THE DRAPER'S FARTHING.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13100, 27 April 1908, Page 7

THE DRAPER'S FARTHING.

The phi-oeophy of the odd farthing, so familiar to lady shoppers, is tho sub- .!.- ject of an editorial soliloquy in a recent number of tho "Drapers' Record." One _ - explanation the writer offers is that when cheap materials are sold by the yard fractions of a penny are necessary in adjusting a fair proportion of profit. This does not, however, he confesses, ''tell us why an article should to ticketed '19s Hid,', instead of the ~round amount of twenty shillings. Is •>•. it npt a reflection upon the intelligence - r '* e_ .he lady shopper? Granting that Is ."" 'Iljd may at first sight look much less than tho, unbroken 2s, a moment's \" thought would convince even the most [."■. B'ipcriicial that the difference was of b;_. tho slightest, -while the uniformity of . - tlie 'three-farthing' method was, to say i -£".. the least, 6U-picioiis, as casting a doubt I. J .upon the genuineness of the prices. | f r-4lt is not without reason that modern U *> .""shops are fitted .with splendour, and . ~ customers are surrounded with every- ,-. - thing that is calculated to make them if" imperially' on the subject of the "\ ,-■ orders they are about to place. And "". -'•- yet may not the whole effect be lost * -by reason of,the popular 'three-farth- { * method which jrompels the customer \ think in farthings, instead of in 7 "• pounds and shillings ?"