Peter Cooper’s Funny little Grocery-Groggery, at the Corner of the Bowery and Stuyversant Street, in 1820.
PETER BEHIND THE COUNTER.
Enter Female Customer.
Customer—I want two candles, and a quart of soft soap, and a pint of gin.
Peter—There’s the candles, and there’s the soap, and now I will get the gin. (Measures it.) And there’s the gin.
Customer—Put it all down on the book.
Peter—I will only put it on the slate, as I want you to pay me by Saturday evening.
Customer—O, certainly. (She goes.)
Enter Jim, a Darkey.
Jim—Mr. Cooper, I want a plug of tobacco, and a glass of rum, and I will pay you on Saturday night, when I get my week’s wages.