CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
THE CIVIL SERVICE SUPPLY ASSOCIATION.
HELENA, LADY HARROGATE.
THE ORIGIN OF SOME SLANG PHRASES.
FISHING FOR PEARLS.
A PERILOUS POSITION.
COFFEYVILLE.
THE BEAVERS OF BUTE.
LINES WRITTEN AFTER PERUSING A LETTER WRITTEN BY ROBERT BURNS.
No. 737.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1878.
THE CIVIL SERVICE SUPPLYASSOCIATION.
Within the last few years the progress of the CivilService Supply Association in London has beenso extraordinary that a few words concerning itmay not be uninteresting to our readers.
The object of the society is ‘to carry on thetrade of general dealers, so as to secure to membersof the Civil Service and the friends of members ofthe society the supply of articles of all kinds, bothfor domestic consumption and general use, at thelowest possible price,’ on the principle of dealing forready-money. Co-operation on the broadest scaleof retail shop-keeping is brought into play. Theorganisation consists of three classes of purchasers:the holders of shares of the value of one poundeach, and from whom the committee of managementis chosen; ordinary members, who beingconnected with the Civil Service, pay two shillingsand sixpence a year; and outsiders, or meresupporters of the concern (who, however, mustbe friends of members or shareholders), who paythe sum of five shillings annually. All have thesame advantages in the purchase of goods, butmembers of the Civil Service have the privilegeof having goods above a certain amount deliveredcarriage free. As the thing stands, the numberof shareholders is limited to four thousand fivehundred.
The constitution is a little complex, and to thenon-initiated, perhaps not very rational; let it,however, be remembered that it is not so much abusiness concern, as what may aptly be termed a‘benefit society;’ and if the objects of the societywhen it was started in 1866 have in late yearsbeen deviated from, it is more from the excessivegrowth of the institution than from any other cause.The Association has from less to more assumedtruly gigantic proportions, and now takes rank asone of the wonders of the metropolis. The headquartersof the Association consist of huge andhandsome premises in Queen Victoria Street,‘City,’ the lease of which, subject to a ground-rentof one thousand four hundred pounds, hasbeen purchased, and which, together with certainadditions to the building, has cost no less asum than twenty-seven thousand pounds; butsuch is the increased value