The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1885-01-03
BTOalbrin'S New York Letter
snecinl TO the Cannon AnronArr.

III UuuUl I'LL NUW LULA lUllUl :
Special to the CARBON ADVOCATE:
CIrismas week, Christmas week; can
It be that arothery year has almost passed
away. If look back feel more like
writing sud obituary than Joyous
Christmas carol. The stores are crowded
with beautiful and costly goods, aud
the streets are thronged with eager pur-
chasers, and the question is where does
he money come from. The tendency
to make every large dry goods house a
sort of universal bazaar, has given an
opportunity for display which it has
never enjoyed to as great degree as at
present. Every large store now has its
variety department-and its art depart
ment in addition TO its general goods.
All special lines of trade seems 10 be OBJ
liberated. The proprietor of one large
d y goods house took me into Iii, Art d, :
partment and here with the finest
brouzes and choice marble statualy were
mingled-the beautiful wares Of Fay.
enco, Limoges, Dresden and Sevres.
Marvellous, JUDGED, was their beauty;
bat what struck me so particularly was
the exquisite taste and arrangement of
the display. They were not placed in
rows, or piled on shelves, as they would
have been in the olden times, but each
piece was displayed to the best advan-
tage, with a little drapery here and a
velvet hanging there; with occasional
rich slashes OF color giving wonderful
effect, which could be seen but not de-
scribed. 1t WAS like locking through
beautiful kaleidoscope illuminated with
the colors OF the rainbow. Bu. the ar
tistic effect was not nccideata' or owing
altogether to the splendor OF the goods.
new trade or prof, sslou has sprung
up among us, of Artistic Designers
who 60 from store to store toeive special
lines of goods their highest artistic ef-
feet There are many tasteful and cult
waited people, engaged in the business,
whose incomes vary from ten TO fifteen
thousand dollars year, aud whose time
is only partially occupied. 1 know two
young men whose specially is the CLOTH
ing business; and their incomes for ar
ranging windows, especially about Loli-
day times, will run from six to eight
hundred dollars per week. The result
of this artistic effort is the most wonder
full and beautiful display that New York
has ever seen. The exhibition in Marcy's
window at the corner of Sixth avenue
and Fourteenth street cost several thors.
and dollars. 1t is splendid PROCESSION
of knights and ladies, elephants and
canels, male and female circus riders,
nymphs drawn by swans, Nep tune in his
Dolphin car, and other wonders too
numerous to mention. Thousands
throng the sidewalk from morning till
night TO see the marvels Of this wonder
full window,
1t is not pleasant in this joyous holiday
time to look back over the road we have
passed since last Christmas Day. The
stockings were filled MS usual-the
Christmas trees were loaded, greetings
were passed, and Yule Log burned; but
meyer in our history has this sacred
| holiday come to rs with such sense OF
disaster and bitter humiliation. One
year ago this time there was o great
soldier in our city, whose life had been
one of the grandest successes Of the age
the world with all us riches aud all Of
its honors, and all of its glory was at
his feet;- home in this great city was
more joyous than his last Christmas Eve
to be admitted to his presence was es.
teemed as great an honor as to be ad.
mitted TO the presence of an Emperor
this Christmas Eve he sits in his beauti.
ful home a ruined and broken hearted
man, holding the roof above bim by the
sutferance of q man whom he would
scarcely have noticed twenty years ago.
But this years pathway lies slrewn with
social and financial ruin. The sneers of
professed friends, and the Ill concealed
triumph of undisPuised foes have sent
the steel to the old soldiers heart which
death alone can remove.
AS | sit here tonight reviewing the
year so rapidly passing away, I eau call
to mind n hundred homes which last
year were the centers of opulence, e,e-
gance and hospitality-whose hearth
stones to-day are desolate and black.
These were not the homes Of common
men, but the homes of men Of the sharp
est wit and greatest worldly wisdom
men who had won their great fortunes
IN the fercest contest, and the graudest
arena that the world has ever seen. FoI
scarcely anything in the worlds history
has equalled the revelation Of tho last
twenty years, 1t was during these
twenty years of unparalleled growth and
tremendous strife, that these ruined
millionaires came TO the surface, aud TO.
day they are bankrupt in character and
cash.
Another revolution which las taken
! plnpa /, IN, "a. r,1;t;..