The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1904-01-06
ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE


The few days preceding Christ
mas are days of great commercial
activity. The universal custom of
givining. causes rivalry among
the dispensers of Christmas mer-
chandise that is intense. The show
windows in the big department
stores of the twin cities are stores
within themselves, and the novelty
of the displays is sufficient to keep
an admiring crowd in front OF them
from morning till night. In one
window on Nicollet Ave, Minneap-
oils, is large dancing platform on
which forty wax dolls of both sexes
are Waiting. They look life-like
enough to speak; and as they go
round and round the platform, pro-
PEELED by machinery concealed un-
derneath the floor, they make a
scene at once pretty and interest
ing. The walk in front of this
window is so crowded with people
that one can hardly pass. Other
stores have'attractions equally un-
ique and equally expensive, but the
Minneapolis stores are much more
enterprising in this respect than
the St. Paul stores.
Inside the stores the goods are so
arranged as to make them show to
the best possible advantage. Extra
tables loaded with fantastic mer-
chandise, some useful and some
tawdry, are placed in the long
aisles; counters and show cases are
heaped, and still other things
are held up to view by means of
ribbons and tapes. Extra clerks
are employed to serve the constant
throng OF purchasers, extra boys
are pressed into service to deliver
packages, extra girls are engaged
to carry cash, and among propri-
etors, employees, customers and all,
every nerve is kept at its greatest
tension, during the whole ante
Christmas period.
And the advertisements in the
papers These are simply bewild-
ering in their illustrations, the in
genious, catchy character OF their
wording and their immensity. Two
solid pages of one issue of paper
are often used by one concern to tell
OF it's marvellous attractions, and the
whole thing is dished up by pro-
fessional ad writer's who receive as
much money for this special service
as some of the employees receive for
six months. It would be hard to
decide whether some of these ad
writer's get their exaggerated style
of expression from circus posters
or whether the writer's of circus
posters ape the men who write the
Christmas ads for the newspapers.
-
To stand in large department
store of metropolitan city and
watch the throng come and go,
surging, looking at and handling
the things they contemplate buying,
is an interesting sight. Some of the
customers are so timid that they ask
questions scarcely above a whisper,
while others use tone loud enough
for a rooter at a football fight. |
Some know what they want. and
buy as soon as they see it; others,
having no idea what they want,
take the clerk into their confidence
to the extent of asking what would
be the most appropriate present for
Edyth or Allyn or Fannye or Mar
tyn. There are no is in proper
names now you know.)
And the judgement used in the
selection of presents is sometimes
peculiar indeed A present for a |
man or woman should be in keeping |
with their taste and surroundings. |
though this fact is often lost sight
of. | know family whose circum-
stAnces are such that they actually |
suffer for some OF the necessaries OF
life. The most suitable gift for them
would be barrel of -four, cord OF
wood or some article of clothing
But imagine the disappointment and |
chagrin of the family when, the day