Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1861-04-04
Holidays at San Francisco.


about our holidays. Your Christmas is
celebrated with eyergreens; ours, with the
revival of grass, and the breaking out OF
green over the mountain sides. 1t was
very strange to me to pass through No
vember that had no dreariness; to walk to
church on Thanksgiving day flor our min
lister preached to large congregation, and
I stood up through the whole of the long
ssermon) without an overcoat, through the
most genial air imaginable, and as the sun
sank lower, week by week, to see the YER
dure starting out around the plank side
walks, in the gardens and yards, and lastly
climbing the slopes of the delightful hills
which are commanded by my library win
dow, to bauish their uniform Of brown. The
rainy season sets in this year, Just after the
first of December; and the Winter solstice
brings to us no slset, no bitter winds, nor
=: frozen fields, but Southerly airs and the
dawn of Spring. Our Christmas is natures
Easter.
- 1t is very notable and joyous holiday
In San Francisco. Far off its coming
'shone-that is to say, two or three weeks
of;-in the large auction sale of japanese
wares and French fancy goods. For three
days the largest hall in the city was the
scene ola spirited competition for the most
beautiful articles of ornament and luxury
from Paris; while two consignments from
sour neighbors on the Pacific, only month
of, have been displayed in the most attrac.
tive ball in the city, and two days and
nights were used up in disposing of them
by auction. Thirteen years ago San Fran
cisco was struggling village of few hun
dred inhabitants, whose tenements made
no impression on the waste of sand. Now
the European and the Mongolian Paris
compete for the patronage of our wealthy
thousands, with cargoes of luxuries. 1t
seems to me that enoug hJapanese cabinets
have been sold, since l have been in this
city. to furnish one to every house here, and
then supply Washington with nsw one ey-
cry week, for the next four years.
= have gone only moderately into the
purchase of Mongolian knick-nacks, and yet
my house bears witness to the run of the
fever, which is as necessary part of accli-
nation in this metropolis as felons and
aboils. (The vigilance committee banished
only the outside social felons, not those
which are bone of our bone.) Your cor
sresponent and family drink tea from JAP
sanese cups, fake melons and bananas from
l,nobly colored japanese dishes; sliced Ore
'gon apples that weigh two pounds each, on
japanese plates; see our mantel pieces
adorned, without any danger or idolatry,
with japanese joss or two, and our side
board glorifed by portly bronze urn from
lJeddo, ample enough to receive the ashes
Of all the household, but devoted to more
ignoble service as the receptacle of half
burned matches.
- It is crowned with squat enormity
which it would puzzle the great Agassiz to
classify toad's head on the body of a
shippopotamus; and the spout or faucet of
the urn seems to be an idiotic and drunken
dragon. We receive cards in platter
that might be boiled without disturbing
its brilliant black polish. An umbrella
stands near the door, which opens, like the
roof of a pagoda. We pack linens in Mon
,golian trunks, tear up waste-paper into
baskets from Kanagawa, use Japanese trays
of all sizes for all sorts of Yankee uses en-
10y the charming color and quaint inlaid-
work of family of cabinets, a mother
and two daughters (gifts)-in fact, take
tour cue from Japan to such an extent, in
the matter of furniture, that shouldn't be
surprised to see myself some morning when
l look into a japanese steel mirror, adorned
with braided cue, in order to match the
scenery in doors.
There were very large sales or all kinds
ofarticles for elegant gifts for Christmas.
Some of the jewellers told me that their
sales were nearly double that of last year.
y On Christmas eve the city fairly bios
tsomed with joy. 1t was very rainy and
muddy. Slosh is the word for a soft spell
in Boston winter, heIe, at the crossings,
by. the foot ofthe hills, where the planks
get loosened, no word is in order for de-
iscription but sqush. DR.. Worcester does
not give it, but then he never was in San
Francisco in December. Yet neither rain
nor mud damped or impeded the general
spirit of jubilee. Nine festivals, mostly
of religious societies, were in full blast.
The one which attended was in the larg-
est hall of the city, and gathered five hun
dred children around loaded tables and an
immense evergreen, forty feet high, which
bore gifts on every twig.
,s The youngest member of my family,
who has always been firm Bostonian,
!. was unfortunately allowed to 90 10 this
festival. The music, the least, the ample
room for the children to play and scamper
and dance, the presence of Santa Claus
himself, with pack and hump, and the
reception of two or three gifts which he
plucked for her from the towering tree, add
ed to the remarkably stuffed stocking which
she found on her bedstead the next morn
ing, have seriously shaken her principles.
She uttered herself to me before night of
the 25th, with emphasis, in this way
HI tell you what, father, it's no use now,
they don't have such Christmases East as
they do out here"
But l must talk of New Years day.
1t is against all law in San Francisco to
have clear Christmas, and equally illegal
to have stormy New Year. Last even
ing, however December 31st it seemed
Certain that the custom of fine weather
for the Inauguration was to be powerfully
damaged. A furious storm of warm rain