Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-12-26
[From our Regular Correspondent
Washington Letter.
WASHINGTON, Dec. %

WASHINGTON, Dec. %.
In these delicious May-like days of
December, Washington has ceased to be
the capital, and bereft of the administra-
ton, cabinet, and Congress, turns for IL
change to toys. Toys fill the shop windows
on Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventh
Street. Toy-stands cucumber the pave
ments, and are borne on the heads of itin-
Grant toy merchants. AT night the shop
windows, brilliantly lighted, vie in at
Effectiveness, and the one that has some
thing unique. like the automatic negro
preacher, never fails to draw a crowd.
This toy preacher, sable doctor of
Divinity, who moves his head and hands
in impressive gesticulation, has constant,
large, and appreciativc, audience; and
promenaders have been compelled to walk
in the street in order to flank the throng,
composed of all denominations, that hang
on his mute minstrations. So you must
know that although we have neither Conk-
ling, Congress, nor the president, Qhey
have all gone to New York; there is still
food for re1ection-shams and realities in
grotesnue and pathetic proximity. Here
IN one window. standing before little
mirror with TOW combs and brushes, ex-
nnisitelv dressed in the highth of fashion,
stands n wax doll. price seventy-fi,e dol
lars. she is surrounded by Il throng Of
admirers, and is finally purchased and
horne away from the worshipping gaze of
g, half starved little Girl to whom seventy.
five dollars would mean shoes, bread, aud
life. This Christmas.tide (or time which
is better English) gives us, by the, way,
something Of n guage by which to meas
ure certain tendencies of social growth
| believe it is evident in the holiday sur
roupdings of to-day that we do not tend so
much toward the old English heartiness,
the Christmas cheer, thR family reunions,
the decoration of our churches and homes
with evergreens, and the grand reviving
of old legends and cherished traditions,
AS we do to certain Frenchy taste for
glitter and parade The quality of Christ
mas presents offered for sale, and eagerly
bought by rich and poor, indicate the
character of celebration in our homes.
An establishment, with an exceedingly
f Partisan name, located on the Avenue,and
containing all sorts of tawdry bijOUterie,
is doing probably the best business Of all,
| the large salesroom being thronged with
customers from morning till night; on the
other hand, the solid merchants, having
stocks of useful goods, thrum on their
. glass doors, and look out on the passing
crowd with painful solicitude, thinking
f perhaps of their next note, and wishing
, that thew had bought few bushels OF
brass rings and copper buttons instead OF
staples. notice rs pass that the show
A cases display plentiful quantity of coun-
terfeit iewelry. but selling up so well
: towards the price of real gold as to amaze
one that such high prices should be paid
= for brass and other base metals, disguised
T. to look like gold. When | inquire where
n these are made, learn that it is not in
G Paris or Lyons, but in staid Boston OF
# Philadelphia where merchants look oven
S the whole expanse of country, and reckon
r with wonderful sagacity just what the
: public taste Graves, and so when | CONF
to look in my stocking of II Christmas
n morning, if modern taste does not banisI
:, that old fashioned article and hang up
J. bedizened cornucopia instead, | shall eX
: pect to find pair of brass sleeve buttons
V an oxidzed scarf pin, and a lead napkin
ring Ga perfect imitation Of silver from
nv land lady, her husband and daughter
No doubt shall give in return set o
} dollar (goId) ewelry, so advertised,
y Hake George diamond ring, (price 81
G and a Santa Claus to the children, not on
. of the old red checked abnormally develop
J. ed, like Judge Davis, fellows, but Il bran
v new Frenchman. with mean brow, wake,
mustache, and Mephistophelan nose.
This is the tendency at all events. MOI
W what does it all mean that things shout
" be going this way with us? | think tn
l. stories we have heard from abroad Of hoy
ut foreigners raise the price of every thin
lie when an American enters store are, in
lie measure, true, and that not content wit
,e cheating us on their own side the water
lie toey are coming after us here-pleI
ty of them came to the centennial
look over the ground-and not 0nI
To that, our eastern merchants and mani
49, facturers are proving apt scholars in tn
=, direction themselves. We are bocomin
10 tawdry ornament loving people, we al
d. specifically spurious and deceptivc; an
lg there is danger that it will strike in; "
9 90 along the street pretending to be tn;
e, we arc not, humbuggng Others and bein
as most numerically humbugged by other
2 sharper than ourselves, who make stud
c. and trade of it. | have not set up for
reformer, but | am disposed TO protc!
ut against this nonsense and extravaganza.
ed regret exceedingly to see 50 much none.
lie that might be spent for real comforts wr
ed on pcrnicious frauds. This is the seasC
po of spectacular, and hsronic, as well us
N material, and Lrassy humbugs. For II wee
" or more there has been on eXhibtionin OF
of the public halls, Il 50 cnIlel ttc SINH
ns Of the Strasburg clock. The real clock,
n. will be remembered is wound but once
year ana keeps perfect IIllie 81 'no 'no''
DAY, hour' ana minute WIN ''o l'i"Gos 70
he OF the Twelve aPosVes' anu u, " 'ello'''V
he appearance OF 'l'e ueVll' inc iu'o,ea, r