The morning journal-courier., 1907-12-25
TIRED XMAS Big Stores Have &J culty in Closing N &
 Last Night. A hI
ALL QUIET AT MIDN
City Went to Sleep Early and Gave Santa Claus ChanceA
 to Work Unseen.

New Haven was tired city at mid- night last night The poor shop girls, on whom the brunt of the Christmas shopping conditionaszhad come, heaved a sigh of relief af |E,, isfaction when the closing hd \ the stores came. Contrary to exS ss tions. the last hour the stores
 open, that between nine all
 o'clock, showed a decided N
 up in the amount of shopping. It
 been thought that the proprietors4
 the largest stores would have to ka # open far along toward the midnig S hour last night simply because thE f would not be able to get their custornl CTS out of the stores. It was, however, but a very few minutes past 10 o'clock when these stores had closed their doors. By midnight the streets we're more deserted than is generally the case; the mothers and fathers had done the Santa Claus act at home with the little stockings hung atthe Chiin- ney corner" and everybody was m bed to rest up after the strenuous week of getting gifts and to Dc able to enjoy the pleasures of giving and re- eeiving them to-day.
 Last evening, was the shopping time 4 for the fathers of the family. They came down town alone and they came I down town with their wives 10 wall l x,,{tl,n,tt V1Tit1o,,t vtybofo na,4rit1r flsT front doors of the stores by the scores I in little groups, discussing their plalis l for the morrow with each other, lilxg partners in distress. It was as if tAes had been life long friends. Every oncl in a while the wife of one of thsia would emerge from the indiscriininaA I mass of humanity at the doorway ail3 present her worser half' with aI armful of bundles which he added il the half dozen similar armfuls tka
 he already had, and with a wink t
 his late made companions, he was oi 4 with her and they were soon lost il lI the crowds.
 The electric lights on the Christina
 devices in the windows and on tn 4 fronts of the stores looked as if 1t fal
 lost a tooth wherever a lamp l1a
 burned out, and that was not infrs
 quently the case after their almost llil . linterrupted burning during the las fortnights The Salvation lassies ksT at it with their mite boxes, mounts , on stilts with their insistant sign
 tackled on above, until the last gu
 fired. They had learned a new tricl , which was to scrape the bottom z
 the poles they carried, along the sidt 1 walk in such a way that the none I boxes rattled loudly and attracte l everybody's attention;
 : But what little les-n thaEe- ss ssAs' lsi s trade at the department stores wa 6 made up last evening at the card e stores, which were crowded. It migf
 we'll have been called candy night
 The sleds for Bobby and Fred ]. dolls for Mary and the presents fe
 all the rest of the family had bee : bought days ago. it would seem, p'
 1t remained last night for hundreds {
 parents to discover simultaneously ths U they had not as yet bought the Rece v sary candy and sweets for them al F without which no Christmas wou f ever be complete.
 s In nearly every store, as soon as u e crowds had gone, the window dresse e began with their work Jack Be Min 3. ble and the Cow that Jumped Over u
 Moon were demolished in the twinklif . of an eye; the dreams of toylAnd a1
 of Christmas presents generally ga
 way to other displays. Their day II usefulness had come to an end. To-ds
 they will give way to a multitude
 displays for Christmas furnitu s and white goods sales. When the Ia Ut ter begin to come everybody knoy le that Christmas and the holidays a
 passed, without even a glance at | to new advertising calendars which l1a at been sent in numbers multitudinous,