The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-24
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CHRISTMAS THEN AND NOW.
A Retrospect of savannah at Christ
mas Time in 100.

mas Time in 1900.
And a new step is at the door, my friend,
And a new face is at the door, my friend"
With varied feelings all of us are lis
tening for the footsteps of the new CEN
tury. Christmas of 1899 is fraught with
more than common interest. None of us
to-day have watched the dying of CEN
fury. the birth of a new era. Looking
back over the momentous events of the
years marked with the 1Ss, history seems
a fairy tale, magic never. in it's pamiest
days, dared to claim the ability to do what
now is an every day affair.
Seventeen Numbered and ninety-nine in
this old city of Savannah, how did the
old place look then-what were the folks
doing, what were they talking about, what
plans were they making?
Just see in some of the old houses of
that day, right here in Savannah. They
were getting ready for Christmas. OF
course, and the little boys In quantity cut
trousers and little girls with ringlets or
plated hair with pinafores and panta-
lettes, were as fun of tales of Santa Claus
as these dainty little men and women of
to-day Fires probably were roaring up
wide chimneys, the logs of pine and black
jack resting on cleaning brass fire dogs,
the flames reflected from polished ma
hogany and oak, the cleaning surface not
the result of varnish, but brought to high
est perfection by the rubbing OF etrong
armed maids with the wondrous prepara-
lions they concocted at home. You may
be sure the harder was full of good things;
turkeys and Venison, cakes and patties
with oysters galore. The cellars gave up
their rare old wines. crusty port and
beady sherry; the punch bowl was in evil
dence, and mighty was the beating of eggs
in those quaint old nogg-bowls, now like
many other things gone to return no more.
Friends were arriving from various
quarters to spend the Christmas season;
the stage horns blew cheerfully, and the
family carriages of the quality, propelled
by four horses as a rule, brought many a
happy visitor for the holidays. No doubt
every one was very happy, but just think
if a revulsion of nature could possibly put
us back where we were a century ago,
how cOmfortless and stupid and altogeth-
er tiresome everything would seem. Now
friends come to US in a parlor car or pala-
tial steamer, wiring us from many thou
sand miles a few days before. or perhaps
we are ''rung up" and converse with n
friend a hundred miles off, and over the
magic circuit make our plans for the next
day or two. We open our paper in the
morning to get the latest news from the
Philippines and South Africa or Honolulu
as the case may be- We are in a hurry
TO get to market, and we board the troll
ley landing at our destination almost be-
fore we get settled in our seats or If we
looking vehicle, turn a crank and the au-
tomobile does the rest; and few and far
between are the ones who canont boast
that wagon wheel running away with
man." and while enjoying this vehicular
poetry distance buggy or carriage.
Just take up some old books, some old
gazette and see a little of what 1900, and
its accompanying figures have done. We
who learned to write in this century, had
@ lot of difficulty in learning TO make that
eight it was a hard figure, the worst in
the whole gamut of numbers. If 1t was
only a nine, now we thought / could just
make an ought and put a leg to it. and
there it is. but these serpentine Fights,
they are so uncompromising, there is no
Sinking them, there is no combination to
resemble them, they stand alone. But we
must take them. for we have TO begin ev-
cry document with that eight for the sec
ond place, and we learn at last, and we go
on writing It for how many years? Some
of us don't like to tell the first year we
wrote down in our copybooks, and some
Of us are very proud to tell how much of
the century we remember personally.
Thanks to the printing press, however, we
know of much that has happened.
Space forbids us to say anything of 1T
erature, of art. of the wonderful words
and thoughts that have been living, and
doing their work.
While we have grown in every way, are
we better as a state, as country as
race than the people Of hundred years
ago?
] am not speaking OF individuals. for
there were many saints before this century
begun. but collectively, / can answer yes.
Long before the tenth century was born,
there lived a gifted man, who charmed his
friends with his genius, and was the ter
ror OF his enemies with his bitter tongue,
but Of all the things he ever wrote or said.
the stanza quote has gone down through
the century filling many a heart with
comfort with "a desire TO struggle 10 at
tain what the stanza taught:
THAT mercy 90 others show,
That mercy show 20 me"
And we are more merciful, we are more
charitable, not only Va the giving, but in
the sympathy for our feiiowmeb. with
the broadening Of Our physical and mental
horizon. our spiritual vision Is akO broad
or and clearer.
Mary label Beckwith.