For weeks before the high festival of Christendom, New York puts on its
holiday attire. The stores are filled with the richest and most
attractive goods, toys of every description fill up every available space
in the great thoroughfares, the markets and provision stores abound in
good things in the eatable line, and the whole city looks brighter and
more cheerful than it has done since the last Christmas season. Broadway
and the Bowery are ablaze with gaslight at night, and shops that usually
close their doors at dark, remain open until nine or ten o'clock. All
are crowded, and millions of dollars are spent in providing for the happy
day. On Christmas Eve, or perhaps a day or two later, many of the
churches provide Christmas trees for their Sunday schools.
When the bell of "Old Trinity" rings out the last stroke of the midnight
hour of Christmas Eve, there is a pause. The city is dark and still, and
there is not a sound in all the vast edifice which towers so majestically
in the gloom of the night. The heavy clangor of the clock bell dies away
in the stillness, when suddenly there bursts out from the dark tower of
the old church a perfect flood of melody. The bells seem beside
themselves with joy, and they send their merry tones rolling through the
silent streets below, and out upon the blue waters of the bay, bidding
all men rejoice, for Christ is born.
On Christmas Day the festivities are much the same as those in other
places. They are hearty and merry here, as elsewhere, and the season is
one of happiness. The poor are not forgotten. Those who give nothing at
other times, will subscribe for dinners or clothing for the unfortunate
at Christmas. The various charitable institutions are kept busy
receiving and delivering the presents sent them. Their inmates are
provided with plentiful, substantial dinners, and have abundant means of
sharing in the happiness which seems to pervade the whole city.
Thanksgiving Day, Evacuation Day (November 25th), the Fourth of July, and
the Birthday of Washington, all receive appropriate honors, but they do
not compare with the two great festivals of the Metropolis.