Omaha daily bee., 1907-12-22
MERCHANTS HAVE BIG TRADE
Saturday Night Climax of One Of
Busiest Shopping Weeks,
TREMENDOUS THRONGs OF BUYERS
Retail Streets and Stores Are Packed
Till Late Hour.
SUGGESTS DAYS OF AK.sAR. BEN
Omaha People Pay stout Tribute t.
Their Prosperity aud Confidence
I'm Spending Money for
Each other.

Omaha paid sterling tribute to the sta
hility and permanence of its own pros.
perity and business faith and dealt Sc
we're rebuke to the timidity of furry
swept communities by the manner and
volume of It's Christmas trading. Not
lavishly, nor extravagantly, but with a
sober generosity that could but indicate
prosperity and confidence, the people of
this city made their Christmas purchases.
II their pursestrings had been frightened
by the congestive influences of a money
fairy they did not show the effects last
week and last night, but vibrated with a
freedom that suggested anything else be-
fore a lack Of ready cash. The mer-
chants word for it. they never knew q
better Christmas shopping week.
The week eliminated last night In as
busy Saturday-n night-before- Christmas
ever the big ~retail centers of the city
experienced. The crowds could not, with
safety, have been larger, and the sum
of money that poured over the vast num-
ber of counters was entirely too great
to estimate. All the principal retail
streets were fairly thronged until late
at night with shoppers. 1t was no easy
matter for one to thread his way down
Sixteenth street from Harney to Dodge,
especially if he took the west side of the
street and In front of the big stores, where
veritable streams OF humanity poured in
and out of the, doors the back-water of
the tide naturally accumulating on the
pavements in front.
Looks Like Ak-sar-Hen Night.
1T looks like an Ak-Sar- Ben night" re-
marked a man standing at the intersection
of Sixteenth and Farnam streets where
the ebb and flow Of the human tide was
most congested
1t certainly did. II was an inspiring sight
thousands of men, women and children
paying tribute to the grandest, most sub
lime of all festivals, observing the day
fraught with more significance than any
other day to the Christian nations of the
world. So 1t was a more inspiring sight
| than any AkSar-Ben night for it was not
solely the commercial instinct that brought
forth such a demonstration.
| The big stores presented spoctacles of
SURPRISING beauty, both outside and In.
Their show windows. elaborate as they
were. could but family suggest the mag
nifcence of the interiors. There the hand
of the artists had indeed painted a pretty
picture. Myriads of incandescent electric
lights twinkling from out bowers of floral
decorations, II even artificial, and other
decorations, created scenes that appealed
with fascinating force to the eye trained
! in the slightest degree for the beautiful
And over all this esthetic grandeur were
! OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, all on one mission
| bent-preparing to make others happy
did you ever stop to think" said an
| unobtrusve little man in one of the big
stores that after all the prettiest thinp
about this vast army of people and these
magnificent stores is the thought that
| underlies the festival of the Yuletide-thaI
| it's one time when everybody is trying tC
make everybody else happy? oh, yes, Il
means money for the merchants, but get
| away from that sordld idea that Christmas
means nothing more than mere money"
Folks Are Coming Home.
That Christmas is coming is evident to
person standing for few moments in
either OF the big railway passenger sta
| tions of the city. The crowd there is large,
larger than at any other time of the year,
and larger this year than ever before
II requires only a glance. too, to tell
that it is a Christmas crowd. First, and,
| perhaps, most easily Identified are the
crowds of youths in telescope hats, with
gay bands of various colors, and in trou-
sers turned up at the bottom. Some Of
/ them carry capes and some suit cases.
/ These, of course are the rah-rah boys,
| home from college all over the land to
spend the holidays with admirng parents,
families and friends.
Then there are the bevies of chattering
| young girls, who get off the trains and
meet other waiting bevies. These are COLI
lege girls home for the holidays. There
| is much kissing and chattering and laugh
ing, and when the visitors and home folks
mix into one big crowd and go strinsinS
of to the elevator and the street cars, one
| tfrf.a wEyiIl =
during the two weeks at home.
Here comes brigade Of people from the
| towns out through the state. These are
usually In sets or groups or families. They
carry many empty telescopes, satchels, suit
cases. and they inquire the way to the
big department stores. II you are at the
station i'm the evening you can see them
| coming back with their telescopes and suit
| cases heavy and bulglng, with their arms
! full of packages, out Of which stick the
legs OF dolls. the saucy heads OF jumping
Jacks, the fur of Teddy bears, and all
sorts of evidences Of Christmas.
sort of Greetings Heard.
Almost any minute you can hear some
! such conversation as this as two men meet
and shake hands:
why, hello, George, when did you get
back?' .
"Oh, / just got in on the Wabash"
Home for ChTistmasY
you bet that's me. Have to get home
when Santa Claus is due
Then the conversation drifts of into
mutual "reminiscences and mutual inquiries
after present circumstances and plans. 1t
ends fnally with another handshake.
wishes for a Merry Christmas and hopes
to meet again
Joe MIX, passenger director at the Bur
lington station declares never within the
memory OF himself has there been such a
heavy Christmas trafic
They have started going early this
year" says Mr.. MIX. we have been put
ting on from one to half dozen extra cars
on every train for several days. In other
ears they used 10 wait until just a few
days before Christmas when the rates
went into effect. and then all the travel