Once Thanksgiving of 1901 was over, the thoughts of everyone in Hammondsport turned to—Christmas! W. E. Cook “respectfully” called people’s attention to the possibilities of hardware as gifts for their loved ones. “Why not a Range, Stove, Cutter, Whip, Bells, Horse Blankets or Mechanics’ Tools? Because they are useful does not detract from their suitability for Christmas gifts.” W. T. Reynolds agreed, pointing out that “Santa Claus is a common sense old fellow… . He has a way of being practical as well as jolly…JUST NAME A MORE SUITABLE GIFT than a nice pair of Shoes, Slippers or Rubbers for any member of the family.”
A. M. Becker & Company (“The Cash Store”) offered “holiday bargains in everything.” This took in shoes and boots, but also included underwear, dress goods, black goods, bedding, sterling silver novelties, handkerchiefs, pillow covers and dressing sacks, not to mention “Unmatched Cotton Values.” Becker proclaimed, “The Christmas Spirit Prevades This Store,” which was probably true if your Christmas spirit ran to heavy fleece-lined men’s underwear at 33 cents (“others ask 50”).
That misspelling of “pervades” is original, by the way. There was no Pagemaker and no spell check in those days. Typesetters had to work with tiny letters raised in reverse, so the wonder is not the number of errors that they made, but the number that they avoided, especially considering how bad the lighting was. A speedy typesetter was one of the most awe-inspiring sights the world had to offer back then, but they tended to get very near-sighted as time went by.
Did kids have to be satisfied with boots (Arctic buckles at 49 cents) and underwear back in those days? Not necessarily. You could get skates and sleds at W. E. Cook in Pulteney, F. N. Goodrich & Co. Offered “Trains of cars, Ringing Bells, Mouth Organs, engines that steam up, Toy Banks, Toy Blocks, Doll Beds, Tool Chests, Drums, Whips and Guns.” Goodrich also sold G. A. Henty’s historical adventure books, which were just as big as Harry Potter a hundred years ago. “Six Trading Days to Christmas,” Goodrich proclaimed in 60-point type. “We fear some people would not be ready for the ringing of Christmas Chimes if we did not keep counting the days and saying Hurry! Hurry! Early in the day is a good motto to be adopted by Christmas shoppers.”
Of course, other things than shopping were also engaging the minds of Hammondsporters. The new Opera House Block was at last fully open, and it lost its first tenant. Mrs. Benedict’s dancing class had proved so popular that she had to move to more spacious quarters in the Town Hall, a few doors down of Sheathar Street. J. L. Shattuck moved with his family into the janitor’s apartment in the Opera House, which meant that they were on hand when fire broke out on the morning of Thursday, December 5. Prompt action by citizens and firemen saved the structure—can you imagine Hammondsport without it over the last 112 years?
Winter was coming on strong. It was four below on the 17th, and Painted Post was under four feet of water. Hammondsport School closed some of its rooms while the furnace was being repaired, and P. G. Zimmer begged electrical customers to be patient and cut back their consumption while he installed a new engine. In his “spare time,” he was overhauling the Kanona & Prattsburgh locomotive at the B&H shops. People were skating at the head of the lake before Christmas. Influenza was widespread, and bad checks were circulating around Bath and Hammondsport.
Out in the wider world, the British continued to do badly in South Africa, even as mass meetings in the United States protested British actions against the Boers. In our own colonial war, General Chafee accused surrendered Philippine leader Emilio Aguinaldo of continued subversion of U. S. rule, threatening to exile him to the mainland. “Gentleman Jim” Corbett (actually William Rothwell) took the heavyweight boxing title away from Terry McGovern. Bad feeling about the Boer War did not stop John Philip Sousa and his orchestra from performing for the Queen’s birthday.
Chicago was suffering from a coal famine. Police and striking streetcar workers in Scranton were fighting running gun battles. Up in Rochester, Susan B. Anthony predicted that New York women would vote by 1914; she was off by four years, but wouldn’t live to see it. Out in the Midwest, Walter Elias Disney entered the world.
Reverend Thomas Duck resigned after serving St. James Church for nine years. D. S. Derrick opened a shoe repair service in Glenn Curtiss’s bike shop. Curtiss himself took on a situation as traveling sales rep for a bicycle plant in Syracuse.
School closed for two weeks at Christmas, and the Hammondsport Wine Company gave every employee a turkey. There was good sleighing in the hills as December dawned, so the year ended much as it had begun, with merry parties, warm blankets, jingling harness bells, and the schuss of runners through hard-packed snow. They seem to have enjoyed it. I think we would, too.