Christmas Shopping in 1878

AT E. SAMSON'S: From the Big Doll that occupies the show window to the case of elegant Christmas-tree decorations in the rear of the store, it would be hard to find a more complete or more elegant stock of holiday goods than that with which Mr. Samson delights his buyers. There are handsome velvet frames, the pretty doors of which open to show fine photographs; there are photograph albums of the latest patterns; glove and handkerchief boxes in profusion; Japanese goods, queerly queer; German bon-bon boxes made to represent bread and pigeons, and American boxes to represent gold and silver coins; fish, balloons, colored globes, and transparencies for Christmas-trees, and a new style of safety fasteners for tree candles. All sorts of banks to allure the candy-ward-disposed penny; wither a dog takes the coin and trots into the house with it, or, better still, a rifleman fires it into the place of deposit and a bell gives notice that another "penny saved is two cents gained." Space forbids a longer recount and we can only say, Go to see for yourselves. --Ypsilanti Commercial, December 23, 1878.


AT THE EMPORIUM.--Mr. Frank Smith has no intention of letting anyone outshine him in the way of Christmas goods. Among the novelties at his store are an automatic horizontal bar performer, a swift velocipede rider, a large toy harp, and some new styles in magic lanterns. At the Emporium, Christmas candy buyers actually get two pounds of candy for twenty-five cents. Mt. Smith keeps not only toys for the little ones but also books, the latest and best, for the maturer heads; cigars for the lovers of the week, besides a large stock of albums, bronzes, etc. --Ypsilanti Commercial, December 23, 1878.