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THE DEPARTMENT STORE

The wonderful activity of commercial life was a
thing which struck me first in New York. Indeed,
I wondered if there was any other phase of life in
the city. If Aristotle had seen New York life, he
would have changed his maxim ** Man is by nature
a political animal" into '' Man is by nature a com¬
mercial animal." And a striking feature of Ameri¬
can commercialism is the organisation of the
department store. Of course trusts, corporations,
combines (and other organisations of similar des¬
cription) may best show the magnitude of American
commercial life; but the secret of the actual work¬
ing of these tremendous enterprises is rarely
revealed to the outsider. The influence of the
department store, however, will be at once noticed
by the visitor.