Bisbee daily review., 1909-05-30
DEPARTMENT STORES
 CLEVERLY BUNCOED

CHICAGO. May 29.-Here is the answer to your wonderment as to how Jones can afford to bedeck his wife in handsome mats and ermine cloaks at the charity ball. and how the Smiths are able to furnish their home where they gave the big New Years reception, with oriental rugs of the most expensive kind and rare bric-a- brac. The hats and the cloaks. the rugs and the bric-a-brac you saw per. maps went back to the big retail store next day was credited to their ac- count and perhaps had to be sold in the basement at big reduction be- cause of the damage done.
 This is part of the system of bunco- ing the department stores, an txpose Of which has disclosed many secrets Of domestic finance practiced at the expense of the big retail houses which now they are beginning to check. in the Woman's World for June the
 whole system IS exposed by Charles fleming Barbour. together with the steps devised for preventing the impo- sitions wlfich frtile wits and doubtful ccnseiences have made enormously expensive to the big retailers. Woman gentle wonan-.s shown up as q
 more shameful offender than man. One particular case related is this:
 "A girl sat on a wire-legged stool
 before a long mirror in the millinery
 department of one of Chicago's fore
 most department stores. She was
 young. pretty and tastefully dressed.
 On her blue serge lap lay her ~old
 hat" in its way a confection of las.
 winter. She had already tried on
 eight others, varying fin contour from
 merry widoow sailor with an eight.
 inch brim to the most chic of Parisian
 toque--a mere pun. kiss and rosette of chiffon.
 Do you mean to say" pursued the girl on the stool, that there are wo- men who would be so-so low as ,u wear hat and then return it?'' The saleslady lifted her eyes from the toque in her hand. "Oh. my. yes. often." she exclaini ed.
 But if one has the hat charged?' the girl insisted
 There was a shrug of the shapeiy black-clad shoulders. Then it $ the company's loss" was the answer The hat must be either refined or g1 to the basement"
 And be sold ever so much cheap. er?''
 "Oh, yes. indeed"
 Whereupon a most Illuminating ex, pression passed o.cr tha arch coun l tenance of the girl on the stool. An instant she hesitated as if in doubt | then: "I'll take this oue,' she sad and proceeded to thrust the pins intC
 her old hat. The name she gave was
 one well known in commercial Chi cago, and the address on a Nortf S. de street itself bespoke the social | plane on which the maiden moved. Charge and send" she said. ana | gathering up her blue serge skirt II
 a little chamois gioved hand, sht ] moved away in the direction of the ! elevators.
 But the hat came back. It came back with a dozen pin holes in th' | lining, but, worse than that, with tw' | through the quills. Quite as a matta
 of course Josie showed it to the man | ager of the department, wao. with z | quick gianc. uttered a single word | Easement
 | At the head of the main aisle O
 every department there stands .
 mahogany desk presided over by twf girls. On a Monday morning in Jun, | of last year credit slips were issued IT the amount of S2,694.2S.
 But the retailers have not bee; idle. They have begun to bring thii
 kind of bunco game to a halt. Hert
 is one of the methods as related il
 the Woman's World:
 Sliding back the mirror door of : cedar-lined moth-proof cupboard-tth' 1 best lines of ready-made clothing ar, | no longr piled on ccuntersl-he tool I down from it's nickel hanger a sill ! lined frock coat and waist coat mark
 ed to sell for si5.
 See that" he said and held out th' | sleeve.
 And the tag was not sewn on thu | sleeve with easily cut and as easd. | substitutd thread u was wired on | and where the two ends of tne gfr' met was neat, sealed loZenge of sol der.
 | "A Charley-boy wouldn't cut muci | of a pie at an at-home wearing a froc! | coat with that label on the sleeve
 would ne?" inquired my friend aai i addd meaningly: 'I wish l had tel dollars for every young man who hd | led his lady-love to the altar in cua i, borrowed from us before we dvise' :, that little deterrent"
 And he told me now 1t had conn about that the label was adopted. Tn gentlemen who rent dress suits uu' | frock coats for a livelihood had force
 the issue. Their business was suffer ing. and small wodder. for who amon'
 us would pay real money for on' evenings use of dress coat 'whe; tn same was to be had for nothing And that these clothes renters wer' in the right was clearly establishe' 1 by the boom their business receive ] Immediately foilwoing the adoption the soldered label by their uncoa
 scious rivals
 Quite in keeping with the forego1 is the record made by four out-of-towl relatives of a prominent attorney wn ] at his funeral. expressed the grief ths , felt by wearing black costumes-.r , cIuding hats-which were returne
 within three days cf ihe obsequie' and on winch credit was allowed No is it only to give grace to funeral that entire costumes are thus bo' ] rowed-' from the stores, but with equa sang froid dos miladi secure part gowns. theater coats, indeed, anythin that may be used for one occasion an returned. It is the same. MT. Ba! bour says with vases. cut glass. dr' peries. statuary and bronzes, to sa nothing of the thousand and one ie' | ser articles, such as necklaces, ring.