The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1906-12-26
A Christmas Vignctte
By A. P. Taylor.

tSt1Eb5NNIr ISefStE W 80 w 80 "a " =
Hardness looked down from his
hotel window at Young's into the busy
thronged streets, where happy, holi
day, bundle.carrying crowds passed
and repassed The stores constantly
gave forth throngs of shoppers. The
windows gay with holly, tinsel and
lights, for evening was coming on, and
it was Christmas Eve, too. But fol-
the lack Of snow and the sharp tinge
of Jack Frost upon ears, noses and
fingers, he thought it looked like Christ.
mas ewes "back home" and that was
far, far away, thousands of miles
across semi-tropical ocean over
which the trade-winds, cool and pleas
ant, were yet blowing; and then across
golden California, the blizzard.swept
prairies of Nevada and the snow filed
mountain ranges Of Utah, and-well,
"back homc,' as Hardness always call.
ed the home of his boyhood.
1t was all so different in Honolulu
The merry crowds were dressed as if
for summer day stroll, the women
in white fabrics, the men in linen,
albeit here and there in the crowd
men swung along in the prevailing
winter modes of Fifth avenue. At one
side the ocean spread away until it
met the sky, the waters beating upon
the shore in long, white lines. Up to-
ward the hill-slopes palms and tropical
fauna met the eye. 1t was Christmas,
that was certain, but tropical Christ
mas and how different from those to
which he had been accustomed "back
home.'
A sudden longing seized him to go
back through the years that elapsed
since he left home and realize again
the Christmas festivities of his youth
when he was surrounded by friends
the crowd' as it was known in that
charmed circle. He would carry out
the idea in his mind and his Christmas
in Honolulu would be the ghost of that
one Christmas which appealed to him
more than all others.
That. night the porter, bell-boys, mes
sengers and delivery men tramped
through the corridor and stopped at
Hardness door. They left a sundry
pile of packages. The porter brought
in a Christmas tree, not tall one, but
one that was round and had wide
spreading branches. How fragrant were
the pine branches. Hardness shifted
the odor and once more thought him
self back in the Rockies. There were
prettily wrapped boxes, tied with rib!
bons, some large and some small-all
mysterious looking. Apples, candies,
colored candles, tinsel by the boxful-
everything to make a Christmas tree
attractive.
- Until long in the night Hardness
labored over that tree. Yards and
yards of tinsel were twined over its
boughs and candles were placed so
thickly that they made the tree
Kaleidoscope with color. Snowballs of
cotton dangled from the limbs and
bumped against apples and cornucopias
Here was a trim little yacht, there a
toy engine, and high up there q toy
bird cage. How pretty it looked, when
at midnight Hardness ceased and sat
down in is armchair, pipe in mouth
to study the effect.
He sighed. Yes it was like that one
at Ford's, just ten, no, twelve years
ago, when the crowd" gathered there
for its Christmas-tree dance, when
everybody laughed and chatted and
wore bonbon caps, and Toasted and
danced until long after midnight. And
afterward he escorted Marie home over
the crinkly-ice pavements in air that
made her cheeks so scarlet and her
eyes so bright, and.
1t tugged at his heart, the memory
of that Christmas.
Then he sat down and wrote. He
had a curious fancy to carry out the
idea all through. He would invite al
the "crowd' to his Christmas tree
at Young 's-away out in Honolulu
something so new to them, Christ
mas in the tropics. Allf Well, some
had Joined the vast majority across
the dark river, but on this night the
intervening years would be spanned
and it would be as if twelve years ago
He wrote many invitations to at
tend little Christmas tree celebration
There would be a dance afterwards on
the Roof Garden, where the melodies
of Hawaii mel would be sung and play
ed by dusky singing boys, music that
haunted the ear ever afterwards and
caused tho feet to become merry in
the waltz and deux.temps. And SC
no addressed dainty little notes of in
yitation to Marie; to Grace, so tail
and 1.-the and golden haired to Stella