Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-02-09
INFINITE VARIETY
DOWN IN KING ST.
Eggs Down to IS Cents, Chickens
Up. Butter Wobblyy and
Other Funny Features.

Let's see-what is it that Will Shake
spcare says about certain famous lady,
one Cleopatra? Oh, yes, here it is: Age
cannot wither her, nor custom stale her
infinite variety. VIII hadn't any per-
sonal acquaintance with the Egyptian
Circc, but he hit the nai on the head
doubtless. We, who live in Wilmington
and deal with the buccaneers of our
Spanish Main, the marketecrs of King
street, might well apply the gentle bard s
words to what happ ned along the curb
this morning, and also hit the nail on the
head.
After Every Even ing's market man col
lected his information and looked it over
for general results he felt inclined 10 stick
a pin in himself to see whether he was
awake. But the jottcd down figures told
no lies. This morning market surely was
a funny one and thing of infinite va
riety.
In the first place eggs were down.
nickel IS cents n dozen. True, a
corporaPs guard of the marketeers asked
so cents-last Saturday price-but that
was to be expected, for the Elder States
men well know how TO camoufage and
make the people think every marketeer
fixes hls own price.
CHICKENS AWAY TT.
Now here's where mystery began TO
creep in. Chickens were up, most de-
cidcdly up. Even the retailers, who are
invariably four to eight cents q pound
under the marketcers, were asking from
As to SO cents a pound for fowls, which, of
course, meant that the farmer, selling his
chickens on the unit plan, was getting
his over the markethouses and tn shops
What S the answer" n markethouse man
was asked. He replied that at this period
of the year chickens are scarce and that
prices turn sharply upward after Feb
ruary |.
But chickens lay eggs, and il they are
scarce now eggs ought to be scarce too,
and therefore their price should go up as
well. NaturallE, the drop in the price Of
the hens product couldn;t be made to
square with these factseand the market
man went on his way wondering If there
had not been lively run on the storage
houses by tho curb marketeers for the eggs
they were selling at - cents a dozen
And the very finest quality Of storage eggs
can be gotten at IS cents n dozen n-or less.
TURKEY MILLIONAIRE Dish.
Turkeys and there were good
many of them to be seen in the market
houses-were dish for n millionaire
Sixty cents pound wasslsked for them -
and there were buyers at that None
Of the farmers had birds. Ducks were
As TO As cents, the same rs chickens, and
geese 4S among the dealers in the stores
and markethouses. They were proper
tionately higher on the curb, where
they were sold by the fowl
Altogether, the Sunday roast looked
decidedly better from meat point Of
view than it did from that Of the fowl
because one could get good roast OF
beef, pork or lamb much under poultry
prices. And when one considers that
MIR Hoover puts such han on meat
Sundays dinner might we'll be made 4
time of rejoicing with a good old-fash-
ioncd r. sLst
Another oddity of the market was the
very aprapnt wobb'iness Of butter
Out in the curb market the marketeers
ddn appear 10 know rst what to
cl acc. Some asked 60 cents and some
65-In one instance this was noticed
with q 3 sya"c Of 80 feet. Ii WAS the
same all along the ,tTeet. and one won.
dered whether oI not the had heen 3
mutin again-t the l. de- Statcsmen on
the butfe question Oace tie mar
keteer tu rs muf.necr the si:v's I01sc.
wives NAV rCi ice
The market seemed very we'll stocked
with vegetables and fruits Of the winter
varieties Celery, cabbage and lctalce
looked quite good and had not the
shrInken aspect that makes one turn
away for the canned goods
THE GENERAL PRICE LIST
Below is today's price list
Onions, 10 10 - cents quart white
/ potatoes. Is cents quarter peck. - cents
TO 81 q basket. Sl50 70 81 buShcl.
sweets, Is cents a quarter; turnips, -
cents a quarter peck cranberrles, %
cents quart: chickens. A. 10 % cents a
pound, dressed but not drawn: turkeys.
90 cents pound; fresh country eggs,
90 to 75 cents dozen apples. Is To 20
cents quarter peck, peppers, - cents .
dozen; caulihower, % to 30 cents head
cabbage, 5 cents pound or 5 to - cents
a head celery, ,, ) and 10 cents a stalk
beets, to 10 cents bunch; sauer kraut,
II to ID cents quart; LETTUCE, 10 to -
cents head; butter, so to 65 cents a
pound.