The new North-west., 1897-02-05
OUR NEW YORK LETTER,
An Old idea With Money In It The Great
Horse Show Humbug Young
Chappies Who Look Horsy.
Especial Correspondence. ]

ISpeclaI correspondence.
/ It has often been said that any man
with good idea and little money can
come to New York and build up sue
cessful business in very short time.
Many persons have also been found on
the contrary side of this statement, it
is true, but it seems to be correct never.
theless. A short time ago millinery
: firm on Sixth avenue in this city closed
its doors and either went out of busi-
ness or removed to another part Of town.
The natural inference was that the
stand was a poor one, at least for any
enterprise dependent for success upon
the patronage of women. One man, how
ever, was shrewd enough to see that
there might have been other causes con-
soiring to the undoipg of the merchant
who had given up the place, and that it
was enc Of the best locations in the city
for a small, cheap business.
Not New Idea.
He invested in large stock Of 5 and
10 cent goods and opened the place
again. To say that he has been success
full would be putting the case too mild
~ LIS DGGu llGGIullJ
overrun ever since its inception, and it
is no unusual thing for women to go
there to make purchases and be obliged
to return home without having accom-
plished the object of their trip down
town. Everybody knows that the 5 and
10 cent counter idea was not new one,
and a few years ago these counters were
the adjuncts of nearly every store in the
country, SO there was nothing original
about that phase of the scheme.
Where He Was Clever.
What was smart, however, was the
discovery of the fact that great many
small and low priced articles i'll the
mammoth combination stores were slow
sellers because the shoppers did not Gaze
to 60 to the trouble of digging them cut,
SO to speak From this the conclusion
was natural that store in which these
articles were grouped conveniently and
in which nothing else should be sold
would be likely to be we'll patronized.
The merit of his idea was in his takiug
at the flood the tide which S, '-osre. 70,
says under such circumsts.slcs le
on to fortune
Ideas of New Women.
Woman was IN tho ascends.,t If
recent meeting of the N-4ett g,
tury club i'll this city Sic c.
numbers the representatives { s..
er sex, and she alone oct p
form, exceIS when Mr.. T., l.t=.
ident, made few intIoe,
The subject Of the discussion Was,
Domestic Life Disappearing In Our
American Cities, and, if So, Why2'
Mrs. Helen Campbell Of the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin took up the question
and told the many disadvantages under
which women labor in homemaking.
She quoted statistics and announced tho
fact that very small proportion of the
women in America have any servants,
and consequently are obliged to do their
own work, and many of them have tc
earn the money too. This, she said, was
the reason why SO many gave up the
effort and wandered into boarding
house, "the great disintegrater, as she
expressed it. Another cause for the less
ening Of old fashioned homes was the
craze for travel among people of means.
4lGAO d4C SlSae many k|elSOhs,
she said, "who spend their time going
about the world and never seem to
think in any place of anything except
how to get to some other place."
Mrs. Frances Fisher Wood deplored
the change i'll home feeling. Mrs. Wood
also said the people Of New York were
too much afraid Of the expense Of
home. If they would not consider SC
many things necessities, they could all
have homes of their own.
"One-third of our expenses" she
said, "are for things that we feel sure
people will expect us to have, and an
other third for what we want because
our neighbors have them"
And Mrs. Wood uttered truth
which every thinking man Or woman in
New York is willing to admit.
The Horse Show Humbug.
What an awful lot of humbugs most
Of us are, to be sure! Take the recent
horse show in this city as an illustra-
tion. 1t was q horse show only to
handful of people. To the vast multi
tude it was merely an opportunity to
see the persons made famous by the So
ciety columns of our very ridiculous
metropolitan" newspapers To the
members Of the Four Hundred it was a
sort of dress parade, where the populace
was given an opportunity to gaze upon
the magnificent apparel of those who
assume to be the social superiors of ev-
cry one else in this vast city. The horse
show is always a great pecuniary sue
cess because of these conditions, and for
no other reason whatever The swell set
comes to be looked at, and multitudes
come to do the looking. Relegated to
its proper sphere and devoted to it's Cos
tensibly) legitimate purpose, the horse
show would make reputation in New
York entertainments because Of its
monumental failure.
Horsy Young Chappies.
The thing is of course, not without
its humorous features, the most con-
spicuous Of which are the efforts of the
young chappies, and even Of the old
ones, to be regarded as being awfully
horsy. The attempts, too, of those who