The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-12-25
CHRISTMAS EVE
The Crowds in the Streets-Shoppers
and Shopkeepers-Marke Saturday
NiSht-The Hideous Horn-Blowing-
Everybody Merry.

No calendar was needed to tell folks mere
abouts that Christmas is upon US. For days
the streets have been thronged, and the store
keepers found it hard work to serve lne im-
mepse run Of customers. Crowds OF country
men were in town buying their Christmas
goods and balancing their accounts. ln every
department of trade business has received an
inyigorating impulse. and the weary en-
Movers AMI employees alike hail with un-
feignei delight the holidays OF yesterday anu
today. The banks and public Offices Will oe
closed today, and there will oe service neid
In most of the churches, many OF which nave
been decorated with evergreeDs. The cars on
the CITY Railway will not run, and the post
Office will be open for the delivery OF the mails
only from $50 10 10 A. NJ.
The markets, which We're opened on Satur'
day night for the last time until tomorrow
morning. were crowded. and q dense throng
kept pouring through. The noise OF the idlerS'
the bargaining and traficking, and the LOUD
cries outside, made The markets perfect Bed
lam. TO h-ighten the din, the peripatetic
blowers of those s,anniferous denominations.
known as tin horns, were thickly
jnterspersed among the crowd, and min
gled their diScordant hoo'ings with
the ordinary noises OF the place. These
horns have got to be one OF the established
Institutions Of the Christmas celebration
among the boys on the street, and are noisy
and unbearable enough to supersede all
others. For weeks past they were being pre-
pared for the market, and, when the crisis
came, they were to be bought for three, i've,
ten and fifteen cents apiece everywhere on
King street. Wednesday night of last week.
a forlorn toot might have been heard ecnoing
d!smally through the silent air. Ihurs-
day night it found company, and Clues
and Stars began to take notice. Fri
day night the scattering cases IL
creased in number, and prepared people
for the epidemic Of Saturday, when the in
famous noise of the horns never ceased, aud
eliminated at night in one Of the most dia-
bolical s.reoades ever heard in the city.
King street, from Market to Calhoun, was the
favorile ground of the players, who took
malicious delight in following where the
crowd was thickest For houls on this street
The sidewalks were jammed, and the pedes-
trains slowly moved onward in two lpes,
alter the Broadway style. The point of ad-
vantage was seen by the tooters, and an Or
ganized band OF thirty, which gradually swell
ed TO near a hundred, pushed through The
throng, blowing meanwhile upon their horns
as If their lives depended upon the din they
made. This band was a'so guilty OF
another freak, not as noisy, but more damag'
ing than the horn-blowing. While passing
the house of a citizen in Chapel street, they
became attracted by the appt arance Of the
palings of his fence, which were neatly paint
ed. The leader, in want OF baton, pulled out
one of the pai,ings, and the crowd, struck by
the effect Of the staff upon the appearance Of
their leader, went for the fence and soon
stripped 1t.
During thSthub-bub and confusion, crackers
and rockets were from time TO time set of,
which kept the dutiful Clubs and Stars, 10
whom the Mayors proclamation had been
read, in painful state Of excitement. The
offences were, however, but few. and near
eleven O'Clock the rain came down in torrents
and gradually cleared the streets of crowds and
noises. Yesterday symptoms of footing could
be heard, which promise another huge DIS
cord to-day.