SEEN THROUGH THE SHOP WINDOW.

Otago Witness, 5 December 1900, Page 68

SEEN THROUGH THE SHOP WINDOW.

ILLUSTRATING THE OTHER SIDE OF THE QUESTION. "Provided you happen to be an observant sort of individual, there is not a little amusement to be got by watching, from inside, the people staring at your shop windows," said the manager of a big drapery, establishment recently. "I must own that, before I had risen to my present position, I spent many and many an hour so doing. "To different people the shop window appeals differently. There are some, as you see here, who point vigorously to various

articles displayed which catch, their eye, and there are others who seem to have come to positively study one's wares, for they stare at particular things in the steady, long-lasting way that you observe in students in a museum. I knew one department of a big store where the young men assistants used to have modest bets together as to whether individuals staring in' at the windows would or would not' become customers, "Yes" or "No" being decided upon by the expression of the persons' features, observed from behind the goods they were contemplating. Not a bad ■ way of studying faces, perhaps.

" If you have paid the slightest attention to this shop window subject, one point will most certainly haA^e struck you.-.. I don't suppose most people are vain, but, still, it is truly surprising to note what a number of them gaze at the shop windows in order

to see then." own reflection, after this fashion. You see the lady is thinking, 'Is my hat straight?' and the question that troubles the gentleman is, 'Is my tie right?' Sometimes the windows are in this way used as mirrors in quite a furtive way, but often enough someone comes marching up as coolly as if no one else was in the whole street, and starts to make a leisurely toilet with the assistance of our plate-glass.

"A great majority of the people, of course, peer into our windows in search of something they want. There are, however, not a few who 'do' the shops as a pastime, and after examining thoroughly all your gloves and ribbons and laces, they pass on with just as much interest to the stationer's 01 the ironmongers-nexts -next door. Often you may see people making notes of things in. the window, and sometimes these will be the emissaries of rival shops. When I detect these I take out a chair, and say politely 'Won't you sit down?' That always sends them away. "Here is depicted a little scene that makes us extremely bad tempered. With great;

trouble we have aranged an effective window display. It is the busiest time of day, and possible customers should be two deep ivpon the pavement. But, by an unlucky chance, two" families have met .outside, and the four adults and three juveniles monopolise the pavement in front of the window, so that people who would see what is there have either to stand farther away or peep in at the sides. "Some persons have an irritating way _of tapping the windoAV glass with the poinfi

of their umbrella. Sometimes an individual waiting for someone else will fold his arms and calmly lean, back against the glass. Then tkere are children who draw on the

glass, with grimy fingers, outlines of things they see within. "Shop window dressing is quite an art, and many never acquire it. Some young ladies are as fond of the work as others

cordially detest it.

Our Avindows are

dressed twice a week ; and, of course, it - is only at such times that we can see the crowd as in the sketches given above. At other times-our "view is not quite clear, and is a trifle scrappy. " The time taken to dress a window depends, naturally enough, upon its size and contents. Take two windows of average size, and fill one with blouses and another with lace. Starting at 9, the blouse window may be done by 10, for the articles are all displayed upon wooden figures. But the lace window may take the "dresser -the entire morning, as there are hundreds of separate lengths to be carefully placed in position."