San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-02-13


ment, is Il great help in the essential
training of a window trimmer.
HE REACRER HIS GOAL.
BY this time the young man has
been salesman in every department.
He knows the seasons with the un-
erring eye OF farmer. He has been
taught the mutability of fashion, aud
yet IL often repeats itself. He has &C
CURED many ideas, developed others,
| and trained his power of observation.
He is ready to be window trimmer,
| and some bright morning he secures
the coveted and usually well-psid
| job.
"Atrimmers salvation Is his origI-
nality," Mr.. HOnan declares. He
must be original, or ali his artistic
| knowledge goes for nothing, because,
after all, our customers eyes alone
are not to be pleased. We must
seile them. buttoDhole their attention
as 1t were, and compel them by our
very convincing argument TO think
that they must come into our store.
Therefore, the ideas of window
trimmre or his stock in trade, and of
course he gets them where he can.
Perhaps 1t is in church, or at dinner,
or at the thester, or in bed in the
| middle at the night, or more often,
his window grows upon him while he
| is working at it. But q trimmer now
adays usually draws q little, and
very rarely begins window without
having clear plan of it on paper,
| and the fact is that as far as goods
are concerned, they are in better con-
dition coming out of our windows
l.n II h. l.
people handle them"
TRIALS OF TRIMMERs.
According to Mr.. Herr, of the Fair,
trimmer has to be thinking of his
summer windows somewhere about
Christmas. This refers, of course, TO
windows upon which special effort
is to be expended, and may be either
those for general opening days, or
else for the sale of special goods. He
| does not think q trimmer Is Civ
| en- to awaking with q bright idea
| in the middle OF the night, as
Thackeray did when he evolv-
| ed the name VANITY Fair. but
| believes q trimmer to be undoubt.
| eddy more successful If he gives all
his waking thoughts to his work.
Sometimes an idea will be borrowed
from another window, though with
out necessarily stealing the plans of
its author, and often q trimmer will
also borrow from former windows of
his own.
A show window partakes more or
less-snd the more the better-of the
individuality of its trimmer. There
is the window dramatic. the window
| artistic, the window utilitarian, the
| one-ides window, the window of
| many ideas, the window burlesque,
the window that sells directly 10y
price mark), the window convincing
and the window entrappiDg, and each
of these windows can be traced
from the mind of the man who thought
it out. A trenchmsn, it is thought,
| can probably dress one particular
| style of window better than any one
else in the world, but he has not
| versatility. 1t was Scotchman said
this, and when he was asked from
what country hailed the Admirable
Crichton, who could do all windows
equally well, he modestly changed
the subject.
WHAT TAB TRIMMERS EARN.
Salaries for the trimming of wind
ows vary in the old-fashioned way
according to the merits of the trim
mer. A firm in New York has been
known to pay $500 annually to a
clever man, but then the people got
up early and stayed up late to see
| those windows; and he was really a
star In his profession. He didn't
even have to pick up heavy pack
age; he did the thinking and a lot
OF assistants followed his bidding.
But rich prize like that
is rarely an ordinary window
trimmer's lot. He will get SO, $35,
and on up to $50 week, and when
be gets this last he can be sure he is
a very capable window trimmer in
| deed. The average is S35, and In su ch
instances as Carson, Prize, Scott &
Co.'s twenty. seven windows and Mar
shall Fields windows, it is not east
ly earned money. Work must begin
at O'Clock, when the shops open and
| only ends when they close at 5
O'Clock. In the holiday season it Is
more often midnight when he COM
pletes the task. The hours OF pre-
paratory thinking for special effort are
not included in this, and the window
| trimmer must get his brain work in
edgeways when he can. He steps
out at dinner hour to compare other
windows and pick up any ideas he
can from them. It might be men
| toned here that the taking of ideas
has to be done cautiously. else other
window trimmers will pick him to
pieces like o lot OF angry authors.
1871. Diamond mines opened
in South Africa.
1871. Mont Gents Tunnel OPEN