The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-18

Come early and avoid the crush" It
 is the best possible advice. Suppose you
 are a wife, mother, sister or grandmoth-
 CT, or all four at once for the matter
 of that as the lively and alert new wo-
 man often is, and suppose you have a
 considerable number of gifts to buy. You
 will make your. purchases to far better
 advantage by going early, not only in
 the month, but also in the day In the
 morning the shop attendants are fresh
 for their work, their temper is good. their heads are clear. Chief of all, they have time to match shades and to give their judgment on goods. The help of the shop people is important in making up ones mind what to buy. A shrewd buyer can
 easily detect whether a sales person Is
 merely trying to hypnotize her into talk ing a thing she does not want or really trying to give her points as to pur-
 chases. The saleswoman or salesman
 whose business is to sell goods regard
 les of conequence Is one to be avoided. It is settled, then, that the Christmas
 shopper should go early in the season
 and early in the day to make her pur- chases. Let her first make a tour of the
 stores, looking at the goods displayed.
 She need not trouble with questions any attendant who Is busy. Let her simply walk through the departments, keeping her eyes and ears open. This will annoy nobody If she wants to know the prices or to obtain other information in regard to an article any attendant worthy the name who Is not engaged at the moment
 will give 1t to her cheerfully. Thus Will she find out without too much trouble what things are new and desirable. She
 will get many fresh and valuable ideas to aid her in real shopping expeditions.
 Next, let her consider to whom she must
 give presents. In this matter 1t is well
 to set herself like iron against all those
 greedy hangers on who always expect
 something"-all of them except the chil-
 dren, that is. Children have right to
 expect something and to be made happy
 as the day Is long at Christmas. But
 for that other brood-those who merely exchange Christmas presents and expect gifts to be returned with business-like promptness and fidelity and of a greater value than the ones they offer-let these be struck out. My Christmas shopping sister, rule out those who give worth less little something and expect 1t to be repaid with gift of real value. Rule out, also, those who, with the spirit of the slave and menial, merely desire to get something out of you, for which they
 make no return. These are they who
 work you for all you are worth" and
 meanwhile think you softie for being
 worked.
 All the above struck off the list. you
 have left, let us say-two men-one youth, the other older-a young lady, an old lady and some working people who | know their duties and perform them well. Such as these last are not common and ! when found deserve to have appreciation
 shown them. Besides these there are the
 dear young ones who are always with us.
 The list being made out, the hints of the | shop attendants will be useful. There are your two men. The shopman will sug- gest for the older one a smoking set cigar, cigarette and pipe holder, likewise match receptacle, sometimes an ash try also. But if you say to the shopman: "Oh hut he doesn't smoke" the shop
 man will probably answer:
 If he doesn't smoke. don't know what
 to get him" J.. o,,o- -o