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v ^ % \\ s %u2022%u2022 % V P $ ' 0 >X ^ % I%u201e V ' S V - 8 gBest Holiday\\ T X Tir f ' \\ v v i s i l e s ^ Court StreetM erry C hristm asH ap p y N ew Y earStaubitz MarketE sta b . 1 9 1 7The First in PrimeBeef %u2022 Lam b %u2022 V e a l %u2022 Pork%u2022 Poultry %u2022222 Court St. %u2022 M A 4-0014HHag all gour ChriBtmaBEBbe reabBookcourt163 Court Street875-3677Mon-Sat, 10am-10pmSun 11-6Season%u2019s GreetingsTo All of OurWonderful CustomersiK lA c W eP I Z Z E R I A643-6121FREE DELIVERYtOpen 7 Days a Week 114 Court St.XJoyous H oliday SeasonFromLo u%u2019s Food CenterFine Groceries Imported Speciajties 170 Court St. UL5-8028Season%u2019s CreetlngsBELANTHI GALLERYBelanthi Gallery142 Court St.855-2728IS WwFor The Best inMovie Entertainment For The Holidays and all Year LongCOBBLE HILLCINEMAWishing You a H appy Holiday265 Court St. (com . Butter)For Schedules: 596-9113B est W ishes forthe Holiday SeasonWishingAll Our FriendsA Happy Holidayimported & dom estic %u2022 beers %u2022 kegs %u2022 ice %u2022%u2022 soda %u2022 waters %u2022t h r if t y b e v e r a g e252 Court St. (at Kane)Cobble Hill %u2022 875-0226A Joyous I lolid.iy Season! fromA G USTINS%u2022Fine Groceries %u2022 Imported%u2022Specialties170 Court SI. %u2022 U 15-8028D%u2019AmigoFoods309 Court St. 875-5403A Trip To 1886Continued1886. Train and steamship schedules, loans, dry goods, furniture, insurance, horses, carriages, coal, wood and legal notices all had page one priority in a naive but somehow business-like editorial design, as if all the advertising were over with quick and up front, leaving the reader free to pore through the news of the day.ALLIGATOR SHOES FOR $2.25A department store, Wechsler &Abraham, advertised genuine alligator slippers for men, dyed different colors, for $2.25 a pair. Another ad read, %u201cIt should not be overlooked by those who wish to make a substantial, a practical and at the same time a royal Christmas gift that we have an unapproachable and the most reliable line of seal garments in this city.%u201d These sealskin coats, called %u201csacques,%u201d were given a written guarantee, %u201ca document legally binding %u2014 that we sell you the genuine Alaska seal, London dye, absolutely perfect in every respect,%u201d from $100 to $185 an article.At the same time as I was forced to confront the barbarity of the times (the use of one of our recent endangered species for slippers not to mention the pathetic source of those luxurious sealskin coats!), your reporter was deeply impressed by the length and digressive quality of the sentences used by both advertisers and reporters of the newspaper to get to the point. These looping sentences and massive paragraphs pointed to a leisurely, gossiping spirit of the time, as far away from %u201cCoke Is It!%u201d as you can get.Yet maybe not entirely. A little further down, the Palace Rink at Clermont Street near Myrtle Avenue announced its readiness for holiday revelers. %u201cChristmas night,%u201d breathlessly advertised the Palace, %u201cGreased Pig Race %u2014 Screams of Laughter %u2014 Chased on Roller Skates Given to the One Who Holds Him Firm! Never Before Seen in Brooklyn!%u201d Probably never again, either, if the ASPCA has anything to say about it. But there you have it: Crazy Eddie%u2019s grandfather, no doubt.MUSEUM IS BIZARREThe Christmas offering of the venerable Brooklyn Museum as we know it today, however, was even more bizarre. True, for a 10 cent admission, every child received a present and the doors were open from lOam-lOpm. But who or what was Jo-Jo, The Dog-Faced Boy, the exhibit for the day? I sincerely doubt that it was the title of a painting. Electronic chipmunks one century removed perhaps?More wholesome entertainment featured toboganning in Washington Park at Fifth Avenue and Fourth Street. Toboggan rides were 25 cents for adults, 15 cents for children.An article on %u201cThe Cheer of ChristmasTime,%u201d a long, rambling feature subtitled %u201cSome Thoughts on the Majestic Goose, American or British, the National Turkey,i f - ______ i n ; _ i _ %u2022 %u201e n n , , n , me iiiogmutcm ouiuui, me oeasuiiduie r u u -ding and Pie, and Whatever in the Old Days Contributed and in the New Times Still Adds to the Suitable Celebration of the Annual Feast%u201d unabashedly quoted from Dickens, Thomas de Quincy, Sir Walter Scott, Tennyson and a host of more obscure writers on the dangers and pleasures of over-indulgence at holiday time.%u201cI will conclude,%u201d the reporter announced, %u201cwith the bluff lines of a dead brother journalist, Marc Cook, in his %u2018Vandyke-Brown%u2019 poems:%u201cTo the ancient and honorable custom Of giving gifts once in the year %u2014Provided, of course, it doesn%u2019t bust %u2019em %u2014The Christmas offering of thevenerable Brooklyn Museum, wasbizarre. True, fora 10centadmission, every child received apresent and the doors were openall day, but who or what was Jo-JoThe Dog-Faced Boy ? I sincerelydoubt it is the name of a painting.All people should strive to adhere;And if they can give but a trifle,Give that with a slice of good cheer.%u201d CANDY FOR SANTA Even %u201cA Seven-Year-Old Girl%u2019s Letter to All Children%u2019s Patron Saint,%u201d was a charmingly long-winded epistle to her %u201cDear Santa,%u201d an endearment she repeated frequently among assertions that she had been struggling as hard as she could to he %u201ca good girl, dear Santa.%u201d She concluded her letter on an altruistic note, asking that Santa bring %u201ca box of candy for the baby being two months old and too little to write.%u201dReluctantly I began to rewind the microfilm, my thoughts full of the report I would bring back of this by-gone era. It was the time of the James brothers, reported the day after Christmas to have stolen thousands of dollars worth of diamonds (today worth probably millions) from a jewelry store %u201cout West%u201d in what was considered the most daring get-away of all times. Forget Indiana Jones.But I came across one news item that made it impossible for me to dally any longer in 1886. It was the weather report. Indications from Washington, D.C. for Christmas eve looked bad. %u201cFor Eastern New York,%u201d it read, %u201crain, southerly winds, shifting to colder northwesterly.%u201d The temperature was 51 degrees. No hope of snow. I left the library, my hopeful eyes facing skyward as I returned to the office of The Phoenix. At least the weather in 1986 is not yet a fixed quantity.Christmas trees are loaded on a truck at a W allabout Market In 1925. Much the same astoday, the trees would be sold on street corners to be dragged hom e and decorated(Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Historical Society)Page 18, THE PH O EN IX, Decem ber 25, 1986