XMAS SHOPPING.

NOVELTIES OF THE COUNTER.

Christmas has many traditions, and one is that there are people who do not find pleasure in the season’s shopping. Such lineal descendants of Scrooge before his regeneration may lurk somewhere in gloomy old houses, but assuredly they have not mangled with the happy folk who have literally besieged the popular shops and stores this week. Perhaps these recent days have been the ideal ones in the Yuletide quest. The stocks available are enormous, with a correspondingly extensive range of choice. All is still fresh and new, and unsullied by touches of too many inquirers. The assistants are still interested over their work, and are not feeling the inevitable strain and fatigue of the final rush. Nor are the crowds big enough yet to constitute any real inconvenience in even the most attractive departments. Those who utter pessimistic warnings on the point at this juncture are doing a disservice alike to the volume of business and the potential customer. It is a pleasant experience indeed to mingle with the streams of people in Oxford-street or Brompton-road, in the Kensington High-street or Westbourne-grove, or, indeed, to go further afield to the fine establishments on the outer ring of the metropolis. People have come out first to see what is offered. The windows constitute in themselves a great free exhibition in which is represented all that our own manufacturers are producing, all that we are buying from our Allies, all that economic forces are driving towards us from our enemies of war’s black years. To the young folk these wonderful displays are perhaps less astonishing than to those of older growth. They are a development that has come in the lives of those who can claim no more than middle age, and it is they who say, “We never saw it in this wise before.” And from those who are thinking of presents for grandchildren now grown up there are reminiscences of the simple things that satisfied their own childish ambitions. A dear old lady of snowy hair and kindly face stopped with frank delight before a. window with gloves and helmets for air pilots. “To think,” she said audibly; “that I should ever be looking for anything for a nephew who goes flying!” But she went in, and she paid the price for a pair of first-rate gloves.

USEFUL AND PRACTICAL.

“People are buying extensively,” was the verdict of the managing director of a very favourite establishment, “but they are making their money go as far as possible,” he added. A walk through some of the departments of the house in question confirmed this observation. A special assortment of umbrellas at half-a-guinea was nearly exhausted, but those at higher prices were being passed by. It was not the-half-dozens of real silk stockings put up in a pretty sachet that were being asked for, but the decorated cardboard boxes containing three pairs in spun or artificial silk that were going almost as fast as the assistants could show them. With the delightful sets of table centres and mats the less ornate examples were finding purchasers, while those with filet or Cluny lace and drawn-thread devices were much more rarely demanded. The same thing could be noted in a dozen other directions, and indicated that there is at present no reckless expenditure on objects not indispensable. Accessories for the toilet table have never been so varied or attractive as they are at the present time. They may range from the costly sets of brushes and trays and mirrors backed in translucent enamel of lovely colouring, priced at many guineas, down to the more everyday and solidly useful wares backed in ebony or celluloid. The complete outfit for the manicuring that is part of the beauty-cult of present times provides a pretty and dainty gift that is sure of a welcome. But beyond all these there are the powder bowls and soap boxes expressed often in coloured glass of vivid shadings that add very much to the finished appearance of the dressing-table. Girls like them for their gay effect and the suggestion that they convey of the mysteries of the brilliant complexion and the careful touches that emphasise the natural charms.