The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1893-04-11
EpeeiaI core.ponaln. q ~ M.allgme.,.

Is the shopping centre Of Europe
and which annually attracts to itself SO
many thousands of purchasers from
America, should have in it the largest
retail emporium to be found anywhere
in the world, seems to accord perfectly
with the natural fitness OF things. This
is the Bon Marche-cheap market-and
it may safely be- said that Of all the OBJ
jects OF interest which Paris shows with
pardonable pride to its thronRs Of adj
miring visitors, this is the one which
exerts the greatest fascination over the
feminine mind and the one, moreover,
which, from the fact just mentioned,
has the most depicting effect upon the
masculine pocket book. We wero
told at Whiteley's big store in Lon
don, that wo could buy there anything
from u tooth pick to an elephant, 1t
was also impressed upon us that if we
were in need OF such q luxury, the
proprietor would take an order TO aup-
ply us with vile, and that TO furnish
young men ~ dancers at evening
parties where the male sex would other
wise DO inadequately represented, was
trade novelty in which that house did
not discovered that the Bon Marche
dabbles in such eccentricities MS these,
but 1t surely offers variety enough, and
what makes ones patronage OF the
place peculiarly satisfactory ia that in
city where tradesmen generally seem
inciined to make you pay we'll Tor the
misfortune oil not being native, and
whore, TO very large extent, the shops
still do business OH the bargain and
barter system, this shop stands out as
tho most conspicuous oil very lew
whore fixed prices prevail, where the
notice, English spoken" does not turn
out TO be snare, and where Americans
stand On an'tqual footing with French
men at the cashiers desk.
Speaking, however, OF the cashiers
desk, and Of the privileges enjoyed
there, reminds us OF the curious fact
that in Parisian shops the system OF
paying ut the desk is 30 universal that
even the Bon Marche does not vary
from 1t, The clerk who waits upon you
escorts you to this point ofinterest, and
whilo ono person receives your pay.
ment, another, not far away, wraps up
your purchase, and during all this time
you are still under the protecting care
OF the salesman, who finally leaves you
only when you are in safe possession OF
both your change aud your package,
aud are yourself taking leave of the
ctr n Hpk J., a,ya NJ %
look up in bewilderment while goods
and money are flying automatically
across the ceiling, this Partisan method
appears to be old.focyish and decidedly
slow. You wonder, too, how such q
dilly-dallying on the part Of statesmen
can ever pay, But in Europe clerk hire
il 80 low that it Is cheaper in some
cases than labor saving machinery, and
as to tho time consumed, you do not
find in practice that it 10 very great,
while in stores like tho Bon Marche,
the aisles of which arc always thronRed,
there is decided advantage in remov-
ing the purchaser to another part when
his order has been filled, because by
that means additional room is left for
customers who have yet to be served.
AN HUMBLE nEaiNNING.
Like nearly all great enterprises, this
big Partisan shep was built up from the
most humble beginnings. Itsproiector
was originally a pedlar. Coming to
Paris with little capital, aud with that
which was still better, viz, q wife who,
like most French women, had genius
for business, he established himself be-
fore long in shop forty feet square,
and by the new fad OF fixed prices and
small profits, he gradually extended his
operations, until tho pedlar's pack he
carried at his death was commensurate
with one OF the biggest blocks in Paris,
representing fabulous capital and an
annual profit Of millions OF francs. For
ten years after that his widow carried
on the business, the volume OF trade
still swelling and the profits still piling
up, until in 1885, sho also died, the
mammoth pedlar's pack falling then
upon the younger shoulders, which,
with equal success and with increasing
gain are sustaining it at the present
day.
But thereby hangs a tale, and one OF
the tenderest human interest--a talo
which in these days Of big fortunes and
little souls ought to be proclaimed with
trumpet voice in every market place
and along every avenue OF commerce,
Tho Bon Marche Is not only big bust.
ness establishment, but a grand phi
lanthroplc enterprise. Aristide Bonci-
cnut and his good wife, Marguerite, be.
sides leaving the biggest shop in the
world, have LETT to all the world an OK.
ample Of good works. Rarely has there
been seen greater aptitude for gather.
trade; and for the lavish and practical
way in which the earnings OF this big
business were turned back TO benefit
dePendents and to bless q great city,
the conduct Of the Partisan shop.
keepers has never been equaled.
The principles which governed
them were that the first sharers
in their vast success ought to DO
the faithful employees who hel pod to
achieve It, aud that after that they
must remember substantially tho com.
munity which had favored them with
It's confidence and patronage. Hence,
princoly bounies at odd times for dc.
serving clerks, and for large number
partnorlhip In the concern. Instead
Of 1neS for tho iniraction Of trivial
rules, trust in the honor OF tho three
or four thousand dependents such as
put every one upon his mCtal and in.
Bpired oil with love and respect for tho
management. For the mon, after
twenty years Of service, and the women
after fifteen years, a comfortable pen.
sion, with all tho care Of iathorhood
aud motherhood-all tho comforts, and
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