THE MARKET SYSTEMS OF THE COUNTRY. 245 
and thrift. For such, the market accommodations of these great cities 
are wholly inadequate. Half an hour is consumed in going and another 
half hour in returning from the markets where good articles can be had 
at moderate prices. The alternative is to pay a dollar beyond the proper 
value of a marketing at a fashionable stall where meats are good, or to 
buy ata third-rate stand, where the million go, where the vegetables are 
wilted, the chickens are blue, and the beef Texan. 
Philadelphia has for generations been noted for the excellence of its 
market system. There is a law in force providing that vegetables, pro- 
visions, or fruits, exposed for sale shall not have been previously pur- 
chased within the limits of the city. When the city erects a market- 
house, one-half of the building remains free for the use of the country- 
people attending the market; and no fees, tolls, or perquisites are to be 
exacted from them for the use thereof. Persons who send or carry the ~ 
produce of their farms to market may sell beef, mutton, “c., slaughtered - 
on their farms; and persons so selling such meats, &c., are not liable 
to any fine for selling in less quantities than one quarter; provided that 
farmers using the stalls in the market-houses for such purposes shall pay - 
a rent or compensation for each stall not exceeding $20 per annum. 
The select and common counci! annually elect a ‘commissioner of mar- 
ket-houses.” No person is allowed to sell or expose for sale elsewhere 
within the market limits than in the stands specially provided therefor 
any fruits, vegetables, or other provisions (except fresh fish, meal, or flour) 
which have been: before purchased within the city of Philadelphia. No 
person exercising the trade of a butcher is permitted to occupy a stand 
or statiow without the market-houses free of rent; and no person is 
allowed to offer for sale any veal, beef, lamb, &c., unless the same is the 
produce of his or her own farm, upon any of the streets authorized 
for the stands for market-wagons, under a penalty of $20. The stalls 
and stands within the public market-houses, and places for the use of 
which rent may be lawfully charged, are let annually. No person is 
allowed to use steelyards or spring-balances within the market-houses. 
No person, except farmers bringing the produce of their farms to mar- 
ket, is allowed to sell or expose for sale any butcher’s meat in any 
streets or other highways of the city south of Lehigh Avenue, east of 
the river Schuylkill, or north of Morris street, in any cart, wagon, &c., 
nor carry about the same for sale. 
In consequence of the execution of these regulations, the second city 
of the Union has better marketing than some towns of one-fifth her 
population. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, in the afternoon, thou- 
sands of pounds of butter, poultry, meat, and sausages are sold to con- 
sumers by farmers from Delaware, Chester, and all the counties within 
thirty miles of the city. Their butter-tubs are larger and handsomer, 
the balls are fairer and more golden, than are to be seen in any other city. 
The market-houses of New York are musty old rookeries, and those of 
Baltimore are sheds, compared with the elegant, cleanly, sweet-smelling, 
though expensive, buildings in which the Pennsylvania farmer meets the 
consumer face to face. 
The cities which grow most rapidly are found to adopt or to allow 
usages which will, no doubt, be corrected as business crystallizes into 
permanent forms. Thus, Chicago gives the common council the right 
to license private meat and fish shops. The result is, that marketing 
stalls are scattered promiscuously over that most vigorous and thrifty 
metropolis. Next to a great hardware-house you buy a roast, and the 
latest novel is side by side with white fish caught in Lake Superior. 
The mischiefs of a bad market system are aptly illustrated by the re-. 
