Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-16


iostling throngs carrying market
baskets and representing every class
80 and condition Of Life. who bicker and
decker for bargains with Cld-ttme
Nero folk and their paie-faced competitors!
T-Tenerable Negroes from "Old Virginny,"
kssssrs neichboring Maryland, and from the
gardening and trucking sections Of the DIS
kark assemble there six days week, shortly
kffer dawn, to prepare their variegated stands
ind curb-side stores for barter and commerce
Some $50 curb and wall stands are manned
Nv approximately 200 dealers and their helpers
Gi.o barter directly with the general public.
Krcm the origin of Center Market up 70 today,
Amk hub of direct dealing has been writing
komantic history, human interest data Wnlcn
Wiu PASS on to posterity facts which are STEP
bEng stones in the modernization OF old wash
tngton."
Nev Orleans, Center Market, located about
halfway between the Capitol ana the Wn1te
House and only one block away from the bust
mess and hustle of Pennsylvania avenue, VIII
kveutuaIly sing its swan song, for 1t lies In
he direct track of the Government building
Expansion program.
=,
HNHE aged market, rich in customs and tradi-
~ tons and clearing house where mod
Ernity rubs elbows with the peculiarities of
ANOTHER generation will require no obituary
when It finally is RACED or removed TO new
site and modern accommodations. Its tale, close
" internetted in the important history OF the
District. is familiar to all the long time resi-
dents Of Washington. The market has matured
from adolescence with the District government
has reviewed its various changes IN political
management, and has seen some 20 different
Presidents ride up Pennsylvania avenue from
the simplicity of ordinary citizenship 10 the
uignity of White House occupancy.
There is a strange atmosphere OF another
washington permeating the bazaar-lke con-
kestion at Center Market on Saturday morn
Ing, the banner day of the commercial week.
what the curb-side market lacks In kaleido-
bcopic buntings, badges and banners. such as
bedeck one of the Far Eastern bazaars, Is
supplied by the brilliant colOrs OF ornamental
plants, flowers, fruits, vegetables ana otner
produce which are sold there. The jargon, the
babel Of tongues, the ballyhoo Of the hucksters
Generates mass dialogue which sometimes rises
to the shrill crescendoes Of q mob scene.
ssplenty of Spring pretties. here-and cheap"
kings q bent, old, coIored NANNY from out
Arlington way. Her face Is scanned with
wrinkles but it glows with that smile OF mer-
Ehandixing anticipation. She isn't going TO let
ANY Of the younger generation outsen her, this
bright, warm Saturday morning-not II skill
and experience count
Her regular customers, who greet her as
SAunt Sally" are legion. Soon her stock Of
HOMEGROWN flowers and her offerings of fresh
eggs and green vegetables are disposed or
Then, packing her traps, she wins her way
through the crowd, not to the one-hOrse wagon
6f antiquity but to a swanky glistening, closed
car of new and popular make The Center Mar
ket merchants" both white and black, now
ride on cushions of air instead OF In the OK
carts or travelling by shank's mare-locomotlon
used by their predecessors
RETSY Hall, who lives on "yonder side Of the
Potomac" is the skirted demand they
are not short skirts ether-of the curbSide SELL
ers She deals in such herbs as sassafras, wild
cherry and the like which her grandchildren
tEIlstIe" from field and forest. out in Arlington
County.
Ever since the present Center Market opened
Its doors, back in 1872 Betsy has been daily
visitor In good weather and bad. She has spent
more than an average lifetime sitting on her
rough stool beside her wall stand, gaining what
ever comfort she could from her treasured
briar pipe which she sucks contentedly when
business is dull
This weakened, wrinkled, colored "Aunty" is
philosopher if ever there was one such. bad
times follow the good, sunshine comes after
the hardest RAIN prosperity succeeds ADVERSE
IT," she says Life rewards I'm proportion as
you work. Santa Claus comes only once year;
the rest Of the time you have to scratch for
what you get. And I tries, persistent like, to be
D good scrateher."
AUNT Betsy" can't tell you "perzactly" how
old she is, but the Center Market authorities