The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-08-10
EXPOSITION LETTER.
Written tor the Citizen.l
PARIS, July %. 1900.

mime heart consists undoubtedly
in those delicate productions of
art and industry, including
dresses, millinery, jewelry, art
goods and brio a.brac, for which
Paris is famous.
There are certainly an enormous
number of stores and shops in the
city. They line the streets in all
quarters in countless thousands.
There are many more establish
ments in proportion to the popu-
lation than in American cities,
but with the exception of a few
notable ones they are very small
affairs. As a customary thing
the room of a shop is not larger
than an average sized room of an
American house. The stock of
goods carried is very small.
While the men of the family are
engaged in bureau positions the
women, the wife and daughters,
tend the shop. AT the noon hour
or at six O'Clock the visitor to the
shop will find the whole family
at meal either in a little room adj
joining the shop or in the sales
room itself.
The excessively retail character
of the mercantile system of Paris
may be partly accounted for as
follows: There is in vogue a
system of buying i'll small quaint
ties which keeps alive the small
dealer In the United States a
family will think nothing of put
ting into its cellar i'll the fall a
couple of barrels of potatoes, one
barrel of apples and other Vege-
tables i'll proportion. Sugar also
and other groceries are purchased
in some quantity. In Paris a
family buys for each days wants
a couple of dozen potatoes, a
small bag of sugar not larger than
a salt bag, etc. This method of
buying is made necessary for all
perishable articles by the fact
that there is no cold storage
among merchants or in private
houses. Scarcely any ice is taken
by families and a refrigerator is
al article of furniture five times
more rare than a piano. Again
there is no city in the world per
haps where the servant class is so
numerous and so highly organized
and where the toll of this class is
taken so much as a matter of
course as in Paris. The labor
which continual buying in small
quantities occasions falls chiefly
upon the servant class and thence
excites no comment and awakenS
no idea of change. In addition
to this, as we have seen, the
shops are chiefly tended by women
who make this tributary earn,
ing for the family.
In the ordinary districts of
Paris the streets contain at the
corners wine shops and resUaur-
ants. In succession between
these there are always the baker.
les, cake shops, creameries,
butcher shops, cleaners and, more
rarely, furniture dealers, station
ers, picture trainers, etc. One
misses the banks on the principal
corners as in America. The bar
Der shop has not a striped pole,
but a bright brass dish swinging
in the wind. Tobacco is manu-
featured only by the State and is
sold only under public control.
The street sign is a red lamp.
Wherever tobacco is sold stamps
may be bought.
A French merchant usually
does not deal with his customer
on the basis Of a fixed scale of
prices as does an English or an
American merchant. 1t is an ex-
ceptiOnal store that has any
prices marked in plain figures.
Selling to a Partisan shop-keeper
seems to be regarded as an eXer-
else in practical psychology,
Every customer is ''sized up" and
treated accordingly. Conces
sions in price may be gotten by
skill in management and by in,
sistance and force in bargaining
They show traits of character
which hinder them from becoming
great traders in the worlds com
merce.
Out of the mass of petty shops
in Paris a few establishments ris,
into prominence by reason eithe
of their size or elegance. TIL,
most elegant stores are to b.
found on the boulevards in tn,
neighborhood of the Opera House
In this vicinity one can flint
speciality houses dealing il
jewelry, or art goods, or fans
laces, etc. The district CORES
ponds to lower Fifth avenue an,
Broadway, in New York, an,
to Regent street, in London. L
these shopping districts more FIRE
quently than elsewhere may b
seen the announcement "Englis
/ Spoken" Beware of this sig
and enter not for it may be liker