The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-27


other stores of an equal size when the
clerk concludes a sale he carries the
article purchased to the nearest caisse
or desk and followed by the customer
rec1teS the amount and nature Of the
purchase 10 the bOokkeeper. who puts
/ it all down in his big ledger, makes the
4 change and then waves madam and
/ the clerk off to the parcel counter
\ where the article is wrapped up. 1t is
! an amazingly complicated system. but
] the Parisians regard it as an evOlu-
! ton of genius.
Paris Prices Are High.
Cheap shopping to a large class of
/ American women is after all one of the
7 prime reasons of their visit to Paris,
/ and it is the belief of many who now
/ go abroad on bargains bent that the
/ day Of economical shopping in the
/ French capital has passed away. So it
/ has to large extent. and the great
/ dressmakers and milliners of the Rue
! de Ia Pix, Rue Royale. Boulevard
! Haussmann. etc. whose fame is world
wide and whose models set the fash
/ ions, undersell but by a few dollars
/ their fellow tradesmen on the other
J side of the Atlantic. They can count
4 on the patronage of the enormously
/ rich American and English women the
/ European royalties and the smart eX-
/ travagant actresses, and their bargain
]
while the fashionable shopping season
/ is on it is just as cheap to buy a ward
! robe in America. LOng-headed and pa
/ tient French women of small means
/ have taught the moderately well to do
| American that the science Of ecOnOmi-
/ cal shopping lies in waiting until the
18th Of June At that date the sales
! begin, and then even the most import
/ ant creators of delicate CONNECTIONS at
! a tremendous sacrifice clean out their
/ dress closets. hat cuDbOards, etc, Of
! every last left over article.
/ There are thrifty women in Paris
/ whose business is to be in first when
/ the sales begin and bay up all the best .
/ bargains offered. Dresses that in May
/ would sell for S125 they secure for $40.
| and then in their own little shops,
/ chiefly situated along the Rue de Prov
! ince, they cater to a large number OF
/ customers to whom they sell at a profit
/ Of from 50 to S. on every gown.
Every season in Paris there are sales
/ of the WaTdrObes and bric-a-brac OF
! great ladies and bankrupt actresses
/ closely attended by these bargain ven
| ders. Furs, laces, iewelry, eXquisitely
/ fine underwear, napery and toilet arti-
] cles in ivory and silver is what they
/ buy up and sell again in their remark
/ able shops, where even if nothing Is
| bought a delightful hour may be spent
! examining the curiOs and often Valu-
/ able collections there brought together
! and filing the small dusky room WIFE
/ artistic disorder
! In. such places and in the little out OF
the way streets of old Paris, downright
! cheap shopping can be done, but as a
general rule and with the exception OF
/ gloves and few other articles, special
| ties of French art, simple clothes, Gus
/ tom made gowns, cotton underwear,
] s--n-- IL
/ are actually cheaper IN the United
! States. Low priced French labor can
! not do so well, so abundantly-Or so
/ economically the work of American
! machinery, besides. French women OF
/ but one class dress as we'll as the aver
/ age American woman, or care one-halr
/ so much about fine raiment-
American Women Lead the World.
In spite of the fact that the fash
/ ions of Paris lead the world, the Wo-
men seen daily on streets are dressed
with an economical simplicity that
serves as striking contrast when the
/ traveller comes directly from an Amer
lean city. To tell the truth. with the
/ exception of the distinctly rich women
| and the actresses, the average Paris
ienne cares very little what she wears,
/ provided her costume is tidy. The
about boarding to waste the family's
! income in foolish fine feathers. She
likes good black gown and plain
dark bonnet, while the labOring classes
cling to dark dresses and crisp white
caps, and a gOrgeously goWned Wo-
man in a bus or footing IT along d
dusty street is sure to be from Amer
lea or England.
A FrenchwoTnan begins to cherish a
fondness for fine plumage as soon as
| she is able to ride in her carriage, and
! when she reaches that point she sCOrns
TO wear. ready-made frOcks. The good
| dressmakeTs of various prices are too
pienteOus for that, and when French
! woman is distinctly rich one-half her
| shopping is done at home. 1t is posi-
\ bic to shop around for years in Paris
| and never lay eyes on one of the great
! social or theatrical lights. They go,
/ of course, occasionally to the great
mOdistes. sit in big arm chairs and
after watching the models solemniy
parade up and down in the newest
/ costumes, make their selections, but
all the work of fitting is done in
! madam's own bOUdOir, and every
/ morning madam devotes an hour or
! two to a corps of keen-eyed women,
! carving black boxes or baskets who
/ are purveyors, to a private and valu-
able clientele, of delicate specialties.
One of the most prosperous dealers
! in handkerchiefs and laces in Paris
who sells often hundreds of dollars
| worth of goods daily, has no shop at
all. Her shop really is a square case
( that looks like an English dispatch
] box and every morning this IS nlled
/ with samples of novelties and Madam
/ Max goes the rounds of her wealthy
and luxurious patrons to receive orders
! and deliver goods and display new
models. She takes all the output OF
/ the hand-spun and hand-wOVen linen
from one province, and keeps a num-
/ Der of expert needlewOmen constantly
| at work in her top floor rooms on the
Rue des Petites Champs.
In exactly the same case are num-
bers Of lingieres, for if there is one eX-
| travag ance the French woman OF every
! class leans toward it is not only fine
| Int exceedingly elaborate under linen.
| woman who allows herself but one
new gown a year is willing to spend the
| price OF half a dozen more costumes
| on white petticoatS covered with lace
| and night robes fit for a duchess There
| is the Iingiere who whips real lace onto
! hand woven linen for the ladies OF Jne
J champs Elysees district and down
lsaIono such questionable thorough
fares as the Boulevard St. Michael
| there are shoDs presided over by fierce
/ Iool-fne heavily mOustached old women
Who seII marveIs of complicated lace TO
moor actresses and frivolous dressmak-
ers' girls who share with the gre5%
ladies this love OF delicate dressing
This is what makes Paris the most Ia
nous soot in the world for cheap and
beautiful muslin underwear: net man
ufactured in noisy work rooms to the
Tonsic of hundreds of sewing machines,
hut in the badly lighted back closets Of
fbe shops and in the garrets, by needle
- - IL. o.-ar.,r stitch liz Nd