The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-08

worth all that, but woman who wears | it at her neck would rather take it from | this hidden cabinet than from under the nose of the people on a. holiday"
 And yet" it was suggested, your | theory is unusual"
 Not at all" he answered "A Y, | Stewart, the first merchant of New York, never had window display" A flight of steps and dor to the left leads into a furnished store of three small rooms It is not as large as an East Side flat There is no stock at all, no office, no desk, no clerks. The pro prietor receives a customer as gentle man of leisure does a caller, and dis cusses business as they lounge in uphol- stered chairs. He has nothing to sall' 1 but when the business is over he may perhap, put a check for S25,0OO in his pocket. He can then afford to wait a few days for another customer to drop in. His quarters are large enough, for he deals in castles of the air.
 His window display is a single arm chair upholstered in cretonne with wide bands of flowers.
 "The styles have changed" said he. "A few years ago upholstery was rich and sombre, now it is bright and fanci- ful. French cretonne has replaced the plush and brocade.'
 The walls of this cosy store are adorn- ed with sketches in water-color These are the goods in stock. 4 customer wanting room furnished or altered may have ideas of his own or he may leave the whole matter to the merchant. There are those who worry about the smallest details, who spend week in givng their order, and who haunt the job until it is finished A man will sometimes enter. stand by the door, and while consulting his watch give the street and number of his residence Just finished, leave instructions to "hX IL up all right" and be seen no more uhtil ne paws theb i'll of thousands. Ihls fnef- chant deals only with private resi- dences The ordinary cost Of decorat- ing and furnishing bedroom is from s1 900 to s1. .5G0. But he can, if put to It. charge $S0OO for single table
 The entrances to certain basement stores are decorated these days with galy colored sporting scenes. Hunters in blue coats, red waists and bun color ed brooches dash madly after the spot ted hounds over fields of gaudy green Coaches filled with round faced Eng lishmen roll along winding roads De- tween even hedgeroWs. There are plc- lures of game cocks lighting in the pit or cricket and golf, and in one place during the past weel; two caricature sketches of ping-pon players have ap- peared. In the last few days the trade in these old English prints and 'heir limitations has grown amazingly.
 "It is a fad said one of the dealers made popular, no doubt by the great increase in country homes and the traV- el in England which has been heavy or late. But like all fads it will die out. Americans are beginning to want reat pictures now. They don't buy so much inst to be fin it.. but more to please some taste or fancy, and more moneyed people are learning to discriminate.
 "American scenes by American paint CTS are now the most desired. The time was when these went abegging, how ever good they might be. Look at the fortune Tom Clark made, He was a salesman of collars and cuffs. but he knew a painting for it's own sake. He bought the early productions of lnness' Wyant, Homer Martin and Winslow Homer. He put all his spare money in them, and bought them without compe- tition for three or four hundred dollars He held to,them for years, lending them to clubs for exhibition purposes all over the country. and so getting them noticed and talked about. If any one asked the price they were not for sale He always insured them heavily at the clubs expense, and when the bill came up for payment the elubmen opened their eyes When at last he announced that he would sell his collection at auc- ton, buyers came from far and near and bid fabulous prices He cleared q fortune, and since then good American art has been at premium.
 So runs the exclusive trade.-NeH | York Evening Post,