The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1874-03-18

the temple Of the Most High.
December sixth IL 81. Nicholas day,
md Il the patron saint of the children
With w Santa Claus comes on Christ
mas to pay his respects TO his little
friends, hut here he has u special day
for himself In preparation for his
coming the market places are fitted up
with booths, each one of which, has its
OF chlldrens' toys, and on
the sixth each child expects 10 receive
q gift
Many ofthe toys for hIsday are made
of black fur and resemble an Infer
nal individual with enormous ears and
II brilliant red tongue. These images
vary In height from six inches to two
feet. Another figure Is that OF an old
man In the dress Of u bishop holding u
book IN one hand and staff
IN the other. A long white patriarch
nj beard descends upon his breast, and
n blshnps mltre crowns his head. In
nil eases the lnce II of wax, and the
hair and beard are usually Of white
cotton. The dress varies IN material
and IN elegance, but II Is generally
very Ingeniously made Of different col
ored paper.
After ST. Nicholas day Is past the
markets and booths take on an APP
pearance of even great gaiety and bril-
liancy. The objects displayed are
mostly gifts for children, though there
are many things suited for older peo-
pie. All of the open squares or mar
kets ARE full of life and business, but
the principal Christmas market Is held
In the large square called Gam Hofp
Along one side of this square extends
the Civic arsenal, erected by Jo-
seph IL. and Maria Theresa, and
which contains sixteen thousand
weapons, flags OF different nationaltties
and the skull of the Grand Nizier
Kara Mustapha, together with the
silken cord with which he was stran-
gled on his return from the siege of
Vienna. The building Is grand in size
and palatial In appearance, ana Is
guarded by body Of soldiers and a
number of cannon. In the center OF
Am Hollis fountain surmounted by
two bronze figures representing fidelity
and agriculture.
This square Is about eight hundred
feet long and half as wide, and the
buildings around il are all fine, some
of them even grand.
Around the center fountains and COW
ering at least two-thrds OF the square
are the booths, arranged in rows so as
to form passage ways between, AMI
outside of the booths are displayed
| a, "a.
and brilliant scene can scarcely
be imagined than this market during
the days Immediately preceding
Christmas. The streets which border
the square are flied with an endless
train of carriages, wagons, omnibus,
each carrying It's freight of merry peo-
pie, ON bearing to their destination & its
that have been purchased. Crossing
the street and entering the market we
see upon the outer edge number OF
market women seated on the ground
with their wares arranged in II large
shallow basket before them. These are
the itincrant dealers, who cannot af-
ford booth, but must carry their
wares home with them every night,
The contents of the baskets are of a
heterogeneous character-combs, brush
es and hand mirrors lie side by side
with brass clippers, shining tin flour
dredgers rosaries and bead bracelets
and caressing cakes of perfllmed soap
and bottles of hair oil lie in dangerous
proximity to daintily embroidered
neckties. Some of these "squatters,"
ms they might aptly be called, make a
specially of shoes, made of felt or rags
woven together in hasketwork. The
soles are of leather or of a coarse felt
half an inch thick. The shoes are
clumsy and inelegant in appearance,
but they are cheap-costing seventy
five cents for the cheapest-and are ex-
ceedingly comfortable. The hat dealers
throughout the city display very stylish
slippers and shoes of the same mate
rial more eXtravagant in PRICE and
not so comfortable. A very gorgeous
border to the market IL made by the
brilliantly trimmed Christmas trees,
which form quite a forest as gay In
coloring as our own autumnal
woods. Long steamers of varied
colored paper, chains, and loops
and banners, blue, yellow, red,
are flying in the breeze, pendant from
every of the tall, symmetrical ever
green trees, which are almost hidden
under the redundancy of trimming.
Beautiful, bright-eyed children, gaily
dressed, fit like birds from tree to
tree, and the bird-like voices fill the
air with most musical chattering.
The most beautiful and interesting
children that we have seen in Europe
we have seen here in Vienna. Passing
from booth to booth we see multitudes
of toys, picture books, tea sets, rocking
horses, fancy cakes, resembling ginger
bread in appearance, but, alas, having
no similarity in taste. These cakes are
of various grotesque forms, of man, or
birds, or beast, and are often decorated
with colored sugars, presenting q gay
appearance to the eye, which results
in a sad disappointment to n palate nc
customed to Yankee ginger bread, but
evidently bearing all that an Austrian
taste requires, Judging from the vast
quantities made and sold. Some Of
the booths arc very attractively
decorated with knit goods of
all varieties, from plain, substantial
under garments to the delicate and
beautiful breakfast shawl, or infants
outfit of dress, jacket, cloak and hoods.
The tiny and many colored wax can
dies, which are destined to illuminate
the tree on Christmas eve, and the
candy rings, baskets, fruits and figures
to ornament the same are very at
tractiye.
At the other outer edge of the mar
ket we find tempting display of rosy
checked, shining apples; pears end
grapes, which have been laid away to
keep for this occasion, and In addition
some untrimmed Christmas trees for
more subdued tastes aud smaller pur-
SEES. Some tiny little ones can be
bought for twenty-five cents.
::Among the Catholics the poorest fam
lily must have its Christmas tree and
its Kugelhopf, this last being Vien-
nese name for cake of peculiar
form III il merely n lipht sweet bread