CHRISTMAS IN ENGLAND.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1676, 17 February 1913, Page 8

CHRISTMAS IN ENGLAND.

Most prosperous on record.

The rain \ that made tho outlook' from the window dreary , could not mar th# merriest Mid; most prosperous Christmas > i in Great Britain on rooord (saj-6 tho "Daily Mail"). With , a commercial ao. tivity which ovory industry has shored, , with the opportunity of saving which steady > employment has afforded, with, fowor, poor and unemployment at the, low.' ' est figuro on record, Christmas, Day. wa« greeted with a climai of cheei for olli. | ' Never were there so many presents'to, , be exchanged, and it is to be noted, that;, the gifts >rere in countless cases more' costly than thoso of former years. Never were there throughout the wliole oountir such generously stocked larders, N euctt ; bountiful feasts. Until the last moment of Christmns Eve money was being spent and spent lavishly. . ' Churches and ch<vpels . wore full to tho doors on Christmas morning, and there was a joyous singing of Christmas hymnl ; and carols. There woro also carols in th» ' homes. Some of the gramophone manu> facturers Anticipated a demand by tire, paring carol records, and for these there t had been a ready sale. Domestic Christmas trees are scarcely as popular as ttioy" were, bat Santa Claus squeezed down more chimneys than over, and it was noticed that he paid his usual regard to tho written hints which had been sent flaming up the fireplace towards him &i day or two earlier. ' The anion? the elders was on an unprccedent- . cd w'®' .. . ..

In private house and public institution, in the, clubs of the West 'End and tfhe workhouses of tho East, In i hospitals and barracks and firo-brigodo stations, in lighthouses and In ehlps, in asylums for. tho aged poor and those for tho mentally, afflicted, tho great festival was/cole, brated with 'gaiety and good cheer, and, of all the millions of people In London thero can have been few- who were not in some degree warmed by the slow or the Christmas feeling and _by tho pro. , sperity which allowed tho festival to bfl celobrated with oven moro, than; usual heartiness. , In Lambeth Workhouse an old woodenlegged inmate with a voice of thunder presided over the entertainment, as he has done for years past. An o d woman Of ninety-six "fancied _ hersch as the oldest Inmate of a publio ■ institution in tho metropolis, but she was beaten easily by an ancient mariner named Jackson ir tho Homo for Agod Poor at Tooting, foi Jackson has seen his 101 st birthday. In London' alone tho Salvation ArmJ distributed 50,000 Christmas meals, tin Ragged School, Union 2G,000, tho St, • Giles's Mission (which looks after tM; friends of prisoners) 12,500, tho CUureb : Army 0300, a.nd the Barnardo Homes 9000. Altoff«ther the Ragged School Ujilon m™ 2M.000 gifts, not including the I<O,OOQ dol\« and toys they distributed, for.the; London "Evening News," a total of nearly half a million. .