The completed decorations are shipped to New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, but not to Chicago. In Chicago we find a different state of affairs. We are so near the evergreen forests of Wisconsin, where Christmas trees may be had for practically nothing, that the cost of transportation alone from New Jersey would be greater than the price realized would amount to.
Numbers of hulks of condemned vessels lie in and around Chicago which are practically worthless. These boats are taken in the fall by seamen who are out of employment up along the Wisconsin coast and there loaded with evergreens, are brought back to the Chicago river and docked, and lie there until the load is disposed of to the holiday trade. The decorations are mainly manufactured in the city in the store-rooms of the dealers.
That the business of bringing these trees down from the north is not without serious danger and hardship is evidenced by the wreck of the schooner S. Thal, which occurred off the coast near Glencoe, Ill., a short time ago, in which five lives were lost. Five lives yielded up that our children may enjoy an hour of pleasure!
Do they ever think of the cost?
A WINTER'S WALK.
Gleamed the red sun athwart the misty haze
Which veiled the cold earth from its loving gaze,
Feeble and sad as hope in sorrow's hour—
But for thy soul it still hath warmth and power;