Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-09-15

All-night shopping is the latest fad in
Boston, in spite OF the fact that TO
strangers the Hub still seems to have
Early to bed and early 10 rise
Makes :: nan healthy. wealthy and wise.
for its motto the OLD rhyniC:
Judging by appearance, Boston is as
provincial as ever after eleven o'clock
every night. All signs Of life disappear
from places of amusement. The
crowds leave the lobbic:: Of the hotels
and retire into the cafes. and the cur
tanned saloons show on.y the lights
over the cash register. The fashion
able PuritanS go straight home from
the giddy Pop concerts 1T Symphony
Hail. The cultured policemen Wcnd
their lonesome way through street after
street, stopping, maybe, BOW and then
TO con Il page of Emerson or George
Bernard Shaw. 1t seems, Ill truth. only
Yesterday since III. old-faShioned
watchmen carrying larternS went
through the streets Crying: LeVen
O'Clock and ais we'll" Yet appear
anccs are dcceitful, for from MANY Il
hotel and private housv--at midnight
at one O'clOck-at III" very dead OF
night in this apparently sluinberinS
phone.
one of the wonders Of modern
science, the Eel telepaonr, is entirely
responsible for this deception. tn
visitor In town would never know that
anything unusual WAS going on. tn"
thousands of clerks hay" gone home.
The lights have been turned ont. The
gates have been shut. Not Il sign Of
life is to j." noticed in amy store, and IL
is LEFT for the imagination TO picture
the solitary night watt Imam making
his rounds in the ghoStlE silence tHd
waiting for the break of another day.
Bat even at til" very moment tn"
pedestrian is hurryinS by the store 10
SOM, busy haunt the silence within the
apparently deserted building is broken
by the sharp zing-zin:s If III" telephone
bell. and the next moment the clerk on
night duty hears:
Il saw in the paper just now that you
are to have - special sale of gas stones
| tomorrow morning. III: | III going out
| OF town, and noW l wish that you
| would send me one of those that ar"
| marked down frdon s15 to $l0-RlaZe-
away style, you kmON-aId that will be
| just the same rs if ! went down Their"
| myself, wont it? ... | thought
| so. Thank you. Good night-gOod-
| What's that? oh, yes. How thought
| less of me! You see I haven't quite
| got used 10 this yet. Send II to -"
And 80 q woman is made happy who
| not long ago would have been mad
utterly miserable by the sight Of a
tantaliZing opportunity.
HIT fI,f If
present no pretense i made Of filling
| orders after hours. The following an
| nouhcement by one of the mig dry goods
stores explains the new idea:
Night Telephone Service.
CAN oxford i at any
hour. orders and inquiries re-
c,ived after closing hour will
be given prompt attention as ".
soon as the store opens in the
morning. Requests to call 1T
homes where mourning outfits
ave suddenly required will he
promptly attended To. without
charge, by competent authori-
ties on the subject, who will as
sist in selection and attend 10
alterations. etc.
You can see after moments study
Low useful our night telephone service
is" said one Of the managers who were
quick to adopt the idea. For instance.
the other night lust before midnight
there came Il call from q frantic man at
the South station. He WAS going to
New York on the midnight train and
he had an important message. 1t was
In cold story of the forgotten letter
over gam, except that in this case the
man simply forgot during the day to
ORDER something his wife had suggest
ed. She WAS down at Bar Tarbor or
S0mcWhrr" around there and she had
written up 10 him. lie wrote back I'M
mrdiatriy that she might expect the
thing the next day. AS a matter of
fact. he never thought If it again until
Il few minutes before the train was To
start for NV \ urk. The first thing
he said over the telephone was: You've
saved my life TIE clerk Immediately
guessed what was up. Then came an
order for-nh, ] think it was i big Az
minister rug we Ind specially adyrr-
used. You see. he hadn't time to write
before leaving the city. cur nicht tel
cphonc service didn't save his life. but
it did save him fl ON breaking his word,
for the rug WAS shipped down east the
1irSt thing in the morning about The
time he WAS having breakfast in New
York
\ still more remarkable case hap
l"'llrd II few weeks ago. This time the
call came ab"nt six o'clock in tl,
me rning. Yes" slid the clerk. I'm
s"-amd-so, said the man on the line. |
81 have just Sot a cable from abroad
telling me Of the death Of Il relative.
~" Just engaged passage on the Gun |