proper person is using it, she may carry away such purchases as she may desire, or have checks cashed. Clerks are trained to know their customer's name and desires, and a thousand and one little attentions are shown to make the purchasers feel at home. One important feature that the stores practically first introduced is that of allowing goods to be returned which are not wanted by the purchasers, even if no fault can be found with them.

Rochester man undertakes a line of silks which the Colorado merchant couldn't dispose of at all, and conducts a highly successful bargain sale therewith. A dozen cities are now represented in this combination. A feature of this combination is syndicate buying. A single experienced buyer purchases goods for a string of a dozen stores in different cities, thus they are all able to get goods at a rate which only the largest consumer could secure, and each bears its proportion of the expense of the buyer's salary and his assistants.

Aside from departures in policy and innovations on a large scale the originality of the department store is largely supplied by two departments to some extent correlated. These are the advertising department and the window-dressing department. One is the literature of the great store; the other its art. The shop-windows are a great stimulus for the department whose goods are displayed in them. A good showing will often wonderfully increase the sale of the stock as well as attract customers to the store who are new to it. Frequently the head advertising man is the general

The mail-order system, which sprung at once into popularity, gave an enormous impetus to the business of the firm that first tried it. Every other firm copied it, but the pioneers had covered a large field before their imitators followed. The department stores prophesied and probably accelerated the scorching into popular favor of the bicycle, and to-day, almost without exception, the big establishments have a wheel department, while not a few conduct bicycling academies. The progressive store-and all must be progressive responds instantly to the latest fad; no new thing comes into the market but it is quickly pushed into notice, and indeed many ideas are first put forward in one of the many departments. One original enterprise, which has had a gratifying success to those engaged in it, is a combination of some of the stores in the smaller cities, whereby they exchange. goods, and in that way rectify to an extent errors of stock. For instance, that a certain line of novelties would not sell in Rochester is no argument that Denver would not buy it, so the Rochester merchant with an overstock in his hands, sends it to his Denver fellow - merchant and he sells it out for him. In return the

manager of the

store. Whether this is the case or not, he is a general supervisor of the establishment, with a complete knowledge of its ever-changing detail. Every day he holds consultations with heads of departments to find out what particular lines of articles they want "boomed," and about those articles he writes alluring statements for the shopping public to read, sometimes arranging for illustrations with them. The amount of money spent for advertising is appalling when looked upon as an expense. One great store in Philadelphia spends

on an average $1,000 every day in the year, and a good many spend $500 a day. The advertising receives probably more of the personal attention of the head of the house than any other department. The head of the firm which expends the great sum just mentioned personally suggests and frequently writes the leading lines in the daily announcement. The proprietor of a great store in Brooklyn does this invariably, and thinks the time well spent which the work daily requires. The mail department tends to enlarge this expenditure, as the store reaches out to the utmost parts of the country, and the future will no doubt see an even greater development in the effort to secure mail customers in the small towns and in country places.

Advertisement writing has, within the last few years, become a fine art. The writer must be thoroughly up to date in his ideas, and the latest methods require that he furnish something new every day. Genuine wit and humor are found over the "adv." mark in the papers. It is pretty safe to say that every good advertising man earns his salary, and the best man in the country at this work is said to receive $15,000 a year.

There is little question but that the great department store is a benefit to the buying public, because of the low prices

which prevail in it, because of its convenience and, as a rule, honest dealing, and because it concentrates many lines of stock within a small space. On the other hand, it is a question if it is not in its tendency a menace to some of our commercial institutions. It has already made marked inroads on several lines of retail selling without bestowing any corresponding benefit. Especially is this true of goods which have been handled by salespeople with special education and training, and where there existed in the business a pride beyond that of mere trading which gave it distinction. haps the best instance of this is to be found in the store book department, the stock of which is, with the exception of possibly a few establishments, composed of only the newest or, perhaps, the least worthy of books, or volumes in inferior editions.

Per

The salespeople are often illiterate and untrained, and the whole tone of the place is the antithesis of what the booklover looks for in such a place. Yet the supplying of the most salable books at the very lowest prices drives the small bookseller, who carries a large stock and employs competent assistance, out of the business, and threatens the extinction of shops which have served a valuable purpose. Much the same may be said in

disparagement of the store "picture department," the stock displayed, and the taste appealed to, is even inferior, by comparison, to the book department. It may be only a question of time when each part of the great stores will be as perfect as the best shops devoted to single kinds of goods; but it is certainly true now that with the exception of some of the oldest and largest departments it is the aggregation of stock and prices which attract the customers, and not the quality and selection of goods displayed.

From time to time the practices and methods of one or another of the great stores have been made the subject of legislative inquiry; but invariably with unimportant results. And now a powerful organization has been formed in New York by some thirty or forty of the big

stores for mutual support and protection. Representing, as it does, more than fifty millions of capital, it is a formidable combination; and, while its object is not definitely so stated, there is no doubt but that it will oppose with all its strength any legislation looking toward an interference with the business.

Public opinion has been brought to bear upon the management of the department store. The Consumers' League of New York has been organized, with the object of compelling the stores to treat their employees equitably. It fights for light, airy rooms, seats for the salespeople, reform in the system of fines, vacations with pay, and recompense for overtime. Such stores as live up to the principles set down by the Leaguers are put on the "White List." The members of the League do their shopping in the listed

www