Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-07-16
THE b IERS IN EUROPE.
THEY ARE NOW BUSY SECURING
NOVELTIES OF ALL SORTS,
Their Europe Is Quite Different Thing
from the Europe Seen by Those Who
Health.

/ from the Europe Seen by Those Who
| Go Across the Sea for Pleasure and
/ Health.
Especial Correspondence
| New YORK, July Gone large element
| In the throngs that crowd the Atlantic
! greyhounds as summer opens do not cross
! the ocean for pleasure. True, they are full
| OF spirits, enjoy themselves keenly and in
| fuse good fellowship all through the ships
/ companies. But their errand is one pri-
mari1y of business. For they are the buyers
OF the great importing, jobbing and de-
partment stores who are making their sea-
| sons pilgrimage to the foreign textile CEN
| tiers.
| America, with all her enterprise and or
/ iginality, still takes her fashions and her
! finest fabrics from Europe, and twice a
year multitude of alert and shrewd mer-
chants seek the markets of Europe to learn
what are the latest novelties in fabrics,
styles, colors etc. They represent colossal
houses, carry purses that have no limit
and place their orders with dash that
has made them welcome from one end of
| the continent to the other.
! These buyers are a type by themselves
AS a rule they fall under two heads They
are often members of the firm personally
seeing to the purchase of their imported
! goods, or they are the heads of some special
department in a great concern. IN either
! case they are the pick of the dry goods
trade-shrewd, experienced veterans who
know just where to go and where, when
and what to buy. Visitors they are, but
not strangers, and no foreign manufacturer
would think of trying to palm off frauds
on them as provincials haiIing from a re-
mote and rude land
Generally speaking the wholesale trade
in dry goods is six months ahead of the
retail; that is, for example, the big dealers
are buying blankets in July and organizes
and 2rphyrs in December. Hence in the
June pilgrimage the trade is getting it's
fall and winter supplies, and in fact is
placIg many orders for goods for the fol
lowing spring. Thus the successful buyer
must have a streak of divination in his
make up; he must not only be perfectly
familiar with reigning styles, but must be
able to guess what the coming styles will
be, and to some extent he must create
styles by large orders which shall give
their own impulse to the European looms.
1t is easy to see that men in this position
must be Of extraordinary keenness and
strength. OF course they must be thor
linguists; must have broad sympathes
and refined tastes, and must have Gull
ture and dignity that will command the
respect and win the confidence of the very
leading mercantile and banking houses of
Europe. They must, in short, be indeed
merchant princes" qualified to meet on
equal terms the best blood in the world of
trade.
Some people confuse these buyers with
drummers, Jumping them under the one
general designation of commercial travel
ers." But this is a gross mistake. The
buyer is either one of the firm or a trusted
employe who purchases the stock Of goods
which drummers are subsequently put
on the road to sell. True, as a trader he
superintends the selling of the stock he has
bought, but he rarely acts as a drummer
and he would scorn to be classed in that
category.
The buyers Europe is very differently
laid out from the tourists He, like the
"globe trotter," has his "beaten track"
but it lies through very different scenes.
His route depends mainly upon the habitat
of the particular trade or industry in which
he deals. And in Europe these textile cen
tiers are clearly located, so that his steps are
easily traced.
The buyers of cheap cotton hosiery go
straight to Chemnitz, Saxony, the home Of
this vast business. The advent of the
American buyers in June in this neighbor-
hood is expected as confidently as the Egyp-
tians look for the rising of the Nile, and
one is almost as vital as the other. Hence
the recent change in the tariff by which
an added duty was imposed on these goods
brought dismay and panic price, Few To-
liti hoy fol no MoI[ nj tr,i
severely. Still the American buyers have
resorted there in goodly numbers and
placed some rousing orders.
Another rendezvous of the hosiery buyer
is leicester, England, where the finer
grades of stockings are made in large guam
titles, and BalbrigSan, Ireland, where the
genuine "Balbriggans" are manufactured.
Balbriggan, however, has long since be-
come trade name, like cheviOt or calico,
signifying fine unbleached cotton hosiery
and underwear.
The buyer of linen goes straight to Bel
fast. Here is the great center of this in
dustry, though there are fine linens to be
found in France, Germany and Belgium.
The very pick of fax is had at Courtrai,
Belgium, as the water of the river Lys has
peculiar quality in preparing the fber for
manufacture. Courtrai flax is known all
over the world as the best attainable. Irish
linen, however, excels the Continental, as
the Belfast manufacturers have special
genius in treating the fiber.
Of course, for printed cotton goods, cali
Goes, ETC., the great mart in England is
Manchester. Hither the buyers resort in
crowds; but the deeper interest is felt in
the novelties to be found in these lines of
goods at Mulhouse, Alsacc. This is a
unique, tucked away place, never visited
or heard Of by the average tourist, though
If lady she is very possibly wearing one
of the cheap and neat Mulhouse frocks on
her travels.
The glory of Mulhouse is it's ideas. Here
originate large share of the charming
novelties in designs which set the feminine
brain a-whirl when they are displayed at
the retail openings. Textile designing is
here made fine art, and the best taste of
France, still the queen of fashion, is en-
ployed to sustain the superiority of the
Mulhouse goods. Yearly the designs and
shades seem to grow more exquisite, and it
is one great merit of these fabrics that the
inexpensive lines are often quite as elegant
as those that are more costly.
Some of the great jobbers and importers
send to the Mulhouse manufacturers sug-
gestions, based on their experience with
the seasons trade in America and thus get
exclusive designs which give distinction to
their stock. The Alsatian artist manufac-
turers are quick to take these hints.
Another unique textile center in Europe
is St. GALL Switzerland. Most people as
sociate that sturdy little republic with
mountains, but to the dry goods buyer it
suggests embroideries. These goods are
made in prodigious amount at ST Gall and
J,a y-iIIarre- Hprp he ind