Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-12-22


Christmas in u large city is always
time of hustle. 1t is a hustle that be-
gins weeks in advance. The Christmas
goods are most Of them in place in
November, but people do not get their
purchases done then, when the shops
would be less crowded than later on.
oh, mol They wait until every one
else suddenly recollects that the holi-
days are close at hand, and then they
begin, under the most unfavorable cir
cumstances, the delicate task Of choosing
appropriate gifts for people of widely
varying tastes. The woman who would
deliberate for half an hour over her
selection of birthday present for
fastidious friend, did the birthday come
in the middle of the year, will rashly
buy right and left, taking what she can
get rather than what she wishes, and
thank heaven if she escapes with
life preserved and garments intact from
the crowd who are submitting to the
same voluntary martyrdom.
These foolish ones, who have neglected
to buy oil for their lamps until the last
moment, have their uses as parts of
spectacle. Possibly they would not relish
the suggestion that they are to be re-
garded as the shifting fragments of
kaleidoscope, but that is the aspect in
which they present themselves to any
one who has the time to draw aside
from the procession into q sheltered
corner and to watch the hurrying tide
OF humanity.
How business-llke they all lookl and
yet how different from the ordinary
business crowd on common shopping
thoughts intent These people almost
all have an air of suppressed excitement
about them, and the scraps of conversa-
ton one catches as they pass all turn
upon the one great subject
well, I've just bought him the love-
liest smoking-jacket.'
"I'm sure hope she'll like the pin. l
couldn't think of anything else she
needed"
"Mary, for the love of mercy, tell me
what to get for Aunt Anne She has
everything in the world already"
AS THE DAY DRAWS NEARER.
All this and much more may be noted
on the shopping streets for three or four
weeks before the 25th. As the'dayldraws
nearer, the crowd becomes denser, the
aspect of its members more preoccupied.
The streets are lined with faiSirs who
sell mechanical toys warranted to get
out of order within "a hours, rubber
balls, screaming balloons, hideous little
figures that are inflated by the breath,
and whose collapse is as sudden as their
distension warbling whistles, Jumping
jacks, gold, silver, and bronze tinsel for
Christmas trees, watchmen's rattles,
walking dolls, and dancing bears. Ven
doris of Christmas trees and greens, of
English holly and mistletoe shout their
wares, and the steps are besieged by
importunate flower boys.
In the midst of all the gayety are the
blind, lame and palsied peddlers of
shoe-laces, lead-pencils and hair-pins,
who are evidently moved with the hope
that while the angel of generosity is
troubling the human flood, they may
be able to step in and win share Of
the blessing. And always on the out
skirts of the crowd is to be heard the
wheeling wall of an accordion or the
asthmatic pipe of superannuated aud
demorali2eG hand-organ, played by an
old, very q man or by woman wiAA
baby on her knees.
ALI CLASSES REPRESENTED.
On Christmas, in the uptown shop
ping districts, the streets grow quieter
their nurchases and thov have zone
home IL their dinners D0wn.tow5 IN
the poorer quarter, it is different. Not
until the children were in he'd could the
mother, who is her own nurse, cook and
general servant, get out to do her final
or, perhaps, her only-Christmas shop
| ping, and to buy the morrow's dinner.
Often, too, she is moved by money con-
siderations to wait until the last moment
to make her purchases, in the hope that
she may thus snatch bargain.
So, she may be seen late at night
working her way home, bearing her
basket, sometimes attended by her hus-
band, who, if he be an adopted citizen,
usually stalks ahead, his pipe in his
mouth, his hands in his pockets. 1t is
not unlikely that she will be accom-
panied by train Of small children who
have positively refused to be tucked
all snug in their BEDS in orthodox
| fashion, but have insisted, like the
| typical young American who rules his
elders, in coming out to see the sights.
Until IL o'clock and after the crowds
surge 10 and fro about the markets and
in the neighborhood of The shops, and
before the quiet that is supposed to
accompany night has fairly settled over
| the city, it is again rudely Jared by the
hoarsc footing Of tish-hornS, the snap of
| lire-crackers, or the louder notes of
horse pistols.
When Christmas mcrning fairly