The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-11-11
SPEAKING OF CHRISTMAS.

New York Evening Sun.

New York Evening Sun.
Christmas is on its way; already a few
sporadic cases Of the Christmas shopping
the disease, being unlike any other. not
subject 10 health regulations and it's first
subjects promptly quarantined, Will be-
come general and virulent. Already women
who pose as original are planning how
to take their friends by surprise with fresh
proof of this self-same originality when
the 18th of December rolls round. mot
the gift, but the spirit in which it is given"
now many times over this coming Christ
mas Will this old, respected. moth-eaten
sentiment be said and written and tele-
eraphed and ~telephoned by women who
actually think that in so doing they are
getting off something new and original,
not 10 say extra clever? Every cold stor-
age warehouse In town is piled full of "hol-
ioay numbers of our great magazines pre-
pared carefully by the typewriters and
photographers that run such literary en-
terpr1ses nowadays while the inspiration
of the proper Fourth of July spirit was full
upo them, and to be sprung upon an alas,
all too suspecting public some time before
thanksgiving, Such taking and timely
articles as Christmas Among the Canni-
bals,' "Tammany's Christmas Christ
mas as II Never was, Never has Been and
Never Could Be" and "A Fourth of July
Christmas" are to be found in the maya
zines. Were any of these cold storage
warehouses TO catch fire there would I'M
doubtedly be an explosion beside which the
Tarrant blow-lip of the other day would
seem mild indeed So ~fnflammable and of
such deadly combustible quality is the hot
stuff of these holiday. magazine numbers
as to cast in the shade both dynamite and
nitroglycerin. But the most certain symp-
tom of the approach of Christmas is the ap-
pearance in all the pages and periodicals
cOnSecrated TO the affairs of women of the
dear old recipes and prescriptions for
manufacturing Christmas presents. Christ
mas Presents Made Easy" Homemade
Christmas Gifts" How TO Make Your Own
Christmas Presents"-these are some of the
titles. Again we read that by gluing six
peanut shells to a fresh-baked waffle,
gilded, of course. and with a round hole
chopped out of the waf1e's middle. the
whole ornamented with baby-blue satin rib
bon, you will have a most elegant, not to
say appetiZing, picture frame-"at very
little cost" Note these last words. You
will learn to note them before YOU have
read many Christmas-present prescrip-
tions. Take any old cookstove," we read
again. "Handpaint it daintily with wild
roses, or forget-me-nots if preferred. and
removing the lids stuff the holes with ex-
celsior covered will embroidered silk plush
to match the flowers of the hand-painting
This makes a dainty and novel pin-cushion
device, there being just as many pin
cushions as there are holes; while from the
decorative point of view, what could be a
more welcome addition to any boulder than
a hand-painted c~cokstove?' What would
Christmas be without these familiar, in
genious recipes that glut the literary mar
ket to the exclusion of Marie Corelli her
self for months previous to the holiday:
and all to the tune of Homemade Christ
mas Presents and How to Make Them"