The evening times., 1898-09-07
THE DEG1}ElYPUL
= = SAMPLE
Veteran Shoppers Appreci-
ate It's Total Depravity.
Matching Bits of Goods Is Exnsper-
utinE Enough to Try the pa-
thence of Any Woman.


deepest dye no matter what its shade.
1t is small and apparently harmless
article, yet it has been known to drive
strong men to drink and healthy women
to the hospital without turning a hair.
Pinned to a shopping list in the early
morning, it has a deceptive air of meek
.less, of willingness to be matched, but
an old shopper knows a great deal bet
ter than to be taken in by such assump-
tion of innocence. The total depravity
of inanimate things has before now en-
gagged the attention of a suffering pub
lie, and has led to the invention of
strange and wonderful words which new
er appear in any dictionary and which
disqualify their inventors at once and
forever for the office of Sunday school
superintendent. The total depravity of
samples. says writer in the Chicago
Times-Herald, could give that of collar
buttons and hairpins cards and spades
and yet win the game. In the first place.
the sample has talent nay genius, for
getting lost, which is equal to that pos
sessed by a schoolboys hat. You may
| impale your sample upon the stoutest
pin, weight it down with an encyclopedia,
or lock 1t away in a safety vault; all to
no effect; when you come TO look for It,
1t is gone, as you always knew in your
heart ii would be When you have found
II in the coal hOd or laid away among
! Johns dress shirts or gone two miles
to the dressmaker's for another, that is
only the beginning of your misery 1t
, remains to be matched. and nobody but
yourself can do it. There are men who
have been known to match samples of
ribbon and even of velvet or sewing
Silks but they are dead. They were too
good for this world anyhow, and they
! promptly sought a better one rather than
match more samples.
1t is the sample of a meek and gentle
gray which is the most demoniac of all
It's kind. Before it the salesman who
can put his hand upon the most obscure
shade of pink or the green which is like
nothing In heaven or earth falters and
| turns pale. He begins like a drowning
| man. to pass in review all the incidents
| of his vast life; he scays the multiplied
/ tion table or something else under his
| breath, to brace himself Then he
| clinches his fist and sets to work: hours
later, when the counter groans under
the weight of bales representing the six
| ty odd shades OF gray, he finds the one
! for which he is hooking. Nor is his task
! over yet; the sample must be matched
to the piece both by natural and artifi-
, cial light, for grays when matched by
! 'canfielight do not look the same by
! day'-and vice versa.
| 1t was north side woman who q few
| months ago decided upon a simple cos
| tune which was TO be a symphony in
gray. She began by purchasing the jack
! ct. Then she got a sample of the cloth
and started gayly out to match up her
! symphony. Six weeks later she had con-
| cluded her task. She said she had great
difficulty in matching everything save her
/ hair. That turned gray of its own ac-
| cord.
She may, after she has quite gotten
over the effects OF overwork, undertake
to match sample Of gray again. but she
viii not try to match q cloth sample in
silk or wool, for she has learned that not
only does the dye have a different effect
upon different materials. but that each
| manufacturer has his own dyes and they
| resemble the hues used by other manu-
| faCturers in little save name.
Next. perhaps, in difficulty for match
ing purposes, come the shades of blue
now 50 popular under various names. but
as difficult to match under each one. The
| wind is tempered TO the shorn lamp in
this case, however for they may be COM
/ bined with good effect, even If they do
not match perfectly-a thing quite i'm
possible with grays.
The person who is responsible for the
| latter-day system of grouping the shades
| of embroidery silks is a benefactor to the
human race. He should have a statue in
! Lincoln Park. where lovely woman Cou d
| go for a holiday and say, 'Lo our bene-
! factor" When you wearily take your
| sample to the embroidery silk counter the
! clerk does not frown upon you. She sim
| ply says: 'Oh. sweet pea shades" or
| ''nasturtium, as the case may be. and.
| 10, your sample is matched in half a jifTy
| and you have time for a cup of tea in the
midst of your days shopping. after all.
| If the man who devised this system Is
! appreciated the one who invented the
| system of marking the samples given
| over the silk counter is not. Probably
| eleven women out of ten firmly believe
that the mean old thing who ships the
| middle of the silk sample he gives her
| does it SO that by no chance can she ne
| fariously make use of it for fancy work
| Such. however, is not the case: each
| clerk in the department or store has his
own peculiar trademark In that snip,
| and when, weeks after perhaps. the sam
| pie comes back with an order the clerk
! who gave II first and not the one who
| cuts off the yards is credited with the
| sale.
The woman who shops all day and never
| spends n penny is more or less myth,
| yet there are women who collect sam
! pies as connoisseur does objects of art
These samples are always for an apochry-
| phal friend in the country" and that is
| why the woman from out OF town IS wise
| when she takes the time to write direct
| to the firm for her own samples, since
| she will surely receive much more gen.
| erous selection than If she depute a
| friend to seek them for her.
The worship of samples is a matter
| which no man ever can or will under
stand. though he have whole cellar full
! of Greek roots laid in and the banking
| system is no mystery to him. But every
woman understands II. and by and by we
| shall perhaps have ''the sample cure
for cases of nervous prostration and
! mental alienation.