Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-11-13
PARTISAN IRREGULARITIES.
Scenes ON THE OPENING DAY AT THE
LOUVRE.
Soma Inside Dramatic History Concerning
Plays and Authors-A New
Melcdrama
PARIS. October is. 1880.

to the buildings themselves ; but little at
tention was paid to. these posters, and
crowds came and went according to their
urgent needs. But since the four or five
great rival stores have extensively adver-
tised that on that day the prices OF the
articles would be diminished, the ladies
have found it convenient to attend to their
wants on that occasion. Now the open
ing day" takes place at all these large
stores at the same time, and the amount
of exercise searcher of advantageous bar
gains gives herself in rushing through the
day from one store to another may possibly
be imagined. The "opening day for the
exhibition of winter goods and fall fashions
took place on Monday last, the 18th, and
no one outside of Paris can realize the state
of excitement of the fair buyers on that
occasion.
THE LOUVRE
Had advertised in all the daily papers that
on that day all persons who would pur-
chase, not as heretofore for the sum of
twenty-five francs, but an object howso-
ever minim, would receive as a present a
handsome chrome. Smaller establish
ments, in order to compete with this great
attraction, and not altogether lose their
custom, announced that to each buyer
there would be given surprises small
box containing some object of slight value.
The Bon, Marche, less given to charlatanism,
merely advertised that on the 18th would
take place their opening day" when all
winter and fall articles would be much
reduced in price. The desire to get some
thing for nothing, is wonderfully strong all
over the world, or else fiattered by the idea
OF being the recipient of present from the
corporation of the Louvre, as early
as s O'Clock in the morning
a battalion of women stood before the
doors of the large magdsin ready to
lay siege to it if necessary. The early and
first besiegers were of particular class,
composed for the most part of shop girls on
their way to work, of women employed IN
various establishments, and frugal, eco
nomical housewives who constantly dream
of bargains The clerks were taking their
early breakfast and the impatient grumb-
lings of the buyers who found no one to
wait on them produced hum throughout
the building as of enraged bees. At about
10 o'clock the bourgeoise appeared accom-
panied by her daughters, and considering
she had accomplished tour de force IN
having been able to dress herself, breakfast
and be ready to begin shopping expedi-
ton so early in the day. Ten o'clock for
Paris shopping is considered so early an
hour that those who arrived at that time
were exceedingly astonished to find the
citadel occupied and slight chances of their
obtaining any of the spoils. Those who
came did not seem disposed to go away
and the crowd grew -denser and denser.
In the afternoon the elegants arrived,
probably not so much in search OF a
present from the Messieurs of the
Louvre as to hastily possess them
selves of the nouveautes of the season.
They continued to come until circulation
in the interior became impossible, and the
policemen on the sidewalk stopped all those
who would enter until the same number
came out. As each object was bought and
paid for the cashier handed to the buyer a
small ticket varying in size and color, ac-
cording to the object purchased. One had
then to mount the handsomely arpeted
stairs and pass along corridor, when he
came across the various inspectors, to the
number of twenty or thirty, in dress coats
and white cravats, all
STATIONED IN ROW,
And seemingly amused as they scanned the
faces of the persons who passed before
them. They indicated to the buyer by a
motion of the hand where he should apply
for his present, according to the ticket in
his hand. Those who purchased for over
twenty-five francs received chrome of i'm
mense size, all of the same subject-ttne
heure sur le ldc-representing very pretty
young woman in boat surrounded by
swans, and framed in the green foliage of
the bank. The picture is very pref
ty, and remarkable in design and
color, something entirely unexpected,
as gifts usually of that kind
are of little if any value. These pictures
will of course be framed and hung ON the
walls of the customers OF the Louvre in
commemoration of the generosity of its
owners. Every one who purchased any
thing was given chrome, varying in size
according to the amount of money ex-
pended, but as to whether they also were
Mae heure sur le lac or as to what composed
the subject l was not able to learn, The
anxiety of the buyers to obtain their prize
before they should be exhausted caused
them to push and squeeze through the
crowd with a strength scarcely consistent
with the reputation of the weaker sex, and
in a manner suggestive of little dignity.
1t was impossible for those who wished to
buy a certain article to approach the coun-
ter on which it was exposed, and IN the
crush and squeeze bolts of satin, silks and
velvets were thrown down and trampled
under foot; the stairway became SO
densely crowded that voices screamed it
was giving away, when several women
tainted and fearful panic ensued; other
women climbed up on the counters,
scrambling over dress goods and fancy
articles, and one, trampling under feet
laces. feathers and flowers, screamed frou
the window to the gendarmes to come aid
draw her out. The confusion and panic
was
SOMETHING TERRIBLE,
And it is question as to whether the own
ers of the Louvre were polite in thus
drawing together such an immense crowd.
l know some American ladies WHO went
there for the purpose of making important
purchases, such as satin dress goods and so
on, and would not have chosen that day
were it not that their time in Paris is lin.
tied, but they left without buying any
thing, glad to have escaped from the con-
fused mass of human beings with sound
limbs. At the Bon Marche there was also
a great crowd, but circulation was possible,
and the customers seemed to be those
whose bank accounts were solid and their
purchases serious. One thing agreeable
about the Bon Marche the clerks, women
and men, are of superior class, intelli-
gent, patient and polite, and then they
have pretentions to good morals, which is
not the case with the Louvre, whose moral
atmosphere is entirely different. Forty
thousand chromos were given out IN one
day by the Louvre.
Although the majority OF the theaters
have reopened this fall with new pieces
there has been nothing very startling or
important, as well-known names in dra-