Year: 1872

other question so important to the man OF family as
the question Of dry goods. No woman has yet been
discovered with soul superior to silks and fur
bellows, and probably woman will ever be born
whose aspirations shall go so far heavenward
that she will not desire to have at least one nice
dress.


This question of dry goods Is question that on
the face of it interests the half OF the human race,
and perhaps more than half for does not the GEN.
sus show that there more maids and widows
waiting to be married than there are men to marry
them?


Consequently now that the heat OF the dog days
may be said TO have passed and the Fail son
is about TO commence shortly 1t behOoves all per-
sons who have clothing or dress goods to buy for
the coming season to understand the market and
provide for the Winter months.


And as the HERALD finds no subject too great and
subject too small for its investigation IL the re-
suit OF its inquiry can be of benefit to the public,
representative Of this journal was ordered to pay
diplomatic visit to the principal dry goods houses
in the city and ascertain the prospects OF the Fall
trade-whether they were favorable or otherwise.


THE EyTRAvAGANcE OF DRESS


Among the houses visited the principal ones
were those OF the wellknown firms of A. T. Stewart
Co., Arnold, Constable Il Co. and II. B. Clanin
4 Co.


stranger to New York can find no better way
Of obtaining faint guess at the enormous COM
mercal wealth and industry OF this country than
by slowly walking through great dry goods house
like Stewards. This emporium OF fashion and
luxury is to all other dry goods houses what the
HERALD Is to journalism. 1t is lobster among the
softshell crabs, Triton among the minn0ws, and
the mind is astonished and bewidered to think Of
the luxury which has grown upon this country
since the reverberating gun was fired upon
Sumter. At that time we were, COM
paratively speaking people simple in tastes
and easily satisfied, as far as our women
were concerned, in the matter OF dress and
ornamcntation. But let any person now ask ut any
European fashionable watering place or freQuented
resort OF tourists. "Who are the women who
dress most expensivelyS" and the answer will
be- "They Americans" Who wear the most
costly diamondsg American women. What wo.
man ut Baden at Biarritz, ut Nice, Mentone, at
Brighton, on the Bouevards, on the Prado or
walking along Regent street, is the most noticeable
for being oien gantee or 6ien clsaUsSee? Why, OF
course, the belle Ameycdine. She Is the 'dearest'
and most delightful and most extravagant Of wo-
men. But since the days OF Silver Mouth Chrysop
tom the fashionable follies and weaknesses OF wo-
men have been denounced and rallied at, and yet
every year they dress in more expensive manner
and the increase in household expenses are not
waning and are not likely ever to wane. And thus
1t is that the dry goods trade prospers and grows
opace.


There are two great staples which form founda-
ton for the dry goods trade, vz.-the products Of
the silk worm and the wool from the sleeps back.
The HERALD representative obtained state
ment from the chief executive OF the largest dry
goods house In this city, which may be taken rs
the opinion OF gentleman who controls business
amounting to many millions OF dollars every year.
Having been for many years contested and largely
with the dry goods trade he speaks er-cathedra ON
these matters, OF which the following is substan-
TALLY reproduction Of his ideas:-


To begin; the spectators and newspapers who
are interested In the matter. They have denied
Ts n not u rgs ere
wool on hand, and there has been plenty OF wool TO
De mad 11r three a1. or 10 9ur years past During the
to good many millions OF pounds more than In
the previous years, comparatively speaking, and
country. There was combination of SPECTATORS
among the wool men, and combination OF the gold
men with them to make corners, for gold rose from
s,s to Is. Black Friday, strange as it may seem
had tendency to draw some of the gold specu-
htors into the wool ring which was Immediately
formed. With surplus OF several hundred mil
lions oi money in the country a chance was given
hate THE the 's market for their own interests
The amount and volume OF the cot
IS frg ea 70 sec s the
tween New York and Liverpool woud get into this
great & field G for gambling purposes, for what VIII
Cloths ali wool, which sold at 50, have been re-
placed by shodcy cotton cloths at $6.


NO DECLINE IN STAPLES.


We are on the downward plane. 1t is hardly
possible that there will he much Of decline in





be gotten at, amounted to between ninety and
one hundred and ten millions OF pounds,
and spectators with from fifteen to twenty
millions OF dollars could control the entire
crop. The statistics OF wool are never
for the reason that the farmer
does not report in his returns any of the crops
which he uses for domestic consumption and thus
there is great and unknown deficiency; yet It is
believed that the crop ranges from about ninety to
one hundred and ten millions OF pounds. This year
there has been very large importation Of foreign
trated and Kept in business centres in the hands
OF producers


The dry goods trade has been late this fall, and
this principally grows out or the fact OF the change
and reduction in the tariff which took place on the
1st day OF August. satisfactory trade was done
last year up to the LIST Of September movement
prices upward began when the small purchasers
markets began to break in price on domestic
fabrics fully ten per cent, and there was a fall Of
fifteen TO thirty per cent for seasonable and foreign


THE sprcuL.roRs' LITTLE CANE.


Small consumers who came in September would
NOT buy these goods. Gold increased In its value.
Then came the Chicago fire in October q fire which
unsettled everything and produced a temporary
declining prices OF the preceding months,
made the Fan business OF ls7l very unsatisfactory
in its nature TO merchants. All these things
taken into account aud the reason is easy to see
why the FAN trade Is six weeks to two months be-
te,naton .e rs%a o Ipepns u n season Also an an
reason OF the backwardness of the Fan trade.
Then comes tue authorization of large crop of cot
ton, some business men believing that the crop
Will be as large as four to four and half millions
Oh Dalcs. But all these opinions have been bidged
over, however, and trade has already begun
briskly among dry goods men and In good volume


AT present IL is firmly believed tnat there is
nothing In the mercantile horizon that assures
dimlnution or Increase in prices during the next
sixty or seventy-iive days. Merchants who have
large dry goods dealings with the other side con.
firm the theory OF steady prices and an advance
In some things.


THE WOOL EXCITEMENT


Advlccs yesterday In wool state that prices will
be advanced. Wool holders are always sanguine,
and they anticipate o steady sale and slight adj
vance In the sales OF September and October


In London they have stated sales Tor wool as
they have for East India shawls and many other
classes of articles.


There are always q set OF croakers in business
who are not gifted with industry enough even to
frame decent excuse for an anticipated lack OF