Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1885-10-29
Wauatnaker's.

tiiS iiloiiCy aiiiOutilS W illuCH.
Wholesale trade consists
almost entirely of haggling.
Houses, horses, carriages,
pianos are sold by haggling-
why not furniture ? Banking,
dealing in masses of money
itself, consists of haggling.
The Stock Exchange is the
biggest haggling-machine in
the world. To the poor the
little sums they pay for daily
use are big. The business of
almost all the little local stores
is done by haggling.
The world is not SO full of
haggling without some reason.
Haggling has its advantages.
Here we are, our prices Just
SOHO more, no less. A
dealer outside can ask more
for his things; and then, if his
customer happens to know
our prices, he can drop-he
would rather make a very
little profit than nothing.
Hence elastic prices and
haggling. We have only one
defence. We have got to have
better things and deal with
generosity. That is our only
way to beat a townful of
hagglers.
Excuse the depression. 1t
was needful to state with some
fulness what you know in a
shadowy way and act as if
you didn't know at all.
The part of our furniture
stock you haven't had the
chance to know the state of
so well is upholstered work,
mantels, tables, chairs, cabi
nets, easels, bookcases, desks
for house and office-all those
difficult wares to manage well
because of the number of
forms they come in, the room
they require, the skill in choos-
ing, the knowing where to go
on and where to stop.
| Upholstered work is mostly
out of sight. Vast sums Of
money in it. Somebody has
got to be trusted. There must
be a way to be sure of the
maker. 1t belongs to us to
be sure. 1t belongs to you to
trust. Another day, perhaps,
we'll tell you how we know
the inside of these things. You
see here a long array Of sofas
andchairs not onlyupholstered,
but actually covered with
costly stuffs. A roomful be-
sides of the stuffs. 1t isn't
common to buy these things
with any sense of sureness.
The softness and spring may
come of something else than
steel and curled hair. They
may flatten out in a twelve
month. In the higher range
of upholstery you are scarcely
willing to buy by what you
can see and feel.
The more difficult part is
the getting together of shapes
enough and styles enough:
for all this getting has got to
be paid for. The things of
last year must be gone. A
swift current of trade makes
everything easy.
How many shapes of tables
and chairs, do you think ]?
We could fill this building no
two alike. OF all the crooked
ways of putting pieces of
wood together the table-maker
seems ohave discovered most;
the chair-maker next; the cabi-
net-maker not far behind.
In short we have a ready
made stock of furniture, much
OF it such as people pay twice
over for having it made to
order; and we make to order
besides.
Some may get the impress
sion that we deal in nothing
but costly wares. By no
means. The humber wares
are not SO various. A little
space is enough for them.
This acre or more is mostly
filed with costly work; but
the plainest ofthings are here.
/ We should be ashamed to
have this store a less good
place for the things OF the
poor than for those of the
rich. Was it made by the
rich? Could it live by the
rich? Are there so many rich
in this comfortable city of
ours as to fill such a store as
this? It's an everybody's
store. We hope the time
when we shall really need to
advertise for the trade of the
poor is very far off indeed.
We have every sort of fur
nlture a poor man can buy;