Evening journal., 1913-05-22
IMPRESSIONS OF
OLD WILMINGTON
Former Resident Writes of
City As He Knew it 40
Years Ago.

The publicity bureau of the Cham
Der of Commerce has received the fol-
lowing letter:
ITO Publicity Bureau, Chamber of
Commerce
Dear Sirs: | thought perhaps you
would like to have the impressions
of an old-time Wilmingtonian VINO
has returned to your city after an abb
sence of forty years. | was pleased
by your neat and orderly station, the
Pennsylvania. Your Front street made
a bad impression. Why do you allow
your secondhand men to utilize your
vesiibule as 1t were as show places
for their wares? First impressions
are lasting and compelling, and one
who did not know better would have
TO be pardoned II he jumped TO the
conclusion that here we have a sec
cnd-hand town.
Your Market street also appears to
be a show place. demonstrating the
several kinds of pavements now IN
vogue and out of vogue. | did not
think of it in time to make notes, but
I am inclined to think no two blocks
are alike. Market street has the
maxings of a fine street in Il. Why
don't you get busy and have it widened
on one side at least?
81 went down to the Old Swedes
Church. and decay certainly has set in
in that neighborhood. In the block
where the church stands recognized
the same old cobble stones that were
laid when | was boy so years ago.
oh Sc nF
places. and the city authorities. il ap-
pears to me, should awaken to the
fact that the surroundings of this sa-
cred old edihce would suggest TO
strangers that we have a very SLOW
enly government here. ! am not kick
ing. mind you, | am only suggesting
would love Wilmington for Aud
Lang Syne no matter how badly It
was treated.
Il took a look at your street mar
kets on Saturday and | was terribly
disappointed. Recalling my boyhood
days, went to Ring street early in
the morning, but there was nothing
doing Your elderly citizens will re-
member that fifty years ago or less IL
was no uncommon thing for the men
at the head of households to get up
early market mornings and do the
marketing in ample time to go TO
work. In these times many of the
farmers came in town the day before
and stayed over night. Going TO King
street last Saturday morning about
5.3U o'clock, | found the street de-
serted. I was beginning to believe
had been misinformed when told that
King street was a market street when
| noticed a man preparing a display
OF meat in a stall. He told me that the
market would not be going much be-
fore o'clock. He also told me the
story of the decline of Wilmington
street markets. They are getting
worse all the time, he said, and If
something is not done to improve
them they will become nuisance and
be abolished.
"I understood what this man meant
! Saturday evening when | went TO in
spect the night market. Below Fourth
street there was a condition OF bed
| lam. Everything in the way of mer-
chandise was being sold on the side
walks, with accompaniment of an in
! coherent and discordant vocal clamor
which should in the interest Of law
and order be suppressed by the police.
Stalls on curb and building line have
encroached on the space where the
buyers should go. and you could only
make progress through this throng by
patiently waiting for the drift of the
tide. which now compelled you TO bark
your shin against berry crate or a
chicken coop, and again catching you
in an irresistible eddy. forced you 20
wipe your clothing against meat dis
play a contact, by the way, which in
! iured both the giver and taker. And
this is the market which Hamilton w
Msbie thought it worth his while some
years ago to write a prose poem about.
A farmers street market, properly
managed and literally encouraged,
will not fail of being both beneiac-
ton and thing of beauty. II should
not be so conducted, however, as to
permit the hawker, the huckster AID
the simmer to drive the farmer and
the producer who comes with his pro-
duce at first hand. The latter should
be encouraged and protected. IL is a
foolish conception which appears 10
prevail in some quarters to the effect
that when the farmer comes here and
gets the city peoples money that is
all there is to it. These farmers feed
the people and every restriction that
is placed upon them and every dis
couragement and difficulty they have
| 70 couobat fe adding TO the cost and