The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-12-20

| Christmas Those of the snowy states
have established the traditions. They
forget about the others, or have new
er heard of them. But the Californian
hardly knows the feeling of snow, the
Georgian has to make merry without
skates, and the newest branch of I'm
Gle Sans great family is in the Phil
ippine Islands, where all parts of the
years are very different from the
Eastern year.
The Californian is wont to boast of
there may be two ways of looking at
| it.
IT want a snowball" wept little
New Yorker who went there as a
stranger in a strange land.
| But you have so many pretty
| things" his mother said. Look at all
Santa Claus has brought you"
Il want a snowball!''
Look at the train of cars-they
really go, Harold"
Il want a snowflake"
But look at the fire engine. See
| how it,
Harold flung the offending fire en-
| CINE across the room, where 1t broke
to atoms. II want a SNOWFALL" he
walled.
People said he was a spoiled boy
He had been brought all the way
| across the continent, because he was
too frail to hold his grip on life in the
cold East. In the milder climate his
strength had been coming back day by
| day, but his inconsistencies increased.
| IT want real winter to come" he
kept saying.
| With the late October rains violets
| appeared in the street vendors bas-
kets, a month later the grass sprang
| up boldly, and by Christmas the world
from his window took on the color of
| spring.
This is no good Christmas" he said
| impatiently.
Still he hoped against hope that ev-
| eryone might be mistaken, that Santa
| Claus might bring a fall of snow for
| the one eventful day. A light rain in
the night before made everything
greener yet on the morning of the 25th.
He looked out upon the San Fran
cisco street to see, instead of ice skates,
dozens of roller skates that the boys
Of the neighborhood had received as
presents.
That's no way to skate on Christ
mas!" he said. scornfully.
From up the hilly street came a clat-
| tering and rumbling and a shouting.
/ VI
shouts.
PeIl nell, down the street came a
| crowd of boys. New roller coasters
had been among their Christmas pres
| ents and they were out enjoying them.
| Nowhere does the roller coaster mean
as much to boy life as it does in San
Francisco. The hills are so steep that
many of them are never attempted by
wagons, and grass grows between the
| fnc CT H.
ed snow and ice it would be an ideal
place for sledS.
AS the climate refuses, boyhood has
| to make the best of the hills as they
are. and the roller coaster has come
| to be a shin breaking feature of
| Christmas sport. Four low, strong
| wheels and a board to stride consti-
tute a simple. homemade affair; often
the boy who owns this can look with
scorn upon the gayly painted and film
sy affair that Santa Claus brought to
| some mammals darling. But coasters
are to be purchased that are both use
full and ornamental, and every San
Francisco boy looks forward to one for
Christmas. Then begins the rafting
and whizzing down the steep hills of
the city streets.
All that day Harold watched the
boys outside making merry in what he
| considered so absurd a fashion.
II want snowball!" he continued to
mourn.
People said he was utterly spoiled.
But he went to bed a very happy lit
tie boy, even if it was ridiculous. Per-
haps his mother was a bit homesick
herself at the sight of this green,
flower bedecked Christmas in the land
where boutonniere of English holly
is as precious as gold, and where a
wealth of roses could not make up to
her for her icicles and holly wreaths.
Before night fell the boy returned
with a sack of snow that he had
guarded zealously to keep from melt
ing. 1t was a trifie slushy, but Harold
made a ball of it and his San Francisco
chum received In his ear the first snow
ball that he had ever felt.
In the country in California children
coast on the brown grass, using heavy
sleds with highly polished runners.
Santa Claus brings these, too, as If he
were determined upon sled as the
proper caper.
In the Southern states, where snow
is rare thing. and where the color
of nature is that just between tradi-
tional winter and spring, Christmas
looks more like Northern Fourth of
July.
The Fourth is very little celebrated
there, and Christmas has to do double
duty.
How many cannon crackers you
got?" is customary Christmas greet
ing from boy to boy.
Christmas Eve is a street carnival.
All the young people and children are
on the streets, masked. Confetti whirI
III the air.
"Toot-toot!" comes the sound of the
horns on every side. A saucy little
masker blows one in your ear. 1t is
in vain that you are indignant. The
masker is a block away, footing in an
other ear. You decide that good tenn
per is the only solution of the prob
lem.
On reaching home you shake yourself
and brush off gold dust and bits of
many-colored paper that have de-
scended upon you in showers. In the
land that has given the country its
Christmas traditions you would be
brushing snow from your coat.
At night the skies flame with bombs
and rockets and Roman candles BY
day there is the crashing of countless
crackers and torpedoes. The fire de-
partment is kept busy, and every
Christmas sees cases of lockjaw and
all sorts of small-boy accidents from
caps and crackers.
II don't care. I'd rather it blew my
head clear off than not get a cracker
on Christmas" one boy said to the
nurse in Texas city hospital. He had
been taken there with a hand that he
would never use again.
He was a tiny newsboy with nobody
/