Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-12-26
EVENING Chat

In my young days it used to be the
Christmas goose, we never thought of
turkey for Christmas Day dinner" re-
marked Governor Tener yesterday in
talking about the big Yuletide feast
ornament. It's odd the way customs
change. I recall when 1 was a boy in
ireland we always had big goose for
Christmas Day ard there was as much
rivalry about the size of the goose as
there is about turkey now. We did
not have the generous giving of gifts
that we have nowadays. either. We
kept the present giving until New
Years Day and New Years Day
was the big day. Everyone want
ed to start the new year right
and to give remembrances. On Christ
mas Day we had the Christmas box.
That was generally an ornamental box
containing some remembrance or some
candy or something like that nothing
elaborate. I guess there are a good
many parts of the country where
Christmas observance has changed i'm
mensely in the last few decades and 1t
is getting to be more and more to be
the great festival"
Quite a few veterans of the Civil
War in this city and vicinity were talk
ing yesterday of where they were fifty
years ago. 1t happens that there are
a number of Harrisburg men who We're
with Sherman when he reached the
coast and who aided in making pos
sible his Christmas present of Savan-
nah.
Harrisburg had a really and truly
Christmas tree famine on Thursday
and there were some strange doings
about the city on the part of those
who had neglected to shop early when
II came down to buying the decora-
tons. About Wednesday night the
city seemed to wake up to the fact
that it was short on Christmas trees,
although the mountains near Harris
burg are filed with specimens admir-
ably adapted to Nuletide. Stores were
telephoned to for reservations, but
there were very few trees in the city
not disposed OF. Consequently, men
am ana women began to get busy on
Thursday morning. Delegations went
to Market Square. NerbelIe street
Thirteenth and Market and other
netghborhoods where the Christmas
tree vendors generally hold forth and
whenever wagon appeared its driver
was literally mobbed. There were
gray-haird men and mere lads, Wom-
en- with shawls pinned over their heads
and in fur coats children with qaur-
ters tied in their handkerchiefs and
messengers, in short about everyone
who could be imagined as wanting
tree and then some. One man who had
a moderate load of trees on his wagon
sighed after he had been rough
| housed" and said that if he had known
things were as short~on trees he would
| nave brought along two wagons. In
Market Square people waited for hours
to get chance to buy trees and i'm
portuned the policemen and car dis
patchers for tips where to get them
There was regular bidding for trees at
times and one man made money by
refusing to sell until he got the crowd
around him and then literally auc-
tioning his wares.
People who were down town in the
shopping district on Christmas Eve
say that maybe it was the weather or
maybe 1t was the fear of crowds, but
IN any event there was a marked evil
dence that the shop early idea had
spread. There We're thousands of peo-
pie in the streets. but the crowds in
| the stores We're not that frightful lam
! caused by folks trying to catch up.
Most of the people in the stores We're
strolllng about looking things over and
apparently congratulating themselves
that they had done their shopping and
did not need to worry.
One line of business must have
been very good in the shopping season
according to people no have been OBJ
] serving things and that was the sled
assortment. There was n brisk de-
| mand for sleds of all sizes and descrip-
| tions and the reason attributed by the
/ people who dealt in them was the
snowy weather. This made coasting
popular month before the usual time
and the result was that there was ask
ing for sleds and immediate use for
! them. The weather has been o bit
cold for shedding, but it's never too
/ cold to try out a Christmas sled
| Telegraph linemen who have been
/ sleeping with both ears wide ouen the
| last month or so because of the storms
! and the manner in which every wire
is being watched shows that the com
panles do not propose to he caught by
! any holiday storms such as occurred
! in the last half dozen years Three
or four years ago the snowstorms tied
| up things on the PENNSYLVANIA railroad
east of here and many people were
guests who did not expect to ever he
/ in Ha risburg on the great holiday.
| one of the most interesting things
about the markets held in the CITY
/ to-day was the fact that there was n
good attendance of farmers. Consid
/ ering the weather and the proximity
/ of Christmas, the number OF people
with articles TO sell was astonishing
/ But the answer was outside Most
toI the farmers came in automobiles.