The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-26
RICH WOMEN WHO SHOP.
HOW SOME OF THEM ARE RE
GARDED IN THE STORES.


Mrs Harrison's Shopping Excur-
sions-How Mrs. Astor Made Mill
ner's Reputation.
New York, Jan. 25.-I have an unholy
Joy in watching women who are SHOP
ping they are so naively rude and the
primal elements of human nature come &
the surface so frankly. In January, when
the bargain sales are in progress, it is easy
to believe in evolution. We revert to the
ways Of our ancestors and grab whatever
we can lay paws on. Yet shopping is an
art, and the time may come when we shall
have professors to teach it. The good
shopper, vino has in her hands the bulk OF
the spendings of family and who knows
just where to 60 for the best or cheapest
ribbons or gloves or hosiery or shoes or
hats, is one of the most characteristic out
comes of that progressive division of labor
which marks the advance of civilization.
Saleswomen have their own rules for
judging women as shoppers, and it must be
said at these rules are usually of the
bourgeois order, based on the readiness with
which money is lavished rather than on any
nice discrimi alton shown in the expendi-
ture. Now and then, however. when you
come upon one who has waited on grand
danes, perhaps, for two decades, and who
is gifted with memory and a sense of humor
her revelations become interesting. Such a
one was telling me this morning that she
had known a woman to hold position at a
counter, blocking the way of other buyers,
for nearly half an hour on a rush SaUur-
day, waiting for the return Of parcel
which had been sent to be done up q second
aud third ime. because it had come to her
IN the first instance in box the shape of
which did not suit her, and in the second
tied with gray string instead Of the pink
and white which was more to her lac.
The customer could not be offended, for she
was Mrs. A. T. Stewart and in her hus-
bands store.
Miss Mary Gwendoline Caldwell who
didn't conclude her bargain for husband,
is a woman who knows how to get the
worth of her money, as somehow, only
rich women seem to do. and she is remem-
bered in New York as having a positive
scent for bargains, much as a barrier has
for hares. There is a small brown-eyed
creature who handles laces in a large es-
Establishment who tells me that she has never
seen Miss CaldwelPs equal for detecting at
glance what goods are really being sold
below their actual values, for of course no
me. chant sacrifices that which he can
protitably carry over to another season.
The woman at whose command is very
little money viii often buy recklessly under
the eyes of clerks and other customers, but
Miss Caldwell on one occasion spent half a
morning looking over thousands of dollars
worth of lace handkerchiefs, and finally
picked out one of exquisite pattern which
was badly torn and going for half price,
saying that she knew a young girl brought
up in a convent who would darn it for a
trifle, 50 that no one would ever suspect the
damage.
Many of New York's rich women are of
little profit to shopkeeperS, for they buy
their wearing apparel largely il Paris, and
what they get at home is obtained through
Eemi-private hands. Still there are no
women in the city, vita the possible excep-
ton Of the Vanderbilts, who do not indulge
in the dear delights of shopping once in
while. Mrs. Cleveland is one OF the incest
customers that statesmen and saleswomen
have to wait on. She did all her important
shopping in New York while she was still
lady of the white house. and was well known
before taking up her abode in the city in
several of the stores. | was buying
a cup and saucer in Jap
anese store about o'clock one
afternoon recently. when in walked
Mrs. Cleveland She was unattended and
had not even, think, carriage in waiting,
having taken that democratic vehicle a
horse car. She passed from table to table
ana from case TO case through the room,
looking over all the pretty things with an
interest tnat was plainly genuine She is
very quiet, put rapid IN her movements and
one gioved finger and little nod indicated
the bronze paper cutter and the curious
little ldoi 10 wh, SO charms she succumbed.
she did not oroer ner purchases sent home,
according TO the CITY Wonan's almost inva-
Tlaole Gus ON put look them In her hand in
demo cratlc style: IL Is easy to see why the
shop people hke her, she costs them neither
patience nor tlme
On one occasion also | have seen Mrs.
Harrison shoppl g, but 1t wasuot in store
Inc street venders have sprung upon the
city species OF mechanical toy which is
really very amusing. sometimes 1t is a
small TIN ostrich which strides across the
pavement, ana sometimes 1t is a bakers cart
driven by bakers boy. This Is what be-
wltched the 1lrst lady OF Washington. She
passed lt, stopped then turned about and
passed II again. linen she made purchase,
presumably Tor BABY Mckee or that i'm
portant young persons sister, who is almost
as obscure as poor little Maria de las Merce-
Gas since the oaoy KING OF spain got we'll
Mrs. harrison mas shopped at half dozen
OF the larger Ne" ORR dry goods houses,
ana clever girl VINO mas sold her stockings
SPEAKS OF ner as a cdreIul, sensible buyer of
a town rather 1nan city type, who doesn't
ike any supernuous attentions from clerks