The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-12-11
IT MADE THEM JUB|L ANT.
Merchants Pleased at the Bepiu-
ming of Winter.
IT'S CHRISTMAS WEATHER
Old Santa Claus Is Near at Hand--It
VIII Be a Happy Day in
Butte-Few Needy
Families

The merchants with large and good
cold-weather stocks of goods on hand
were jubilant yesterday and found
much consolation in the freakish ac-
tons of the elements. 1t showed. The
snow came down in a steady flow and
in small, shivering bits. 1t came down
straight The weather was cold enough
to make it possible for the snow TO
find suitable place in which to lie
and stay there. 1t was a winter day,
and there was frost Coldweather
sales to-day ought to be large. 1t is
Christmas weather, and it is this kind
of weather the merchants like, espe-
cially at this time of the year.
Old Santa Claus is near at hand.
and judging by the displays shown
in the store windows of this city he is
going to be here in all his old time
glory. The sleighing will in all pro3a-
bility be fast for the reindeer, and me
dispenser of Christmas cheer will be
able to get around to all the houses
where good little girls and boys live.
The season promises to be happy
one in this city, where hunger and
want are known only in very few
instances. Those needy families are
going to be taken care of by the good
men and women of this city. They are
going to eat the good things which make
the day memorable, and if luck goes
against them next year as it has this
they will be looked out for again next
Christmas, for the good people of
Butte never tire of extending the right
hand of goodness on every possible oc-
casion. Those whose circumstances are
Is karat will Of course have the best
| there Is to be had. And there is much
L lie, N ar
| playing the finest lines of goods ever
| seen in this or any other city. The dis
| plays are truly magnificent. From the
| candy store to the biggest store in the
| city are to be found everything which
makes the season of Christmastide
| grand and beautiful.
| The young folks are spending happy
hours on the ice ring in South Mon
| tana street, where the skating, they
say, is superb. There are some of the
| best skaters in the country here, and
| the young ladies are among them: If
| the snow continues to come down there
will soon be good sleighing, and there
| is where you find the fun and some
| times the beginning of matrimonial
| career.
But to the man who has worked all
summer for good wages and finds his
| overcoat in pawn and his summers
wages gone, there is little in the out
look to give him cheer. For he has
| lived all these months TO find out at
this particularly opportune time that
| he has managed his finances very bad
ly. He has nothing more nor less than
| a great big kick coming, and this he
must take with all the grace which
| characterized his actions at the times
| he lost his money in the pool rooms OF
| on the high card. If he is sore"
loser, Christmas will be a sorry festi-
val for him. If he is game he will
wiggle through the season with stiff
upper lip and gay" front. But the
chances are that the surroundings will
| make him appear like sore loser
anyway. However, this class is in a
happy minority, and won't cut much
| ice either one way or the other.
| Christmas is coming and is near the
| wire, and the grandstand awaits the
| finish with pleasurable anticipation and
| joyful expectancy. From this distance
| it looks like a beautiful finish.
| The Sunday school superintendent
| and children are busy these days pre-
| pairing for the trees which are to make
| happy the hearts of 10000 little ones
The Associated Charities will also make
! it pleasant in the same way for hun
dreds of poor little children; trees are
| already coming to town and being
bought by the heads of the families.
| who propose to make the hearts OF
| their little ones glad The coal mer-
| chants and the wood haulers are reap
| ing a harvest, anu OIL course lneS VII
| set the cigars up to their patrons at
| the right time The markets where the
turkeys and chickens roost in ice beds
offer certain advantages which will be
snapped up, and the confection stores
are full of the things which make
trees look like Dreamland.
| Butte has no complaint to make, be-
cause the mills and smelters are run
ming full blast and the mines are en-
| pioying thousands of men, without
| whom this would be COW camp.