and carpets and rugs and linoleum and lamps and toys and stationery and silver, and Heaven only knows what else, over miles and miles of pleasant, soft, green car- pet, I trotted along beside the amazing man who not only knew the way, but seemed even to know the clerks. Part of the time I tried to look about me at the phan- tasmagoria of things with which civilization has en- cumbered the human race; part of the time I listened to our cicerone; part of the time I walked blindly, scribbling notes, while my companion guided my steps. Here are some of the notes: Ten thousand employees in retail store----- Choral society, two hundred members, made up of sales-peo- ple----- Twelve baseball teams in retail store; twelve in wholesale; play during season, and, finally, for cham- pionship cup, on "Marshall Field Day"----- Lectures on various topics, fabrics, etc., for employees, also for outsiders: women's clubs, etc.----- Employees' lunch: soup, meat, vegetables, etc., sixteen cents----- Largest retail custom dressmaking business in the country----- Largest business in ready-made apparel----- Largest retail millinery business----- Largest retail shoe busi- ness----- Largest branch of Chicago public library (for employees)----- Largest postal sub-station in Chicago----- Largest--largest--largest! Now and then when something interested me par- ticularly we would pause and catch our breath. Once we stopped for two or three minutes in a fine school- -151- |