![]() She was among the crowd that swung on you, and sent you here.” The nurse replied: “Your wife’s outside for her you need not fear. “Upon my life, take to my wife my Christmas list and purse.” Next day he woke and faintly spoke unto the white clad nurse: The beating bruise of women’s shoes-each with a pointed heel. Until at length he lost his strength and could no farther go,Īnd as he fell he knew full well his helpless form should feel They tumbled him, they jumbled him, they threw him to and fro They punched and pounced and squeezed and bounced him like a rubber ball. They shoved him through a showcase, too, they ground him on the wall, He strode with smiles along the aisles and rode to many floors,īut everywhere when he got there a crowd of folk would standĪnd keep at work the busy clerk with pencil in her hand.Īnd through each door there crowded more until the store was full īrown turned about to hasten out, and had to push and pull. John Henry Brown then went downtown and sauntered to the stores He vowed: “I’ll fill your Christmas bill in half an hour of less.” I’ve shopped and shopped until I dropped from utter weariness.” The time I’ve spent has bowed and bent and made a wreck of me. John Henry laughed, John Henry chaffed, when his dear wife said: “See, I’ll get the stuff ere you could wink your eye.” Yet from your list there is not missed one-fourth that we must buy. “You’ve spent six days, to my amaze, within the shopping strife, John Henry Brown, with scornful frown, made speech unto his wife: “Don’t let anyone say ‘Merry Christmas’ to me!”ģ: Story of the Unwise Man was published on Friday 15 th December 1905: She is worn out, and hungry, and tired, and forlorn,Īnd she says, as she looks for her little latchkey: ’Tis the last Christmas shopper-it’s now Christmas morn Pair of brushes, oil painting, silk suspenders-I’ve missed Mumbling: “Picture book, necktie, cigar case, and comb, When the clerks gasp and say: “Not another one left.”Īll alone on the car she must find her way home, ![]() Yet she stands and she sighs like a person bereft Till from strain and exhaustion she’s ready to drop Still she whispers: “I guess I have got them all-But-”Īll the day she has wandered through store and through shop, Tied up with plain string and with pink and blue tape-Ĭlang! Clang! goes the bell, and the stores must be shut In her arms are heaped bundles of Christmassy shape, “I’ll not take it you see, I’m just looking today!” ![]() See her pause for a moment, then move on, and say: While the clerks and floorwalkers again spring their smiles See her roam past the counters and speed down the aisles, Save at times like the snap of a swiftly swished lashĬomes an echo belated-an echo of “C-a-a-ash!” To respond to her question: “O, what shall I buy?”Īll the stores now are closing-the counters are bare,Īnd a wonderful silence is filling the air Not one of her kindred, no sister, is nigh ’Tis the last Christmas shopper left glooming alone Īll her weary companions are finally gone. Until from exhaustion I’ve pretty near dropped.”Ģ: The Last Shopper was published on Saturday 24 th December 1904: (Annual Parody.), published on Wednesday 24 th December 1902, a customer in a department store says: This is exemplified by three satirical poems published in The Chicago Daily Tribune ( Chicago, Illinois):ġ: In The Day Before Christmas. This humorous image seems to have originated in the early 20 th century with reference to the consumerist avidity prompted by department stores, particularly during the run-up to Christmas. ![]() The image is of shopping until one is physically exhausted and unable to continue. also notes on ‘shopaholic’ and ‘shopaholism’. Of American-English origin, the phrase to shop till, or until, one drops means to shop in an enthusiastic or determined way for an extended period of time now, especially, to go on an unrestrained shopping spree-cf.
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