The Wilmingtonian., 1884-11-29
WHAT WILMINGTON MIGHTDo

w HAI WILmINO ION MIGHT ID
: On the continent of Europe at Christina.
tide there is no gayer sight TO be seen thar
the brightly illuminated streets at night
: time. In Paris, for instance, during the
holiday season the boulevards after sur
down are thronged with a busy crowd oI
buyers. Electric lights are SO numerou.
and the stores are SO brilliantly and taste.
fully lit up that it looks as bright as noon.
day. All Paris is in the streets. The
crowds passing to and fro, and in and Out
of the shops is incessant. Nobody stays in.
doors, the attraction of the CHEEKY pleasant
light over-comes the scruples of the most
confirmed stay-at-homes. Everybody seems
in quest of something to purchase. All are
happy and joyous. The storekeepers are
busy,a general appearance of prosperity
and business asserts itself all around 1t is
a strange picture, that of turning night into
day. But it is what actually exists during
the Christmas holidays. 1t is the shop
keepers harvest time. The Partisan is a
practical business man. The harvest he
reaps at this season is wonderful. That he
accomplishes it is due to his own tact. He
is fully aware of the fact that dark,
gloomy street is repellent and suicidal to
Business, and, on the contrary the brighter
and cheerer the outdoor prospect is, the
greater will be t throng.
Let our Wilmington storekeepers take
this as text.
1t would nat be hazarding the gainsaying,
were the assertion made, that if the store
keepers along Market street were to make up
their minds to properly illuminate their
stores and street during the Christmas sea-
son that they would reap harvest of double
what they did last year. To those who
have seen the streets of other cities lit up
during Christmas time the illumination we
have here is gloom and darkness!
In the place of being bright cheerful and
attractive the general aspect of our chief
business avenue is that of funeral gloom.
Are our storekeepers aware of what they
lose by this lack of enterprisel
They surely cannot expect people to come
out to make purchases in dark street or
gloomy stores,
Market street should be flood of light
from Second or Third street all the way to
Ninth, Or say the Opera House, throughout
the holiday season from sunset to ii p. M
The people will be attracted from their
houses, and the goods in the store windows
can be seen. 1t is stated that the Arnoux
Electric Light Company propose placing
three lights in each square of Market street
during the Christmas shopping season, and
that the expense is to be betrayed by public
subscription.
This is move in the right direction, and
no Market street storekeeper will hesitate in
IL
But that is not sufficient, each store, addi-
tionally, should have extra gas illumination
for the season.
Why is it that the brightly lit stores along
Chestnut street and Eighth street in Phila-
delphia, are so thronged with people during
the nightP
For the reasons that the bright interiors
are so attractive that numbers find them
selves, almost insensibly, at the counters
Also this is of all seasons, the shopping sea-
son, par excellence, and those who at first
were only half inclined to be purchasers
take advantage of the occasion, enter the
stores and open their purses.
Also, the ladies of the family are induced
to come out into the brightly lit streets and
readily accede to their escort the pleasure of
shopping at night time under such favorable
circumstances.
What more welcome sight would we Will
mingtonians see than Market street lit up
like noon-day, the stores and pavements
alive with people!
This is not an improbability, it is not an
overdrawn pictured There is no necessity
of our citizens going to Philadelphia to
make their Christmas purchases. If our
storekeerers only make their windows light
that people can see what they have, one half
the difficulty is bridged over. The other
desideratum is to light up the street proper
ly.
Let them not get the idea that they have
done enough i'll the way of street illumina-
tion. It is otherwise Our streets at night
time, with few exceptions of tight at GER
tain points here and there are dark. In that
respect Wilmington after night fall has very
much the aspect of a struggling provincial
town, the busy manufacturing centre
that it is during the day.
The New Drop Curtain, and other
matters.
The fine old painting Vera Cruz the drop
l