Newport weekly independent., 1903-01-09
NO FUN IN SHOPPING.
The Women of Berlin Have No De. partment Store Bargain COun-
 ters to Rummage Through.

In Germany department stores are practically unknown. True, in Berlin there are two or three large ones, run in true Yankee style, with mov- ing staircases, huge and elaborately decorated showwindows and all the other essentials of an American de, partment store. However, in other and more -characteristically German cities such shops are almost un- known.
 You never see any hustling, nerv- ous, excited crowd of women over here over a bargain counter, for the simple reason that there are no bar gains. If such thing as a bargain sale did find it's way into Germany, there would Sbe sure to be two police men, who would make the women line up, in the order in which they arrived, and the shirt waists would be bought by calm, phlegmatic crowd of rosy-faced women, much more interested in the grand uni form of the "schutzmann" than in the selection of new shirt waist, says the Brooklyn Eagle.
 A German woman of family never is seen shopping, except at Christmas time, when the Germans wake up and the streets are iammed by bustling, active, merry people, but even then, with a certain restraint about it all hard to find in America, except in Boston town, perhaps.
 The maids either attend to buying everything, or in the case of gowns, hats, shoes, etc., things are sent on approval, which is rather hard for the people who do their own shop ping. An American woman in Leip- zig said that she had been to five diff ferent shops one afternoon, looking for hat, but was invariably met with the information that their best goods were out on approval.
 When you enter a store in Ger many, off must come your hat, and you must wish everyone in the store Gluten tag" While you are buying there are countless ''bitterschoens" and "dankeschoens' to be gone
 
 don't walk straight out of the door, out you bow your way to the door, hat in hand, like a Frenchman, mur- muring: "Adieu, adieu.' It is fun to see German bow. He clicks his heels together and bends half way to the ground. And to see the flourish with which men greet one another and the trouble they have getting their hats on again, is truly ] joyful sight.
 When you leave shop often the proprietor says: ''Empfele, mich, oestens," which means 'I recom- mend myself in the highest degree"
 If you have a package sent you are asked to give your worthy address" md "beautiful greeting" (schoenen yruess) invariably accompanies pair of trousers from your tailor. Barbers in Germany are very much ike barbers in America-they talk as much, but they don't charge as much at the best places shaving costs the equivalent of five cents.
 At first, deluded by sign "Amer- can Shampooing," I went into bar oer's to try it. What do you suppose happened? Some bay rum was rubbed into my unotfending scalp md that only. I took the trouble to .Xplain to the man what a shampoo 'eally is, and advised him to get rid { )f the "American" on his sign. | The German housekeeper always buys provisions like flour, potatoes, ,tc., by the pound, never by the bag ,r barrel, as we do. The poorer classes actually buy potatoes by the meal" Sugar is dear in Germany, :osting 36 pfennigs the pound There Ire tales afioat of one pension in leipzig, where the sugar is kept un- Ter lock and key, and dealt out at upper by the lump!
 German shoes are expensive and poor. American shoes are imported nore or less, but the last is changed or the German feet. and pointed lnstylish shoe is the result. Tan shoes are very elegant, but. worn by girls clad in white, to us they seem queer. The better class of Germans follow English fashions, but their eet always betray them.
 | The newcomers among the Ameri .ans are wearing shoes of pretty extreme style. They attract a great 1eal of attention among the Ger mans, to the discomfort of the xearers.