The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-11
MEN WHO TRY
 BARGAIN SALES Number Is Now Larger Than
 Ever Before MORE EAGER THAN WOMEN The Masculine Shopper Is Infringing on a Sacred Domain That Once
 Belonged to Ills Sister.
 Women Amazed.
MORE EAGER THAN WOMEN
From the Boston Herald.

From the Boston Herald.
 Its about time men stopped giving their women folks the comic supplement laugh over their bargain hunting actlvities,'' said the manager of the mems section of a department store. 'In> these days women haven't got single thing on the men as bargain counter fiends. The men are just aB keen on the trail of the nnarked-down stuff as women, and they're every bit as pushy and scrappy in their way of sweeping upon the bargain stuff at that
 You've only to stand by for fittle while and watch the progress of a cut price sale of mems wear here to find out what eager and sometimes peevish bargain chasers men are nowadays. They don't make any bones about 1t, either.
 T can easily recall the time when men looked sort of sheepish and hangdog over 1t when they attended sales of marked down stuff. They were sort of depreca- torily grinny and would glance around furtively to see if anybody they knew was spotting them. They plainly felt cheap and uncomfortable over their hunt for the bargain stuff, and they often took the at- titude that they were merely looking around, and had just dropped in to sec if the advertised marked down stun was really on the level.' If they happened to be caught snooplng around the marked down counters by acouaintances. they'd look illustrated and dabbergasted, and they'd humble things about how they were just poking around without any in- tention in the world of buying any of the cut price stuff; they were just poking around that's all
 ~Altogether different now, though. The ara 41.A 4At mems bargain counters, and they don't make the least effort to hide or to look apologeuc, either. As a matter of fact they appear to be rather resentful over 1t when they find women folks around the counters where men's marked down stuff is heaped up. They don't want women around when they're bargain countering, and they don't hesitate to show this, either.
 We've got into the habit of stand ing by for regular football rushes here whenever we advertise an especially rote- worthy and attractive line of mems marked-down stuff. It's no uncommon thing to find crow9seof men folks kick ing their heels outsffe the entrances when the establishment is opened up for busi- ness in the morning. They're the fellows who've read the mems bargain adver- tisements in the evening papers the night before or in the morning papers, on their way downtown to work, and they drop off on their way to work to get first whacl at the cut price stuff before it's all paved over and snapped up. This early morning crowd hasn't much time to spare be- cause. as I say. they're on their way to work, and the way they do V wedge toward the mems bargain counters and grab hold of the piled up stuff is some- thing that would gladden. the eyes of women who've been listening to and read fr7er nf h f~.x nesses all of these long years.
 We get another swoopfui big gang of them during the non hour, when they're out for lunch. They bolt their lunches and then beat it for the mems bargain counters. and they pick and paw the gear over as busy as bird dogs. Then there's still another big mob of male bargain hunters late in the afternoon.
 There isn't a particle of difference be- tween the spirit manifested by men and women at their respective bargain count CTS. except that the men are sometimes rumblingly growly where the women merely snap at each other-and that's a Fundamental difference between men and woman that obtains every old place, doesn't 1t?
 For example, yesterday we had a sale of mems marked-down derby hats. We were closing out line of sure enough 8 and A derbies for $1.25. We had big ad- vertisements of this sale in the evening papers for day before yesterday and yes terday mornings papers.
 "When I got to the store yesterday morning you'd have thought a macs meet ing was in progress out in front. The sidewalk wasn't wide enough to hold the mob of men who'd dropped off their cars to be early on the job at this derby sale, When the porter let me init was about five minutes before the regular opening time-he had all he could do to bring tho door shut upon them. They were de- termfned to burst in right at my heels.
 When tho doors were opened they stormed in Ike a gang of lynchers bent upon dragging some murderer out of his cell, and they beat 1t at deep gallop for the rear of the main floor. where the hat sale was all ready. Their feet thun- dered on the floor boards like an army as they darted to the rear. and the sales women, not for a moment realizing what was coming of. looked nervous and scared until they found out the cause of this noisy swoop.
 Some of the derbies were stacked up on easily reachable shelves, with tho size numbers on slips pasted right below each shelf. but most of them were heaped up on long counters placed in the middle of the aisles.
 Well, you wouldn't believe the way those fellows mobbed those marked down hats. The scene reminded me of nothing so much as big gang of newsboys scrambling for silver coins hurled into the street by some rummy with a gener- ous jag on.
 Two or three of them would grab at the same time for hats resting on the shelves on which the size numbers were pasted, and the fellow whose hand got there first and who snagged out the hat and tried 1t on had to stand for the growls of the unsuccessful reachers. never heard so many e vans in my life.
 "One little chap, not blessed with a long reach was beaten to 1t two or three times running by a tall fellow who had the same size head, and finally the little man got hot around the neckband
 Say whats on you, anyhowT he grumbled at the tall man. Dye want to hog the hull thing? Are you gon' to start a hat store or what tell anyhow?"
 "They were lined up about five deep about the aisle counters upon which the derbies were piled and the impatience of those in the rear rows over the 'hoggi- ness, as they called 1t. of the fellows who were up front trying on the lids as they picked them up was every bit as marked and considerably more grouchily ex- pressed than the impatience of women who find themselves pociseted in their rushes for the bargai- counters.
 "Hey, are ye- rummies goln' to stick I'D front tLsre all day? the ones behind wouS srowl, and then the ones up front ~ <dld turn their heads around and say sG'wan' out of the corners of their