1900
BY L. FRANK BAUM.
INTRODUCTION.
The peddlars, or packmen, of ancient days, who were the first recognized merchants, realized fully the advantage of displaying their wares before prospective customers. Gaining entry to a castle, a palace, or a mansion, the packman spread his goods upon the floor to best advantage and then awaited patiently while the assembled bevy of women gazed enraptured upon the treasures at their feet. If he could not obtain permission to open his pack his visit was fruitless of result.
In old Bagdad arose the custom of open booths built before the entrances of houses, wherein was attractively displayed the merchandise offered for sale. This custom is still extensively followed in Eastern countries.
At Cheapside, in London, the method was to hang upon iron hooks along the front of the building such articles as might induce the observer to buy, or entice him to enter the shop.
The same custom was prevalent in the Colonial days in America, and is not yet fully obsolete.
Thus from the earliest days merchants well knew the value of display, and the modern show window is the logical outcome or development of that knowledge.
Careful research fails to determine where the show window was first utilized as an adjunct to merchandizing. It is probably a gradual development from the small, many-paned front window of the merchant shop, following the natural transformation of shops into stores and of crude green-glass panes into clear plate-glass fronts.
However it came about, the modern mercantile establishment, whether located in a retired village or upon the main street of a thriving city, is to-day deemed incomplete without a front of the clearest and best plate-glass. These windows are not intended to light the interior of a store, although indirectly they may serve such purpose. Their prime object is to sell goods.