The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1888-12-26
A CITY CHRISTMAS.
How the Holidays Are Spent in
New York.
Eiectiss Day, Thanksgiving. Christ
mas and New Year's-Every
body Celebrates.

their faTorite authors suggesting IRe
kinds OF work they want and the nur1-
Der of words required. In due season
this work comes TO hand and is given
at once TO the artists who are less
busy during the heated term than
later on, and who make the pictures At
their leisure. There are some disappoint-
ments at the hand OF author and art
ist, bat the supply OF matter is always
large enough to make the complete
book. When the book IS completed
there Is generally regret on the part OF
the editors and publishers that some
of the best matter has been crowded
out-that kind always Is crowded out
but it Is an ameliorating thought
later on that the sales of the publica-
ton have probably been as
great As if il had gone in and
it will be capital matter with which
10 lead the next holiday annual.
THE FIRST BLOWOUT.
Election day Is not. perhaps. & holi
day. / know of several persons. he
ginning in Washington and running
t. this CITY and all around it, and as
far beyond a the winds blow, who are
willing to make oath that II i any
thing bat holiday. 1t introduces TO
the boys, however. the marching
spirit, which finds ample room and
encouragement when the large bird
which makes the thanksgiving feast IS
at its pr0udest and latest. On the
dav OF that feast the boys Of this city
are in their glory. Not the decorous
boys who 90 To school and spend the
rest of the day looking through the
windows of their papa's houses. II per
chance they cannot 90 To the park
with their guardians, but the boys of
the street.-the little fellows OF the
tenement houses, the GRAND boys,
the bootbldcks, TO some extent the
newsboys. who. however, have little
time to themselves on anv holiday
the boy tough and the constitGtionally
unoccupied boy who never does any
thing but run away from school, ii he
happen TO go TO school at all.
These boys fall into line and
march, variously and wonderfully
decorated. | saw in one process iOn
on West Fifty-fourth street two clowns
nicely dressed in that way but with
faces OF profound and melancholy APP
prehension lest they shouldn't be APP
preciated; three Indians profuselv
decorated with feathers and with imi-
tation buck kin breeches striped along
the leg; four girls-yery fair inita-
tions-one of them having borrowed
sisters bang. and all OF them with the
bottoms OF their dresses soaked and
filthy with mud; and a dozen staid
and respectable boy citizens who
couldn't have shouted If they had
tried they were 80 oyerpowered by
their temporary importance a. show.
Half the boys had tin horns, and they
blew them regardless OF time and pro-
priety against the music of tenor
drum and fife; and there marched be-
fore the band the drum major with a
wonderful cap and a baton that he
swung furiously enough to knock out
all who came in his way. Unhappily,
however, the grand procession met a
procession OF boys 'of Fifty-ninth
street little further up, and each pro-
cession claimed the right of way, and
fell to taunting the Other after the
manner of men in campaign time.
There was a lively but short fight. and
the consequence was considerable
bloody gore; and then, with great en-
thusiasm, the lines were reformed and
the professions marched their two
WAYS with as many hurrahs as if each
had wiped the mud with the other, as
indeed was the case.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
Thanksgiving is hardly gone when
the Christmas air begins to circulate,
and ii the Christmas frost is not ON
the windows, il IS looked upon as an
unhappy oversight. The shop win
dows afe 50 Christma~y that the hoy
and girl finger as long as they possibly
can, and are amply rewarded with the
feast given their wistful eyes A. for
the grown person, who has nobody to
chide him. he is never tired OF linger-
ing, and the walk up Broadway, if BE
is given 10 that pede,trianism, takes
him twice as long as it did month
ago. Presently it Will take him five
hours to make that brief distance, and
then he VIII get tired OF his lingering
until just before Christmas. when he
will take the walk again and get home
to find there has been some alarm and
things Al his asioni hing absence As
for the ladies' as well as the
boys and girls. everything
they do has the Christmas mystery
and expectation in it. The shops are
crowded from 10 O'Clock until a late
hour OF the evening. And a. the DAYS
90 on the crowd becomes a ianI-al-
ways cooi-natured jam, however.
and no impotence. The elevated
roads from Fourteenth up are packed.
At Twenty-third street they are run
ming over, and every man. woman
ana child carries 4 box. At Thirty
THRU street the guards are generally
Obliged TO ring the trains against stops
and 10 pass on, leaving the jam on the
platform gFieved to the heart as well
as cold to the yitals. At Forty-second
street there i a slight relief, but more
passengers get on than get off. All
the way TO Harlem the trains are
packed, more people standing up than
are sitting down; and when one es-
capes from the steaming but good
nAtured Christmas crowd, he eiaeu-
lates thanks in several languages
THE DAY.
II j. very quiet day. Most of the
music outside OF the churches i, made
W ti2G rtAlA4A W. : ilbA -, AillEh II 4
feature OF every side street and all the
avenues. The boy professions are
not as large. as numerous or as gro
te,que as those OF Thanksgiving. but !
they will do. There are a great many
small associations that parade an
alone by themselves. with lines like a
rail fence and the marching OF a band !
of undisciplined, pigeon-toed Indians. !
The officers of these associations ride
in hacks or opeu wagons. bearing
bouquets and sweet smiles Tor their
lady-loves. in behalf OF whom the pa-
raiders frequently 20 several blocks out
OF their way. To give the procession
4 set purpose and nuke the guns par
donab'e, the association i frequently
followed by the usual little black boy
with a target. as well a by the pur-
veyor in wagon laden mostly with |
beer, the larger and more generally
popular liquor. some sandwiches. cold
turkey, cold chicken. and all the
cheese Of foreign extraction. When |
the procession returns. the boys al |
ways in good hunor and some OF |
them having considerably too much I
OF II. il Is found that the target has !
been considerably perforated; hut the /
di.tanee OF the shooting Is not accu-
rately given, and the remarkable
part OF it is that none OF 1
the bows were shot. Meanwhile
the smaller bows have been
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