BIDDING FOR CUSTOM.

Evening Post, Volume XXVI, Issue 103, 29 October 1883, Page 3

BIDDING FOR CUSTOM.

The Melbourne Argus mentions a new departure by a firm of drapers in that city, in the manner of conducting a retail business. The business, says our contemporary, like that of many other similar places in England and America, is on the cash prinoiplo, but the use of telegraphic communicators from the oounters wul do away with the annoying cry of " cash" when a visitor makes a purchase. At the baok of the shop proper is a large space set apart for the purposes of ajanlin eiysie, where customers may obtain refreshments in a cool grotto, made attractive by aviaries of birds, salt and fresh water aquaria, and the music of a band, which will be seated in a fernery situated in a picturesquelypointed landscape. There will also be pianoforte and other recitals. The basement, which comprises a very wide area, will be converted into a gentleman's lounging olub, with lavatories and refreshment buffets, and will be accessible from tho street by a private entrance not leading through the shop. Here gentlemen may read, or talk, or smoke, while their lady friends are matfng their purchases upstairs. A aosy room, comfortably furnished and decorated, will bo devoted to tho use of ladies as a private olub, while another and Bimilar apartment has boon termed the " dark room," for the somewhat paradoxical reason that it is lighted by artificial light alone, the objeot being to felvo ladies an opportunity of duly observing the effoot of harmonies and contrasts in colour under the influence of gaslight.

Prince George of Wales was "interviewed" by an enterprising reporter during his stay at Halifax, but he managod to answer all the questions that were put to him without giving muoh information. " How do you like a sailor's life ?" " Splendidly," was tho reply. "How long will you stay here?" " Why, of course, I shall stay as long as the ship stays. How long that will be I oannot tell you, for I don't know." "Will your father, the Prince of Wales, oomo to Canada for the Montreal meeting of tho British Association " " Really, I don't know. I never heard him say anything about it." A variety of other quostions followed, most of them relating to tho Princo's probable movements. Tho intensity of the struggle for a livelihood in England is illustrated by the statement of a magazine writer that there are 300,000 families in London who are in the habit of pawning small artioles, and that more than 6,000,000 unolaimed pledges are sold every year in that city, while over 270,000,000 articles are taken in pledgo in the course of a year throughout the country.