The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-12-25
MADE NIGHT NOISY
CROWDS CELEBRATED WITH
HORNS AND FIREWORKS.
THE STREETS THRoNeED.
IN OCCASIONAL SQUARES BoNFIREs
BURNED.

During the Day the Streets In the.
Retail Section Were Alive with
choppers, Whose Numbers Were
Those who Were Out for a Good
Time Began to Make Their APP
pearance-A More Sober Crowd
Than Is Usual on Such Occasions
in savannah-Until Midnight and
Long After, However, 1t Owned
the City's Streets.
With appropriate ceremonies, or at
any rate with the ceremonies that i'm
memorial usage in Savannah has de-
clared appropriate, Christmas eve was
ushered In. There were crowds of people
ON the streets, there was the noise of
exploding crackers and fiery rockets
and Roman candles and in an occa-
sional public square bonfire.
1t was a perfectly conventional
Christmas eve, according to Savannah
standards. Throughout the day there
was the usual outpouring of shoppers
on the retail business streets and at
night the saturnalia by which Christ
mas eve in Savannah is always distin-
guished. 1t is due to the city to say,
however, that drunkenness seems to be
on the decline and that in this respect
last night was a very decided improve
ment on occasions of the like character
that have preceded it in recent years.
Broughton street of course, caught
most of the mob and between o'clock
and IL the street was filled with shop
pers and those who had come to see
the show. 1t was we'll worth seeing,
for both sides of the street were
thronged and there was noise enough
to make the vocal efforts of the dis
reputable portion of the other world
look like thirty cents. Horns, cow
bells, various alleged musical instru-
mentS and the human voice divine, the
last proceeding from threats in various
stages Of sobriety and inebriety, helped
to make the night hideous and the
jovial crowd that thronged the streets
to have good time.
AS the night advanced those who
had come to shop began to leave the
street and those who were on hand for
the purpose of having a good time
to become very much noisier and a
trifle more Objectionable. The unattach-
ed masculine portion of the outfit paid
more and more frequent visits to the
saloons on the adjacent corners and
the result was not very long in maxi
ing itself evident.
Harmless passersby found the noisy
ends of siX-foot horns stuck into their
ears and the insane devices that con-
sists of a wooden ball on the end of
an elastic cord EARRING against the sides
of their heads. Propelled by the breath
of some alleged humorist the end of
a long strip of cardboard would fly out
and hit them in the face and the dis
cordant jangle of cowbells would make
them wish they were anywhere else
save on the streets. Soon these in
offensive ones got out of the way and
left the streets for the use of those who
We're out purely and simply to have a
good time-and who were having it,
The noise continued and increased,
gathering force and strength in an
inverse proportion to the size of the
crowds. AS midnight approached
there was a trifling falling off in the
amount of noise. but long after that
hour the more enthusiastic roysterers
were still on the streets and still en-
gagged in an earnest and enthusiastic
attempt to make night hideous. In this
they succeeded beyond the widest
dreams of those who did not share
their ambitions.
In the early morning hours this mis-
placed enthusiasm began to flicker and
die out. The saloons began to close
and, therefore, the supplies of liquid en-
thusiasm to disappear, Gradually the,
streets became deserted and towards
morning they were as quiet as they are
on any day of the year, save in those
occasional and far-separated spots
where some of the more sleepless still
remained. In these spots the noise of
the exploding cracker and the increas-
ing glare of more ambitious fireworks
announced to the sleeping city that the
Christmas season was on and that
there still remained a portion of the
population sufficiently awake to cherish
the determination to have good time.
AS the clocks of the city began to
sound the midnight hour and thus TO
usher in Christmas day, the chimes of
st. Johns Church rang out a carol. 1t
was succeeded by several others, the
sweet melody of which offered a con-
trast at once strong and pleasing to
the Objectionable noises that had filed
the streets during the earlier hours of