The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-10-17 00:00:00

" SHOPPING."
(From Use World. I

The pleasures Of men and vioiner7 "differ etrangely—
pace the more advanced members of the shrieking
sisterhood—and perhaps one of the most conspicuous
distinctions between the two is to be observed in the
method in which they conduct the necessary business,
of chopping. A man detests the process altogether,
pnts it off to the last moment ; then rushing into a
shop, takes the first thing offered to him, and grumbles
at its nneuitability until it is lost, worn out, or other-
wiee disposed of. With the ladies of the family, on
the other hand, shopping if one of the great pleasures
and excitements ,d life, and tos they advance in years
replaces the delights of the mazy vat,* or the prune:
ing steed. Naturally there are but few fortenee that
could bear the burden of incessant shopping were
large sums expended on every occasion, anti as the
pleasure is perennial and diurnal its votaries have
successfully elaborated a systein by which the acme of
enjoyment is attained with the zlli ll imum of esPoliss-
They either provide themselves with a small pattern
of unusual colour which they ',edam them:whoa eager
tr., match in some uncennem material, and turn over
the whole stock-in-trade in search of something which
it would greatly disturb their calculations to find; or
else they pretend to he charged with cominiseimui by
come friend In the country, and evade the necesaity of
purchase by averring that they will write and tell her
what they have seen, and return when she lus com-
municated her wishes. By the time that they haste
on either or both of these pretests visited all the
more important rangesias in London they are
tolerably est courant of the fashions of the day, and
able to Jake their choice of what please,' them hest in
the several establishment., they have visited.
On such matters women have absolutely no
conscience: they will enter a shop and occupy an
hour of the shopman's time in displaying to them
materials which they know will never match the
pattern they have brought, and which they are far
from wishing should do me. All they want is to see the
new materials, the novel shades of colour, and to
learn the official names for them. Ito that when reading
accounts of the toilettes worn at grand parties by the
"upper ten thousand" they may !understand and
appreciate every seamy mentioned, and be able to
enlighten more considerate friends who have not yet
learnt to pursue their shopping olli so philogopleal a
system. The shop-people are seldom, we faihlss., the
dupes of these ladies, and their patienoe and civility
are truly amazing. It must be disheartening to one
of the animated lay-figures in the show-room to try on
costume after costume, to envelop herself in mantle,
jacket, or scarf, while the forewoman descant., on the
superior perfections of each, and the lady rehire with
wearisome iteration to her mythical friend, who is
apparently
ordinarily ti more
lot ims
of of and
en. peculiarities
Le
experience has taught the poen. Man who reaches
down roll after roll ei, *lke and various other
materials whether the lady he his serving is in earnest
in her crprcssed desire to match a colour, or whether
she is only improving her acquaintance with fashion.
able fabrics at the expense of his time and treolde
but, in West-end establishments at any rate, he is far
too well trained to allow the least e videuce of his
knowledge to escape him, and his enters into the farce
as gravely ex if he had believed in it. Some of the
more conscientioue among the female free-lances
affect an air of virtue, lout saying plaintively that
' they cannot leave a shop without buying corn-thing'
Invest in the cheapest pair of gloves they can find,
after vexing the soul of the vendor by um/Wrist for
unknown makes and unusual cohorts, and generally
discourse eloquently ever after en the bad gloves to
be found at such anti such a shop, carefully omitting
to mention that they would not give a reasonable
price for a better article.
Verily, too, the patience of a shopkeeper ehould
equal that of Job, or ho must have some difficulty
in conotediug his annoyanee at finding his ningarin
filled, an is constantly the case in West-eel ehops in
the aftern.e.ii, with ladies who nine there solely to
see who is there and to talk to their friends, without
even making a pretence of wishing to purchaxe any-
thing. If the carriages which, sorely to the obstruction
of traffic and the vexation of the smile of the police,
stand every afternoon from three till nix in detrital
ranks before the doors of the faehionable drapery
emporiums all contained bondluic buyers the fortunes
realised would be fabulous, and the sail emporiums
would change hands with a startling rapidity. But
such is far nelcsel teen being the case, and we can
well believe the remark made by an employ/. that
they "did more business in I no day before two "'clock
than in all the afternoon,u of the weekeput together."
We presume it never strikes the ladies who allow
their inquisitivenew, to prompt them G. turn over all
the stock-in-trade in search of a colour or a material
which they a. not wish to find, or who erect an tinsel,
peetingfriend into a convenient Mel. Barrie, to enable
them to examine the mantles and ostunea at every
shop within their reach previous to making up what they
are pleastsl to call their whets, it never, we gay,
exeirs to them that by their inconsiderato conduct
1
they lentil...l4y ieerease the expense -.1 the arti--Ics
they may ultimately decide "ii purelm:ing. If a shop-
keeper is obliged to keep many more hands LIMO he
I actually requiem, simply becsuiw ladies will emee to
his $llOl, to while away an idle afictito .11 in leas niaz
1 the 103111111 of slow col 'um :old ac piaieting theins.l.. r.
i With novel textures which they tic% er eine:Jeant tic
wildod i.lea of parch:win: , it is 1. it,nt to onmn nie
: sense that lie must PAY ill ...1% cA.tto tiati.h In titalla
' inean4 or another, :...I the rowlest tAlletift,lif. LI
I naturally llnd ot dia1,„11..; ...mewled higher fer his
; ressi: that, 1.00.1 otherwise be IleCe.i.llry. Again, if
I ladies, who one wonl,l illMllllo might gee enough of
. each other at. parties, ..r exchange their views on the
1 toilettes of the day either in club other's &ash*, 1
i rooms Or in the paradiee of Prince's, sleet ineuxel te
. frequent shops to provide thoteeehes %ilk goasip
Irather than gowns, they iesossitzln an .silargument of
the preinisee, nler thc looditabie paying cU1a411.31,1 who
I really mine G. Lily may find the *h.q. llt, erowiled foe
comfort, awl may be driven to go .Asewliere. Build-
ing casts money, and the necessary funds G. provide
mom fir olistructemi as well as purchaser,. must, like
• the salaries of the extra employ,:s, colat/ ultimately
tof the peekete of the customer... u\Ve fear there is but little hop: that an %..11./. .4
, one; will elfeet a ref-ran; in-leed, we shall probably lei
1 cousidensl prestueptuous ia ..ctituring to =omega-at tl, a,
1 without committing themselves to the Woman.'
1 Rights inevement, ladies might allow theinselvot the
, luxury of a grain or two of consideratien and common
jsense. Surely it is not a neeessarily conipenent part
, of the feminine character to he alsedqsely bminiem
1 and devoid of the lower of neeing tte simplest cause
1 end effect. Is it a desperate hope that wen,: few of
the wiser epirite may We the force of what al: Moe
tahl,,,emtahisolv,;:rotnati
striven to show --that all the un%eoeseary expenditere
they create must sooner or later Is paid for in Koine
the etrougest of all ...Ally motives, may not only
refrain testasel.es, but may UM their influence to
chaps ....e,
tett
bh,et: bty. ,
Moth& fashion ? ' ,
4'bils'ellii:Aerefoll,:liben,,ingp

Dr. Ridding, Ilead master uf W;u..saesaar School, and
soudo-law of the Bishop of Sithabury, is about to marry a
daughter of Lord Selborsae.