Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-14

W@NM last night. when ask
ed to te-- lie Christmas campaign was
planned, I'VE can't tell you that. We
orghtnt to tell any one 1t has cost us
fifteen years of experience and 100000
spt MT in learning what and how to do"
The department store of Christmas time
IS worlds fair in itself. The whole wide
world has contributed to it. You compare
1t to Babel when. in the afternoon per-
chance. you thread your way through its
scores of roc ms and numerous floors in
quest of some fancied article desired for Il
grit. There are perhaps thousand GUS
toners in the great retail beehive. The
monotone Of mingled voices is like the hum
OF 10000 spindles Babel is good. Yet sup
pose you had here under this vast roof
some one individual of the many races and
types of human kind that prepared all
these countless interesting and beautiful
thirgs.
They would come from the four quar-
ters of the earth. There would be the
f1axer-haired child toymaker from Nurem-
berE, the weaving housewife of Holland,
the dusky Moor, the linen maker of ire
land. the potter of Dresden, the artisan of
11dia, the Cinnamon, the Jap, the Turk,
the Austrian, the Spaniard-there Is hardly
place of this terrestrial ball that has not
been peered into in search of something to
make Christmas the merrier and happier
here in Washington in this year of grace
1895.
1t Takes GeneraIship.
The planning of a Christmas campaign
begins in May. The keen, far-seeing mer-
chant lays his plans six months before the
holiday season. HIS correspondents in
New York, Paris and Vienna, themselves
working year in advance of their trade,
keep him advised of the most striking and
pleasing novelties. His own agents paid
large s;-laries spend months going through
the great bazaars and marts of Europe to
discover the coming knick-knackS likely to
g
trade. Thousands of dollars are spent not
only in purchasing goods, but in getting
the information, the points and trade
secrets that insure success in pleasing the
public. One of the leading department
stores of Washington has had four men IN
Europe selecting and buying Christmas
goods for months during the past summer
and fall.
THE man who furnishes brains for the
department store said a wel!-known mer-
chant last night. has to think of great
variety and range of human desires and
expectations He looks UP and down his
crowded floors and sees there people of al!
conditions, ages and tastes. He becomes a
student of human nature, and studies man
and womankind not only through his own
eyes, but through the hundreds of clerks
in his employ. Such is the system of most
such stores that at the close of each day
every clerk has in some way, either di-
rectiy or through superior. reported
not only the sales of the day and the
quantity of stock left. but the character
of his customers, what they sought what
they purchased and what they desired and
failed 70 find
Thus from one season to another, with
accommodating experience. he learns to read
the great Conglomerate page of human de-
S.reS, very much as the violiniSt takes in
his scores at a glance and with swift bow
transmits it into melody. The merchant is
learning continually as he transacts bust
ness He is not intent wholly on selling
what he has in order to make the profit he
wants, but he is peerng continually over
the edge of the future. trying to discern
what the public will be pleased with
year from now. Thus it is with Christ
mas. One year builds for another
Toys Are Cheaper.
Toys this year are cheaper than they
were. The lower duty has in part pro-
duced this result. but the general stagna-
ton of trade has been the. chef influence
toward reduced prices. The duty is from
to 10 per cent lower than it was when last
years goods were bargain ed for, and man
ufs cturers in this COZ ntry and abroad have
now adjus ted their output and cost price
to the newer conditions of trade. With
the shrinking of prices there seems to have
come greater activity in the effort to
produce new and pleasing articles. Inge-
nuity has multiplied itself in every direc-
ton. You will see things on a toy counter
this year that were rever dreamed of be-
fore.
The old boy of, say, forty, can't believe
his senses oW adays In a toy store. Thirty
years ago. everything was obvious. There
was sawdl st in the donkey; the relocated
soldier was made of pine; the black-and-
white cow en- green paper grass loo-ed and
moo-ed by means of the bellows plainly to
be seen beneath. There was little mystery
in toys then. What little there was could
be pried out with a jackknfe in short
time. Now not only springs, wheels and
levers, but steam. gas and electricity per-
wade the toy stock from beginning to end.
Aladdin fas been studying modern science
and magic has been reduced to a matter of
mechanical certainty.
Most of our toys" says a prominent
mel chant, come from abroad. Yet we are
gradually waking up to the opportunities
in the business in this country. For In
stance, all our express wagons, rocking
horses and similar things are made down
In Maine. We have bought them by car
loads. They are we'll made this year. The
more ingenious toys are made in Europe.
Nuremberg is the toy capital of the world
Cheap labor, with skilled orkmen to di-
rect and superintend, produces vast va
riety Of things 1t is there chiefly that TOW
soldiers are made.
This year an American manufacturer is
making them. and the output is good
They are produced in great variety and fin
ished beautifully. The toys that call for
mechanism are produced in Paris. The
French excel in such things. Paris Is the
art capital Of the world Modern French
art is the standard by which all art is
through all classes of the people a strong
art influence. Tho salon has taught all
France to be artistic in their artisanship,
and no other nation has or can compete
with them. A French girl can dress a doll
to beat the world"
Dolls of High Degree.
The doll department in the toy branch of
the big store nowadays is not considered
complete unless 1t includes the famous
French dolls. They are wonderfully life
like, and can be had in all sizes, and in
prices running up as high as fifteen dollars.
They are all completely dressed after the
most exquisite Partisan designs The
heads are of wax and have a diStinctively
French cast of countenance. Beautiful as
they are, the German dolls are by connois-
seurs regarded as far sweeter in expression
and more pleasing to little folks. The Ger
man doll, however, is imported as naked as
she was born.
Besides these imported counterparts of
juvenility, there are numerous homemade
dolls of china, rubber and wood; and the
good old-fashicned rag doll. The leading
department stores also have the foreign
dolls in parts. so that the little girl who is
SO fortunate to own a $40 or SIS doll
and SO unfortunate as to break its head,
arms or feet, may replace these parts at
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