she sees with a basket on her
arm to be led eventually to the great gray
stone Champlain market house.
1t is the market square without which Is
the sunshine sit the French Canadian
farmers and their wives. who have come
In before daylight from those ribbon
farms, stretched back from the river In
long. narrow strips.
The Caleche.
Perhaps they left home at 3 o'clock in
the morning to drive into town In the
bouncing two-wheeled Quebec caleche
Perhaps they came in the market boats.
catching what sleep they could on the hard
wooden benches.
thrifty housewives of Quebec, each sales
man OF saleswoman with such produce be-
fore him his farm affords
Aside from the ordinary market vege-
tables there many quaint articles for
sale-spruce gum, for instance, in great
Jumps which resemble chunks of quartz
and in sticks, which look not unlike sticks
of homemade molasses candy. Bunches OF
herbs and roots, fresh and dried, also are
offered for sale by the market woman, and
IL the tourist can understand her language
she will explain volubly and politely for
what each Is good and how Ii should be
taken.
These market women sit knitting, many
OF them-socks of weight and solidity
which speaks volumes of the winter to
come. Their wares lie spread on a box
before them: and among them there is
sure to be a bunch of country posies.
Not only things that grow are offered
for sale A gentle "Chapeau, madam"
will call attention to the straw hats for
men, peaked in crown, broad In brim, much
resembling those worn by horses in New
York. Later in the season there will be
conical caps for winter wear. knit of wool
with a long point to flap behind, ending in
tassel and with thick rolled edges to be
pulled down over ears and forehead.
Domestic Wares.
There are hanks of homespun wool, in
its natural colors or dyed in all the hues Of
the rainbow by homemade dyes. There
is toweling spun in the winter from home
grown flax; rag carpeting home woven of
e4ose, fine strands; socks and mittens of
course and table covers and bedspreads
woven or linen In blue and white. One
may buy, too. brooms made by tying green
withes to slender. round sapling or bars
of homemade hard soap and pots of soft
soap.
The home-woven baskets come from the
little village of Indian Lorette, where
small colony of Hurons dwell. They are
quite as French the French around them
now, yet the Indian features show out
OF sweet grass to sell, and moccasins and
birch-bark canoes for summer although
the moccasins are quite wearable for win
ter bedroom slippers.
There are hooked rugs. also in this med
ley OF home products-hooked rugs, COM
panions in memory with horsehair furni-
ture and wax fruit under a glass globe
There are baskets full of little stamped
pats of country butter, each wrapped In
wet lettuce leaf Most mysterious of
all are collections of objects which look
like brickbats. and are of about the same
consistency-the black pudding" of the
habitante, made of pigs blood Even the
widest desire for local color will scarcely
lead the tourist to sample one
One wonders how some of these market
women can afford TO come to the market
and pay the 10 cents required for the priv
ilege of box In the market place. so small
is their stock. One has only a little pail
full of the blood buildings before her-noth-
Ing else; another has only dozen abrs of
homemade soap and-rnost curious of COM
modities-a sleeps heart. Even if she only
pays her expenses one is glad for it is a
happy days outing. She sees and talks
with so many people acquaintances even
relatives from other villages whom She
sees but seldom; fellow villagers who have
come to Quebec to work in the Shoe fac
tories village girls who are waiting on
tables in Quebec hotels, possibly even some
young priest, lawyer or doctor who used
to be one of the boys of her own village.
The market place resounds with cries
of animals. Hens and geese stretch forth
necks from Slated coops and protest siren
uously. Penned calves add to the din
Above all is the squeaking of little pigs
The proprietor, eager to make a sale seizes
one by its curl-paper tail, holds it up to the
customers view and pinches its fat pink
sides as he expatiates on its merits, while
It's cries rise to the upper town.
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