The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-12-25

Toys in those days are not what they
are now. Our dolls neither walked nor
talked. bat we loved them just the same,
and were content to do the walking and
/ the talking ourselves. Then the reunion
at the breakfast table, with joyous boast
of books, dolls, trinkets and sugar Plums!
OF these last each of US was sure to have
found q horn in our Christmas stocking.
The bon bon was not yet AmericaniZed.
r. l.. Stuart's candy, pure and whole
some, was line enough for us. and l may
express in passing the belief that nothing
better in that line has ever been invented.
| As to the gifts themselves, Twill confess
that they often did not come up to my an
ticipation. | must plead guilty to an
early love of frivolities and splendors. As
the eldest girl l usually received one or
more books, perhaps a keepsake or other
annual, elegantly bound; also other
knick-knacks intended to forward my
achievements in needle-work. Some of
the little girls whom / knew wore neck
laces or gold chains. and my fancy was
rather apt TO run riot IN those directions.
But, after all, the Christmas glory was
over ana around whatever was received,
and whatever was done on that day, and
we soon gathered in our playroom to COM
pare our new acquisitions and to put
them to the uses fer which they were IN
tended. AS our elders went to morning
rup6ed period OF feStlvlty, making various
experiments and often destroying our
playthings in our efforts to discover how
they were made.
l remember preparing a banquet, in
some toy dishes, or caraway commits and
rose water, with a very unpalatable re-
suit; and 1 grIeve to relate of ny sister
next in age, the now venerated mother OF
Marion Crawford, deed of mischief ex-
of, low iY1Cr
on Christmas morning fine wax doll,
she carried the spirit OF analysis so lar as
TO melt it's head and arms before the ire
in order to offer US some wax pepperlnints.
Having accomplished this she lamented
the loss OF the doll, and probably learned
III useful lesson usually embodied III the
saying: ''You cannot eat your cake and
have your cake.
Then, at the Christmas dinner, was
there not Grandfather Ward, dear old
lieutenant-colonel of the revolution, and
my Uncle John, who spoiled us all and
loved us as well as our father did? IN
deed, | recall an army of tall uncles and
aunts, who pleased themselves with
listening to our childish prattle, and who,
in turn, related TO US stories OF by-gone
t mes, varied by an occasional fairy tale.
But l am forgetting to mention one i'm
portant feature of the Christmas menu,
Do-wit-'the blazing plum pudding =
whose appearance always gave us sensa-
zion, bur of which we were allowed to
partake very sparingly. A bit of apple
with nat set in it was sometimes lighted
for our amusement.
The music for our evening gambols was
sometimes furnished by our aunt, who
could only play two tunes on the piano,
one OF which was the we'll known Cara
van March, - from the opera of the Forty
Thieves One of the uncles played de-
lightfully, and we were sometimes put
through the figures OF quadrille while
he sat at the instrument and called the
figures in good oldsfashioned style.
What the grown people did after this
we did not know, as we were sent TO bed
betimes.
One thing was wanting to all the Christ
masses of wnich l have distinct remem-
brance. This YVES the presence OF the
sweet young mother, who survived but