Evening star., 1950-11-12

fingers over O cut-glass pickle
dish.
He was talking about his father
and uncle-James and Gustave
Lansburgh, the two young men
from Baltimore who came to
Washington In 1860 to found the
fancy goods agency" now cele-
brating its Goth anniversary as
Washington's oldest department
store"
"They were alert" he said. "As
soon as they heard about the as
sassination of Abraham Lincoln
they rushed to Baltimore. which
was a large textile market, ano
boughtup all the black crepes ano
cottons they could find and got
them back here.
when the Government called
on the merchants for black goods
and bunting so the buildings could
be draped in mourning. Lans-
burgh's provided most of 1t. They
just about cornered the black
goods market. D..
Draped Funeral Train.
"They provided the bunting for
the railroad engine and funeral
cars that went slowly through
the country to Springfield. ILL.,,
carving IincolnS hody home for
burial"
He set down combined egg
cup and toothpick holder beside
the pickle dish. Embossed on each
was 'Lansburgh e. Bro. Dry
Goods"
''At the beginning of this CEN
tury," he said. they used to cele-
brate their anniversary by giving
out glassware. 1t came in huge
hogsheads from Pittsburgh. Long
lines of people used to form, in
side the store to get piece. They
didn't have to buy anything.
Those glasses still turn up in
attics and antique shops. I think
the market price for them now is
about ST."
A girl in the store Office said
she had seen the g1asses-and not
in an antique store.
During World War H." she
said, I'VE had to figure out some
way to ration nylons. We decided
to sell them to our customers on
an alphabetical basis. Women
would come in and say they
should get some nylons because
they were old customers. To prove
it, they'd show us those old pieces
of glassware.
In the early days, the store his
tory goes, Gustave LanSburgn
used to haul his sample case to
the little neighborhood stores to
sell shoe strings, collar buttons,
bustles and notions. Their fancy
goods agency occupied a space
10 by Is feet square over the
Bank of Washington.
They moved several times in the
next decade. up and down Seventh
street. They changed their name,
too, as the stocks grew. They
were the Baltimore Bargain
House" and the metropolitan Dry
Goods Store" before they became
simply Lansburgh & Bro.
They were poor" Mark Lans-
burgh reminisced. There were
weeks in the old days when the
Bank Of Washington lent them
to meet the payroll. We've
dealt with the Bank of Washing
on ever since. My father and I
Doth have served on the banks
BOARD"
The hours were long In those !
days. The doors opened before
$50 am. for the customers who
liked to go to the stores and the
before breakfast. The
doors closed when the last Gus
toner left the store.
In the 80's Lansburgh's joined
other merchants in announcing
$50 pm. closing but that didn't
apply to Saturday nights.
Marx E. Kahn, the bedwear
buyer who has been with the store
since 1895. recalled those Satur-
day nights when the ''cover up
call sometimes didn't come till
II pm.
introduced Innovations.
BY the time Mr.. Kahn came to
work, Lansburgh & Bro. had an
80-foot frontage on Seventh street.
1t boasted of its elevator-the first
in a commercial building in
Washington. 49,
II remember that elevator" d"
Said Mr.. Kahn. 'It was wooden,
and it was always getting stuck
between floors. We had the first
rotary door, too, but a woman
caught her heel and said if we
didn't take it out. she'd never
shop there again. So we took 1t
out"
Those were the days when the
ladies would drive up in their
equipage and the horse-cars trun-
died past the door. 1t was an era
of modesty and fastidiousness.
Mr.. Kahn well remembered the
over-daring window trimmer.
Il don't remember whether it
was a window display to show
stockings or skirts" he said, but
this window-t trimmer had fixed up
a dummy so the skirt was pulled
halfway up her leg. Mr.. James
was shocked. He ordered the dis
play taken out of the window,
said it was vulgar"
"Mr. Gus" had 13 children. One
of them, "Mr. SOL" at IS still
comes to the store regularly. He
is president of the company. An
other son was the late "Call-Me-
Henry" Around the store, the
fo,,,,Iorc oYaI fJ,niY coyc oy,1 %lnaip