The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-14

scale. Every KIND of toy from the
one-cent tin novelty to boxes of high
class papler mache animals and pew
ter soldiers of perfect design, may be
found there. Clothing, decorations for
trees, candles, rubber boots. books
all are piled side by side in indiscrim-
mate, rich profusion.
Here is the Christmas spirit. One
may seek through the city's show
places for the grand, human. simple
Christmas joy of the pages Of Dick
ems, and seek in vain. In the tene-
ment streets, crowded with the very
poor and the almost as poor and the
fortunate ones who have risen to the
incredibly splendid position of actually
being able to make ends meet and
have little left over, that spirit rules.
complete and true.
Here are mothers, with shawls pinned
over head and shoulders, with thin.
hard-worked hands holding tightly tn
children who keep their gaze so firmly
on the wonders all around them that
they must be dragged and not LED.
Everywhere the children are being
pulled along sideways, like heavy
oarges swinging in a twisting current
oehlnd business-like tugboat. Faith
ers, with scant overcoats pulled up as
far as they will go-never quite far
enough, it seems to the comfortable
observer shrinking in his ample gar
ments-push through the laughing.
dlckerlng, gesticulating crowds with
oables held high. The little ones are
painful red with cold; but their eyes
are beautiful with the wonder of the
Christmas mystery that has so
strangely swept into their d,iI lives
dulled even in infancy, though uncon-
sciously, by the hard fight for daily
life.
The Lore of the Tenements
There is something fine and inspiring
IN the sight of these hundreds and
scores OF hundreds of family groups,
each herding a little flock of marvelling
children, debating for hours how best
TO spend their little savings-savings
that represent splendid sacrifice last
ing OFTEN throughout a whole year. and
that in their total may not be as big
as the sum that more prosperous per-
sons spend in a moment for a knick-
knack Tor some acquaintance, not for
loVe, out as mere matter of social
obligation.
UNNECESSARILY finer, indeed, than to
see the carriage folk" sweep into a
royal shop and spend a years income
LOT a single gift! Immeasurably finer
than to see all the wealth of the rich
est spendthrift among cities poured out
on every side under the glare of mil
lion lightsi
Germans and Huns and Magyars and
Croats, Irish and Italian and Jew are
mere, crowded side by side, taking hard
Jostling and hearty knocks into the
ribs with entire good win. For this
season truly is to them a season of
GOODWILL. All these men and women,
dlHerlng in every CUSTOM appearance
habit and wish in every other way, are
one in the love that animates them
now.
Radically unlike as they are. one
feels after a few hours of crowdinR
and pressing among them that there is
wonderful. elusive likeness between
them all.
And that likeness is in the ewes of
the women. Those eyes of the moth
ers of the tenements are the finest
Christmas sights i'm all the great city
OF sights. Brave, true. filled with love.
looking at the offerings OF the shops
and stands with perfect unselfshness:
long after the recollection of all the
rest OF the strange scenes has faded,
the thought of those thousands Of
brave women's eyes remains an uplift-
ing memory.
Once let him fan under the influence
or those eyes, and the observer will
feel as n he should bow his head be-
fore them ~ obeisance. He thinks OF
the worn hands that have been robbed
OF All physical grace by hard toll and
sees how they have struggled 20 save
q little for this holiday time. lie sees
the pitiful, beautiful EtrataRemF. plan
nea ionR ago, that they may delight
fhe ones they love, fie sees the crowd
- rooms, sitting with the doors - bar-
faek lfe, unlQyeiy, barely hablfabis.
ana 10 DE- sees fhe solemn Influence ~
iiin who waiksf in peYeny ln oaiilse
pektnS uaem divine.