The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-12-19
HALF MILLION FOR
CITY'S CHRISTMAS
Gift-Laden Trees Would Fill
Two City Blocks and Have
10000 Candles.
$4,000 GOES INTO TOYS
WHILE THE CANDY WOULD PULL
TRAIN ACROSS CONTINENT.

If all Of the Christmas trees which
viii adorn the houses of salt Lake on
Christmas eve to gladden. the hearts of
the many thousands Of children were
planted in one great tract Of land at
a regular distance Of three feet apart
they would I'LL a space as large as two
Of Salt Lakes downtown business
blocks.
If each Of these trees were lighted
with twelve candles. there would be
total Of $4,000 candles burning at one
time. If the light from all of these
candles could be focused to one point
and turned loose into q tube at the
mouth of which there was lens such
as is used on the ordinary battleship
seaTchlight, every cottage, barn ana
hen house in the little village Of Cen
terville, twelve miles north of the city,
would be lighted as bright as if the
monday sun was shining down upon
them.
If such a thing could be conceived Of
as the $500 lighted trees standing in
one grove, what a spectacle it would
be for the Christmas hungry eyes of
the children of plenty, as well as the
ragamufins, whose only view of
Christmas is the brilliantly lighted
windows, bright toys and arm-lader
parents whom they see elbOwing their
way through throngs of shoppers in or
der that Santa Claus will be sure to
make his usual visit to the awaiting
stockings.
If the candy, which, according to the
manufacturers, win be consumed in
Salt Lake during the holidays, was fig
ured at fifty pieces to the pound, with
each piece one inch long, and if this
was stretched in one straight line, one
end would be in Chicago and the other
end in San Francisco. Figuring this
candy as containing only IS per cent
Of carbon which is about the same
average as coal, and loading it into the
coal tender Of an average locomotive
pulling a train of six cars. the candy
would furnish enough heat to produce
the steam to pull the train from Sar
Francisco to New York and back to
Chicago again.
Six Blocks of Nut Trees.
Now, if the nuts which will be eaten
by the people Of salt Lake during the
holidays, figuring 100 nuts to tbs
pound, were gathered from one grove
of trees, each tree of which produced
an average of 900 nuts, they would
fill a tract of land as large as six Oh
Salt Lakes downtown business blocks
If the nuts We're placed in one big
heap, and if the United States regular
army was marched single file by thu
pile at a rate of ten men per minute
it would take four and Onef-fth days
of tWenty-fOur hours each for the pile
to be exhausted, and each man would
receive eleven and One-quaTteT nuts
These are only the things which will
be the sterling point toward glad
dening the hearts of the many peopl
of the city during the holidays. Taking
into consideration the amount OF
money which is being spent for toys
alone, each person I'm Utah would gel
a toy valued at 25 cents, and still have
some presents left over for the children
of Nevada
All of this is being done as a begin
ner to help keep alive the Santa Claus
fable and make happy the hearts o.
some of the little folk in salt Lake.
To secure these statistics, a Herald
Republican reporter visited all of the
leading toy dealers, candy and nut
dealers and dealers in Christmas trees
Saturday afternoon. From the Christ
mas tree merchants it was learned that
in order TO get Christmas trees this
season it was in most cases necessary
10 ul5 through three IeeL OF snow. This
was caused by the early fall of snow
in the hills, and has cut down the sup
ply of trees over One-half In spite OF
this, however, there will be $500 trees
with an average value Of 81, used by
the Salt Lake people on Christmas.
From the four leading wholesale
candy merchants visited it was founr
that during the present holiday. season
there would be consumed in Salt Lake
and vicinity 100000 pounds of candy
which would have a total value of
S375,75O.
From the nut merchants IL was found
that during the holidays they would
sell 10000 pounds of nuts, representing
a total value Of S21 000
From the leading toy merchants in
the city it was found that during the
present season the total sale value OF
the toys would amount to $4,000. Thi,
only included the value Of the smaller
articles. Along with this will come the
usual gifts Of clothing, sIeds, wagons
books and many other accessories to
the children's happy Christmas.
Excluding the presents of greater
value, and counting only the TOYS
trees, candy and nuts which will bc
used I'm Salt Lake, the grand total
to S416,750. 1t is safe to say
that Salt Lake viii have a prosperous /
Christmas.