The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-04-08
BARGAIN SALES.
Desperate Scenes and Warfare ut
the Counters-The Kind
That Get There.

7 first time TO see lne SlsnlS u nv
usually directed to the bargain sales
at the big shops, and yet he might
find there one of the most ~characteris-
tic and unique s~pectacles. Ii h visi-
tor is a man, one glancs at the sigh {
would be enough for him, n he
would probably flee the scene as
quickly as possible. But ii 1t were a
woman whose eve fell upon the excit-
ing scene, that eve would u~ndoubted-
Iy CLEAN with the fierce joy which
warriors feel at foeinen worthy OF
their steel, and in less time than IL
takes to tell it she wonld plunge into
the thickest of the fray. For the love
of a bargain is one of the great under
lying differences between the sexes
that the philosophers have too gener-
rally ignored. Who yer saw an eager
crowd of men jostling one another
around marked-down neckwear or re-
duced ~suspenders in u g~entleman's
furnishing store2 Or, madly buying
trousers they did not want because
they were marked something and
twenty-nine cents?
1t is not the mere sordid thing itself
that tempts a woman; it is the fact
that 1t is a bargain; and even more,
the fact that other ONE want 1t,
that goes to her head and renders her
for the time being not responsible for
her actions. We have known a bride
on her wedding journey to be seized
with the fine frenzy, and lay in sup
plies of cheap underwear aud house
linen with her trunks stuffed TO burst
ing with a ~trousseau sufficient to last
her u life time, 1t is undoubtedly the
fact that if a woman knows what h
wants and has an idea how much she
ought to pay for it, she has only to
bide her time and watch the bargain
counters; sooner or later it will appear
on one OF them, and she will get it at a
price that is worth waiting for. This
fact is we'll understood by careful
buyers, and accounts for the crowd
that collects whenever q real bargain
is advertised. Long lines of patient
women have been seen waiting before
the still unopened doors OF a dress
goods establishment which had adver-
used a standard make of white cotton
at a phenolnenally low price, and by
the time the regular morning shop
pers appeared every yard of the goods
was sold-not without struggling and
hand-to-hand conflicts among the gem
a Od1Cl2 LAAtI ~ ~ AAo IA
pale.
For a scene of strife and confusion
that battles description, 20 to a sale
of ladies' underwear and children's
clothing. There was one recently
where all sorts of underwear were sold
at a uniform price. There was in
fants' and children's underwear also,
and the sale was a most useful one TO
busy women. They did not fail to
attend it, and by three o'clock in the
afternoon every table was surrounded
by a struggling, expostulating grasp
ing crowd of women, each of whom
managed somehow to get n hand
through the crush and get some de-
sired article. The frantic clerks were
constantly having thrust into their
hands some article with the exclama-
tiou, "Ill take thisln from a heated
and breathlcss woman, who instantly
plunged back into the throng to grab
for some fresh prize, leaving with the
clerk no clue to her identity.
In the general melee desperate
women of superior strength and agil-
ity make nothing of s%natching some
coveted article from a weaker sister;
sometimes with a naughty, II beg
your pardon, madam; that is minel"
but usually with no pretence of apol-
ogy. The weak woman has no re-
dress, though she may take a sweet
revenge by tossing the garment aside
with q disdainful gesture and remark
ing, depreciatingly, Pm sure | don't
want it.n There are large women who
reach the tables through the sur-
rounding crowd by simply casting
themselves upon it and mashing
through, and there are small women
with a calm tenacity of purpose that
would no more let go OF a bargain
than a hungry dog would of a bone.
There are enterprising free lances who
swoop from table TO table collecting,
with their accumulations of one va
riety of underclothing around their
necks, another over their arms and a
third under them. There is the fond
parent endeavoring to try on slips
upon a two year old child. as he is
jostied and trampled upon by the
surging crowd. and rends the air with
his cries. There is the woman who
sweetly requests to have one of the
nineteen cent slips sent up to Oae
Hundred and T~wenty-ninth street.
G. o. D., to be tried on and returned
if not satisfactory.
The contest thickens and the bat
tie wakes fiercer and fiercer until
about five o'clock, when the strife be
gins TO wane a little. One by one the
women emerge from the crush and
exhausted seek the elevator, red and
disheveled, with bonnets smashed
and frocks covered with lint, but
triumph with a visible consciousness
of something attempted, something
done, 10 arm q nights Fepose." TIN
tired -saleswomen, heated and bat
tered, straighten the stirred-up heap.
Of underclothing, the floor is strewr
with debris, the entire place presents
the appearance of having been recent
ly devastated by a cyclone, but for to
day, at least, the bargain sale is over
The Lovely spanish Women.
The lapse OF centuries has no
changed the Spanish woman much
The scope of her mental exploration
is limited; it extends 10 further thar
a thorough knowledge Of the histor,
and the literature of her native land
Ia this knowledge she surpasses tn
women OF every other nationality
The heart, too. of the Spanish woman
knows two supreme passions-he
country and her love. To the forme
she bends her energies occasionally, t
the latter always.
She puts no spectaeles to her eye
when ID sits down to study. Sh
a.