The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-22

l forth yesterday and overflowed the
 business district of Montgomery. It
 was almost like circus day and in l the stores. to make a purchase in the throng of buyers was like buying
 ticket at the wagon before circus l tent.
 1 Montgomery's wide sidewalks and broad streets can hold great crowd without showing it to any considera- ble extent, but yesterday the crowd that eddied up and down the streets and surged in and out of the stores left no room to doubt that an enor- nous Christmas business was being
 done. More rapid fire trading and per- | haps as much business was done yes-
 terday in the retail district as at any time during the entire year.
 l The true index. the best index, to
 the peoples prosperity is furnished by the business of the Christmas season.
 As gauge to grasp the true ldea or
 peoples satisfaction and monetary
 condition it has no, equal The hoii- day business is great or little even
 as the people are prosperous or pressed l There probably never has been Just such a prosperous Christmas season as
 Montgomery is passing through now. II never saw so many twenty dol
 lar bills in all my life, said well
 known Dexter avenue merchant yester-
 day. T have never seen the equal or
 it. Why, it looks as If everybody who comes in here has twenty dollar bill. White or colored it is the same, the I twenty dollar bill is inevitable. l don't need to say business is good when twenty dollar bills are floating around l the way they are.
 And do you know, in spite of the 1 long spell of fearful weather we had until today business has been very good. The people that had Christmas
 shopping to do refused to be cooped | up at home by any weather no mat | ter-how bad it was or how long the | smell continued. It is a rather early | holiday season, too. A great many more than usual of our customers
 have wisely made their purchases ana | had their packages sent out or ses aside in the store for them. More ana
 more people each year are waking up l to the wisdom of making early and | final selections and avoiding the scram-
 bles of the last day or sc."
 l This was found to be true of prac- tically every retail store. In every Lone of them, there are shelves ined ! with Christmas bundles and packages.
 The vast amount of the equipment of
 Santa Claus which has already been
 secured and sent out may not in any way be estimated. But Santa Claus ! has gotten an early starts
 1 The stores themselves show the in"
 roads which have been made upon them
 
 | CTS are already depleted with the two l big shopping days remaining. rms earliness. this readiness of the holiday | buyers is just as eloquent Of a gen
 eral prosperity as the bundle Of twen- ty dollar bills passing In ana out or | the stores of the city.
 This is no lean Christmas in Mont
 gomery There is no reason why It l should be. The era of prosperity wnicn
 Middle Alabama, in common with all | the cotton producing section of the
 South. has been unprecedented But for a short period, the price of cot" | ton for the past three years has been
 satisfying and assuring as 1t has never been since tho unnatural prices which l followed the cotton famine caused oy the civil war. There is plenty of mon- ey in cotton for the farmers the way | cotton has been selling in these past three years. And when farmers have l money the life blood of trade is vital land vigorous. And during the present l Christmas season its vtgor is felt as
 it never has been felt before in Ala
 bama. Along every artery of trade the | vitality is felt as IL mas never oeeh | felt before.
 In short, more stockings are going | to he filled this Christmas than were
 ever filled before. Santa Claus is go- ing to have such job as he never had l before. I 1 the general chorus of plenty of money 1 and no end of good times. It is the
 salaried man who makes this note Of discord. He says prices are too hlgh 1 The salaried man who is the one 10 l feel prosperity the latest and to get | less of its general benefits. The sal aried man says that Christmas things with some exceptions aie selling high 1 CT than they were won't to do The 1 merchant admits that staples, espe- l cially the various things into the | making of which cotton enters are higher than they have been as matter l of course. But the man who gets u l salary and whose salary has not been | rAised ayers that the higher prices do not apply to cotton goods only, but | to many other things which go to make up Christmas shopping. Some class | es of Christmas purchases, 1t is aver red. are exempt from the general rule
 that prices are perhaps shade hlsh-
 CT than they were a couple Of years ago. but is is particularly asserted by the man who has to support family I within the limits of a salary that some
 sort of q per cent addition has been made to prices that ruled in other days. On the other hand it Is argued that while staple articles and certain oth- CT classes of merchandise have ad- vanced somewhat in price, legitimate advance is called for by existing con-
 
 ditions.
 A time of prosperity. it is argued is a time of higher prices, but the man on the salary gets no consolation out or that. Prices may go up in short while but the man who works Tor salary, as a general rule, has to note
 a wide spread prosperity about him
 before he feels the response in his
 own monthly stipend. All in all, the salaried man is the one who feels per haps, less the splendid existing pros
 perity than any one else, but he. too
 has felt the impetus m the assured
 continuance of his position and in most cases to increased salary within
 the past three years.
 But whoever the Christmas buyers
 renresent and they are oN erwhelmingly feminine, they are liberal purchasers
 these Christmas days. The merchants
 were looking for a big holiday busi- ness. They bought goous with an eye on the future. an eye that apparently discerned the big price cotton Is bring | S----- -----------=