Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-12-08
HOLIDAY SHOPPERS BUSY
THE RUSH OF CHRISTMAS PREP
ARATIONS ALREADY BEGUN.

The Season When Ladies VIII Garry
Bundles in the Street-StOFes and
Shops Crowded with Buyers Looking
for BargainS-What Leading Firms
Say about Business-Better Prospects
than Last Year.
This is the only time of the year when
woman can carry four or five cumbrous
bundles through the streets in her arms
and yet look happy. At any other time
she would order a spool OF thread sent
home in delivery wagon, but now she
wants to take the bundles home herself.
They cannot be trusted in any hands but
hers for they are TO be secretly struggled
into the house and hidden away until
Christmas.
Holiday shopping has already begun
and by next week thousands OF little and
big packages will be slowed away in
closets AMI bureau drawers waiting for
the coming of the eYentful Christmas eve.
The crush Of holiday shoppers will not
come until next week, but from now on
trade will be lively until after the holt
days are over, when there is always
lull. The crowd of ladies that throng
Broughton street and the stores every
afternoon may not all be purchasers yet,
but they are investigating the bargains
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articles of Vertu so that they will be fully
prepared to make the best selections.
1t is something astonishing how much
shopping an ordinary woman can do and
not buy anything. she starts out with
the deliberate purpose OF making certain
purchases that she has thought over for
perhaps three or four days, but when she
gets down town, in the crowded stores,
with the counters piled high with goods
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one things, her senses swim and she does
nothing but bob around from one counter
TO another, and from one department to
another, and one store TO another, and
finally goes home with nothing but a
quarter of pound of candy or paper Of
pins.
All of the retail stores have put on their
holiday dress. The proprietOrs have piled
the sidewalks, and streets too, full of
boxes and attractive goods to the limit
the city will allow. The show windows
are blossomed out in holiday displays.
Merchants have purchased heavy
stocks and are prepared for big trade.
When asked concerning business pros
poets, however, they do not all agree.
Some are not so hopeful as they might be.
One leading merchant said yesterday to
News reporter that he believed there is
more money than last year, but that
people have learned economy, and will
not spend any more, If as much, as they
did during last holiday season. This
merchants stock, however, showed more
confidence than his speech. The majority
OF merchants, however, expect better
business this year than last, and with
some it has already begun. The fancy
goods and toy stores have all put on their
brightest dress, and everything that will
catch the eye and purse mas been hung
where it Will be best seen. The children
have already begun to watch the store
windows with the eager childish interest
that takes possession of their little heads
as the holidays approach. A pretty doll
is always the envy OF a child's heart, and
this year the dolls are prettier than ever.
Standing in front OF a handsomely
dressed show window, which it seemed a
modern Blue Beard had taken posse ssion
Of, for about it hung the heads of dolls
whose beauty would have softened the
hearts of the old monster, and along with
them the flaxen haired blue eyed dolls,
dolls brown haired and black eyed and of
every description of loneliness, a NEWS
| reporter listened yesterday to the prattle
of half dozen little ones who crowded
around the windows and peered through
the panes with the anxiety of q sinner
at the gates of Paradise.
"Oh, mamma, please get me that one"
sara lltle mite, pointing 10 q uOlI which
could have carried her mad 1t been ami
mated.
You'll have to ask Santa Claus; he'll
| get it for you," said the mother trying to
| get the little one beyond the magnetic in
| tluence Of the windOWful Of wax and silk
and hair.
ayes. mamma; but Santa Claus could
not get down our chimney with big doll
like that. Get it for me now." But the
mother would not, and the little ones
forehead creased into a childish frown.
A happy thought struck her, though, and
she said as she went away: 81 know what
I'll do. I'll ask the MORNING NEWS
Santa Claus to get it for me-"
All through the retail streets business
has put on its holiday airs and manners,
and in the next two weeks many purses
will be made lean, and many hearts will
be made lighter by the feeling that to give
is to be twice blessed.