The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-22
WOMEN BUYERS
 DISPLAClNG MEN

Brooklyn Eagle.
 This winter, according to trade author 'it!es, there has been observed a marked increase in the number of women buyers who have come to New York to buy stocks for the houses they represent. The female drummer has been seen by mer- chants long enough to pass without mo- tice. but the woman buyer is still enough of novelty in many branches of trade to attract a great deal of attention. Many of the older commercial hotels have had to change both their rules and their ways since the astonishing influx of business women. The Astor nouse and many oth- CT such hotels below Twenty-thIrd Street, in Manhattan, and nearly all of those in Brooklyn, were for many years inclined to refuse accommodations to women who were travelling alone, mainly because of the extra trouble they caused. Since wo- men began to travel as business repre- sentatives, as drummers, as book agents, as theatrical managers, as lawyers, and as professional buyers, the hotel customs have been changed. A travelling woman, whether she represents a dozen business houses or only herself, IS now so usual a patron of the hotels that she is &C., cepted as matter of course. No special arrangements are made for these busi- ness women at the hotels because they have plainly shown that they neither eX- meet nor accept any more nursing than is accorded to a man. In those places in which sample rooms are provided the women commercial travellers usually share the accommodations with the men and have come to be regarded as legiti- mate members of the fratel nifty
 One of :he more remarkable things about the great increase in the number of women buyers is that so many diff ferent trades are now represented by wo- men. The beginning was made when. some years ago. many Of the large firms began to employ women to go abroad, or to come to New York from the West, to buy dress goods. millinery and other feminine raiment. This was considered q natural and legitimate method of obtain ing reliable information concerning the exiS ting fashiors, prices, materials and trade tendencies. Many of these women in common with thei' more bisiness-liks 2 sisters, who enter the open market and compete in 1t with the masculine repre- sentatiYes of the merchants of all the earth. The old-time female buyer" sell dom actually purchased anything. Her business was simply to make recommen- dations, to keep her eyes open for new fashions and to obtain samples of the latest things in hats, trimming, mate ria1s and buttons She acted simply as her employers eyes; not as his responsi- ble and trusted representative, by whose judgment he must abide.
 The woman buyer of today is of diff ferent stock altogether. She has almost invariably served a hard and usually long apprenticeship to her chosen trade. and she understands its intricacies as ell as does her employer. New York today contains hundreds of women who are, for the time being, as much con- trollers of the credit and bank account of the firm they represent as any one of it's partners. Upon their judgment largely depends the commercial stability of the house they represent. If they are em- ployed by a dry goods house it is-their business to buy for their firm an entire aly Nf he cfn q n most liberal supply of the things which are expected to be fahionable. They must live and think in the future. for if sufficient supply of subsequently, fashionable material or article is not ar ranged for at first 1t is often impossible to supply the deficiency later. These women may make very few mistakes. Let some rival house secure better SUD- ply of a free-selling, fashionable commod- ity than the firm she represents-let it htppen that the rival has bought in such way that it can undersell her firm and there will be another buyer in her place next season. Many of the small