Evening star., 1898-12-24

NCW> ante u l e o e
w strugglings of his
"ile or MS mother or his sister, The
beauty OF 1t all is that the Christmas shop
ping man feels conscious through it all that
he is more or less involved In a tanel,
'lat presents certain phases of humor;
whereas his mother or his sister or bis
wife accepts 1T all in deadly earnest. and
often becomes careworn over it and even
At umes permits herself to verge upon
tears over the little disappointments of
the period The Christmas-shopninp man
mas been so abundant in the stores herea
bouts during the past week or SO that If is
difficult to arrange him and reduce him and
make a composite Of him. He is one how
ever in all Of the main essential character
1stics Of the tribe. First and foremost he
is the merest bobbing chip upon the sur
lace of a stormy sea; in other words. he
ooesh Know what he wants, can't tell
what he wants If he sees 1t, believes inn,to-
lly everything that is told him hv tba
counter girls with the wavy hair while he
IS suspicious of the most obviously truth
hai,. siasehehts is. OF the counter girls whose
llalf iSn wavy; pays almost any price for
something he doesn't want and growls saw
aseiy over the quite Reasonable figure at
tached to the thing he does want and must
,s' mass' uopends with child-like wistfulness
upon tne opinions of salespeople who strike
MIN as being of the right sort and finaII,
"inds up his Christmas shopping career
with alleged funny remarks over the inn
t.sy pecillty OF his women folks for spending
'he ahte-chr1stmas week in store touring,
A Single Specimen.
say, said one Of them at silver toilet
artlcle counter few afternoons apo-be
held up silver-topped powder-box, with
a pun jogging around therein. as he
spoke-'hoW's this for a girl. anyhow? Do
they use these things nowadays?"
Ihe young woman behind the counter
OF course saw that the young man was try-
ing TO put on a bluff at sayoire faire 70
nlde his sheep1shness and his precise
knowledge of powder boxes He knows
mat girls use en- as well as l do she no
doubt thought, and she smiled sWeetly at
him. 81
Well" she replied, Some girls do. Won
Know. they use them for ornaments for
lnelr dressers, generally" .,re
Il thought they splattered the f1our on
thelr faces with piece of chamofs skin ,,
SAD the young man. in forced effort to be
gay. or course, the tired counter girl had
10 .tn,sa smlle. me young man would have been
are supposed to smile over all the mots of
Christmas shopping men,
. wen, say, The young man continued
you don't think she'd get sore over my
suggestion, in sending her q powder hoy
that 1 thought she made her face I'm do
you? Girls noses all get shiny, and they've
got to use powder for that, haven't thew"
"A powder box and puff make a very
suitable present." replied the young Wo-
man.
"All right; gimme this one, then. How
much die say 1t was? All right Mower
you've got all kinds Of silver truck here,
haven't you? ] want to get a pair of those
-er-buckes you know-buckles.'
The girl behind the counter didn't ask
MIN what kind. She just put q tray Of
them before him.
Calling for Help.
You don't mind my asking, do you,
whether this is all right, this buckle busi-
ness?' the young man inquired II don't
want to make any bad breaks Regular
thirg, isn't 1t, ths-er-buckle business for
present? Initials on em, you know, and
all that. Papers say SO. anyhow But I
pass it up to you. Wouldn't think tier
-lmpudent, or anything like that would
she-any girl, you know. that you just
know, you see?'
II have sold several hundred pairs of
buckles lss les, this week to gentlemen replied
you wish to have engraved on them?'
We'll, say" answered the man in front
Of the counter, that's what's bothering
me. You see, she's liable to change the
inittals-that is, her surname initial-al-
most any time, for my-for that of chap
l know. Now. I don't want to be prema-
ture, but If l have the last initial Of her
name as 1t is now put on 'em, why. If she
should change her name, they'd be kind O.
out o date, wouldn't they?"
Thus the young woman behind the coun-
ter had to do all of the Christmas-present
deciding for her would-be off-hand male
customer, and he was only one.
Wanted a Model.
A good-looking young man, with no sign
of insanity about him. created something
N Of ha h orf
ment stores few afternoons ago by walk
ing from counter to counter on the ground
moor and earnestly sizing up the propor-
tons or the saleswomen. They looked at
MIN with good deal of establishment and
Wonaer' as he passed along. directing a
the girls in turn.
Nv nat have I done?" a number of the
girls inquired in mock horror to each other.
ne must be detective. Now, I haven't
taken anythlng out of the store, I'm sure,
after me-"
Nhe young man passed along, scrutiniz-
ing each saleswoman with critical glances,
MS eye fell upon plsasant-featured girl
yarns.
"Ah" the young man exclaimed, standing
size to Tr'
Then one Of the foor-wa1kers, who had
noticed the young mans queer perform
ance, tapped him on the shoulder.
is there any particular department to
niS M'n,cn you wish to be directed?' the floor
"a,Ker inquired Of the peculiar customer.
NO." said the latter. II know where the
mackintoshes are. I've been looking for a
model to try 'em on for me-girl Of the
same SIZE as the one I'm going to get the
nackintosh for, you know. That girl be-
nind the yarn counter Ia just her build and
SIZE exactly. Could you spaxe her for five
minutes while she tried on few noaclxtn-
toshes for me?"
The young man. inst id of-beins ordered
out as crank, was Wurnished with the
purchasing facilities ~ had SO carefully
searcned for, and he bought the finest
macintosh in the store.
Shopping With His Wife.
Inc man who goes Christmas shopping
with his wife always tries to assume the
playful superior air.
The trouble is," said the young wife of
one OF EN-, biting her Aps as she surveyed
some knick-knacks the other afternoon,
Mary has been over everything on this
counter dozen times, know, and I'm
sure she knows the price of everything,
down to the teeniest little thing"