CASUAL COMMENTS

Evening Star, Issue 19616, 23 July 1927, Page 2

CASUAL COMMENTS

SHOPS AND SHOPPING [l3.y Lko Fanning.] The differences in ways of living between men and women are shrinking from day to day. When women were admitted to membership of bowling clubs they had a bigger victory than they had when they were allowed to beat tbe men in scholarship at Oxford and Cambridge. However, happily there will bo always sojn© distinction between them. They may compete in : Mussolini roles, in sprinting, dancing, lawyering, punting, or “ spotting,” but in ono field woman will always be supreme—shopping. The average man knows as much about shopping as a Jersey cow knows about quadratic equations or surds. Ho will make absurd repairs in bis braces before be will bo brave enough to buy a new pair-r-and, if bo is married, bis wife will probably buy thorn for him. The only things he enjoys buying aie tobacco and—well, this column is not controversial. X * * * Woman's joy in shopping has been reflected for decades in the comic papers. Wo all remember the jokes about tho purchase of the packet of pins after tho attendants have done enough exercise to win a Banfurly Shield match, and tho jests about tbe devoted (or disciplined) husband who waits patiently for two or three hours until tho shop has been turned insido out or upside down. Lovely woman’s pleasure ip this pastime is one of tbe Round Dozen Basic Jokes of British Humor (which will have their turn on another Saturday). .** * * A woman feels at her best in a draper’s shop and a man at his worst. H© catches an attendant’s eye, and at* once becomes conscious of defects in his appearance, and Has an eager desire to escape. * * * * Yet shopping in New ‘Zealand, whether by man or woman, is a kindergarten business compared with bargaining in the East, or even in the East End of London, where the upset price is as high os the aspirations of a political party, and the final quitting may be as low as tho broken promises. * * * » New' Zealand’s progress is seen in some wonderful shops which make a hefty tug on purse-strings. They have a flash and splash of allurement which only the very, very strong can resist, but tho real shops are still in tho back of beyond. They are the general stores in villages which have a semblance of remoteness from civilisation, although wireless gives them all tho gossip and chanties of tho cities. Alas, there is no rusticity now, no isolation, as there was a few years ago, when one could walk into a hamlet and bo a benefactor and bo feted for giving tbe news of the week before last. in + * * The old-time general store, planted cosily by a river in a Jonely valley, or set up like a monument in a vast spread of plain, what a clearing house it was for tho settlers! It preceded tho blacksmith’s forgo and tho “ pub.” It was the ■ social and the 1 political centre, and was as comforting as a benevolent banker (Oh, may he become more benevolent!), for it carried accounts until sheep were shorn, or crops were harvested, or kauri gum was sold, or gold was won from quiet gravel beds or turbulent rivers. What a book could b© made from some pioneers’ memories of those old stores between Kaitaia in North Auckland to the Bluff or thereabouts! Lipsticks had not been introduced (although they had been invented some thousands of years ago in Egypt and elsewhere), but apart from a few unnecessaries of that kind those oldtime stores could supply almost anything for the comfort or discomfort of man or woman, boy or girl. In the old days the lips were good enough without Me sticks—and so they would bo now—- “ and so say all of us ” (mere men).

♦ * * * What a world ot delight the grocer’s j shop offers to the small boy or girl! | All the continents arc there coiicpn- 1 ti nted in their various products, which give the young folk yearnings ior_ a • fairy godmother to turn their pennies ; into pounds. Yet the grocer, whoso business breathes romance, has been much maligned. ’Hie latest libeller or slanderer is Gilbert Chesterton, who , cruelly wrote 1 The Song Against , Grocers,’ and even resurrected the ancient jest about sugar. Here are two verses:— He sells us sands of A ruby, As sugar for cash down; He sweeps his shop and sells the dust, The purest salt in town. _ Ho crams with cans of poisoned meat Poor subjects of the King. And when they die by thousands Why, he laughs like anything. The wicked grocer graces, In spirits and in wine; Not frankly and in fellowship, As men in inns do dine, But packed with soap and sardines, And carried off hy grooms, For to he snatched hy Duchesses And drunk in dressing rooms. New Zealand grocers can join wi h the public in laughing at those a.legations. * * * * Barbers’ shops have been often blamed for the starting of queer rumors. The barber, of course is guiltless. While he is removing hair from faces or heads his customers aie inventing now dressings for the tow n gossip. , ~ , Mixed harboring may follow mixed bathing as one of the modern emancipations of women, and bright chat of the ladies piav help tlie light literatnie and the turf "talk to pass the waiting time. * * * * Art may he seen occasionally in a butcher’s shop, where the slam lamb has some of its plumpness put mto 'rosettes or other ornaipentai;on wmoli j makes a merriment out of death. In this field it is the pork butcher who offers the most striking color schemes, with his wreaths and festoons of rosy or pale pa-usages, his ! garlands of " brown ' saveloys, his 1 loops of black puddings, and other der ’ licacies in many hues. The pork butcher, with ids’ various aids to quick meals, has become one of the big props of dmneßticity. Ho is usually an optimist whose cheery smile is worth the money ; apart from those alluring goods winch are absurdly termed “ smgl| ” (an insult tq the noble “ sav.” and the proud pork sausage). *’ j), * No shop has greater human interest "than the cobbler's, one of the oldfashioned cobblers. ,'Tliey can do more work in less space than any other craftsmen, The first cobbler' wag a

philosopher, and so was the second, and so have been ajl the others. All through recorded history in all countries the cobbler has been honored as a deep thinker, whose job is helpful to meditation. If all politicians were obliged to serve an apprenticeship with cobblers the statutes would not require so many amendments. Workshops, opening up another field of comment, can hpve only a few lines in this article. The use of the word shop for a workroom probably preceded its use for a. store. Milton brought shop pleasantly into these lines of : Comus 1 ;— Wherefore aid Nature pour her bounties forth _ . And set to work millions of spinning worms - , That in their green shops weave tne smooth-haired silk To deck her sons. Wherefore? The green shop itself is turned into - a semblance of silk to-day for the brightening of the world’s footpaths as long as the shortskirt fashion' stays*