DIFFERENT SHOPPING

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 73, 27 March 1931, Page 7

DIFFERENT SHOPPING

A British woman shopping in New York or say any other American city is struck -with the different names of everything. For instance, instead of the familiar haberdashery, they have Motions; a reel o£ thread is a "spool of cotton," corse! busks are "front steels," calico is "muslin," hencesome funny mal entendus. A friend of mine was buying material for her husband's pyjamas in a New York departmental store, and was shown some which were not thick enough for her requirements, and she said so (writes ; .a correspondent to the Glasgow "Weekly Herald"). "Perhaps, madam, you would like muslin?" said the saleswoman. Now my friend was rather now to New York and its language, and "muslin," of course, to her was just the English kind, rose-sprigged and diaphanous, and the vision of her spouse clad in garments of this kind was too much fo- her gravity, and she left the counter in fits of laughter. The saleswomen are chatty and sympathetic, and are much given to advising you and helping you on your choice of garments. "My, but that hat suits you; it makes you look real cute!" A little irritating till you get used to it. No New Yorker uses a two-syllable word if a six-syllable one will do, and one wonders that such a bustling community has tima to say "elevator operator" when they could say "liftman"; but simple words do not seem to appeal to them. Except, of course, when you see "Eats" in a restaurant! In New York all your friends ring you up early, and ask, "How have you been!" as if you had been ill.