Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-12-07
SHOP EARLY,
Reasons for Doing So at
Christmas.
People Who Will Benefit By
Such a Course.
Timely Suggestions by the Secre-
tary Of the Consumers League.

In Charities ana the Commons, Flor
encc Kelley gives some very good
reasons for carly Christmas shopping.
She says:
Never before in any month Of NOycln-
Der has 50 large 4 number Of merchants
notified their tuStmcrs that the Christ -
mas goods are at hand ready Tor in
Sprcl!on and purchase. Meier have -
many Consumers Leagues niuiled to
their members appeals 10 shop carly III
the season. early il the week, carly in
the day. In some cities. postal cards
carry printed personal appeal. in
others, cards IN the street cars and
store windows bear the legend. Every
where. however. the most effective
pressure upon the thouehtless public
comes from The merchants and the press
through daily advertising and friendly
editorials
II is an astonishing number Of people
who profit by this vast concerted effort
to abolish the Christmas cruelticS The
shoppers themselves find now in the
! stores good air and good will awaiting
them which (sinister thOughtD viii
grow loss every day as Christmas ap-
proacheS. The clerks are still I'M
Wcaried by the jostling crowds, and
can extend courtesy. which will grow
daV by day more difficult if not more
scant. These, however. are merely the
| visible Part OF the army of workers
concerned. Unseen and alas, unremem-
bered are the shipping and packing
AMI wrapping forces. the dclivery-men,
and bows and, remotcst of all from
the gay holiday thronss Of mid Decen,-
Der are the candy makers, toy makers.
box makers, the innumerable workshop
ard factory employees whose "overtime'
work follows the belated orders and
careless delays of the shopping multi
tulc.
The favorite Christmas gift of all
classes and ages appears to be candy.
From the babe with its sugar angel,
ana the bctrothed with costly bonbOrs
in lavish measure. to the querulOuS
aged old lady for whom soft marsh
mallOW alone remains manageable
candy appears year after year the SYM
Dol of good cheer. Long since the
manufacturers began to prepare and
store away those small. hard, highly
colored, unwholsome objects associated
in the minds of modern children with
Sunday school Christmas trees and
Christmas stockings. Packed in pals
ana in buckets this strange material
has been shipped by hundreds Of tons
to towns and villages scattered from
Maine 20 Texas and California. Age
cannot Nither ii nor custom stale, so
the candy manufacturers prepare it
through the summer and early fall.
Not so the costly perishable bonbons
OF older purchasers. These must be
fresh, and the careless world, late in
giving its orders. thinks little Of the
pressure upon the factory and store.
uron maker and seller. Factory
hand and "saleslady" suffer alike
when laws are broken ana overtime"
work is exactcd. More in this industry
than any other is use made Of eXrnp-
tions, wherever they exist from orr
all-too-ecani restrictions upon work ~
night for women and children.
Since the LAST holiday season the need
for voluntary effort to discourage
eleventh hour shopping has greatly in
creased