The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-12-12
new POSITION FOR
GIRLS WITH IDEAS
Department Stores In New
York Now Employ Wo-
y men Demonstrators"

NEW YORK. Dec. 1.-THE way Of
the woman demonstration is hard up to
q certain point. The point passed. it
may lead to fame and fortune. Such
cases have been known.
At this time of year first in sight
perhaps are the fashion demonstrators
who. to slow music. promenade over a
given space before crowds of women
who walk up one another's backs in
their eagerness to get a glimpse of
how tight the new skirts really are,
how long the coats, how tall the
hats. 1t was like that, anyway, every
day for week or more in one Of
New York's largest stores wheich re-
Gently provided seats for $500 persons
and standing room for as many more
to enjoy an object lesson of the new
est garments for all occasions. The
lessons were given with the aid OF
about forty young women, tall. short,
and medium, slim, not 500 slim, and al
most stout, who paraded with a slow
and stately grace few OF the spectators
could have matched.
Saleswomen? Not at ALL Demon
stratOrs every one, trained and tried.
1t was a demonstration we'll worth
the suffering some onlookers under
went. young woman balancing on
. projection of the supports of the last
row OF seats submitted to having an
arm pinched black and blue without
protest or so much as turning her
eyes once from the alluring procession
In front.
Some OF the spectators stood for
more than an hour in the morning and
came back in the afternoon. when the
clothes schedule was changed, to
stand some more. The same scene on
q smaller scale was going on in other
stores.
A young woman may be able to tell
over and over again to a constantly
shift of listeners this pan does so
and 50" without losing her enthusiasm
or her mind, and sell lot of pans
too, and yet never once touch the
heights demanded of the latter day
demonstration. The woods, or rather
the stores. are full Of this kind OF
demonstration. The percentage which
develops initiative and originality of
methods and so passes the drudgery
1S much smaller. This Is the
sort Of demonstrator manufacturers
and retailers are watching out for and
among men.
There are men," q merchant said,
who can drop into any busy thorough
fare anywhere, with q novelty, it
doesn't matter what, and in two min
utes collect q crowd and hold 1t indef-
lnitely. First thing you know these
men are managing business on their
own account and sending out demon
ltrators. Women of like caliber are
scarce, but not 80 scare now as they
were q few years ago, 1t having been
discovered that women with good
thinking apparatus who can concen-
trate Of the question of how to reach
the public by methods out of the or
binary are maging a pile of money as
demonstrators"
In one Of the department stores. for
instance. Is q young woman put there
to demonstrate q blend Of coffee.
She is as pleasing to the eye as the
coffee she prepares is to the taste.
But it Is not these desirable points
which enable her to draw a good sal
ary as we'll as q percentage Of the
money from her enormous sales. She
has superior originality and a light
ming change of argument. as circum-
In another store young woman.
also OF high intelligence. manipulates
an electric wrinkle remover to such
purpose that what at the start was a
very doubtful proposition in the opin-
ion Of the manufacturer has turned
out a money maker. Said manager:
1T has come to pass that the New
York public Is peculiarly responsive