The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1919-12-25

the receiving line and helped to dispense the hos.
ptaty of the home. l remember one season
when we had more than 200 callers. The custom
was 10 stay few moments only, chat drink and
eat, and then go on to the next house. One of the
rooms, however, was cleared for dancing and In
the late hours the callers would select partners
and whirl through waltz polka or a schottishe,
or perhaps a set of the quadrille. Every house
had band of musicians.
The open house function was very elaborate
dress atfair-the women WED with one another in
beautiful costuming and the month before New
Years was a harvest for the dressmakers.
"From o'clock until late in the night the par
Tors were filled with guests. The lower portion of
the house had been previously beautifully deco
rated with flowers and eXotcs and all who called
were made to feel perfectly at home In the din
ing room was table with all sorts of eatables
and dainties, with rare wines and punches. AT
o'clock when the reception opened the blinds
were drawn and the gas lighted During the day
favored callers invited to return at night for
q dance"
With the gradual abandoning of New Years
calls came in the gradual growth of the eating.
drinking and revelry that before the war and pro.
hibition marked New Years eve In the cities.
Here is a glimpse OF Philadelphia in 1894:
after the reserves and the Third district police
men had taken their positions the enormous crowd
began to swell In size. In front of Independence
hall, filling the street a jostng mob that be-
came nosier the nearer the hands of the clock
came TO the midnight hour Up Chestnut street
there were two black masses that moved victori-
ously toward the statehouse
1.-THE gay and comic shooter (mummer) did
not put In appearance to any considerable extent
until about II o'clock Then he came from all d.
rectiOns.
"The thousands packed in the roadway sent up
m an Of ha
bell and the rattle OF pistol shots. despite the POI
lice orders against using weapons, was like the
sound Of musketry The screams OF whistles added
TO the din and on every side through the miles that
the eyes could pierce fireworks went blazing up
ward"
And here is a glimpse of New York in 1906:
"A New York came out to celebrate the birth
Of the new year. Nothing like 1t was ever seen
before for numbers or for enthusiasm From the
hour after dinner until long after midnight the
celebration lasted. II consisted of noise eating
and drinking, with noise by far the predominatlng
element Men born In New York, who have lived
here all their lives, looked at the carnival In wide
eyed establishment.
AT least 10000 men and women packed Broad.
way and the side streets near Trinity church from
half past eleven o'clock until long after midnight
To hear the CHINESE Oh, no. To blow horns and
whistles anG spring rattes and yell and thus
drown out the very pretty chimes Of old Trinity
that welcomed in the New Year. Every table In
every big restaurant was taken weeks In advance"
In 1914 the police In most of the large cities or
dered "sane" New Years celebrations. In cunse-
quence there was a marked dminutlon of the
revelry In many cities midnight closing and COM
munlty celebrations marked the occasion
Thus the celebration of New Years day In noise,
drinking, eating and calllng-has grown to be
climax and become sane" What aext2