The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-06-26
THE CHANGING WEST
MERCHANTS FORCED TO MEET
NEW CONDITIONS.
Old Time styles of Living and Dressing
Eliminated by Modern Thought and
Eastern Visitors.

Eastern Visitors.
Western merchants are meeting new
conditions. In no one thing more than
in its demands on trade has the West
changed of late. The methods and
theories that once appealed to the resi-
dents of the plains have so far become
antquated and obsolete that business
life has assumed an entirely new aspect
and the merchants have been compelled
to cater to a different constituency. 1t
was only a short time ago when the
tlashy cowboy suits with the wide
brimmed hat and aggressive top boots
were a staple feature of the ordinary
clothing house west of the Missouri.
The more they could assume an air Of
| being bad" men, the higher they SEEM
ed to rise in their own estimation. This
attitude brought to the stores a dis
tinct demand for such apparel and for
| accouterments that were markedly at
tendant on the wild life of the plains.
Even the dealers in more sober sorts of
merchandise We're affected by the as
| sumption of reCklessness, and there
! were sold more saddles than road wa
CONS. though a good saddle costs as
much as the average speed cart 1t
! was. in short, an era of trough rider
hood" an impetus toward the appurte-
nanCes of the ranch and the trail The
! West prided itself on being extremely
western, and wanted to make the fact
manifest in every possible manner.
| With the turning in the tide of pros.
/ perity, in the latter SOS a change
came over the methods of western peO-
pie. There was general movement to
/ visit the eastern homes. For decade
| the West had Travelled little. 1t had, to
a great degree, forgotten what had TAX
en- place in the East, and had neglected
! to compare the conditions and demands
| there with those at home. Then came
the change of feeling.
/ Il have sold more rubber tired bug
giles and road wagons for use out in
Kansas and Nebraska than for use in
Missouri" remarked a wholesale deal
er the other day. THE settlers or farm
ers-for there are no more settlers in
| the old sense-are taking the best we
! have. When [ went out through Ne
| braska and Kansas last month l was
| surprised to see so many rubber-tir
rigs. At one livery stable on a Satur-
day were over 60 rigs, and only one was
lumber wagon Ten of the buggies
had rubber tires, all being from the
| country districts"
| 1t is the same with pianos and or
gans. The country farm-houses are
well filed with musical instruments.
The dealers say that last years sales
of pianos to the West were the largest
in their history. A central Kansas as
+ SCISSOR said the other day that in his
rounds in one township, section
without any towns, he found 65 organs.
Some of them were worth SIS, and none
less than $780,
| The era of the freak store is gone,
| too. 1t was not so long ago that in
| every considerable town of the West
( there was store that dealt in oddities,
! buckskin trousers, bows and arrows,
| leather caps and the other novelties
! that fasteners have come to associate
| with the West. Usually there was a
coyote or a group of prairie dogs penn
( ed up in the rear of the store for the
amusement of the visitors. Such stores
/ failed to attract of late years, and most
/ of them have removed to Oklahoma,
where the semblance of the old West is
! interesting to the newcomers. One of
| the largest stores of this kind in the
West was located at Wichita, but that
| has now departed. The home people
! grew weary of it, and the strangers
| did not appreciate its attractions. 1t
| was not profitable after the better class
of people, with more money, became the
! rule.
The little corner auction store is sell
! dom seen in the western town. 1t used
to be common. With a stock of notions
! costing $50 a fakiT could make a living
J selling to the rancnmen and the farm
! ers. Now the stores do the business
| and the bills are paid in checks The
| travelling bankrupt stock" of clothing
and boots and shoes is also practically
! a bygOne. The western towns refuse to
! believe in the reported bankruptcy or in
| the railroad wreck or fire that caused
this wonderful bargain in apparel and
! heartlessly put on the dealer tax that
| is prOhibitiVe. For years these stores
| disposed of immense stocks of out-of-
! date and shoddy goods for the Chicago
! dealers and were very profitable, max
! ing business hard for the home dealers
One feature of the newer form of
+ business life that the towns cannot con-
| trl is the mail-Order houses. They are
doing the largest business ever known
! in the West. With the extension of the
rural delivery to the prairie sections
! and the ease with which money can be
sent these houses do good business.
| Thousands of farmers are buying
everything, from windmills to plows
and seed corn, from these houses. The
| catalogs are vast volumes of hundreds
of pages, and amply illustrated.
1000 CLAIMANTS.
TnS A NrET ms Tupa 1E-Tba y,ve-