| OCR Text |
Show TUK HOLIDAY bKAHO.V. Notwithstanding the Kreat snow blockade and the obstinate delay upon , tho railroad of tho holiday goods bound ! to the Rooky Mountain cities and the I Pacific coast, the merchants of this I city have made and arc making their best efforts to satisfy the wanU of their customers. Though they have not all they desire .to mako tho ladies supremely happy during thU holiday season, yet the variety of ta ty goods which they exhibit undci these adverso circumstances is quite remarkable. Tbe weather too is against them ; yet our Christmas and New Year holidays have become such important annual eventa in our social life that even tho raging elements cannot deter the most delicate ladies Irom venturing out through utorm and mud to glance at the beautifully arranged bazaars and model exhibitions into which many of the mercantile establishments have been transformed. Xn fact nearly everybody and everything now put on their holi-da7 holi-da7 "attire, and tho.ic who do not sympathize sym-pathize in this general jubilee may be set aside as not within tbe range of holiday lifo and influence?. There is no ?tronger evidence of tho all-pervading influence of Christmas upon the people than the advertising oohtmns of f He daily newspapers. Twenty or thirty years ago Christmas wxs celebrated quietly and religiously by only one or two denominations of chirstians. It was: not in any of tho states a general holiday, and it had then made no impression upon mercantile mer-cantile life. A holiday advertisement was a rare appearance, and the universal uni-versal practice; of making Chi'mtmas gifts now prevailing was then scarcely thought of. The stores were not yearly adorned with choice and beautiful goods, upon which the highest efforts of the artist manufacturer had been expended the jeweler had not then ransacked the field of nature and exhausted ex-hausted all available inventive talent to produce the most choice and unique adornments. Tho book publishers had not thought of indulging in all the niceties of typography and binding which now enchant the eyo, and render the immortal poets and authors so attractive that Shakespeare and Scott would not recognize their productions in thoir present holiday garments. Then there are tho delicious chromos and photographs in infinite variety, which furnish to the people such artis-tio artis-tio rendering of natural scenery as would havo elicited tho wonder and applause ap-plause of tho famous masters in art. But thero is perhaps no department of holiday material in which moro ingo-nu'ity ingo-nu'ity has been displayed than in those elaborate and costly fabrics and contrivances con-trivances which the necessities of" modern fashion have devised for the adornment of the ladies of the period. A glance at a well- equipped dry and fancy good store, with its gorgeous silks and satins, its delicate light fabrics fab-rics and prints, its rare shawls and tho thousand and one articles of taste and beauty with which especially these bazaars are now filled is a bewildering sight to the gentleman who would -select a suitable present for aladyfiriend. And so wo might go through the whole catalogue of holiday attractions with which our stores are crowded. We have not space to enumerate (hem all or to mention tho merchants who aic Jolntj iliotr host to supply the people peo-ple with suitable presents for this festive fes-tive season. The advertisin g columns of tho Herald comprise, however, a full directory, which our readers can consult at their leisure, with the reflection reflec-tion that all good business men, especially espe-cially at this season, lot tho people know what they hive to sell through the medium of the newspapers. A man who does not advertise is behind the timos in the details of his business, busi-ness, as ho is likely to be behind his neighbors In the amount of his sales and profits. |
