The Winslow mail., 1914-12-19

arrangement and the catalogues and lists of suit
able gifts, classified according to ages have done
much toward making shopping for men a
simple matter.
MS however is very recent institution. In
the ola days. woman went to the large shop,
without the slightest idea of what she wanted to
ouy, ana AFTER ten minutes in the crowded heat
ed aisles surrounded by thousands of elaborate
allurlng gayly colored possibilities with no ap
parent order or arrangement, bewderment and
not decision was her portion. Under such condi-
tons, even the most conscientious of them seized
the article nearest. She was at the mercy of the
saleswoman because she did not know what she
had better get where she could get it.
But the woman's bewilderment nothing to
the mans. He didn't make attempt to
shop; he simply bought
But all these things are different now You get
list of things which such-and-such store has
to offer for man, woman and child of any given
age, with the floor on which it may be found ind-
Gated, and you have only to walk in calmly and
deliberately and purchase it. 1t is literally an in
dex of the peace and good will which you may
wish to dispense. You do all your thinking be-
forehand and have an opportunity to remember
that Mrs. SoandSo's library is furnished in red,
and that a Kaiser Sim vase would be more ac-
ceptable than lamp.
Then when you have made your selection you
may make your way to the store with fairly
calm and tranquil mind Of course, it is crowded
with a density which makes progress almost i'm
possible, blazing hot with multitudnous lights
and noisy with many clamorng voices, but all
that have no effect on you. You are sci
entifc shopper and know just what you are going
to get and where you are going to get it. Science
saves time, money and nerves.
There is another way in which Christmas has
become science and that is in the methods
which the big shopkeeper employs to attract the
crowds of holiday shoppers. Go into of their
establishments and you cannot fail to see it.
They are aglow with light, bright with the colors
Of unnumbered fabrics and you hear far and near
the clash of music from many instruments. That
is simply to lure you in and once you are there
you at first nothing but a spectacle of con-
fusion and conflict of sounds that would make
Babel lose caste as synonym. But if you start
to buy what you have come for you will find
remarkable state of order far the things
offered for sale concerned. 1t is not really
a store; it's exposition.
There isn't man in the world who has
keener understanding of the human makeup than
the big shopkeeper He knows every string of
the instrument and plays diligently upon them
all. He lures people with advertisements which
wonder stories. He halts the passing crowd
in the streets with windowful of Christmas wax
works, and they have come inside, whether
with a purpose or out of mere curiosity the ma
chinery is there to hold them fast
For weeks the designers decorators scene
painters dummymakers have been at work devils
ing and constructing some sort of living pictures
fraught with the spirit of the Christmas tale
There is the papier-mache church. still and beau
tifu with snow-covered trees about it. light shin.
ing from the tall windows men, women and chill
dren mounting to the portal, and from away in
the inside sanctuary somewhere come the music
of mighty organ and voices singing Christmas
carols.
1t is expensive but it impresses the people who
enter the store. 1t is the idea of it all that the
Al
be moved to buy and still more for the
holiday giving. That may seem a little far
fetched" you sit at home with Crouch on"
because something went wrong yesterday or a
you thought your friend went back on
you, but get into one of those stores, where you
can't hear yourself think" of your troubles for the
noise and you will realize that it is really very
clever conception