The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-15
SHOPPING IN LONDON.
EXPERIENCE OF TWO AMERI-
 CAN GIRLS.

It Was an Entirely Novel and Dis
 appointing Experienee-DIdH't Get
 the Outfit Expected, But Met Some strangely Polite Clerks.
 The Americans don't say much about it-in England-but we really are i'm pressed with certain styles which the fashion papers and our dressmakers say are quite English"-that is, i'll America, you understand. So when We were preparing to come to Europe this summer, Katheryn and I, we wore old clothes until they were threadbare. We'll ge something new to travel in,'' said Katheryn, but we'll buy all the things that are so English in Eng land, like tailor dresses, those comfort able shoes with nice broad heels, shirt waists, high collars, and heavy gloves, the things, in short, that are stiff ana straight, quiet, elegant and unobtru- sive, like the English themselves.
 Then we'll go to Paris for the fluffy frivolities the idiotic high heels-whicn we are too weakminded to give up De- cause they do look prettier with par ty dress-and those audacious summer gowns with lace yokes, which, of course, these proper English girls don't wear"
 In America, the things you buy at the small places cost more than at the DE ones, so we started out to find the pig ones in London. But the only stores we could find were two or three stories hish-you could put about dozen Of them in one corner of Siegel, Cooper & Co.,, or "The Fair" or any of the big department houses in New York or Chicago.
 There were hosts of women stream ing in and out, but at first we thought i they must be all French. In the whole week of watching we didn't see one tailor gown, which we had had drummed into us by our tailors as ESQ correctly English Every other wo- man wore French heels, and as for high collars-well, they weren't there at all. Such transparently transparent yokes we never expected to see, even in Paris, and where the collars ought to be- there was nothingi
 It was a joke to watch Katheryn's face, she was actually so shocked! Are these the proper Englishwomen l see before me?" she cried one day with dramatic gesture. ,f But when we began taking our din- ner at the restaurants down town her stock of adjectives was exhausted. There were no words to express the i state of her feelings in the superlative degree of being shocked. Some English people at the hotel were shocked, by the way, that we two girls should dine down town without chaperon. Well, it was bad enough to see the low necked dresses in the restaurants that were worse than our most extravagant ideas of wicked Paris; but it was worse in the streets to see women in the hansoms who were going out to dinner or to the theatre.
 What would your father do if he saw you in an open carriage like that. with such a dress on, and with your wrap thrown back so that every man in the street could see you?" I said, just to hear what she would say.
 What would he do?" she answered grossly ''Why, he'd take me home and put me to bed. And don't you talk to me any more about your proper Eng fish fashions"
 These things put us rather out of gear, as far as our plans for shopping i in London were concerned, but we de- cided to buy some things anyway. One day we thought we had at last discov- cred a big store. There was an elevator and book department and barbers shop, quite like New York, although we didn't discover the meat department. , l I bought yard of ribbon, but when started to pay for it the clerk said And your number, madam" "Oh, I'll carry it myself, thank you" I said, i thinking he meant the number of my house, and wanted to send it. But he l didn't mean that, he meant that the store was private one, and people couldn't buy unless they "belonged" ] and had a number.
 The clerk seemed very sorry and has, tened to explain that it would be quite
 all right if some friend who did "be- long, would introduce us. But that
 struck ue as being too unuttarably fun
 ny for anything, and we both got pur- pie in the face from trying not to
 laugh. Here was with my money, and
 there was -the clerk with that yard of
 ribbon, and I couldn't pay for it and
 take it away without being 'tintroduc-
 ed''
 Katheryn burst into a giggle as soon
 as we got into the street, and she gig
 gled over the ocurrence all evening. But
 she woke up in the middle of the night
 to say very seriously, Here's a pretty
 state of affairs if we have to be intro-
 duced every place before we can buy a
 package of needles or a spool of thread.
 An up-to- date American store is good
 enough for me, where spot cash pay
 ment will buy anything, and the floor
 walker doesn't care grain of salt
 about your social position or about
 your being introduced
 | We found it was not so bad as she feared, and there were plenty of places where they would take our money and
 not ak for an introduction. But we
 never knew what to ask for, because
 the American name was generally diff ferent from the English. We decided
 fin the end to publish a dictionary on English and American English" and
 make our fortunes.
 | We went in a shoe store and asked
 for Oxford ties" They are known the length and breadth of the American | continent as the reigning English style: