The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-25
CAME IN WITH MUCH NOISE.
CHRISTMAS HAILED WITH GOOD
HUMOR AND GOOD FELLOWSHIP.

HtMUH AND GOoD EGLhO W >hiis
Broughton street rhronEed by
Those Rent on Making as Much
DiScordant TumuIt as Possible.
The Holiday Season the brightest
savannah Has known in Years.
Merchants Highly Pleased with
Their Trade-How the Soldiers
VIII Observe the Day.
Christmas. 1898. promises TO be the
brightest and most generally enjoyed that
Savannah has known in several years.
The holiday spirit has not been so ram
pant in years as it is this season. The
feeling Of good fellowship, and the air of
prosperity have lowered over the city,
twin precursors of the good times Of to-
day and tomorrow. on all sides there
has been ample evidence that Savannah
ians were preparing to enter into the en-
1oyment of the great holiday of the year
with more zest than in some time. The
celebration in every respect promises to
be long remembered as one of especial
abandonment to the sentiments that mark
the day
To-day there will be the joyous religious
and bright domestic observances of the
anniversary. The week will be ushered
in with music and with praise in all the
churches. In the family circle there will
be the long loOked-fOr home gatherings,
the glad heartedness of young and old.
the first enjoyment Of the gifts of affec-
ton, the hours about the board where all
the righteousness and tempungness of
Christmas fare will transform the ascetic
into the epicure 1t will be a day of phys
ical luxuries as well as of spiritual exalta-
ton. Sunshine and smiles win be its
guides from the dawn until night. Hap
piness seems to be in the atmosphere Sa-
vannah is impregnated with the influences
of love that the approach of Christmas
have ushered in.
Tomorrow win bring the noisy accom-
paniments of the season. The advance
guards of sklrmishers have shot off their
RokAan candles, bisected the heavens with
their sky-rockets and fumed the air with
the smell of burning crackers" But
these have been but the premonitory symp-
toms. The morning VIII give birth to pan
demonium, and the night will find the sky
ablaze with vari-coaored stars and streams
of quivering fire.
Christmas, 1898, will be memorable for it's
general jolliication; for the freedom with
which money has been expended for gifts;
for the charm of its weather; for the pres
enee of the strangers within SaVannah's
gates; for the absence of rancor or III feel
ing Of any kind 1t bids fair 60 be a veri-
table time Of peace and good will, an ideal
Christmas in every respect.
Broughton street was more than crowded
last night. The sidewalks could not hold
the people. so they bulged out into the
street and half filled the asphalt pavement
with an aimlessly struggling mass, intent
on noise making and idle frivolty. There
were four blocks of bedlam, of footing
horns, of shrieking cornets of wild laugh
ter, loud talk and senseless jabber. Thou
sands We're out with seemingly but one
purpose in view, that OF having whatever
good time there may be in adding to
general din.
Uniforms were here and there. but the
civilian element for the once drowned cut
the military, although the latter lost no
iaurels as producers Of discordant sound.
From Jefferson street TO Drayton there
was pushing, drifting, hilarious, job lot
Of humanity, some bearing bundles, hut
the majority with hands free to manlpu-
late trick snakes jumping jacks. horns,
torpedoes or frecrackers. A yard of GRIM
son snake would suddenly shoot into the
face of a girl, a grinning monkey would
confront an unwary pedestrian, or the
mildest mouse that ever escaped a pantry
trap would evoke a gentle scream. The
little trick devices had found ready buy
ers among the soldiers and they added
not little to the meTment.
At the corners the curbstone merchants
piled profitable trade in novelties that en-
tertained crowds, while others haWle1
their freak contrivances along the street
Purveyors of horns were speed
lily relieved of their stocks
At 10 O'Clock, when the jollihcation was
at its hight, all restraint seemed 10 have
been laid aside and the din could be heard
for several blocks away. ~ that -Four
progress on the sidewalks was slow. end
belated shoppers took to the streets in
their anxiety to complete their rounds and
gather from the diminished stocks the
presents that were TO bring joy to youth
full hearts. In the stores there were other
crowds, anxious to get the attention of
WORKOUT clerks The emporiums of retail
trade were scenes of fully as much inter-
est and activity as the street There was
life, brightness, expectancy, with the mum
of voices everywhere.
4 was midnight before the crowds thin
ned out greatly, and if it had not been
that the coming day was Sunday there
would doubtless have been many who
would have prolonged their excuses of tu-
mutt well along into the morning hours
Even at ! and o'clock there was to be
heard the occasional explosion of a giant
cracker or the solitary strident note of a
tin horn as some belated celebrater found
his way homeward. AS a Christmas eve.
1t was superior in these respects to any of
its predecessors.
-s-Se-s
TO DELIVER MAIL TODAY.