Middletown transcript., 1892-12-22
two CHRISTMAS STORIES.
THE COMPARISON BETWEEN
THESE FESTIVE DAYS.
How 1t is Looked Upon BY Our City
Friends and Their Country
- Cousins What Is Said And
Done By Each.

Done By Each.
i 3E. CHRISTMAS IN THE CITY.
Christmas in large city is always
time of hustle. It is hustle thai
begins weeks in advance. The Christ
mas goods are most of them in piacs
in November, but people do not gel
their purchasing done then, when the
shops would be less crowded than
later on.
oh, no. They wait until every one
else suddenly recollects that the holi-
days are close at hand, and then they
begin, under the most unfavorable
circumstances, the delicate task OF
choosing appropriate gifts for the peo-
pleg Of widely varying tastes. The
woman who would deliberate for halt
al hour over her selection Of a
birthday present for fasiidious 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 ifshe escapes with life pre-
served and garments intact from the
crowd who are submitting to the
same voluntary martyrdom.
These foolish ones who have neg
Iected to buy oil for their lamps un-
til the last moment have their uses as
parts of spectacle. Possibly they
would not relish the suggestion that
they are to be regarded as the shift
ing fragments of q kaleidoscope, but
that is the aspect in which they pre-
sent themselves to any one who has
the time to draw aside from the pro-
cessiun into a sheltered corner and
watch the hurrying tide of humanity.
How business-like they all look, and
vet how different from the ordinary
business crowd on the common shop
ping thoughts intent! These people
almost all have an air of suppressed ex-
citemept about them, and the scraps
of conversation one catches as they
pass all turn upon the one great sub
ject.
"Well, I've just bought him the
loveliest smoking jacket"
I'm sure | hope she'll like the
pin. I couldn't think of anything
else she needed"
Mary for the love of Mercy, tell
me what to get for Aunt Anne! She
has every thing in the world al
ready"
All this and much more may be
noted on the shopping streets for
three or four weeks before the 25th.
As the day draws nearer the crowd
becomes denser, the aspect of its
members more preoccupied. The
streets are lined with fakirs who sell
toys warranted to get out
Of order within twenty.four hours,
rubber balls, screaming balloons, hide
GUS little figures that are inflated by
the breath and whose collapse is as
sudden as their distensions, warbling
whistles, jumping jacks, gold, silver
and bronze tinsel for Christmas trees,
rattles, walking dolls and
dancing bears. Vendors of Christmas
trees and greens, of English holly and
mistletoe shout their wares, and the
steps are besieged by importunate
lower boys.
In the midst of all the gayety are
he blind, lame and palsied, peddlers
IF shoe laces, lead pencils and hair
pins, who are evidently moved with |
The hope that while the angel Of
generosity is troubling the human
food they may be able to step in and
win share Of its blessing. And al
Nays on the outskirts Of the crowd is
% be heard the wheeling wall of an
accordiau or the asthmatic pipe of a
and demoralized hand
organ, played by an old, very old
nan, or woman with baby on her
Inees
On Christmas, in the uptown shop
ping districts, the streets grow quieter
,fter a while. Here the well to do
make their purchases, and they have
zone home to their dinners. Down
own, in the poorer quarter, it is differ
.renr. Not until the children were ia
Jed could the mother, who is her own
l1rse, cook and general servant, get
,ut to do her final, or, perhaps, her
'nly Christmas shopping. and to buy
he morrow's dinner. Often, too, she
$ moved by money considerations to
pait until the last moment to make
Ter purchases in the hope that she
nay thus snatch a bargain.
So she may be seen late at night
her way home, bearing her
'asket, sometimes attended by her
husband, who, if he be an adopted
itizen, usually stalks ahead, his pipe
q his mouth, his hands 10 his pockets.
t is not unlikely that she will be ac-
by train of small chill
rem who have positively refused to
e tucked all snug in their beds" in
rthodox fashion, but have insisted,
Ike the typical young American who
ules his elders, in coming out to see
be sights.
Until twelve O'Clock and after the
rowds surge to and fro about the
markets and in the neighborhood of
be shops, and before the quiet that is
opposed to accompany night has
lirly settled over the city it is again
udely Jared by the hoarse footing of
sh horns, the snap Of firecrackers or
n, ln,,dnr ranfnn nf hnrnn natal -