The evening times., 1898-05-27
FUNNY WORK
FOR WOMKN
window Gazers" Among the
Latest Arts of fShopkeepers.
Other Duties of Distinguishcd- Look
Ing Females for Promoting the
Welfare of Merchants.

stores in the great cities of the country
there are in each one a dozen wom-
en- employed for special and peculiar
services. whose salaries would easily
pay the wages of more than 100 girls
who stand behind the counters. says the
New York Press. this being exclusive of
the fioor-walkers and regular heads of
departments.
First. there Is the buyer. who is a
person of distinction among the en-
ployes. and who Is treated with con-
sideration by her employers. She re-
ceives a salary varying from $, 900 TO
5000 a year. according to her expe-
rience and proved ability. She must
be a woman of tact of taste and of
discrimination In selecting her goods.
| and. what is even more important. sh,
must possess the business sense that
will enable her to gauge the public de-
mand for certain articles. and the trend
of coming fashions and fancies, as well
as those that already exist.
She has to be able to foresee how
high a certain rage will run. when 1t
will probably come to an end, and
what amount of goods they will b.
able TO work off on their trade while IL
lasts. Most stores now employ about
an equal number of men and women as
buyers. The latter purchase exclusive
ly infants wardrobes. lingerie and all
the dainty and delicate wares that are
essentially feminine.
number of our stores have had
their best women buyers abroad recent
~. selecting the most attractive things
that France. Belgium. Germany and
Great Britain manufacture for the
rope with the purse of a millionaire
business in ones hand is thought to
breed envy in the breast of the ordi-
nary woman. The responsibility at
tendant upon this wholesale buying ex-
pedition. however. takes the edge of
the pleasure to some extent and causes
the buyer to earn every cent of the
goodly salary and expenses paid out for
her.
Then there is the detective in the store,
who makes from $25 to $50 per week. She
has to be a woman of varied resources
and talents and unerring instincts. car
rying with her an accurate estimate OF
everything in the store. its arrangement
and value, being ever on the alert. and yet
seemingly unconscious OF what Is going
on
Another kind of detective is the wo-
man who Is known as the shopper,
and who in the guise of wealthy Gus
toner, goes about to rival stores and OBJ
serves the details of their current busi-
ness, the lines upon which they are max
ing special runs, their qualities. and other
facts which may be Of use to her employ
ers. AS well-dressed customers with we'll
flied purses are often hard to please. she
afouses no suspicion by seeming to be
very fastidious, plying the clerks with
questions and demanding to Sc the whole
stock before making a selection.
A part of the shoppers duty consists
in visiting a fashionable modiste, finding
out what gowns and wraps are being
made for prominent society women and
perhaps getting glimpse OF some eS-
elusive designs. She has the privilege of
ordering, being measured and fitted for
an elegant gown for herself; but, alas,
that is the limit of her glory. 1t must
straightway find its way to the house
that employs her, where 1t serves for
model, which is speedily reproduced in
dozen gowns for their own trade.
She does get something more than this
empty satisfaction out Of her work, how
ever, for she is provided with a home in
a suitably fashionable district while pos
ing as a swell and ordering her wares
to be sent to her, and she is also fitted
out with the finest of underwear in order
that she may appear to be Of the proper
class and condition in life when she is
being ntte0. her salary Is ABOUT tue SAINT
as that Of a good detective.
An even more peculiar occupation is
that of the window gazer." She is not
an employe Of the high-class stores. but
of their more lowly rivals. who have to
make up for their Disadvantages of loca-
tion, etc, by resorting to all kinds of
schemes to attract customers Their
windows having been arranged so as to
display their best wares and most fetch
ing bargains to the utmost, the window
gazer'' begins her work.
She locks like an ordinary weIi-to-do
shopper and makes her way along the
street in an inconspicuous manner unit
she is employed. Then she stops so sue
denly that the crowd behind her stops
also She let's her gaze wander. as If ire
sistibly, toward the window. Other gazes
follow her. She walks slowly up to tn"
window and fastens her eyes upon its con-
tents still more intently.
A few others do likewise. and the nu-
cleus Of a crowd is formed which grows
until the pavement is blockaded and M
a soul but the window gazer knows what
he or she is looking at But they are all
trying to find out, and in the meantime
they have noticed In front of what store
they are, and several have seen things in
the window that draw them inside and
the window gazer's" mission Is accom-
plished.
This individual makes good money
while she keeps her position. but 1t is
necessarily short-lived, as even with fre
quent changes of costume she cannot
help being recognised after short time.
and a new 'tGazer' must take her place