Mobs Prowl Shops in Push To Ring Christmas Welkin

Christmas has become more than just so much goose, red cabbage, and egg-nog. Retailers have jazzed the festive season into the biggest promotion since the florists conceived Mothers Day. The result has been a marathon for the citizenry which is obliged to scour the shops and come up with something to prove it still believes in good will toward men.

UPPER LEFT, for instance, an assemblage scrambles for a miscellaneous collection of goodies in a metropolitan department store, a most terrifying and bewildering place this time of year.

UPPER RIGHT, a woman has at least narrowed her hunt to a single category and attacks the pile. She's not working on an exquisite collection but it's the thought that counts.

Next to the neckwear industry, the perfumers rejoice particularly during the month of December. His lack of originality doesn't disturb the undergraduate pictured to the RIGHT who is being shown the line of smells available.

Just how to decorate the home poses considerable aesthetic problems, it would seem, from the critical gaze of the selective lady pictured AT RIGHT.

Between them, the stores have so many Santa Clauses in the field that no toddler could fall for the gag any more. Suspicions are bound to be aroused especially when photographers begin popping off flash bulbs while the youngsters are confiding in the big man, CENTER BELOW. The pictures are distributed to the subjects as a reminder tof their visit--at a price. St. Nick wouldn't have wanted it that way!

Just in case this business of preparing good cheer still looks like something to take lightly, we submit contrary evidence BOTTOM RIGHT which shows the end of a day's--or less--activity of a customer. AUTOMATICALLY REDUCED UNDER THIS RULE ALL GOODS 12 SELLING DAYS OR BE REDUCED 25% MUST 18  50% SELL 24  75% WITHIN 30  THEY'LL BE GIVEN AWAY