J. SOLOMON and Co., City Tailoring and Oufitting Establishment at at 193, High Street Exeter, is once again advertising its wares, this time in the Western Times, of 5th April 1845. This time the citizens of Exeter are being invited to buy new clothes for the Spring. J. Solomon's versifier has been working hard and has produced four excruciating stanzas by way of advertisement of which these are the second and the last:
"I love, Oh! I love to trace
"The crocus and the primrose face
"Whilst feather'd songsters joyous ring
"Their merry notes to welcome Spring;
"And verdure green adorns the earth,
"Thrice welcom then , to you I sing,
"First flowers of the genial Spring.
"For Spring, then, make a glorious start,
"By calling in at SOLOMON'S fam'd Mart,
"His bounteous Stock of Varied hues,
"A leisure hour will well amuse;
"His prices will increase the fame,
"Which swells his glory and his name:
"Whilst England will triumphant ring.
"With SOLOMON'S's Fashions for the Spring."
But our Orpheus knows that, also in Arcadia, Death is lurking, He adds a stanza to cheer up the bereaved under the title:
MOURNING, , &c.
"When death dissevers a domestic tie,
"This mart your sable garments can supply,
"With that attention which we ever show
"To gayer features of our fam'd depot.
"Five hours of time is all that we require
"To measure and to make a suit entire;
"Or if you wish with ready-made to meet,
"As many minutes will the clothes complete."
A three-piece mourning suit cost one pound, sixteen shillings.
Five hours of time to make a three-piece suit conjures up an image of tailors, mostly Jewish, sitting cross-legged in a row working their needles on jackets like trousers from dawn to dusk.
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