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Show FIREWORKS AT XMAS TIME. For several weeks before tnrlstmas In New Orleana, that quaint city on the Mltalsslppl, tbo enthualnam Is great and the small boy Is In his glory a cumulative glory, beginning with a firecracker or two, and Increasing tho number every day. For weeka before the one Important event of tho year the Juvenile population Is In danger ot Immediate tranalatlon on account ot ' Ita angelic qualities, for the small dip-I dip-I lomats have, been "being good," with Uo most dlatlnct hopea ot reward. Mothers who had been lu the habit ot carrying In wood and water at all times and seasons have suddonly found their every want anticipated, and the boys who were never certain In former limes to como back on the aame day when sent on an errand ave recently developed the habit of returning so soon aa to be greeted with the aaton-Ithed aaton-Ithed query, "What, back already!" All thla had reference to reward In one particular direction not to the Chrlat-mas Chrlat-mas atocklng, by any means, for that was a foregono conclusion, but to the munificence of the store of Christmas fireworks. And In New Orleans nobody's Christmas Christ-mas amounts to anything without fireworks. fire-works. The larger and brighter the fireworks the better the Christmas; for want ot anything better one may work along with firecrackers. "If anybody not got no flrewo'k ho mighty po" say the Creoles gayly, for Christmas and fireworks aro almost aynonymoua terms on tho lower side of Canal street. Indeed, It waa thero that this peculiar mode of celebrating Christmas originated. There are very old men and women In the city who remember when there was nothing of the kind, and perhaps the beginning of the custom waa too Insidious to be noticed. During the midsummer period, when the boya of Northern and Eastern states are diligently laying up a store of fireworks for the Fourth of July, tho weather In New Orleans Is too warm for out-of-door sports and many ot the cltltena are away on thtlr summer's sum-mer's outing. |