The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-14
An Afternoon of
 Christmas Shopping.
BY MARY KIRKPATRICK.

the cynical husbands. If he only un- derstood how much you have savedl But of course he never will. He Is a man. Why, one woman wanted handkerchiefs and looked at ten boxes marked 29c. Af- ter going through them twice and count ing very carefully she said to the pa- hent saleswoman:
 If you will take these out of this box and put them in that one, I can put these ' 71-2c ones I have here in the empty box and I'll have a nice present for 45c. Then you can take some of that ribbon from around those .urnovers to tie it up with. ' f Of course the wearied brain of the clerk had to follow all those lightning calcula- tions and she had to do all that changing or else lose the sale and woe befall her! As rule, clerks are very kind to those persons who deserve kindness. I saw one trying to comfort a little girl who was weeping copiously As tears were nov city during all this hullabaloo, I asked , the child the cause of her grief. Her in coherent answer was:
 Annie says Mary it going to give me a twenty-ive-cent tan when mamma gave me only fifteen cents to buy her a present with"
 The good clerk picked up little book marked l5c and rubbing out the lone" wrote a big two" making it seem like it had cost twenty-five cents and sent the child away smiling through her tears.
 One woman. after roaming a book store for half an hour. picked up six books and asked:
 May not take these home to read, ! and then make my selection? You see am so careful about what my syear-old boy reads
 Another, with a businosslike air and An unbscoming bonnet. said:
 T want a book about India a1S-don't care what kind My boy Is crazy about then1-anything just so it is Indians" Now the clerk was just as apt to give her Nick Garter" as not, and although the first woman may be . little annoying, how much more fortunate is her child, guarded by such a mother, than he whose mother recklessly leaves him to the mercy | of unknown saVages?
 My attention was attracted by hand some little fellow and his mother who | were trying to select a Christmas present for his sweetheart. He dreamed of loco motives and had visions of blocks, which he could enjoy on his frequent visits, but unlike that woman who gave her husband cheese scoop, he chose something per sonal. He wanted to give her a ring.
 How can you blame the fond parent if
 
 CTS time to ind <he very pretttest7 Hap py he with such q mother.
 The din of the horns, the click of the toy metalaphones and the sound of the dolls crying 'mamma," papa" drove me from the toy shop. and then the &ang | of an automatic piano and the screech of | a soprano soloist coming from a nearby gramaphons kept me going until I reach ed a quiet drug store. There I heard | how 6 few years ago one of our leading | physicians got Christmas in his bones" "
 In the interest of hyg1enic science. he prescribed bare feet for e croupy boy. 1 About ten days later he saw . miserable | looking little fellow whose feet were blue with cold and when he told the gen tleman that he did not own a single pair | of shoes, the Christmas spirit took pos session of the good man. So he bought the lad shoes and stockings. sending him on his way warmer and merrie-. A few days later, he discovered he had 1 put them on his own croupy patient So even infallibls man is some times subject to reckless Christmas gtvinS.