Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-19

MANY. HOLIDAY fETES
ri ssd
Uncle Sanas Varied Christ
mas celebrations.
UNUSUA AL REJOICINGS
DOWN THE SUNNY SOUTH
WITH ROSES ABLooM.
What Holiday Cheer Means in the
Blizzard Territory Of
the Northwest.

.
Californian hardly knows the feeling OF
snow; the Georgian has to make merry
without skates and the newest branch OF
Uncle Sans great family is in the Philip
| pine Islands wueIe all parts of the year
| are very different from the eastern year.
The Californian IS wont to boast of his
| glorious winter climate, and yet there may
| be two ways # looking at 1t.
| Il want a SNOWFALL wept a little New
| Yorker who went there as a stranger in
| 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 snowball!'
| But look at the fire engine. See how
| it"
Harold flung the offending fire engine
across the room, where it broke to atoms
| I want snowball!' he walled
People said he was a spoiled boy. he had
! been brought all the way across the CONT
| nent because he was too frail to hold his
| grip life in the cold east. In the milder
| climate his strength had been coming back
! day by day, but his inconsistencies increased
| 4 want real winter to come he kept
saying.
| With the late October rains violets APP
| peared III the street vendors baskets;
month later the grass sprang up boldly. and
| by Christmas the world from his window
| took on the color of spring.
| This is good Christmas, he SAID, I'M
patiently.
| Still. he hoped against hope that every
| one might be mistaken, that santa Ciaus
might bring a fall of snow for the one
| eventful day. A light rain in the night De-
| fore made everything greener yet on the
| morning of the 18th
| He looked out upon the San Francisco
| street to see instead of ice skates, dozens
! of roller skates that the boys of the neigh
borhood had received as presents.
That's no, way to skate on Christmas!
| he said, scornfully.
| From up the h.lly street came a clatter-
| ing and rumbing and shouting.
| Hi, there!" went up chorus of shouts.
81. It Means Fun.
| Pell nell, down the street came a crowd
| of boys. New. roller coasters had been
| among their Christmas presents and they
were outienjeyfng them. Nowhere does the
| roller Goa stero mean as much to boy life as
| it does in san Francisco. The hills are so
| steep that many of them are never attempt
| ed by wagons? and grass grows between
| the paving stones If the climate furnished
| snow and ice it would be an ideal place Tor
| sleds
| AS the climate refuses, boyhood has to
| make the best Of the hills as they are, and
! the rollers coaster has come to be SHIN
| breakingtfeatpre of Christmas sport. Four
! low strong wheels and a board to strife
| constitute a simple. homemade affair;
! often the boy who owns tn s can look with
| Scorn upon the gayly painted and hlmSy at
| fair that Santa Claus brought to some
| mammals darling. But coasters are to be
| purchased that are both useful and orna-
mental 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 out
| side making merry in what he considered
so absurd a fashion
Il want a snow BALI" he continued to
mourn.
People said he was utterly spoiled But
! he went to bed very happy little boy. even
If it was ridiculous. Perhaps his mother
was a bit homesck 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. So she
whispered to the boys uncle. and he went
forth to see what could be done about it.
Where is the nearest snoW?" he asked.
ION Mount Tamalpais.
Send boy up there to bring me some
He Got the Snow.
Before night fell the boy returned with
sack of snow that he had guarded zealously
to keep from melting. 1t was a trife slushy.
but Harold made a ball of it and his San
Francisco chum received in his ear the first
SNOWFALL 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 a
sled as the proper caper.
In the southern states, where snow is
| rare thing. and where the color of nature
| is that just between traditional winter and
! spring, Christmas looks more like north
| ern Fourth of July.
The Fourth is very little ceIebra ted there
| and Christmas has to do double duty.
How many cannon crackers you got?" Is
| customary Christmas greeting from boy
! to boy.
| Christmas eve is street carnival All the
| young people and children are on the
streets. masked. Confetti whrl in the air.
"Toot-toot! comes the sound of the horns
| on every side. saucy little masker blows
one in your ear. 1t is in vain that you are
indignant, The masker is block away.
| footing in another ear. You decide that
| good temper is the only solution of the
! problem.
Confetti Shower.
| On reaching home you shake yourself and
| brush off gold dust and bits of many colored
| paper that have descended 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 cras hing of countless crackers and tor
| pedoes The fire department is kept busy,
and every Christmas sees cases of lockjaw
| and all sorts of small-boy accidents from
| caps and crackers.
Il don't care. I'd rather it blew my head
| clear off than not get cracker on Christ
mas" one boy said to the nurse in a Texas
| city hospital He had been taken there with
| a hand that he would never use again.
| He was tiny newsboy, with nobody in
particular to bother about him. and nobody
| to care whether he ever had so much as one
| cracker on CHRISTMAS day. Most of his
! earnings went to take care of himself and
| somebody still smaller; but he had saved
| patiently for weeks, trying to get enough
| together for one splendid cannon cracker.
| Once his little pile had been stolen But
| in the end he had enough and he went
| forth and bought a big red cracker.
| His excitement turned his head. st got
| rattled."' he explained to the nurse Then
| he added cheerfully: II can sell papers
| with the other hand all right. And I
| couldn't "a missed that cracker nohow
| Golly. 1t made good bang!"
In the Blizzard Area.
| The boys and girls OF the great northwest
| know a snowbound Christmas OF far DIFF
| fsrent kind from. the traditional ons Il is