The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1920-01-01

the receiving line and helped TO dispense the hos
p1taIity Of the home. I remember one season
when we had more than 200 callers The custom
was 10 stay a 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 schottishe
or perhaps & set of the quadrilIe. Every house
mad band of musicians.
THE open house function very elaborate
dress affair-the women We'd with another in
beautiful costumng and the month before New
Years was harvest for the dressmakers.
From o'clock until late in the night the par
lors were filed 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 eatabes
and dainties, with rare wines and punches. At 3
o'clock, when the reception opened, the blinds
were drawn and the gas lighted. During the day
favored callers were invited return night for
a 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 in the cities.
Here Is 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, jostling mob that be-
noisier the the hands of the clock
came to the midnight hour. Up Chestnut street
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 from all d.
rections.
''The thousands packed in the roadway sent I'D
an answering cry to the first stroke of the big
bell and the rattle of pistol Shots despite the DO
lice orders against using weapons. like the
sound Of musketry. The screams of whistles added
the din and every side through the miles that
the eyes could pierce fireworks blazing up
ward"
And here is glimpse Of New York in 1905:
"AIl New York came out to celebrate the birth
of the new year. Nothing like it was ever seen
before for numbers for enthusiasm. From the
hour after dinner until long after midnight the
celebration lasted. It 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 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 rattles and yen 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 eonse-
quence there a marked diminution 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 calling-has grown to be a
climax and become "sane." What next?