The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-12-18
High Cost of Living, Tariff
Reforms and Other Re-
forms Temporarily For
gotten by People.
GOTHAM HAS MONEY
TO BURN ON GIFTS
Santa Is Nothing if Not Up
to-date This Year-Won-
derful Toys for Children
Are Great Feature.
tAmerioan News Scrvico)

New York, Dec. 1.-THE high cost
of living. the urgent necessity for tar.
iff reform. trust investigations. labor
troubles and even the memorable land
slide at the last election are Temporal
riiy dismissed from the minds of the
people. Christmas shopping, with its
thousand and one perplexities, worries,
surprises and disappointments fills
the minds OF rich and poor to the ex-
clusion of almost everything else.
The cost of living may be high, but
the people seem to have money enough
left to buy Christmas presents and not
for many years has the holiday trade
been hrisker than this year.
All the Christmas shopper needs ID
money: opportunity to spend 1t In any
way he may choose is offered most
temptingly everywhere. Never were
the displays Of the shops more beauti-
fui, tempting and distracting than this
year and shoppers find II extremely
difficult TO resist the lure of the many
desirable and temptingly beautiful
things displayed in the shop windows
and on the counters. 1t is not an un-
common thing for a shopper to start
with the intention to purchase certain
things marked down on his or her
shopping list and to come home with
an empty purse without having pnr-
chased any OF the articles mentioned
on the list. simply because there were
So many other things more alluring
to the taste of the buyer.
All Are Delighted.
Those who have been In the habit
Of making the rounds of the shops
about Christmas time year after year.
are delighted with this years displays.
To them. who had followed the mani
| fold changes in the character OF holi-
| day goods, corresponding with the
gradual evolution of wealth and re-
finement in this country, this years
| magnificent display does not come as
a surprise. They had watched the
gradual evolution from cheap and
crude toys to marvels of mechanical
perfection. from equally cheap and
saudy tinsel to useful and ornamental
articles OF unquestionabIe artistic
merit.
Less careful and systematic observ-
ers, however, who make the rounds
of the shops at this time. will be great
| ly surprised at the wonderful changes
| in the character OF holiday goods COM
pared with the displays of five or ten
years ago. Santa CClaus is nothing
II not up-to-date. Modernism crops
and bulges out everywhere-it is the
most striking feature OF this years
holiday market. Nowhere is this ten
dency more apparent than in the toy
displays.
! Tin soldiers. miniature circuses,
drums, horns and other noise-produc-
ing instruments OF torture and the
hundreds Of other rather primativo
toys which used to delight the hearts
of boys ten or more years ago. are no
longer conspicuous in the shop win
dows. They are still In the market
and may be purchased. principally at
the smaller shops. but they have out
lived their attractiveness and have
been relagated to the more obscure
shelves and corners. In the windows
the latest and most upto-date goods
ARE displayed. The place of honor is
given to flying machines, airships,
gliders and other toys reflecting the
modern accomplishments OF man In
the conGuering OF the air. There are
small models OF every known make OF
aeroplanes, BIeToits. Wrights. Curtis
and other American and foreign
models, dirigibles la Zeppelin, down
to common county-fair balloons with
parachute jumpers attached. Many OF
the models are quite large and the
higher priced ones capable Of taking
flights OF considerable length and
height. The most expensive models
of monopianes and biplanes derive the
power for their propeliers from twist
ed rubber bands, while the cheaper
models have steal springs and clock
works. These instructive toys. par
ticularIy the larger ones. are In every
respect, excepting the motive power.
exact reproductions of the machines
used by the aviators. They can only
be operated with safety I'm the open
air. as they reach an altitude of from
fifty to On hundred feet. and can COW
or distance of 100 to 200 feet They
range In price from s1.50 to SIS.
Some Models Fly.
The smaller ard cheaper models al
SO fly. but only when suspended from
the ceiling, in which case they circle
around through the air like real flying
E-machines. In the same category be-
lContinued on Page Six.)
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