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Show HETEROGENEOUS THRONGS FILL SALT LAKE STREETS CHRISTMAS SHOPPING BECOMES CHIEF AIM IN LIFE 1 SHOPPING DISTRICT SCENES CAUGHT BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER 1 Spirit of Yuletide Causes An-J nual Rush to Purchase Gifts. THE spirit of Christmas was In the air yesterday. Perhaps not exactly ex-actly the Christmas spirit, but- to be more prcclso, the pre-Chrlst-mas spirit. For It was the Joyous, Joy-ous, tiring, annual Yuletide rush. Tho sort of rush that makes the shop girl wish she were far up In the hills; that makes tho shopper lake the annual vow that noxt year she isn't going to buy any Christmas presents; the Christinas spirit that brings forth the exclamation that "Christmas comes but once a year." and Its Inevitable appendix "thank goodness!" good-ness!" Tho weather was just right, too. It was crisp and snappy. The fir trees that stood around waiting for someone to buy them and take them home to dress In holiday attire seemed to bristle out their needles as if to drink In plenty of the chilly ' air. There was snow on the ground, enough for sleighing, so that an occasional sleigh bell enlivened tho hum of busy holiday activity. Hosts of Shoppers. And shoppers! There were thousands of them. If tlicro Is any doubt about that, consult any retail clerk In town" If they can be aroused from slumberland today They began pouring Into the business districts at an early hour yesterday morning and they continued to pour In and struggle out under the weight of their bundles until well along In the evening. even-ing. Tho Incoming trains, too, wore all carrying the "S. R. O." sign, with most of tho aisles of the cars jammed with shoppers from out-of-town points They were taking advantage of the holiday rates to come In and buy presents. Many of them went home last night and others remained over to finish their buying Monday. Mon-day. V "Business Is good, ' said tho merchant in the Utile sloro as he made the cash register sing merrily over the latest purchase. pur-chase. "Thank you, and a merry Christmas," Christ-mas," he remarked to the customer as ho returned the change. Salt Lake Fortunate. "We are just about as busy as we could be, but we expect to be busier than that next wecki" said the manager . of a big department store. "Tho holiday trade Is very gratifying. We can't complain here In Salt Lalco. though it Isn't so with tho merchants In most cities, I note the trade papers say that while the volumo of business Is about as large as usual, the merchants say tho purchases are for more .inexpensive articles on the average. aver-age. Here In Stilt Lake the shoppers seem to be prosperous. It's only another Indication that &alt Lake Is the bost place on earth," Yesterday was Saturday, too. and that added thousands of school children to tho throngs. They wore down town to sec the holiday displays and to buy gifts for the folks before the final rush depletes de-pletes the stocks of tho busy stores. The .smaller tots were especially interested In the toy exhibits. The dealers who had brilliantly decorated trees In their shop windows were popular with tho youngsters- x ' Boy Loses Mother. Wayne Grover of Garland became so absorbed In the toy display at ono store that he strayed away from his mother, who was busy in another department, after having stood for seeming hours while the lad feasted his eyes upon the wonders of toyland. He got back to the toy department and after a time bo-thought bo-thought himself of mother. Then ho cried, and was taken to tho polico headquarters. head-quarters. .It was only a few mlnuteB later when an anxious mother reported one lost son and was told that said son was amusing himself on tho captain's desk at headquarters. When mother came he was reluctant to leave his new-found, blue-coated friends and would do so onl-on onl-on thfi promise of another visit to Santa Cluus. "Mamma,"' said ono little tot with childish curiosity, after seeing eight or ten red-coated, whlte-whlskered gentlemen gentle-men Htanding along Main street beside iron kettles, "momma, how many Santa Clauses are there? I thought there was only one." "Oh, thero Is only one, but he has a lot of brothers that help him at Christmas Christ-mas lime and during the rest of tho year making toys," answered mother. And the explanation satisfied for a time. And then came another question. "Mamma, why do Santa's brothers have those big bowls hung on those stilts?" "They collect money to give poor people peo-ple dinners." said mother. And about that time the little tot saw another Christmas tree In a storo window and promptly forgot the rcsL of Saint Nick's family. Once in a while tho observant ono would notlco a young man sort of sneaking sneak-ing Into a store, most often a jewolry shop. After a while the youth would come out with a smalj box under his arm. He had what hu wanted for "her" nnd was quite delighted with his careful selection, made mostly bv an Intelligent clerk, who realized the minute the young man entered that he didn't have the slightest idea whether he wanted a silver shoe horn or a lapis lazuli set in a lavaller. Remembrance Reciprocal. Also tho observant one, Jf ho happened to bo well acquainted with certain affairs, af-fairs, might discover the "other half" fretting around a men's store, trying to find a scarf or a scarf pin or cuff, links that would be suitable for the purchaser of ahove mentioned lavaller. Elsewhere tho overworked mother of some family would be noted. Usually she carried a list and as she bought a box of sox for John sho would pull a stub of a lead pencil from tho mysterious depths of an overflowing handbag and scratch John's name off. Then she'd start for the toy department to look at little red wagons for Willie. Dad wasn't seen very much. Tt was too early for him. He will got around about Tuesday or Wednesday. Ho believes be-lieves In letting the women folks shop early. Ho thinks they have nothing else to do but shop, though he doesn't dare venture tho remark around home. New Cars Censured. And thus it went all day. Big people, litt e people, old people, young people, middle-sized people and middle-aged poo-ple poo-ple were carrying homo impossible loads or packages that thoy never could negotiate nego-tiate at any other time of year except tho holidays. They criticised the pay-as-vou-onter cars as holiday nuisances. For how could a person be expected to gut through ono of those little two-bv-four i doors with two armloads of parcels? Impossible! Im-possible! 1 Withal, the crowds were jollv. and , when Mrs. Jones met Mrs. Brown she had time to stop and discuss with Mrs. Brown the trials and tribulations attendant to the Joyous Yuletide. But each of them concluded by wishing merry Christmas, unconsciously admitting thereby that they wouldn t miss all tho turbuloncv for anything. any-thing. dJtncidontaliy -only three moro shopping |
