The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-13
JANUARY

enter for the first time any new town
 OF even village. without wishing to take
 something out of it which they have
 bought. Probably they live in London
 where everything which a man can af-
 ford he may obtain, and possibly there
 IS nothing in the scene of their travels
 which they could truly be said to want;
 but the pleasure of exploration is en- | hanced for them by the pleasures of
 purchase. As between men and women
 there is no doubt that cheapness has a
 greater attraction for the latter than
 the former. Men have perhaps more | difficulty than their wives in making up
 their minds to go without what they ! wish for, consequently they are often willing to give little more for thing than it is worth On the other hand, they are schooner tempted to buy what I they do not want solely because it is
 cheap. We read. the other day, in an
 evening newspaper, of an extraordinary
 struggle which took place among ladies 1 in 8 West-end milliner shop during q ! sale, and we understand that 1t is now , becoming common to close the doors of
 these establishments at sale times,
 when as many customers have entered
 as can by any possibility move about.
 so that one "shopful' of customers may
 complete their purchases without dan | ger to life and limb before another Is 1 admitted. Now we do not believe that | in inc cases out of 10, this rush for | cheapness comes from the spirit of | meanness, or even the spirit of econ
 omy. In the great majority it is sim
 ply one more proof of the love of gam
 bling. To the habitua1 sale-goer a sale
 Is nothing but series of small and | amusng risks. The woman who buys four pairs of gloves tied up together for
 the price of two reckons the bare pos sibility that all may be good and all
 cheap, against the great probability that three will be bad and one expensive. and resolves to take her money on the
 off chance.
 She knows quite well all the time that
 the firm with whom she is dealing does
 not, keep shop to please her, and that,
 if occasionally they sell something at q
 loss, such a sale is simply of the nature
 of an advertisement, and must be paid
 for under another name. The same
 think takes place at Monte Carlo. It
 is a mathematical certainty, of which
 every player Is aware, that the table
 must win in the long run: therefore, on
 the whole, the public must lose. Mean
 while a few individuals who have the
 moral resolution to stop at the right
 moment may succeed in buying lucky
 chance cheap. But buyers and gam
 blers alike differ about the proportion of pure chance which Is necessary to
 make the game delightful There are those who like rouge-et-noir and those who like bridge. The bargain lovers who pick up old furniture or china or rare prints prefer a game of skill. They enjoy the advantage which their par ticular little branch of knowledge gives them; and, so long as they only bargain with those who profess to sell they have, of course, perfect right to their sport. How far a man Is justified in of- fering to an ignorant cottager some rubbishy article which the latter ad mires, in exchange for a treasure of whose value he or she is ignorant, is a nice question of morals We think that those who practice this method of bar ter ought to allow that their conduct is radesman-like'-a word not deroga- tory in itself, but susceptible of various Interpretations There can be no doubt | however, that the small dealer is fair | game, even if he does not always know the worth of his goods. He may have been lucky at an auction-luckier than he Is aware. For example, he may have bought a piece of Sevres in the same lot with a quantity of common china; 1 ,,,I l,z L. 1l.Iz l. L. I>oL ual profit by selling the Sevres and the | rubbish at the same percentage on their | cost, thus leaving an honorable oppor- 1 tunity for the connoisseur to rejoice in | a bargain.
 We believe that half the pleasure got l from the old furniture, so greatly priz- l ed at the present moment, Is due less | to the delight of possessing than to the | amusement of procuring 1t. The grad l ual furnishing of their houses is becom- | ing serious pursuit among certain | people. The buying of new chair sup plies them with an object for many ex peditions-perhaps into some strange | part of London. perhaps into some town. Any natural distaste they may feel for poking about in ex- Itpllplldlly ullly pluCSS, anu ld66ihS with specially unpleasant people, is for gotten in the glamor of possible bar gain; and when they get home from the 1unt, they boast of the bag" they have made to other similar sport smen, with glee. There is no doubt that, among people with whom furni- ,ure is craze, indifference upon the 1 subject is regarded as showing dis -inct want, not only of artistic feeling, put of general cultivation. Not long ,go we knew of a young couple who boldly admitted that they had furnish d small house between a rather early luncheon and a very late dinner. The 1 people of taste among whom they ived found it hard to get over the hock of this confession, and were never lble to hear the fact alluded to by a hird person without assuring the medi- i 'ant speaker that the nasty furnishers 1 were quite nice people all the same" To say that the house was comfortable
 Al T