The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-04-10

Brilliant Success of the Annual Opening
at Scott Bros. & Co.'s. Last Thursday!

Twelve years ago the dry goods house now fl.
miliarly known Throughout this district rs Scott
Bros. II Co.'S, began business in Ottawa, in q
little store in Leland's block above Madison st.
In honor Of the day, it has been the custom OF
the house to have each year an "openng''-or
birthday fete, to be celebrated with becoming
ihonors by the house and the approach of the ever
welcome spring. These openings have come to
be the event of April to Ottawa ladies; and many
a brilliant opening day has the house had in its
history.
Yet none, it can safely be said, had been equal
to that Of last Thursday. in the past there had
been repeated drawbacks one day 1t rained, an
other was gloomy, the store itself had its demer-
its to detract from the effect; bu: Thursday last
was superb day, warm and brilliant, and the
store itself was perfection. The new plate. glass
gave an abundance OF pure sunlight; the new
shelving gave an opportunity of displaying goods
as they should be and the new increased space
gained gave room for variety Of fabrics. Appre.
ciating the situation, the artistic tastes Of the
ployes was brought "to the 'front.'" and with the
abundance of the most elegant goods at their dis
posa they produced by decoration the most
beautiful saesroom ever seen in Ottawa--we now
remember nothing equal to it.
The opening having been modCstly announced
in our last are sure our readers who were
unfortunately unable to attend will like to know
how the store appeared and who were there. As
! to the latter we can say that our observation
showed the house full at all hours after II A. NJ.
until 9P. NJ. Employees of the house estimate
the number of ladies who reviewed the stock
at ,000--which is certainly under what we should
have put it.
| There is a vast difference between describing
goods and seeing them. We went through the
house yesterday with the view of describing the
display. 1t is easy to tell in dictionary style what
Is there, but to describe the taste in decoration,
the wealth Of color, is another thing. Those who
did not the display will miss (reading the
best description the real beauty of it all, We
shall make an effort, however
THE SOUTH SIDE.
The south side Of the house is the dress goods
and white goods department, in charge Of. Mr..
Neil Brown, now in his ninth year with the
SCOTS. Mr.. B. displayed a deal of taste in his
department. His window, to begin at the begin
ming was deity arranged, with groS grain silks
black satin de Lyon, wine brocadc, and the beau
as the heliotrope, gendarme, absinthe, &c, all
in gold and oriental effects. His shell ,es were
crowded with goods but the ledge above was
trimmed from the ceiling with drapery of bro
cade satins in all the new shades pyramid Of
the beautiful American silks in the most delicate
shades. 1t is to be noted that the house carries
and had here displayed all the popular brands of
American, French and italian black and colored
silks. Mingled among these goods were elegant
samples from their immense stock of black silk |
fringes. Beyond these were odd shaped piles of
mourning goods, such as the celebrated Adras |
mourning serge, bombazines, Toulon grapes,
Australian grapes, drapc dc Nirginc, Albertine |
cloths, &c Then came pyramid of the silk |
and wool brocaded French novelties, tastefully !
arranged to show the newest shades, among
which were the sapphire drap de cocher, gend-
arme, sorbier, bronze, Rembrandt, vertargente
all in bizarre effects. Then came all the new
shades Of monte cloths, French cashmeres, Grape
cloths, lace, silk, WOOL Grape and plain buntings.
Really the display in this department was SUI
perb the walls from ceiling to shelving being
covered with goods in various ways Of arrange
ment known only to the experienced trimmer.
Separating the dress goods from the white
goods was magnificent Marseics spread, with
handsomely ornamented border and center of
ferns and autumn leaves in colors, which we
imagine half the ladies believed to be hand-paint
ed. Then, hung from the ceiling, on the walls,
in pyramids, cones &c, were Irish linens table
linens, towelings, fancy towels, napkins, en-
broidered tides, silk embroidered organ and
piano covers, &c, very attractive show.
THE CENTER.
The central shelving and counters form the
notion department, under the charge of T. Lucy
The same elaborate decoration prevailed here
From the ceiling hung festoOns Of real English
thread and Duchess lace mingled with real black
Gupere, brocadcd ribbons, &c, looped with new
designs in fans, handkerchicfs, &c The window
here decorated with laces, elegant lines Of
fans, buttons, ladies' hchus, brocadcd silk and
embroidered handkerchiels, &c. Next to the
window stands a case of laces and tinted kids OF
3, 1, 6 and buttons. On the circular counter
were displayed dress and dolman buttons passe-
ladies' bows in new shades &c. In
the center of the ledge OF shelving stood three
handsome suits, one Of which was sold and taken
away Thursday-a travelling dress Of all wool
grey bege, trimmed with brown silk; also tai
ma, worth j75, trimmed with thread lace, pas.c-
nenterie and deep fringe. Two other beautiful II
suits were here dsplayed-a black satin de Lyon
trimmed with cardinal brocade satin, fringe and
passementerie; and a wine colored silk with bro
,ade fringe to match-a very handsome garment.
In this department were shown also large line
Of hosiery OF imported and domestic goods in all
sizes. We noticed specially beautiful line Of
French embroidered hose-entirey new and de-
,irable, at prices from pc to 81. Also lace
topped, Isle thread and kid gloves; and the
oarasol case containing all the new and novel
styles
THE NORTH SIDE. Il