The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-19
He COUNTED $4,000
AN EASTERN EXPERT TAKES THE
CENSUS OF ONE DAYS SHOP
PEERS.
AT THE GOLDEN RULE STORE.
THIRTY-TWo THOUSAND PEOPLE
PASS INTO THE BIG STORE In
ONE DAY
THROUGH THE MAIN ENTRANCE.
An Estimate of Those Using the
Other Doors increases the Fig
ures to 10000

Thirty-two thousand people passed
through the main entrance of the Gold
en- Rule department store yesterday.
The census is Vouched for by an eX-
pert who will make an affidavit of
the count next week. The expert who
made the count yesterday has taken
the census of people passing through
the big stores in all the principal cities
in the East and came all the way from
New Y ork to take the count of people
passing through some OF the largest
stores in Chicago and the West. He
is an agent of an Eastern advertising
syndicate. and heretofore during the
holidays he has confined his operations
to the East, but this year the syndi-
cate sent him West to take the count
Of people passing into the largest de-
partment store of each city, to see
how the Western stores compare with
those in the East. The figures which
he secured by actual personal count
yesterday are enough to surprise even
those familiar with the big stores big
business. To see $4,000 people passing
in at one entrance under one roof,
within a short space of fourteen hours
who made the count is admitted to be
the most expert counter Of people in
the United States by experts all over
the country. Last year he took the
count of a store in Indianapolis, where
in a single day $4,000 passed in; at
the time that was thought to be a
marvellous showing, and was tele
graphed from Maine to California, but
Of loo cr1ir ir1c
when compared with his work of yes
terday.
A man who is authority on crowds
and who has had years experience in
handling and estimating the numbers
OF people in large assemblies in the
various undertakings In which he has
been engaged in, said last night that
he doubted if some of the Chicago
stores had as big a crowd as was re-
ported by the agent of the syndicate
yesterday The $4,000 who passed in
the main entrance of the store does
not include the clerks, who pass in and
out of the side doors, nor the people
who entered by either the Eighth
street or Robert street entrances.
Mr.. Joseph Elsinger said last evening
that from the reports he had received
frances, he was abe to prepare a care
full estimate of people who entered
through these doors About 1000 came
in by the Eighth street entrance and
nearly as many by the one on Robert
street, which included clerks and all
employees of the concern. He thought
that q conservative estimate of peo-
pie who passed in during the day would
be 10000. Out of this number about
$50 were clerks who passed in twice,
which would leave 3S,T00.
From this showing it cannot be
doubted that ST. Paul is the retail CEN
ter of the Northwest, it would be al
most impossible that this number of
st. Paul people would visit one store
In a single day, and probably a good
proportion of those who passed in were
people from the country and Mime
apolis The Eastern syndicate request
ed the Golden Rule people to allow their
man to take count of the people pass
ING in their store some day during the
holiday season; permission being grant
ed. they set a date when he would be
in ST. Paul. He arrived Friday with
his credentials and met the members
of the firm who were inclined to laugh
at the undertaking, as people came in
by the tens and twenties, and it would
seem almost impossible to count them.
He was however, accorded the priv
lege and was at his post yesterday
morning, when the large doors Of the
main entrance were thrown open. All
lday the people came. increasing as the
day wore away, and for little while
between $50 and 1880 in the evening,
there was a slight let up in the volume
of people passing through the main en-
trance All day long and up to 10
o'clock the people jostled and crowded
through the big doors, and still the
man kept his post with untiring vigil
lance. The crowd was a huge miscel-
famous concourse of city and country
folk of all sorts, shapes and sizes. Th5re
were old men, young men, ladies with
babies. and men with both arms full
of bundles; short men, tall men, fat
men, lean men, ladies with children,
and without children; all mixed up in
a crowd of all compilations. Several
times during the afternoon the crowd
at the main entrance became so dense
that they were unable to move either
way, being wedged in like the family