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144 are shops which carry a small stock of merchandise. This is all an innovation of the last twenty years, and does not amount to much in the commerce of the country as a whole. As formerly, so it is at the present, a large part of the trade is done in the open markets, and not in stores. Our village merchant who keeps a shop will have a room, perhaps eight by eight feet, in the front of his house, opening onto the village street. The front of the store is so arranged that it can be taken completely out during the day, when it is open for business, and closed up at night by planks which have been used during the day for shelves on which the goods have been displayed. Our merchant will have a mat spread in the middle of the room, and there he will sit and smoke his long-stemmed pipe while waiting for customers. When a customer calls he does not enter the store, but stands in the street in front of the store and calls for what he wants. The merchant, without rising from his seat, reaches whatever article is wanted and hands it to the customer with a sort of don't care air that would make a Westerner think he cared very little whether he sold it or not. This is not the case, however, and he is only playing don't care. The price asked is usually about twice that which he is willing to receive. When the price is announced there is a regular battle of words that is sufficient to make an American think that there is likely to be a fight in town. But all this talk is in the best sort of humor, though the voice is pitched on a high key and the earnestness displayed is sufficient to meet the demands of a much more important transaction. After