HAPPY WOMEN. DARGAIN-HUNTING.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 25, 30 January 1908, Page 3

HAPPY WOMEN. DARGAIN-HUNTING.

Ai'A SALE. Hie salft may be io-day or tq-mortow ; U may haV© been yesterday, or five'rears igo.; it may he five- years' 1 hence ; it is all the same. A sale' is always a sale, just" as the sun i» always the sun. A sa-le varies no more than woman ; ¦ she may have a Faquir* waist, or none at all ; she may have high h&e)s to-day, and square toes , to-morrow ;" but she is always a woman. ' The sale may be due .to 1 an earthquake," a strike, a file, or just a clean-up ' prior to new season's stocking, but it r remains /'just a sale." ' Woman's joy in a^ saterbegins a day or two before the portals leading., to the bargain counters, are thrown opan. lWhen «j observer sees a woman piuuging into the interior or a 'newspaper 'before she scans th© notices of births, marriages, and deaths, be knows that a sale .is advertised. The chop on gridiron may burn, and the' baby may fall downEtairs, but these details will not worry the woman till she 1 has gloated over the feast of the ''slaughter." the "startling reductions,'-' the "bed-rock prices." ' Then comes the answering of the query — "Will she go?" -She knows that tstte- will go, but she. likes to -convince herself' that the step 'is necessary. •'Ihe process is 'easy, aid she does go early in the morning, aiter a night of dreaming about a' paraditsa where every" day i% a site- day, and the bargains flourish -for all eternity , The • household t is all a-flutt>sr on sale days. If woHnn'-can possibly manage it-— and many do — she is on tho footpath -waiting. lot the shop' to open. It is like the door of a theatre -on, a. night when a brilliant star 'is appearing. There is a struggle for precedence on the side-walk. Each - expectant lady fancies that she may be. beaten for* something "extra special" which caught her eye in tho catalogue. ' • 'The door swing 3 open ; there is a g-wish of draperies, a patter of many feet, a chapter of taJk.- like a choniß of sparrows on a gum-tree at sunset, and a j scramble, like a desperate forwar.d rush ijr a hard-fought game of football. In I the twinkling of an eye the, shop is tak&n by storm. The fair ones flock all around the dress-lengths' and tlt-e" towels and curtains, up and down stairs," and the pentlemen in frock coats begin a very hard day's work. ' There are cynics ,who say that' the frock-coats are just as alluring as the bargains'. Certainly the specia^cle of tVenty or thirty men, "immaculately attired," with gorgeous irock-coats as the final piece ' de resistance, is impressive. Those men are suave, they are. gentle Hi voice, .they are ,very patient.^ In tones that carry conviction they advise women about the floor-coverings which will exactly harmonise with the chimes of ( the marble-clock on the drawing-room man>lpiece, and they know to ? 'nicety the style of curtain which will best go with the number of the: house, the rie'w' aumerd thit has come since the authorities ! decided to improve upon the -old* order. The man is very .polite. If one string fails he has another equally suitable, a third, a fourth, a hundredth. ' ' For a while woma.n is so surrounded by bargains that she is bewildered 1 . A toque, . degraded from its former lofty estate of a guinea, to a ridiculous 2s ll£d, puJLs her in one direction, and a bolero, buffeted from a- proud twp guineas to 17% lid. pulls 'her in another. She does not want ,a toque, she does not- need a bolero, but just look at the prices. The cheapness is seductive;, cheapness creates needs. "What you do not need is dear at a brass farthing," once wrote a Roman philosopher, but it Is a doctrine ignored by- woman. The bargain has a perennial^ fasdnation,' the love of it is born in* woman, ~and is. transmitted through all the generations. "It may not be a bargain really, but the card says so-; the glory of it is genuine in any .case. It is always "a real bargain."' Any man brave enough to ventuie ink* safe rooms while woman is busy . with her mission may - be exhilarated •by the galvanism in tha air — the turning and re-turning of inab3ria,ls; -the shakings of heacls, the .voluble' talk. Orle woman leading a little gu l with one .haijd,. lifts th,e' arm of a dummy with ths other, arid lets it, drop limply J 'she- ra,ise.v it again, and allows it. to fail. It is. like a. railway man signalling -with a- semaphore. She enjoys, the operation, and it doos not hurt the ddnmv, ivhich looks just as sad after as it was 'before the armlifting. ' v , . , As t,he day 3 drawees," the cijtwd thickens, and the chatter swells , it) volume Perambulators' arrive in plenty, and the outcry, of ,the little ,ones makes pleasant additions to the > adult chorus. . The mothers have little consultatibns ; they swik each other's .opinions about the bargains, and each' clings- to her • own judgment in the end, .for e-ach. woman believes that -she andr she, alone has the divine gift 'of picking. ''% reali bargain. '' fioma, 1 after 'bour,s v of ransacking, may not buy anything, but, they may not be 1255 joyful ori tha,t account. Picking and sorting out the bargains" are the main delight ; buying is a detail whi^h miy be omittedi without spoiling a clay at a sale. '