The record-union., 1897-06-07
LIKE A MILITARY CAMP.
Graphic Description Of a Great New
York Store at Night
Closely Guarded Riches After Visitors
Are Gone-BuSy Times When
Clerks Are Gone.

Bang! Ban2! SOUNDED d Sicdt Suns
through every floor of the establish
ment. 1t was 6 o'clock and the aisles
were crowded. "Oh, dear!" came the
exclamation of a lady who stood before
various coils of ribbon. Its closing
time and | simply cannot match TINS
shade" You need not hurry, madam,
the neatly dressed girl in black on the
other side of the counter advised her.
1.-THE signal is not for the customers,
but for the salespeople." On this as
surance the lady continued her search
At the first tap of the bell the clerks,
who had been standing half Istlessly,
seemed to revive all at once. 1t was as
# an army had received orders to strike
its tents and move forward to possess
a fat country. From unsupported cor
ners long strips of denim cloth were
produced and deity flung over the bales
of goods. the naked edges of the shelves
and the open trays of miscellaneous ar
ticIes There was a sound of shufnlng
feet as the crowds of shoppers moved
toward the street, casting last BACK
ward glance at the alluring prospects
of bargains unwillingly relinquished.
They found at the doors that guards
were stationed to challenge any who
might wish to enter but to give freer
egress to the throngs inside.
A department store during the day
time is much like a big kirmiss or con-
tinental fair. There is no open sky and
no bawling huckster to offend it with his
vociferations. But every counter is
booth, and a different want is supplied,
as you move from one to another, and
hot 1f@iSn
differs from the clatter of fishwives and
the chatter of bargaining yokels, in that
your civilization has taken on modula-
lions, and has grown more discrimlna-
tive, less violent in its aversions and
preferences. For one-half of humanity
the store has the same attractions as
market day in Eastern Europe. But
at the clash of the gong the scene shifts
and the market place becomes a MILL
tary camp.
THE GIRLS MOVE OUT.
Thus it was in the big establishment
in which a Mail and Express report
er found himself one day recently at
nightfall. The transition between the
hustle of business and the stern silences
of military order was accomplished with
the stir and yet precision Of a martial
evolution. This particular store, II
should be said, employs about 1000 per-
sons, upon five floors, and half OF them
are women. Their disappearance from
the scene was as discreet and taxing an
Amazon march as one would wish TO
see. The reporter stood near the en-
trance of the girls cloakroom, with the
manager as his sponsor. The apart
ment occupied one side of the basement
and was divided into two sections. In
one of them were a succession of par
titions separated by little avenues, let
tered like the avenues that lie between
Tonpl1ins Square and East River. Each
avenue had hundreds of hooks, and each
hook bore a number. The other section
was fitted up with numerous mirrors,
rugs, tables for books and sofas and
easy chairs. 1t was, in short, the pou-
doir of the girl of the counter.
Into the first section came the sturdy
tramp of young women trooping in two
abreast by whole companies. Inc dozen
girls who stood at the head of each ave-
nue. were ready for them. Avenue A,
No. %, 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 moment
faded out of the doorway looking Jaunly
enough under her yellow curls-
Girls wandered along chattering, arm
in arm, and some of them swept their
cloa.ks 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 luncheon had been
served They did not have to ask Tor
the Whereabouts of their possessions,
that had been preaTranged. They faded
away, too, and the sound OF laughter,
muffied by hat pins, came from the sec
ond apartment.
THAT was a bright idea of ours TO
put the mirrors in there, explained
the manager. 1.-The girls used to block
the room up by standing in line here
and adjusting their hats. We d1dn
like to tell them to move on, so we just
fitted the room yonder with mirrors,
and you notice there is steady pro-
cession toward it. From it there is a
direct egress to the street, and so we
keep things moving"
THE SENTRIES POSTED.
When the reporter regained the main
floor the bivouac had begun. In six divi-
sionS, one after another, the army of
clerks abandoned the field. Thencefor-
ward the strict order of fortress was
TO prevail. In no fanciful sense was
this true. For the building was in COM
mand of an alert young fellow, who
was called the captain 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 stow
aways and not to permit anybody to
leave the building after 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 find
it about as hard to get into the depart
ment store as it is to get out of prison
The commissary department had pre-
ceded the night watch. In the interval,
Just after the hour of 6 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 re-
manned open to admit the dampness of
a thunderstorm upon the perishable IA
brics. When everything was snug they
took their departure, most of the cleo
trio lights We're turned out and twilight
fell apaee in the spaces of the great
building The captain of the watch was
on guard at the one entrance, and I'M
der him was a force of some thirty-five
persons, including the dozen guards, a
half-score or more of Sweepers and