House & Garden 
EWERS AND BASINS 
triangular lips, because the thick “ pudding” 
coffee of the furks could be comfortably 
poured from a spout of no other form. The 
dealers import an immense number of small 
bowls, which are sold here as finger-bowls, 
and may perhaps serve a like purpose in the 
East. Most of them are cheap in workman¬ 
ship, but a few are handsome in design, with 
inlaid silver in conventional figures. The 
rather shocking advice of the dealers is never 
to clean these bowls, because the dirtier they 
are the better the design is brought out. 
H owever strong the commercial instinct 
of the Oriental, the merchants of the Syrian 
Quarter show the utmost suavity to those 
who visit their shops merely to see the 
beautiful and curious articles with which 
they abound. The proprietors set forth 
their wares with infinite patience for the 
gratification of visitors, and under the genial 
influence of an appreciative spectator they 
will rummage their shelves for the rarest 
articles. All this is done with the air of 
men who are receiving favors. A small pur¬ 
chase provokes grateful acknowledgments 
and perhaps a cup of the pudding coffee for 
which the quarter is famous. 
Just how large a part of the wares are 
actually imported only the census-taker can 
ascertain. It is probable that the finer 
articles are really of Eastern origin, but 
doubtless many of the coarser wares are 
made in the high dim buildings that line 
Washington Street. There is an ever in¬ 
creasing number of Syrian artisans coming 
to New York; you find them at work in 
little shops or lofts of their own,—metal¬ 
workers, clever carpenters, cabinet-makers, 
that turn out the most beautifully polished 
chests of precious wood, and others that pro¬ 
duce the crude inlaid furniture of the East. 
E. N. Vallandigham. 
3^7 
WATER JUGS, TEA AND COFFEE-POTS 
