Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1891 — An Old-Fashioned Market. [ARTICLE]

An Old-Fashioned Market.

New York Sun. | If any one is desirous of seeing the only extant specimen of old-fashioned 'market, it can be witnessed in and about Washington market on Saturday ;morning. In a former generation the head of the household rose at daylight ’and, grasping a huge basket, betook himself to Washington, Clinton or [Jefferson Market to secure the choice cut ot beef and tbe freshest vegetables and berries. The leonine head (and massive figure of Gen. Scott could be seen nearly every morning at Jefferson Market, and every burly hutched and red-cheeked market woman looked for his greeting as a matter of coarse. AtClintcn Market the beads of the Lord, Lydig, Griffin, Aymar, and other families of socal note did not distain to put in a personal appearance, and amid the jokes and laughter thatthe wit of the society man add the ready repartee of the market _woman provoked, the work of filling the basket was a pleasant one. Times change, and the grandson of the men who carried their own baskets to market are waited upon by the butcher and green grocer at their house, but some of the gray-haired sons of those venerable men still go down to market on Saturday and they naturally have enough imitators to make this personal visitation a feature, on Saturdays especially. This set are careful purchasers. and only buy after examination and study. They Know what is ! good and where to get it, and evidently ! it pays them to carry their own has- i kets. ■. " j

Another feature of Washington Market is its crowd of Saturday night purchasers. This is the time when the boarding house keoper, lean of person and of purse, swoops down upon the stalls and stands, determined to make a dollar do the work of two. She knows the vegetables cannot be kept over Sunday, and the butchers would rather sell poultry and mutton at cost than trust it again to the ice box after being exposed for eighteen hours on sale, so she prepares herself to cheapen everything and haggle over every bargain she makes. Usually she is accompanied by a son and daughter as lean and shaky as herself, ahd the little ones carry a big basket between them, while another is slung on her own thin arm. Poor woman, perhaps like the Mrs. l’odgers whom Dickens created, she is bearing a heavier cross than the world thinks with a meekness which the world will never know. Mostof the crowd are jovial and some are uproarious, but the widow (she has generally lost a husband by the way) and her children never smile. Life is much too serious on Saturday night in Washington Market for smiles or laughter upon those faces sharpened by premature anxiety.