Handmade Laces And Embroideries And Sundry Other
Feminine Fripperies, So Women Tell Me, Are Moderately Priced On
The Continent, If
So be the tourist-purchaser steers clear of the
more fashionable shops and chases the elusive bargain down a back
Street; but, quality considered, other things cost as much in
Europe as they cost here - and frequently they cost more. If you
buy at the shopkeeper's first price he has a secret contempt for
you; if you haggle him down to a reasonably fair valuation - say
about twice the amount a native would pay for the same thing - he
has a half-concealed contempt for you; if you refuse to trade at
any price he has an open contempt for you; and in any event he
dislikes you because you are an American. So there you are. No
matter how the transaction turns out you have his contempt; it is
the only thing he parts with at cost.
It is true that you may buy a suit of clothes for ten dollars in
London; so also may you buy a suit of clothes for ten dollars in
any American city, but the reasonably affluent American doesn't
buy ten-dollar suits at home. He saves himself up to indulge in
that form of idiocy abroad. In Paris or Rome you may get a
five-course dinner with wine for forty cents; so you may in certain
quarters of New York; but in either place the man who can afford
to pay more for his dinner will find it to his ultimate well-being
to do so.
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