Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-12-26
Errtttt.g Gl1at

This is a tribute to those who
m d Q Harrisburgs most lavish
christmas possible. 1t seems to be
generally agreed that never was so
Ihuch money put into preparations
Tor the great holiday in the history
ot the city and certainly stores never
ala such business in everything
from IQrs to flowers. And the dis
lfiDutlop of the enormous amount of
material that went into the State
Capltafs Christmas probably kept
more men and women hustling than
recorded heretofore. Harrisburg
bought early and it bought late and
When the time came to close the
stores on Wednesday there were still
buyers, Just as when the cars made
tnelr OWL runs around midnight
S tilere were folks with bundles going
homeWard. So here's to the people
VINO made'it possible. The men and
women in the stores say that they
accumulated a rare experience in
human nature and all kinds of
money. one of the features was the
number of checks. More people ap-
peared to have bank accounts and
thefe was any quantity of gold
passed over the counters and into
! anu registers. 1T must
oe confessed that many store people
| round that folks bought expensive
thihss. Prices were high for every
| thlng, but height was not much of
| deterrent even when candy cost
$l.oO pound and plain sweaters Sf2
| TO $17.50. The delivery forces were
| Kept on the jump. The ordinary
| equipment of several establishments
| was inadequate and trucks and auto
i
| trucks for hire that were not com
| nandeered, to all intents and pur-
| poses, by the postal authorities to
handle an unprecedented quantity of
| nall ana parcel post matter were in
! lemand and got almost their own
rates Delivery entered nightly into
the cost of things this Christmas.
The postotiice force was pressed
against the walls and even with extra
help struggled far into Christmas
| day TO get its work out of the way.
eating meals on the fly and catching
sleep when the chance came.
The Christmas rush gave the Har-
risburg Railways Company the hard
est test it has ever had to meet and
| h Valley Railways Company
poured thousands of buyers into Har-
risburg and took them out again. 1t
was hectic week for the trolley
people and conductors and motor
men thanked heaven that custom has
so firmly established in Harrisburg
that folks pay as they enter. Old
fashioned fare taking in the crowds
that jammed the cars would have
been Il trial to the spirit and IL
menace TO clothes. Cars were
crowded and the people insisted on
crowding them. Crowds paralyZed
schedules every now and then and
many people got home late, but it
was because public demands were
pressed upon the public utility. Every
car that could be sent out was in
service for the day before" and the
might before was of a kind that
caused one veteran conductor to re-
mark Say, what would it have
been like with this crowd and there
had been no prohibition"
Just one shivering beIIsnickle, the
embodiment of loneliness and melan-
choly, was to be seen in the shop
ping district Wednesday night. Gone
We're the old-time exponents of hi
larity and mummery who used to
make Third and Market streets joy
Gus jams and twit the soda foun-
| tain clerks and josh the sbartenders.
Absence of the old time celebrators
was one of the striking things and
winds that swept around corners
were asking why the change to Hal
lowe'en and New Years night Prob
ably it came because Christmas eve
is always a time of rush to get pres
ents delivered and to buy those last
ones, all of which keeps many peo-
pie employed and out OF the fun
|
orange statesmen. Descendants of
those cuEbstone merchants who lined
the street between Third and the
railroads in the eighties were all out
Saturday night. They were not lin
cal. perhaps, but they were in the
same old places and they sold the
same FLORIDA russets" and other
types that they did when some of us
were much younger with the same
old cries, although the prices they
asked, and got, were of a variety that
would have caused near riot in
1892. Perhaps there were lacking
the fiaring torches that ornamented
wagons and made buyers choke, but
the wagons looked like those of the
nineties and there were some backed
Into Dewberry alley just the way they
used to be placed when the Patriot
was printed on Market street and
lowering of a pair OF shears on
cord as a fishing experiment was
not unknown among printers and
budding journalists. These Christ
mas eve orange merchants are a
curious lot They do not seem to
iappear except on the might before"
From what the postmen say, and
they certainly appeared to be ex-
perts in ways of giving from the
packs that they carried and the
loads that they bore, there were
more Harrisburg people who turned
to that delightful custom of sending
Christmas cards than ever before.
The mails for three days have been
filled with cards and when one comes
to think of it few ways of greeting
are more appealing And it may be
added that no matter how busy the
man or woman or how surrounded
with the facilities of modern CORE
spondence. making up of the list and
addressing of the envelopes is not
! very often passed on to some one
else.
: Returning to our opening thought
did you remember the postman and
the milkman with plate of cakes
They contributed considerably to the
making of the dav.