is was but a part and parcel of the times--an index of the
Zeitgeist.

* * * * *

A. T. Stewart was alive, alert and sensitive to the spirit of the times.
He kept abreast with the best thought of the best people. The idea of
opening boxes and bales on the sidewalk was abandoned early in the game;
and the endeavor was to show the fabric only under the most favorable
conditions. Stewart was reaching out for a higher clientele. The motto
became, "Not how cheap, but how good." If A. T. Stewart sold goods at an
average profit of, say, thirty per cent, he could well afford to sell a
small portion of his stock at cost, or even at ten per cent below cost.
He knew his stocks, and he made it a point never to carry goods over
from one year to another.

Before he held one of his famous "Cost Sales," he would personally work
all night, taking down from the shelves and out of drawers and showcases
everything in the store. Then he himself would dictate what each article
should be sold for. Here was exercise for a mind that worked by
intuition. The master decided instantly on how much this thing would
bring. In railroad managing there are two ways of making rates. One is
the carefully figured-out cost of transportation. The other plan is to
make a rate that will move the tonnage. A regular passenger rate is the
rate that will afford a profit. An "excursion rate," a "homeseekers'
rate," an "old-home rate," is the one that experience shows is necessary
to tempt people to travel.

Drygoods deteriorate in quality when kept on the shelves for several
months. Worse than that, they cease to attract the buyers. People go
where there is life, activity, and are moved by that which is youthful,
new and fresh. Old stocks become dead stocks, and dead stocks mean dead
business and dead men, or bankruptcy. When it came to selling old
stocks, Stewart paid no attention to the cost. He marked the tag in big,
plain figures in red ink at the price he thought would move the goods.
And usually he was right. We hear of his marking a piece of dress-goods
forty-nine cents a yard. A department manager came in and in alarm
explained that the goods cost fifty-three. "That has nothing to do with
the case," replied Stewart; "we would not buy it today at fifty-three,
and we do not want the stuff on our shelves even at forty-nine."

"But," said the manager, "this is a Cost Sale, and if we sell below cost
we should explain that fact