The San Francisco call., 1908-12-24
WHISKY. CHEERS
FAIR SHOPPERS
Woman's S Parlor in Depart
ment Store Uttered With
Empty Flasks
When lovely woman stoeps TO shopping
And finds too late a bargains missed,
What art can keep the corks from pop
ping.
adapted for a Cold Day.

w nut cnaTHh iIcS IN tuc ItuutE AfSts
adapted for Cold Day.
T F this tale weren't substantially by a
childs barrow full of empty glass
ware it would scarcely seem credible.
But the carefully tabulated record of
the clerk in the toy department must
he believed, even though women shop
pers are apparently riding to and from
the department stores on the water
wagon.
The phenomenon was first noticed in
the cold days early this week A clerk
hastily entering the women's parlor of
big Market street department store
heard cracking of glassware under
her feet, and looking down was aston
ished to see a broken whisky flask lay
ing shattered on the carpet. She stepped
back from the suspicious looking wreck
like Sinbad in the valley of diamonds;
a surprise was under each high French
heel. 1t was then early in the business
day and the big store was not yet filing
up. The clerk rushed to the manager
of the toy department, which is located
near the women's parlor, and informed
him of the discovery.
FLASKS FILL TOY BARROW
The manager could not stand for any
thing like broken liquor TASKS about
the premises. Shoppers might cut their
delicate slippers on the fragments, and
then there was the reputation of the
house to be considered.
So a trusted clerk of the toy depart
ment was armed with a broom and
equipped with a toy barrow and in
structed to clear out the signs of an
amateur orgy. The clerk was atten-
tive to business. In 20 minutes he re-
ported to the manager that the place
had been cleared Of the symbols of
strong drink.
That was at o'clock.
Score--3S empty TASKS.
1t was a prodigiously cold day. Soon
the store began to fill with women.
They bought holiday books, bound in
wicker; swiss cheese in three quarters
morocco; filigree hose and ice cream
tafies.
LEvEE IN WOMAN's PARL0R
Then there would be a levee in the
woman's parlor.
At noon the trusted clerk. with his
broom and barrow, entered the sacred
precinct again. There was a redolent,
Fillmore street odor about the sanctum.
Secrets empty TASKS.
1t was not computed how many were
full
The cold continued during the after
noon. The store was still full of
women. They purchased teddy bears
and William Jennings talking dolls and
William Howard t. baby chairs. war
ranted not to break, no matter how
heavy the kid might be. They ranged
at large from the ribbon counter to the
bargain sale loft They invested in gas
ranges for their husbands and pur-
chased cuts of Charles Lamb in the
butcher department, and there was ever
a frou frou of siIken skirts about the
woAan's parlor.
DEAD SOLDIERS KNEE DEEP
At o'clock the toy department man
ager sent the trusted clerk again into
the parlor. An incensed customer with
white. bow of ribbon had announced
in horrified tones that the room was
knee deep in dead soldiers"
There was another grand clean up
Score: 81 empty TASKS.
The cold weather continued with all
its intensity during the afternoon
The clerks were worked TO death. as
they said. Women rushed in to buy
Macauley's complete works in 10 vol
umes for their cousins wife-said
cousins wife, it will develop. will come
in on Saturday and ask permission to
exchange the literature for Point
Reyes tub butter and Salinas potatoes
Ever were there throngs in the womans
parlor.
At Z o'clock. just before the toy de-
partment manager went to his dinner,
he again ordered the trusted clerk to
clear the decks for the evening serv-
| ices.
Score: IS empty TASKS
-fx