Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-31
TRADESMEN IN TROUBLE.
MOURNING FOR THE DEAD DUKE IS
RUINOUS TO BUSINESS.

| AN appeal 90 tne queen TO Dfy her Ao1r
and Help Them stave on Bankruptcy
| Only Dealers in Grape Making Nor,
Than Living just Now.
| rBY CABLE TO THE D1sPArcH.1
LONDON, Jan. 30.-The royal tradesmer
who put up black shutters, placed Grape OF
the royal coats of arms over their shops ano
in other ways ostentatiously proclaimed that
they were in mourning for the Duke OF
Clarence, are now calling upon the Queen
to cut short her period of mourning in order
that they may be saved from ruin. They
declare that, despite Kaiser Wilhelm'i
visit, last year was bad one for business,
and that many of them will be forced into
bankruptcy if they don't have good season
this year.
The favorite scheme is for the Queen to
come to London after her continental holi-
day, live for three weeks at Buckingham
Palace and hold three drawing rooms and
the same number of state concerts. That, 1t
seems, will save the season and make every
body happy. Curiously enough the Daily
Chronicle, which, apart from the home rule
question, is the most radical newspaper in
London, has constituted itself the organ of
the London tradesmen in this matter. 1t
warns the Government that London dis
contented means London anti-ministerial, !"
and suggests that the Metropolitan men,
bers of Parliament, irrespective of politics,
should hold meeting, pass resolutions set
ting forth the facts of the case, and send
them to the Prime Minister for presentation
to the Sovereign.
An Act Of Lofty Charity.
The Chronicle maintains that an effort to
redeem the season would be an act of lofty
charity to tens of thousands of people who
can have very little at the best of times be-
tween them and want, and who are "as
helpless in aught except ministering to the
shifting fashions of the time as the slaves
who were bound to the chariot wheels of
patricians in olden days."
1t is not IN the least possible or probable
that the Chronicles ingenious advocacy will
prevail with the Queen. The most that she
late in the summer, and perhaps delegate
another to the Duke and Duchess of Con-
naught. The Queen dislikes London and
detests Buckingham Palace, in which, for
many years past, she has spent an average
of two DAYS and one night per year. The
demand that she should sentence herself to
three weeks hard labor in London is absol-
utely preposperous, and unworthy of q
moments consideration; and the Queen
would say so In so many words, II she
were not the most tactful old lady in this
country.
West End Dealers in Trouble.
1t is undeniable that the West End trades
men, except sellers of mourning materials
and undertakers, are having, and are likely
to have for some months, a very bad time.
One man, for instance, is said to have paid
900 for an immense quantity of dress
material and fancy things of the Hawthorn
or May Blossom pattern, in honor, of course,
of the Princess May, the bride-elect. Death
has spoiled that particular deal, no doubt
But dozen other men who expended thou
sands in the purchase of Grape and black
cloth, upon the strength of the first serious
bulletin from the sick chamber at Sandring-
ham, have no reason to regret their specula-
tion.
The talk of general ruin is absurd FASH
ionable traders know how to take one year
with another, and after all, there is the
perennial golden flow from America, the
course and volume of which is almost as
certain as the Gulf Stream. There is a pros
pect, also, of a late autumn season.