Reading for Everybody.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2664, 20 November 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

Reading for Everybody.

THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY.

THE LARGEST STORE IN THE WORLD. (By the Special Commissioner of the ‘ ‘Daily Mail,?’ F. A. McKenzie.) Toronto boasts, among other things that it has the largest store under the Union Jack. Twenty-six years ago timothy Eaton’s was a little shop on a side street with a twenty-five-feet frontage. To-day its central establishment employs 8,400 hands, and. its branches in Winnipeg and elsewhere several thousands more. It counts its floor space by the score of acres. My interest in the house of Timothy Eaton, however, was not its organisation and methods, notable as they are. I wanted to find out from .this firm, the largest buyer of foreign goods in tho Dominion, why British manufactures are not being more largely sold. , “YOU ARE DEAD.” “We buy very little direct from England,” said Mr Harry McGee, one of the vice-presidents of the company, m answer to ,my questions. “We keep a staff of twenty in London supervising European purchases, but the orders go mostly to Prance, Germany, and Switzerland, not to England. England is out of it. We would prefer to purchase from you, but the other countries are alive; you are dead. Come around some of the departments and ask the heads there. Hear what they say.” We stopped at the house furnishing department, before a great array of brass bedsteads. Here, if anywhere, I felt safe, for the fame of the Birmingham brass bedstead has gone around' the world. . “Up to six or seven years ago all our brass bedsteads came from Birmingham,” the head of the furnishing department told me. “Now not one conies from there. To be exact, we have one British bedstead still left. The great bulk of our goods come from , Kenosha, "Wisconsin. One large firm at Kenosha has left Birmingham right behind, both in patterns and in price. A leading man in the Birmingham trade was out here not long ago, examining our stocks. ‘I am going hack to tell our manufacturers that they are away behind the times,’ he said. You may be interested to hear, however, that the British lacquer is still used for all the best work. It is undoubtedly the best.” In furniture generally there were practically no Britisfi imports, the great bulk of the stock beinc; made in Canada itself and the remainder coming from the United States. This is not surprising, seeing that Canada has light at hand unlimited wood supplies. In carpets I found that Canadian manufacturers are steadily.driving out the British makes. “This is not the fault of the British carpet firms,” I.was told. “They are very enterprising, their goods probably still surpass the Canadian for quality, and they are willing to meet our market in any way. But here we feel bound to do all wg can to foster ,a new Canadian industry which is now in its struggling stage.” WHERE BRITISH FIRMS FAIL.

I glanced at the sewing machine.section. Here I found, as in many other parts of the house, that the fight is not 'between America and England for the trade, but between Canadian and United States products. Those who believe that protection of necessity means increased cost to the consumer may., be interested in the sewing machine prices. Drop machines, with stand complete, were just under £4 each. Hand machines were £2 Bs. In the millinery and dress departments I met with a very unfavorable story. One of the buyers summed up his complaints in an illustrative incident. “The fault with the British firms —a fault which has lost them endless custom —is their refusal to adapt themselves to our requirements. Some time ago a large business was done with Canada in honeycomb quilts, stiff things with fringes. The Americans introduced soft, pliable, attractive-looking quilts. I took one of these over to a Manchester firm and asked them to introduce something like it for us. The partners hesitated. “We are doing very well with our quilts as they. are. Why should we change ?’ they, asked. In the end they refused. To-day the quilt trade in the Canadian market has completely passed out of British hands. Do you wonder?” For millinery Toronto goes to New York rather than to London or Paris. This, however, is because of conveniorice- rather than price. “I can go down to New York to-night,” said the buyer, “I see the full stocks to-morrow, have them put. on the train in the evening, ; have them on sale here next day, and have them possible sold out the same night, and the money from them to the credit of the T. Eaton- Company. An order on England cabled to our London 1 house could not reach here under two or . three weeks.” CONTINENTAL RIVALS. I was told of line after line in this department where England once was supreme but where she now has been driven, out. A great trade was once done in English-made whito wings for ladies’ hats; that trade has gone to the Continent. In ribbons, once ours, Switzerland, now beats ns by 25 per cent, in prices. Germany is checked by a, surtax, so that German goods have tq. pay twice as much duty as English. Despite this, the Germans are more than holding their own in line after line. “When the surtax is removed, as it will .be removed, Germany ,will come in and sweep you before her in this field,” my candid critic declared. “The only lino in which England holds, her own in ladies’ dress is ostrich feathers.” We passed on to the shoe department. Here, and here alone, I heard some hopoful news. Three- pairs of boots were brought down' from stock, three-dollar boots of British, .Canadian, • and American manufacture. The British'were far and away best. “The British shoe firms have gladly adopted all our suggestions towards the best for this market,” I was told:..“The sales of the-British shoe here are now going up all the time.” _ • “I suppose, then, that the British shoemakers are sending their .travelterposed ‘•No. One firm of slipper-makers sends . its representatives; out here, but so far as I know not a single British shoe. firm, does so. • We. have. not. Been : one, and have' lieaTd nothing of one. As I was leaving Mr McGee offered

to drive me to his hotel in his automobile. “No, it is not British make,” he said, as he saw me glancing at the frame before mounting. “It is American. We tried one well-known British car here. It may be admirable for your smooth, tracks. It was' no good on your rough, roads. lam shipping it back.”

ENTERTAINMENTS EXTR/ORDINARY.

DINNERS IN DUNGEONS AND CON- ' CERTS IN MID-AIR.

Rich men and women very often become sated with ordinary pleasures and amusements that they search for entirely new forms of entertainment. This state of'things has led to scores of eccentric dinner and supper parties being given during recent years. A “horror” party was tried a few weeks back in Paris, the hostess being a prominent actress. Each guest had to bring \ facsimile of his or her pet aversion. The majority of the “horrors” were spiders, caterpillars, blackbeetles, mice, snakes, and frogs; but one lady created a considerable amount of amusement by appearing with a doll dressed up to represent a man. SUPPER IN A CELLAR.

Dinners in dungeons and mines have been very popular in America for some time. Aiew months back a Chicago lady gave a ?supper at’midnight in a large cellar -which was fitted up as a prison. The guests sat on rude wooden benches and drank out of stone mugs. Waiters attired in the striped convict dress of the United States penal settlements, .brought in small beefsteaks between slices of bread, which the guests ate from their fingers, there being no knives, forks, or plates. A- remarkable banquet was hold at Ciotat. The day following the completion of the harbor there. Mr. lioberts, the contractor invited tlie Press. and members of liis staff to a dinner, which was laid inside the caisson, or cofferdam, in which the excavators had been working, at- a depth of 26ft below' the level of the sea.

Numerous electric lights, floral designs, garlands" and festoons produced an effect of brilliancy and beauty in this submerged dining-saloon; and ; but for tlie ringing in their ears occasioned by the pressure of several atmospheres maintained in the caisson to prevent the inrush of 'the volumes of water which extended far above and around, the guests would never have suspected that the failure of the air-pumps would, have caused them to be drowned like rats in a trap. No mishap occurred, -however, and after the bfinquet a concert carried the festivities well into the afternoon. EQUESTRIAN DINNERS. Perhaps the most eccentric dinnerparty of recent years was that given by a celebrated South African millionaire at a West End hotel after he had won a large sum at Monte Carlo by plugging on the red color. Forty guests were'invited, and when they arrived at the hotel they found to their surprise that everything in the dining-saloon was red in color—lamps, table-covers, flowers, napkins, -and chairs. The waiters wore red ties, and even the “knives had red handles. The menu, too, was printed in red. The dinner, which was of eighteen courses, cost £ls a head. At a restaurant in New York a wellknown millionaire gave an equestrian banquet not long ago. The guests ©at down at a table in the form of an ellipse, and were supplied with oysters and caviare. Later they retired to the ballroom of the restaurant, which was a veritable sylvan . scene. There were miniature roadways,' a winding brook, cottages, lodges, and fields, and over all was the blaze of a brilliant sun, provided by an ingenious arrangement of electric light globes. Standing on beds of,grass were thirty-two horses, one for, .each , guest, carrying small tables on the pommels of their saddles. The -waiters, as soon as the host and his guests had mounted, first/ served consomme, then fish, entree and roast,salads and ices, cakes and cheese, and finally coffee, cigars, and liqueurs. The waiters were attired in the costumes of hunt servants. WAITING FOR THE TRAIN. Another “horsy” banquet was given by a prominent sportsman of New York in his stables. His coach-house, happened to be a very lofty and roomy apartment, and’ he conceived the idea of transforming it into a banqueting hall. A table was erected ,in the form of a horseshoe, and twenty-five persons sat down to it. After dinner a horse" and four Shetland ponies were led into the room, arid treated to champagne poured into massive silver bowls. ■ '' ‘ : Some years ago three theatrical companies found themselves together, at P reston Station in the mildale of the night, condemned to wait to wait threo hours for a. train to carry them northwards. In order to while away the time a concert was planned, and given by tho members of the three companies. A stage was constructed out of a square trolley, anti a programme was written out on a large sheet " of-paper,.which was pasted on the door of the waitingroom. The audience consisted of a- fewprivate peTs'ons and,the railway officials at the station. Although there were no musical instruments of any kind, an excellent entertainment wiw given. - A grand concert was given ' a few years ago within the Catacombs of Paris, and it -was attended by.the nobil-' ity and‘gentry together, with students and artists’ models of the Latin Quarter." r . ' ■ IN A TOMB. Only one condert has probably been given in a tomb. This took place.in the tomb of Agamemnon at Mycenae, in Greece, on the acoasion of the visit of a Philharmonic- Society of Nouplia to the ancient residence of the “King of Kings.’ ’ -So dark. was the tomb that the band had to play by .toclilight, Sbnfe years ago a concert was held on the top of 'the; chimney shaft of a cotton mill at Oldham. The* artistes were carried- to the top of the cliimneV. where a platform had been erected, by means of a rope -and a- wooden seat. Crowds of people assembled at, the foot of the chimney to hear the.songsand a ©election of; popular pvusic that came down from tho summit. ‘ " ' ' A most remarkable concert was given in Paris during the Exposition of 1889.’. •The members ’of -the Philharmonic Society of ‘ Versailles/ ascended; in a ;captive balloon, and music was order of .the day during ascent and. descent. ■ ..;".T