just across from fulton ferry stands fulton market. it is nearly fifty years old, having been built in 1821, on ground formerly occupied by unsightly wooden buildings, which were, perhaps fortunately, swept away by fire. it covers the block bounded by fulton, south, beekman, and front streets, and was erected at a cost of about quarter of a million of dollars.
this is the chief of the great city markets, and an immense business is done here. there is hardly an hour in the twenty-four in which there is an entire lull in the business of the place. some of the outside shops and booths are kept open all night, while the supplies of fish, meats, and vegetables for the market proper are brought at a very early hour, almost before it can be called morning.
besides the market proper the surrounding sidewalks are roofed over, and lined with shops and booths of the most diverse character, at which almost every conceivable article can be purchased. most numerous, perhaps, are the chief restaurants, the counters loaded with cakes and pies, with a steaming vessel of coffee smoking at one end. the floors are sanded, and the accommodations are far from elegant or luxurious; but it is said that the viands are by no means to be despised. then there are fruit-stalls with tempting heaps of oranges, apples, and in their season the fruits of summer, presided over for the most part by old women, who scan shrewdly the faces of passers-by, and are ready on the smallest provocation to vaunt the merits of their wares. there are candy and cocoanut cakes for those who have a sweet tooth, and many a shop-boy invests in these on his way to or from brooklyn to the new york store where he is employed; or the father of a family, on his way to his brooklyn home, thinks of the little ones awaiting him, and indulges in a purchase of what he knows will be sure to be acceptable to them.
but it is not only the wants of the body that are provided for at fulton market. on the fulton street side may be found extensive booths, at which are displayed for sale a tempting array of papers, magazines, and books, as well as stationery, photograph albums, etc., generally at prices twenty or thirty per cent. lower than is demanded for them in the more pretentious broadway or fulton avenue stores.
even at night, therefore, the outer portion of the market presents a bright and cheerful shelter from the inclement weather, being securely roofed over, and well lighted, while some of the booths are kept open, however late the hour.
ben gibson, therefore, was right in directing mark to fulton market, as probably the most comfortable place to be found in the pouring rain which made the thoroughfares dismal and dreary. mark, of course, had been in fulton market often, and saw at once the wisdom of the advice. he ran down fulton street as fast as he could, and arrived there panting and wet to the skin. uncomfortable as he was, the change from the wet streets to the bright and comparatively warm shelter of the market made him at once more cheerful. in fact, it compared favorably with the cold and uninviting room which he shared with mother watson.
as mark looked around him, he could not help wishing that he tended in one of the little restaurants that looked so bright and inviting to him. those who are accustomed to lunch at delmonico's, or at some of the large and stylish hotels, or have their meals served by attentive servants in brown stone dwellings in the more fashionable quarters of the city, would be likely to turn up their noses at his humble taste, and would feel it an infliction to take a meal amid such plebeian surroundings. but then mark knew nothing about the fare at delmonico's, and was far enough from living in a brown stone front, and so his ideas of happiness and luxury were not very exalted, or he would scarcely have envied a stout butcher boy whom he saw sitting at an unpainted wooden table, partaking of a repast which was more abundant than choice.
but from the surrounding comfort mark's thoughts were brought back to the disagreeable business which brought him here. he was to solicit charity from some one of the passers-by, and with a sigh he began to look about him to select some compassionate face.
"if there was only somebody here that wanted an errand done," he thought, "and would pay me twenty-five cents for doing it, i wouldn't have to beg i'd rather work two hours for the money than beg it."
but there seemed little chance of this. in the busy portion of the day there might have been some chance, though this would be uncertain; but now it was very improbable. if he wanted to get twenty-five cents that night he must get it from charity.
a beginning must be made, however disagreeable. so mark went up to a young man who was passing along on his way to the boat, and in a shamefaced manner said, "will you give me a few pennies, please?"
the young man looked good-natured, and it was that which gave mark confidence to address him.
"you want some pennies, do you?" he said, with a smile, pausing in his walk.
"if you please, sir."
"i suppose your wife and family are starving, eh?"
"i haven't got any wife or family, sir," said mark.
"but you've got a sick mother, or some brothers or sisters that are starving, haven't you?"
"no, sir."
"then i'm afraid you're not up to your business. how long have you been round begging?"
"never before," said mark, rather indignantly.
"ah, that accounts for it. you haven't learned the business yet. after a few weeks you'll have a sick mother starving at home. they all do, you know."
"my mother is dead," said mark; "i shan't tell a lie to get money."
"come, you're rather a remarkable boy," said the young man, who was a reporter on a daily paper, going over to attend a meeting in brooklyn, to write an account of it to appear in one of the city dailies in the morning. "i don't generally give money in such cases, but i must make an exception in your case."
he drew a dime from his vest-pocket and handed it to mark.
mark took it with a blush of mortification at the necessity.
"i wouldn't beg if i could help it," he said, desiring to justify himself in the eyes of the good-natured young man.
"i'm glad to hear that. johnny." (johnny is a common name applied to boys whose names are unknown.) "it isn't a very creditable business. what makes you beg, then?"
"i shall be beaten if i don't," said mark.
"that's bad. who will beat you?"
"mother watson."
"tell mother watson, with my compliments, that she's a wicked old tyrant. i'll tell you what, my lad, you must grow as fast as you can, and by and by you'll get too large for that motherly old woman to whip. but there goes the bell. i must be getting aboard."
this was the result of mark's first begging appeal. he looked at the money, and wished he had got it in any other way. if it had been the reward of an hour's work he would have gazed at it with much greater satisfaction.
well, he had made a beginning. he had got ten cents. but there still remained fifteen cents to obtain, and without that he did not feel safe in going back.
so he looked about him for another person to address. this time he thought he would ask a lady. accordingly he went up to one, who was walking with her son, a boy of sixteen, to judge from appearance, and asked for a few pennies.
"get out of my way, you little beggar!" she said, in a disagreeable tone. "ain't you ashamed of yourself, going round begging, instead of earning money like honest people?"
"i've been trying to earn money all day," said mark, rather indignant at this attack.
"oh no doubt," sneered the woman. "i don't think you'll hurt yourself with work."
"i was round the streets all day trying to sell matches," said mark.
"you mustn't believe what he says, mother," said the boy. "they're all a set of humbugs, and will lie as fast as they can talk."
"i've no doubt of it, roswell," said mrs. crawford. "such little impostors never get anything out of me. i've got other uses for my money."
mark was a gentle, peaceful boy, but such attacks naturally made him indignant.
"i am not an impostor, and i neither lie nor steal," he said, looking alternately from the mother to the son.
"oh, you're a fine young man. i've no doubt," said roswell, with a sneer. "but we'd better be getting on, mother, unless you mean to stop in fulton market all night."
so mother and son passed on, leaving mark with a sense of mortification and injury. he would have given the ten cents he had, not to have asked charity of this woman who had answered him so unpleasantly.
those of my readers who have read the two preceding volumes of this series will recognize in roswell crawford and his mother old acquaintances who played an important part in the former stories. as, however, i may have some new readers, it may be as well to explain that roswell was a self-conceited boy, who prided himself on being "the son of a gentleman," and whose great desire was to find a place where the pay would be large and the duties very small. unfortunately for his pride, his father had failed in business shortly before he died, and his mother had been compelled to keep a boarding-house. she, too, was troubled with a pride very similar to that of her son, and chafed inwardly at her position, instead of reconciling herself to it, as many better persons have done.
roswell was not very fortunate in retaining the positions he obtained, being generally averse to doing anything except what he was absolutely obliged to do. he had lost a situation in a dry-goods store in sixth avenue, because he objected to carrying bundles, considering it beneath the dignity of a gentleman's son. some months before he had tried to get richard hunter discharged from his situation in the hope of succeeding him in it; but this plot proved utterly unsuccessful, as is fully described in "fame and fortune."
we shall have more to do with roswell crawford in the course of the present story. at present he was employed in a retail bookstore up town, on a salary of six dollars a week.
