The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-09
S817,000 A YEAR,
SAMPLES OF DRESS GOODS
 GIVEN AWAY
By Chicago Stores Aggregate Thou-
 sands of Yards.

Ten big retail dry goods houses in
 downtown Chicago send out every year
 22oOOO yards of woolen dress goods,
 representing a retail price of 75 cents a
 yard. and only that an individual cus-
 toner may satisfy herself as to what
 is being worn, or-in one case out of
 five--that she may order dress pat
 tern from one of these samples. Eighty
 thousand yards of silk are cut into
 minute triangles, squares and paral-
 kilograms, meaning a retail loss or
 $S0O00 a year to these 10 stores. And,
 on top of this, nearly every line of
 goods in a house suffers from the shears
 of the sample-cutting department,
 aggregating in these 10 stores more
 than $150,000 year. These totals
 amount to $317 000.
 And in the face of these figures it
 may be said that the sample craze,
 as it existed in the time of the crazy
 quilt, is virtually dead fad.
 Few people realize the extent of the
 sampling department of the modern
 retail dry goods house. Fewer still
 realize that when a bolt of dress goods
 comes into a house and is unpacked,
 the first thing done with it is to snip
 off a full yard from the bolt ranging
 from 25 to 50 yards, and perhaps two
 yards form the bolt that runs longer
 than this As much of this goods is
 54 to SO inches wide, the average of one
 ward to the bolt is low, as is the price
 fixed at 75 cents From one-third to
 one-half of this clipping goes directly
 to the sample cutting room. In send ing up these clippings they are punched
 according to values and without refer ence to colors or shades. There may be 10 strips from as many pieces of goods, the whole bunch held together by a tag on which the cost price is marked. The manager of the cutting department receives this and with some general directions the goods is turned over to the boy who is to do the cutting. The average width of the strips into which this cloth is-cut is 1h inches. Then the strips are cut across just above the tag.
 Thus the manager of the department has on the table before him the little lunches of cloth of various shades and coIors, but of uniform price. They are classed as to material also, so that a person familiar with goods may ex- plain just what kind of goods she wants. and out of the selection of shades and colors sent to her she may choose something to suit her. Cutting these goods on another scale for dress makers, the samples sent out are three by six inches, and frequently in some | good of peculiar pattern in the WeaV- ing the shape of the sample must be l altered in order to show the novelty, | Sticking pair of pin points through | six or eight thickneses of woolen dress | goods is easy, but to stick them through | as many pieces of cotton goods is an | other task. and in order to make this | easy the cutter jabs the pins into cake of soap before him, the soap acting as a lubricant without greasing the sam ples. The tag which is pierced by | these pin points and so held to place bear the name of the dry goods firm in miniature, and on it are marked the nrice and the width of the goods.
 There are Chicago houses which have e steady call for these samples, from Maine to California and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. In filling these LpO, eHNtlppto NtiSiIiiAo OiiS to eight ounces are sent out, the aver age being about four ounces at one ,ent an ounce. As a probable reaction from the times of the crazy quilt, about one-fifth of these samples sent ,ut come back to the house sending them. There is seldom any request made that this be done and there are lew of these samples that are of any lse to a house when they have come ,ack. There are two reasons for it. First the samples have been tossed and fingered so much that they are not pre- ,entable and, on the other hand, many pieces represented by samples that may nave gone out four weeks before, al- eady have been sold out.
 A few houses which send out silks rom a sample-cutting department , however, ask for their return, on pain if not sending out to the delinquent he houses next catalogue. In most , ases, however, silk samples are cut , t the retail silk counters and sent up o the mailing room, and when cut the alesman below cuts his mark into the amples in such way as to not only /, dentify it, but to spoil it for any ;, razy- quilting bee In spite of the : arge piece of gods, cut especially for he sameple department, too, there is carcely bolt of dressmaking goods r n a down town house which has not z cen shipped and hacked oat it's end, '. he samples being passed out over the ' etails for S2.50 to $6 a yard these fur her inches cut from bolt that is only v 5 yards long represent an appreciable 4 oroprtion of loss. In every such case his nicked end must be subtracted v rom the total cost of the original bolt bolt of goods 25 yards long will make bout three dresses, while from five f these bolts the making of one dress asily may be lost to samples. lt In one of the largest of retail houses q l Chicago the time for the sample :. rage sets in about February 15 on |, ummer gods and about September 1 t ,r winter goods. At such times 600 S ,tters a day is a fair average. In this N ouse the silks faces and finer goods enerally are cut at their several re- lil counters and cut only on order For TT urpose sample blanks are sent down , the salesman. and if other samples :, .e asked from the sampl cutting room !, ,ey are all "assembled'' in pigeon-hole ~ ,xes from which they are mailed just o < soon as the list is complete I