Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-23
GOSSIP OF THE WANING SEASON
In AND ABOUT NEW YORK CITY

Special Correspondence Of The Herald /
NEW YORK. Sept. 1S,-Think Of the
joy Of being able to shop nearly all day
long every day Of your life, Of never
having to pay for anything you buy
but instead of being paid for doing this
shopping. There are women in New
York who do professional shop-
pers, they are called-employes OF
detective agency whose duty II is, III
the course Of their shopping, to spy
upon the clerks in a store and make
report to the chief executive. The pro-
fessional shoppers make up one of the
most successful detective agencies in
Gotham and the operatives OF tne
agency are employed by certain lafBS
stores throughout the United states.
The professional shopper never stays
long in one place, lest she lose her value
by becoming known to the men or Wo-
men she is employed to watch. For
two weeks, perhaps, group OF THESE
woman shoppers will be engaged 70
make a canvass of a store. They VIII
shop i'm every department of the store,
one day appearing In rich attire anu
purchasing heavily In expensive ma
terials, the next dressing shabbily and
making purchases of small household
articles. Without appearing to do SO
they have a sharp eye on the clerk
while she makes her calculations ana
make quick note IL they detect anything
out of the way in her actions. one OF
these professional shoppers went into
the hat department Of a Fulton street
store recently and bought hat for
$4.9S. They usually buy something at
an odd price so they will be sure to
get change. The purchaser gave to
the clerk $5 bill. She noticed that
the clerk made out check for hat
costing $2.9S, sent it with the $5 to the
cash desk and received $202 change
with the returned check. She gave
the cents change to the customer, ap-
proprlating the 81, and then managed
to get the $I.9S hat wrapped and de-
livered to the waiting customer In
some departments she would have
found this impossible, as the wrapper
would have been wiser than to wrap
the Sl,9S hat Oil the $2.9S check
Women Dislike Auto Togs
Restless women of this town are now
giving Dame Fashion a prod on the
automobile dress. The chug-chuggery
that Is now wcrn has been declared a
nuisance and the veismith and leather
IldH must SSI pussy OIlS INtW LOA n
woman says it is nuisance to sit on
her front r:aza. Every one of my
friends" size said, who owns an auto
mobile passes here and waves hearty
greeting low, all people in automo-
biles look alike to me. My servant girl
and my most naughty acquaintances
all look alike i'll a motoring car, so L
haven't the slightest idea who is wav-
ing. OF course, l always wave, be-
II iG hl esinO when
quaintance teliE me that shY saw me
| a few days back. / can't tell her I did
not see her because she would be Of
Tended if 1 said / did not know who
she was. 1 always say: Did you? p
| and hope the subject will drop there.
But when she continues asking what
l thought of her new machine and how
| did she look in her new motoring cos
tune, I have to confess with Which
one were you, anyway? There were
| about twenty cars that went by my
house that day. Then, of course she
| is deeply offended because 1 cannot
distinguish her from the other motor
lists. The PLAIN fact is that woman
loses her individuality the mintue she
gets into automobile togs."
His Heart Was Broken; Yes?
He was handsome and distinguished
looking chap and his every movement
| bespoke refinement as he entered the
| dining room of an uptown hotel and
| casually glanced at the menu card. ''I
am not hungry, waiter; just bring me
some strong tea and fruit-and, waiter,
a cocktail-bring the cocktail first"
After the lackey in tuxedo had disap-
| peared the guest abstractedly pulled
pencil from his pocket and wrote
something on the napkin. He then
picked up the piece of linen and threw
it across the table. After partaking of
his frugal lunch the stranger slowly
| left the dining room. 1.-The poor devil
must be down and hout," said the
waiter to me as he read the inscription
on the napkin. "Yes, and hup against
hit. Read this sir" and this is what
was written:
L gave my heart to a woman-I gave
her branch and root
She bruised it, she wrung, she tor
tured,
She cast it under foot.
The Chauffeur Scent"
Before a New Yorker invests in an
auto he carefully considers the fact
that he must either wash it himself or
hire somebody besides. the chauffeur to
do so Such menial employment is bad
form and would cause the driver to lose
caste in the professional chauffeurs'
club of which he is member. No, he
has no union or scale of prices Union
ism suggests labor, and on general
principles he is opposed to labor. He is
an aristocrat who consents to drive
the car because he needs the money,
perhaps. but he will not admit it. That
would place him on the level with the
common Stablemen. Perish the
thought! Good chauffeurs are paid
good wages in New York and are in
demand. This fact has swelled the
heads of most of them, and they not
only dictate terms of employment, but
once engaged they lord it over auto
owners in a manner that would cause
the usually independent lady cook to
turn green with envy. The members
of the chauffeurs club profess to be
shocked over the tendency of some en-
ployers to put them in livery. declaring
that it makes them look too much like
coachmen. Just why they do not wish
to look like coachmen they do not say.
Zodiac and School Kids
A Brooklyn school teacher with a
leaning toward the occult has hit on q
new plan for governing her large and
somewhat unruly class room. She man
| ages IT, she saws bV the signs of the