The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-12-24
MERRY CHRISTMAS TIDE
Crowds the Streets and Stores
With Holiday Shoppers.
ONLY SNOW is WANTING
To Deck the City in White and Set the
Sleigh Bells Jingling in True Christ
mas Style-Gitts That Arrive
and Depart.

The last day but one for Christmas
shopping, and-to make it more final
the last Christmas in the century (where-
at some people mock; which matters not,
for If they mock rightly there remains
yet another chance to declare it,, fell yes
terday, with the wind blowing seven ways
from New Years and not a vestige of
snow on the ground. So, instead of having
to lift their skirts from a carpet of 1eecy
snow, the women shoppers-and there
We're many abroad, from noon till late at
night-did battle with the frolics of
half-gale, which is more work than fun.
The stores all day We're crowded with
men and women and children ''nosng"
about in search of Christmas gifts and
the good things of Christmas cheer, so
that by nightfall the shelves that had
been loaded and the counters that had
been heaped with all manner of buyable
things began to show bare in spots, and
a merry confusion reigned. The streets,
too, We're full of folk, josting elbows,
treading toes where the crowds were
thick in front of shop windows, and
humping into one another with good-na-
tured apologies where corners had to be
turned quite suddenly to escape from
the hug of the wind.
muddy boots fingered dreamily by the
painted sleds in front of the hardware
store and struggled with Santa Claus
thoughts. The five nickels in his pocket
somehow had lost their charm. Nickels
have curious way of shrinking when
Christmas is drawing near. The fur-coat-
ed man on the creaky wagon drove slow
~ by with his load of mountain trees
while the wind whstled down the street
The boy in the faded sweater kicked his
heels and shivered He wondered if it
would snow. He was trying to make up
his mind to go to the church-t was
nearly time-and see the Sunday school
children get presents from the big Christ
mas tree. He believed he might as well
so. He followed the fur-coated man.
and nearly got run over by an express
wagon, because his head was busy with
the Santa Claus myth that made him for
get about lodging the hoofs.
| Indeed the expressmen were the busiest
wagonmen abroad, and because they had
| SO many-so very many--presents to deliv-
| er they had not time to look out for small
| boys. T-.ey-the numbering express wag-
| ons-scurried hither and thither, while
| doorbells jingled anon. Ever since last
| Monday the eXpressmen had been rush
| ed with outgoing gifts and along about
| Friday the incoming present packages be-
| gan to arrive. One of the companies re-
| ppitS tlldt llllS year ; Dulk OF christmas
| business is showing up two or three times
| heavier than last years, while the other
| company figures it as little shrunken
| in size. But both agree on the heavy
| business done in outgoing money orders,
| partly accounted for by the fact that the
! demand on the postoffice was so strong
that during Friday and Saturday that
| office was literally without blanks and
| was compelled to turn all customers
away. This odd dearth threw custom
| over the desks of the express offices, 81
| that their agents hands were full and the
scratch of the pens kept up a merry, con-
| tinuous hum.
In speaking of the Christmas traffic,
Agent Brown of the Pacific and Northern
| Pacific Express office said to a Standard
| man yesterday:
ut is too early. of course, to make up
| any accurate comparison between this
| and last years volume of business but it
is safe to say that the record of outgoing
| local shipments for Christmas of 1899 will
| not equal that of 1898. Still. there will be
| a good showing. for while no one day
| during this week has been what you
| might call record breaker, vet it must
! be taken into account that the shipping
| started in much earlier this year than it