The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-27
CHRISTMAS GIFTS
 MADE ID EMPLOYES
Chicago Firms Paid Out Large
 Sums to Workers
SHARING IN PROFITS
New Year Celebration in Chicago's Big Hotels Promises tO Surpass Anything Ever Undertaken
 in the Past

Chicago December 26.-(Special 1.-The gifts made by Chicago concerns to their
 employees will total the monumental sum
 of $1,500,oOo this Christmas, manifesto ton of the spirit of "good will toward
 mem of more than usual moment. The
 big house or corporation which does not
 remember it's employees nowadays is the exception. In many cases the profit
 sharing distribution takes place at
 Christmas. The harvester trust" dis
 bursed half million dollars under that
 plan. Armour & Go. distributed bonuses
 and salary increases totaling $3OO,0Oo
 Most of the banks gave gold pieces,
 others turkeys, and some both to their
 employees, The big mail order houses,
 among the biggest money makers Of all
 Chicago concerns. ''loosened up in one case with candy for the girls and cigars
 for the men, in another with a turkey
 and a dinner for each of 5000 employees.
 The custom of gifts from employees to their bosses is being discontinued, al-
 though in some places officious persons
 with subscription lists gather up the sur
 plus small change of the force ana
 present to the boss a gift he doesn't wei
 como and feels mean about. Choosing
 the managerial present is usually a mo
 mentous problem. The feminine employees timdly suggest diamond scarf pin,
 hammered brass smoking set, or pair
 of jeweled house slippers, while the mas
 culine faction display tendency toward gold d-headed canes, field glasses or cam eras. After much discussion final de- cision is reached, and committee IS ap- pointed to select the gift, this feat being performed the Saturday afternoon pre- ceding Christmas, when some useless and extravagant article was chosen.
 Tables for New Years eve in Chicago cafes. including the 1900 in the new Col | lege Inn, which will reopen Christmas week in the new Hotel Sherman, already are taken, which presageS celebration surpassing any witnessed since New Years eve was seized upon by many
 thousands of people as an occasion to
 '.cut loose." The estimate is that no less
 than s15o,O 900 will be spent that night. the estimate being based on the fact that the "classya cafes and hotel dining rooms
 will seat 1000 persons and the expenditure of s15 per person-and then some. Last year the average was $1O per person. but champagne is higher and bubble water | is opened that night as on no other night
 of the year. The new duty makes the
 price s4. 50, instead of s4, Chicago's thirst
 is growing; 35,0 900 cases Is the present rec ord of consumption per year, and great part of this disappears between 10 p. m, December 31, and o'clock the next morn
 Ing The estimated s15 per person Is made
 up of $10 for wines and other liquid re- freshments-including water-$2.50 for dln- ner and s2.50 for incidentals. In some cases the $2. 50 will not cover the inciden- tals In fact 1t may take the entire $l5 for that purpose. But there will be some economical spirits who will keep the average down to s15 per. The addition of the College Inn to the possible scenes of
 celebration is the big news of the event for it will be the largest grill room In the country and the original of the many | ..college inns" in the country. At the Hotel LaSalle there will be less restraint felt than last year, when the hotel was new, and those who watched the depar- ture of the old and the coming of the new year in its dining rooms felt trifle strange. The same may be said of the Blackstone It has had year in which to get better acquainted with it's patrons, and it will shelter at least H5o in its watch party. Then there are the spacious dining rooms of the Congress and Annex, the Auditorium, the Stratford, the Well lington. DeJonghe's the Bismarck, tho Union. the Brevoort besides such popu- lar cafes as vogelsang's. the Edeiweiss. the Hofbrau, sStillson's, the States. and Rectors.
 The maritime sloth of Uncle Sam again was complained of by Chicago shippers to Alaska, who made odious comparison between the perils of the Alaska coast and the safeguards which the dominion government will add to
 the .inside route." The wreck of the Olympia off Valdez was used as case in point in the odious comparisons made. On the authority of Premier Laurier it is said that 15 new lights and other necessary equipment will be installed along the inside route from Vancouver to Prince Rupert, the ter minus of the Grand Trunk Pacific rail way. Sir Wilfrid Is among-the many
 uotables who, in recent months, have ventured north from Vancouver to the new Pacific port which because of the reduced circumference of the globe
 near the poles is said to be several hundred miles nearer to the Atlantic and to the Orient than any other port on the Pacific President Hays of the
 national transcontinental in recent
 months also has gone to northern Brit ish Columbia. where the railway and
 mine activities have created stir quite new to the vast solitudes which
 W ere undisturbed by man up to few years ago. On Sir Wilfrids return it was made known that he would have | immediate action on the matter of the necessary protection to vessels on those
 northern waters. It was quite sea- son of excitement when the notables inspected Prince Rupert; one party passing so close to the other one near Queen Charlotte Sound that President Hays and Sir Wilfrid waved at one another. It is said that Prince Rupert | harbor naturally is the best one on | the Pacffic coast being large. land