SIXPENCE THE HALF-POUND.
[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR.") &a,—Ever since I came 'to Canada thirty years ago the Spectator has been regularly forwarded to me (and handed on —and on—for miles and miles of prairie and bush). I have just finished reading your issue of August 2nd. In it, under the heading " Sixpence the Half-Pound," your writer says that to " sell shoes at so much each " would cause laughter or anger. As I haven't been out of Saskatchewan for over twenty- five years, I do not know -whether you have " Woolworth's" stores in England. We call them the Fifteen Cent Stores, as nothing exceeds that in price. They remind one of the old "Sixpenny Bazaars" of my school days. I remember how proud I was of my first razor (price 6d.), and how absolutely disgusted I was when—being almost late for chapel one morn- ing, when it was my turn to read the Lessons—I had to rush of with only half of my face shaved—and nobody noticed I (I have never quite made up my mind whether I should blame the bluntness of the razor or the lack of whiskers.)
But I em wandering. .Let's return•to the Fifteen Cent Store. Ribbons are 15o. the half-yard, chocolates are I5o. the quarter- pound, stockings are 15c. the foot. And if we laugh, it is with glee at being able to get them so cheap. The price 15 cents reminds one of the old Klondyke yarn. A party of returned miners were discussing the hardships they had undergone in the Yukon. One told of quinine pills at a dollar each, another of eggs at the same price, but the worst of all was coal oil— fifteen cents a smell I—I am, Sir, Iso.,
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