SHOPPING IN TOWN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1456, 11 October 1879, Page 23

SHOPPING IN TOWN.

"If you are a shop girl," says Rose Terry, in Sunday Afternoon, an American publication, "be one with all your strength. Do not treat the poor creatures who come to buy goods with such loft y superciliousness as to crush their hopes and send them away empty. Too many of this easy and ladylike profession forget that it is their duty to sell goods, not to pull down oustomera. I shall never forget an experience of mine in New York — only one out of many. I went into one of the two greatest dry goods shops intent on buying a gown, and was ushered by a courteous enough youth into the ladiea' department. . Hare the scene changed— courtesy did not rise to this storey. There were six or eight elegant, languid creatures behind the counters, who instinctively knew I was from the country and not likely to be a great purchaser. I wag a little frightened, but Btill civil, and quite bent on a cashmere suit, so I ran the gauntlet of the demoiaellea, being received as an intruder — costumes duaty and shopworn pointed out to me on their pegs with an air of mere sufferance that at last became quite intolerable, and a general sense of my ignorance and inconßequence in the eyes of all this metropolitan elegance at laßt drove me out of the shop, with a vow in my heart never to trust myself in that palace again. But I did want my gowu, bo, in a meek and humiliated sprit, I catered another leas pretentious shop, where 1 was taken in charge at once by a rosy, cheerful little German damsel, who served me with such alacrity and devotion — fetching everything from everywhere, and " trying ou" with such sunny patience — that I bought a suit I did not want at all— old fashioned, gray instead of black, quite too tight and deficient in various ways — but glorified to me for the time being by the bright and cordial perseverance of this girl who did her work well and thoroughly. I recommend everybody I know to go there and aak for Miss— — ~, and if ever I want another New York garment I shall find her out agiiu, though i will not promise to let her pleasant mr.nner blind my eyes as it did before."