Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1920-01-01

the receiving line and helped to dispense the hos
pitality of the home. l remember one season
when we had more than 200 callers. The custom
was to 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 a schottishe,
or perhaps set of the quadrille. Every house
had band Of musicians.
THE open house function was very elaborate
dress affair-the women We'd with 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 exotics and all who called
were made to feel perfectly at home In the din
ing room was a table with all sorts of eatables
and danties 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
a dance"
With the gradual abandoning of New Years
calls 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 glimpse Of Philadelphia in 1894:
"After the and the Third district police
men had taken their positions the enormous crowd
hall, filling the street, was jostng mob that be-
nOisier 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 IL o'clock. Then he came from all di-
rections.
1.-THE thousands packed in the roadway sent up
an answering cry to the first stroke of the big
BELL and the rattle of pistol shots, despite the po-
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:
"Al New York came out to celebrate the birth
Of the new year. Nothing like it was ever seen
before for Numbers or for enthusiasm. From the
hour after dinner until long after midnight the
celebration lasted. 1t consisted Of noise, eating
and drinking, with noise by far the predominating
element Men born in New York, who have lived
here all their lives, looked at the carnival in wide
eyed establishment
AT least $4,000 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 chimes? Oh no. To blow horns and
whistles and 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 conse-
quence there a marked dmlnution of the
revelry; in many cities midnight closing and COM
munity celebrations marked the occasion.
Thus the celebration of New Years day in noise
drinking, eating and calling-has grown to be q
climax and become sane" What next?