The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-07-04
NIGHT IN A GREAT sTORE.
Riches Closely Guarded When the
Visitors Have Gone.


From the New York Mail and Express.
Bang! Bangr sounded great gong
through every floor of the establishment.
1t was o'clock and the aisles were
crowded. "Oh, dear" came the exclama-
ton of a lady who stood before various
coils of ribbon. ITS closing time and
simply cannot match this shade" "You
need not hurry. madam" the neatly Dress
ed girl in black on the other side of the
counter advised her THE signal is not
for the customers but for the salespeo-
pie" On this assurance the lady con-
tnued her search.
At the first tap of the bell the clerks
who had been standing half listlessly
seemed to revive all at once. 1t was as
if an army had received orders to strike
its tents and move forward to possess a
fat country From unsupported corners
long strips of denim cloth were produced
and deftly flung over the bales of goods
the naked edges of the shelves ard the
open trays of miscellaneous articles. There
was a sound of shutting feet as the
crowds of shoppers moved toward the
street, casting a last backward glance at
the alluring prospects of bargains I'M
willingly relinquished. They found at the
doors that guards were stationed to chal-
lenge any who might wish to enter but
to give free egress to the throngs inside.
department store during the daytime
is much like a big kirmess, or continen-
tai fair. There is no open sky and no
bawling huckster to offend 1t with his
Vociferations. But every counter is a
booth and a different want is supplied as
you move from one to another and the
babble of voices that arises differs from
the clatter of fishwives and the chatter of
bargaining yoEels only in that your civ
ilization has taken on modulations, and
has grown more discriminative, less vo-
lent in its diversions and preferences. For
one-half of humanity the store has the
same attractions as a market day in
Eastern Europe. But at the clash of the
gong the scene shifts, and the market
place becomes military camp.
Thus it was in the big establishment
which a reporter found himself one day
recently at nightfall. The transition be-
tween the hustle of business and the stern
silences of military order was accomplish
ed with the stir and yet precision of a
martial evolution. This particular store,
IL should be said, employs about 1000 per-
sons upon five floors and half of them are
women. Their disappearance from the
zon march as one would wish to see. The
reporter stood near the entrance of the
girls cloak room, with the manager as
his sponsor. The apartment occupied one
side of the basement and was divided into
two sections. In one of them was a sue
cession of partitions separated by little
avenues lettered like avenues that lie be-
tween Tompkins square and East river.
Each avenue had hundreds of hooks and
each hook bore a number. The other sec
ton was fitted up with numerous mirrors,
rugs, tables for books and sofas and easy
chairs. 1t was, in short, the boudoir of
the girl of the counter.
Into the first section came the sturdy
tramp of young women trooping in two
abreast by whole companies. The dozen
girls who stood at the head of each avenue
were ready for the. Avenue A, No 20,
please" said a brisk maiden with blonde
curls. Her jacket and hat were whisked
out of the first partition and handed to
her. She slipped into the garment, gave a
reckless jab with a hat pin and, without
pausing a moment, faded out of the door
way looking jaunty enough under her yell
low curls.
Girls wandered along chatting, arm-ln-
arm and some of them swept their cloaks
and hats in little bundles from the counter
behind which stood the avenue guardians.
Others found their things stacked for
them on the little tables where their lunch
con had been served. They did not have to
ask for the whereabouts of their possess
sions, that had been prearranged. They
faded away, too and the sound of laugh
ter, muffied by hat pins, came from the
second apartment.
THAT was a bright idea of ours, to put
the mirrors in there" explained the man
ager. 1.-THE girls used to block up the room
by standing in line here and adjusting
their hats. We didn't like to tell them to
sr4-E a
der with mirrors, and you notice there II
a steady procession toward 1t. From 1t
there is a direct egress to the street, and
so we keep things moving"
When the reporter regained the main
floor the bvouac had begun. In six divis-
ions, one after another, the army Of clerks
had abandoned the field. Thenceforward
the strict order of a fortress was to pre-
vail in no fanciful sense was this true.
For the building was in command of an
alert young fellow, who was called cap
tain of the watch, and under him were
a pair of pickets outside and a dozen
guards inside, with orders TO admit no
one, to arrest stowaways and not to per-
nit anybody TO leave the building after Z
O'Clock who could not show a pass and
tell why he had not left before. The early
hours of the evening when the store closes
and the early hours of the morning when
it reopens are the opportunity Of the sneak
thief and shOplifter, but they ma II about
as hard to get into the department store
as It Is to get out of prison.
The commissary department had proceed
ed the night watch. In the interval, just
after the hour Of had struck, a dozen
pickets and porters had scurried over the
building seeing that no gas Jet was left
turned on; that no water was running and
that no windows remained open to admit
the dampness of a thunderstorm upon the
perishable fabrics. When everything was
snug they took their departure, most OF
the electric lights were turned out and
twilight fell apace IN the spaces OF the
great building. The captain OF the watch
was on guard az one entrance, and under
him was a force Of some thirty-fve per-
sons, including the dozen guards, a half
score or more OF sweepers and nearly as
many more scrubbers.
Az once the work OF preparing the build
ing for another day was begun. Huge
baskets each with a capacity OF a dozen
bushels. were dragged out from the base
ment. The gang OF sweepers piled brush
and broom and whisk. and the rubbish
that came 20 light was surprising. In
this particular store the fiotsam OF one
nights sweeping amounts 10 thirty-fve OF