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ABOUT “THE CRAZY STORE’
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An Emporium of Wonderful Merchandise Which Delights the Children.
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Mrs. Peattie Visits This Remarkable Matt and Writes of Its Pleasures and Pleasantness
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One Place Where Ten Cents is Considered a Fortune and Where a Penny is Given Consideration.
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The children call it “the crazy store.”

It is the modern equivalent for Pandora’s box—except that most of the things contained, in it are pleasant. The “crazy store,” of mighty fame, is kept by a man named -------. but after all, there is supposed to be nothing in a name. Moreover, all the children know his name. For the children are his patrons. Those who stumble toward Parnasens at the Park school are his patrons in chief. He is their purveyor His aim is to please.

And how does he perform this difficult task? Finally enough. He is as pleasant as chips—and the universal pleasantness of ships is a subject of international proverb He chatters and talks, laughs and tempts. The children think he is one of the most important of men. They gather in his store as men gather in saloons, or women at sociable. When they get, so numerous that they tear off one another’s coats, he sends a few of them out Sometimes so many boys and girls are packed in this emporium of delights that it is impossible to close the door, though the morning be ever so frosty, In the pocket or the hand of each child is a penny, or 5 cents, or perhaps even 10. Anybody who has 10 is looked upon with envy, and the possessor unconsciously assumes an air of charming hauteur. Of course, if one has 10 cents it is mighty hard to tell what to get. Ten cents will buy such a lot. And there are so many things to choose from. There are tops—in top season there are hundreds of tops—there are dolls, plain, dolls, dolls with fuzzy hair, dolls with little ra[mpits?] and horses and dogs printed all over the calico, of which their bodies are made there are sham watches, glit paper, tissue paper of all the hues of the prism, silver paper, paper dolls, little wax candles, lead pencils, slate pencils, trains of tin cars, tablets, tiny paper furniture, doll bureaus, brownies, balls, and balls and balls, ink, [muellage?], [ruics?], sponges, slates colored chalk, white chalk, strings for kites, bats, marbles—what beautiful marbles bearing mysterious technical names understood only by the infantile gamblers who play the noble game There is candy of many [soris?], French bon bons lie side by side with giant sticks of licorice, with balls of licorice, which look like small cannon balls, and must be just about as disastrous when taken in the stomach. There is nut candy, pink candy, honest sticks of candy of the old-fashioned sort, pretty designs in candy—quite the intest thing—there are tempting marshmallows. A B C licorice drops, novelties to tempt the willing penny from the over laden pocket of the eager juvenile purchaser

Of course there are, here and there, some uninteresting things for grown up people, such as thread, silk, needles, pins, emories, rubber hair pins, cigars, a dusty copy of Prosper Mrimee’s Carmen. another terribly fascinating novel. “A Beautiful Woman’s Sin,” with the picture on the outside of a décor making an incision in the arm of a veiled woman, whom you feel quite sure is not the woman he thinks it is, “The Black Cat” very chic, but [rusts?], [rise?], in the window loaves of bread, quantities of cake and but the fingers are out of breath making the list

To do the little shop justice it has a good collection of periodical literature and many of the neighbors in that community of well to do people obtain their magazines through the agency of the man who keeps the wonderful store

Moreover, if is on want glazing done, that is where you to. if you want skates sharp[?]; that is [?] where you go. If you want [?] points put in tops you also go there, At times you are able to strike the grentes’ bargains. At one time it was possible to buy a variegated chenille monkey there for a penny Every child in the Park school from the kindergarten to the eighth graded owned one or more little chenille monkeys Some were [?] and green Some were yellow and blue There was a terrible run on them The man in the crazy shop sold out his stock of monkeys before he knew what had happened. He has the all of making things fashionable At one time every child who wished to he in the mode had a candy pig—generally green (vegetable dyes—perfectly harmless and beautiful to look at). No home in the neighborhood was what it ought to be without a green candy pig Of course there was a furore over brownie pins, which cost a quarter of a cent and sold for 5 Some boys wore eight or ten brownie pins on the lapel of their coats. There was a great rivalry in those days in this particular form of decoration The man in the shop said nothing, but merrily snapped his little money drawer

There is almost always some prize to he purchased at the “crazy store” Usually there are to be bought for a penny It is much more interesting to buy something mysterious than something understood. The “Sweetheart’ prize for example, comes in a neat little diamond shared box, and contains some lemon drops and—the prize You give the prize, whatever it may be to the boy you like best, if you are a girl There is always some prize to be had Novelties are forever being produced Children weary quickly of one thing They are not an easy set of customers to please

The man in the crazy store has the adroitness of a hotel clerk He knows the name of every one if the children who patronize him Not only does he serve the young ladies and gentleman of the Park school—of whom th r[?] must be about 400 but he has a large number of youthful patrons who come from afar to peep into his show cases

Why there are children who come miles to buy thing of me,” he says, “my place is known all over the city”

Very likely, very likely

Just ask any child within a radius of a mile around the park school, about the ‘crazy store” and see his eyes light up, and listen to the tale he will tell. For it is at the “crazy store” that the child learns his first lesson in barter and sale. ELIA W PEATTIE