HOW WOMEN GO SHOPPING.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5665, 12 August 1905, Page 12

HOW WOMEN GO SHOPPING.

F.voryono h;u- to >.lmi, at times. Komo love it, Seme fie net, J'er ihe mos' part, its plna.sure,, er el tier.vise, depends on iho fn.wioni, er lack ei it, p,:rliullual l>.y l.lio purse U> secure tin: article ceyeUsi.

Mon as "sliopisTs' 1 are amns'-rif', to (-lie spectator. Hut tlitvy di.dike it so jertliiilly that they may he termed the eex. r i'firry know I,tile yf it. ms a fi tie art. They buy y. but they d<> not shop. They spend ifreely, but they know not how to 'laiefhj. They ask for such trillum details as o-xtroiniiy drives ilium into i siiop to porch.iso with the air of on I<e-tug a consignment or provisioning an army. They piek up the noarisst tiling that has the most shinth/wy resomblanco to t.ho tiling wanted, tii.rn.st it unpacked into lim most available jwk-et, fling down soino coins, and liis.i.|!|«:a.r in a blu-sliing condition of yLsililo e;liharrassmenU Women are not a hit like that when they shop. They stand unrivalled as ‘The shopping sex, 1 ’ in which role they have to bo taken mast sonously. None daro to say that bore they arc amusing—they arc far too suggestive of deep thought and soulful meditations for such a Uippuncy—but they are unfailingly interesting. To some the occupation is a very martyrdom, for t-iio purely UfinjKiraInontal reason Unit they always want tho thing they cannot got. If they hnwo only f>id, the thing they want is certain to be pricefl tkl. If they have 19 ll.'l-d the treasure on which they have set their affoetjons costs a pound. There is tiho woman with the lighting instinct. Sho Is ecstatic during tho pmckl of the sales. She thou can .gratify her soul. She olhows her way in—she fights for the object of her desiros—she dives at everything anyone else is diving for more slowly—she achieves—she acquires—and filially she elbows her way out again, burdened but triumphant, feeling voiy much like tho village blacksmith when ho chirruped out, “Something attempted, something done.” There is the woman with tho passion for buying cheap. She, too, loves the bargain period. Sho buys in proportion to tho amount of tho reduction, tas to which sho places implicit faitJi in tho placard. Eminently pleased w il; her thrift, sho spreads out her prizes in tho evening for her husband's approval, and explains how much site saved him on each thing.

Ho is apt to ejaculate timorously, “But, dearest, do you think you’ll ever woar it?” at sight of something more than usually ‘‘cheapened” and synchronously moro Ulan usually weird. "Well, perhaps I shan’t exactly wear it,” she says slowly, “for, of course, it really is hideously ugly. But then I shall have it, and you must admit it was very cheap. Now, wasn't it?” It is quite a different woman again who goes shopping when the sales are over. Tills is tho woman -with the critical mind, and the woman of superlative ambitions, as regiirda quality and novelty. She wants something “quite new, that no one has had before, ” feeling all tho timo a mighty and laudable triumph that she has not been so weak minded as to ho led away by bargain sales. Every last inch of her apparel speaks for itself as the result of calm thought and wiso wliiiinistration. Great is her reward. Thoro is another order ot shopper, too, of truly fouiiuino characteristic. She is tho lady of vagueness, the woman who does not know ivliab she wants. Shopping is a pastime to her, not a matter of business. Throe of these stood together outride a shop the other day—and so did I. Said the first, “Well, I should think wo might as well go in. What shall we buy ?" Said tho second, “Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps nothing. But it is rather amusing to see things.” Said the third, ‘‘Vos, but we ought to decide what to ask for. Suppose ■wo ask to seo the tablecloths. Wo needn't buy them, but it would make .joniothing to say.” And they wont in to “say something.”