The Savannah morning news., 1902-12-21
CHRISTMAS GIFTS.
How the Practical Woman Does Her
shopping.


The practieel woman, says the Dor
othy Dix, in the New Orleans Plea
kiyune, put on a rainy-day skirt,
.fIbbAd another hatpin in securely,
and took up a long and businesslike
looking list.
WHITTIER away?' asked.
II am going to take Christmas by
the forelock." she. replied, land buy
all my presents while there is still
time to look things dispassionately
over in the shops, without being hust-
led and trodden upon by women, until
YOU feel like you had played right
tackle in a football match and were
the battered remains. Oh, I know, of
course, it isn't conventional. The prop
er way to do is to wait until the last
minute, when everything has been
pulled and paved over and the shop
girls are nervous and cross, and then
rush in and snatch up some old thing
that you never thought of before, and
nobody wants, and that raises MUIR
derous feelings in the breast of the
person to whom you present it as a
token of affection.
Il used to do that way, and 1 sup
pose it comes nearer to accounting for
the misfit Christmas present than any
the absurd and useless things that
people give each other, and the mon
ey that they waste, 1 am tempted to
think that Christmas-giving ought to
be abolished by law, or a commission
appointed to do the buying. Just
think of one rational human being
presenting another with a painted cell
luloid box that goes to pieces if you
look at it, or one of those awful plush
and satin monStroSities that is good
for nothing on earth but to collect
dirt, and aggravate the housemaid.
Il suppose there isn't one person in
a hundred who ever looks over their
Christmas presents without a feeling
of impotent anger at the givers for
the money they have thrown away.
You are needing table cloths, and
your dearest friend sends you fif-
teen-dollar illustrated copy of The
Ancient Mariner You were yearning
for a salad bowl, and the bachelor
friend who wants to be nice to you
bestows a ten-dollar bunch of Ameri-
can Beauty roses on you. You yearn-
ed for a silk petticoat, and your hus-
band buys you a fine box of candy.
1t always makes me think of what a
popular society man said once. He
showed me forty silk embroidered and
tinsel things that his girl friends had
sent him Christmas, and remarked:
I'd trade them all for one good pair
of socks
Now, I believe in Christmas and In
Christmas giving, but l think we do
our best to make what should be the
happiest and merriest time of all the
year a season of toll and turmoil and
trouble unspeakable and so 1 have
worked out for myself what 1 call a
happiness, and I trust carries cheer to
others. In the first place have simp-
lifted my giving. The three classes
who are hardest to buy presents for,
and who simply reduce you to pareSis
when you try to think of something
that would please their fancy, are men,
children and servants.
"Of course, Christmas is pre-eme
nently the childrenS season. They
come first, and there is a general i'm
preston that they are overjoyed at
anything. Nothing on earth is farther
from the truth. Most children in we'll
TODD families now are swamped With
toys and books for one thing, and for
another, no grown person has the
slightest idea of what is going to fire
O child's fancy / used to accumulate
gray hairs and wrinkles trying to
think of something these spoiled little
darlings didn't have, but don't know.
/ give money. That in itself is a
blessed rarity to the little folks, and
the fun they have in going downtown
and spending it themselves is the best
part of the Christmas to them. Take
my word for it, child would rather
have one dollar in cold cash than a
ten-dollar present.
Servants are the same way. For
years 1 used to inwardly resent the
cold and perfunctory thanks of my
maids over some gift that had cost
hours of worry as well as money, but
I have no reason to complain of the
lack of gratitude for the money gift
Nor is the reason of that far to find
The S., 10, or 500 that a family bestows
upon. the cook or housemaid is an ac-
cumulative gift and enables her to buy
some bit of finery that she yearns for
and which she could not have afforded
out of her wages.
GAS for men, I have one standing
present for these outside of my own
family to whom l wish to send some
token of remembrance subscription
to a magazine. 1t isn't imaginative
to always give the same thing, but it
is acceptable and in that way l never
give a book a man has already got.
For the men of ones own family the
Selection is never difficult, because
mem are not shy about expressing
their needs. If man has a bachelor
apartment he is always pleased with
a sofa cushion, or a good picture. If
he boards he regards such things as
rubbish and bestows them upon the
landlady; but a magazine brings its
monthly pleasant reminder, without
the burden of having to be cared for.
Personally 1 like these perennial pres
ents, and no other gift 1 ever received
ever gave me half so much pleasure
as a little red-bound memorandum
book that came to me last Christmas,
and that has been of daily use and joy
ever since.
Another life-saving device I have
adopted is curing myself of the habit
o. making things for Christmas gifts.
l used to work myself to death en-
broidering and sewing and making
dinky little things that were of no use
after they were done, and that nothing
but family affection could have made
acceptable presents. I did this be-
lacy that / was saving money, where
as, in reality it is the rankest extrav-
agance. Count up what your lace, and
ribbon, and tinsel and embroidery silk
cost you, and you will find you have
the price of solid silver. Add to it
the Doctors bill resultant from over
work, and you might have given dia-
monds
ITO my mind there is no other gift
so precious as the one that answers
some need of ours and shows that we
have really been remembered. try to
never give a thing that isn't of some
practical use, and If you think that
people are hankering more for senti-
ment than comfort around Christmas
time, you just try II. Some how ! have
managed to get used TO the thought