Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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— THE CHRONICLE Strives To Be s Clean News* paper, Complete, Newsy, and Reliable. * v •ft j A VOLUME XXVII CLINTON, S. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1927 NUMBER 50 CHRISTMAS TRADE PROMISES TO BE BIG Retailers Expect Volume of Business, To Far Exceed Last Year’s. Hun dred Millions for Toys. Washington, D. C.—Prancer and Dancer and their faithful tearr\-mates of the beautiful myth are drawing a heavier load this year than genial old Santa ever has before placed upon his sleigh, if advance reports are to be credited. Christmas £rade in the United States leaped forward in 1925 to amazing records and caused charts of normal increase to become scraps of paper, yet 1926 hung up. new high fifhires. Despite recessions in business activity a year ago merchants expect the Yule- tide of’1927 to be still better than last ’ year. The tinkle of the reindeer’s bells soon will be heard in full tone for the great distribution which marks the secular celebration of' Christmas is only ten days distant. Already the cash registers of thousands of retailers have begun adding to the music of the season, for much Christmas shopping is done before Thanksgiving. So reliable are the reports that Santa Claus has planned his greatest surprises for 1927 that Uncle Sam has taken official notice and through the poafcofflce department "has made ex traordinary preparations to handle the rush. The department spent $8,688,- 006 last year for additional service to handle holiday mail; this year it esti mates it will have to spend $440,000 above that sum to mqet the require- i* raents. Something approaching $200,000,000 will be spent this year for toys alone, the term including dolls, the educa tional and semi-utilitarian offerings so popular in recent years, and wheel merchandise. The range is from the five-cent article to imitation automo biles at $150 each, imported animals which run up to $300 at retail, and playhouses which may cost $400 or even more. How much will be ex pended for gifts to be exchanged among adults is anybody’s guess, with the merchant who guesses wrong out of luck, but the total will be tremen dous, for Christmas gifts of a sub stantial nature have been the tenden cy in recent years. Early Christmas sales indicate that the majority of merchants are 'likely to 'find them selves under-stocked rather than over stocked with seasonal goods. Advance reports show that adver tised merchandise is moving more rapidly than merely displayed for the eyes of shoppers, proving that the thoughtful buyers are scanning the pages of their newspapers and mak ing their purchases with discrimina tion. • f Within the next ten days some 8,000 banks throughout the United States will distribute $501,336,000 to more than 8,600,000 depositors in Christ mas savings clubs. According to a study announced by Herbert F. Rawl, president of the Christmas club, a cor poration which sponsors this system of saving, approximately $193,000,000 of the total sum will find its way into the tills of merchants through the hands of shoppers. The total deposit ed in such clubs this year exceeds last year’s record by $102,000,000. The number of depositors has increased five-fold since 1920. It is questioned as to whether special corporation divi dends and bonus distributions in De- (Continued on Page Five) BLUE HOSE PLAY TEN GRID GAMES] Furman and Carolina Addqd To 1928 Schedule. Four Home Con- ' tests On Menu. The Presbyterian College of South Carolina will undertake the most am bitious schedule in its gridiron his tory next fall, according to the sched ule released Monday by Prof. H. E. Sturgeon, faculty adviser of athletics. Seven association, one conference and two non-affiliated, opponents will be met. Following is the complete schedule: September 28—Mercer at Clinton. October 6—Wake Forest at Wake Forest or Asheville. October 13—Newberry at Clinton. October 19—South Carolina at Co lumbia. October 27—Furman at Greenville. November 1—Wofford at Spartan burg. November 10—Parris .Marines at Parris Island (pending.) November 16—Oglethorpe at Clin ton. November 24—Erskine at Clinton . December 1—Citadel at Charleston. SPECIAL MUSIC FOR CHRISTMAS Clinton Mills Adds 11,000 Spindles The Clinton Cotton mills has recent ly purchased 11,000 new spindles which are to be installed as soon as floor space can be provided for the en largement. In speaking of the ad ditional spindles, W. J. Bailey, presi dent of the mills, states that the en largement is in line with their expan sion program of several years past. With the installation of the new ma chinery, the mill will have a total of 81,000 spindles, ranking as one'of the largest and most successful textile plants in the entire South. This b Station A - X - R (AVOID - XMAS - RUSH) PLEASE DON’T STAND BY — DON’T WAIT “Shop Early” .A / Let THE CHRONICLE advertisements solve your Gift Problems. 4 i - ’ * ' - Choir of First Presbyterian Church To Render Sacred Cantata On After noon of December 18th. The directress has just announced the program for the special vesper service sacred Christmas cantata, ‘The Christ Child,” which will be presented by the choir of the First Presbyterian church at 5:30 o'clock Sunday after noon, December 18th. Mrs. J. F. Jacobs, Jr., the organist and directress, has had her choir busi ly engaged for some time in prepara tion for the feature musical event of the year. The members of the choir who will participate are: Organist—Mrs. J. F. Jacobs, Jr. 1st soprano—Mesdames Wm. P. Ja cobs, Marshall Brown, A. W. Brice and Miss Mary Lou Bell. . 2nd, soprano—Misses Clara Duckett and Norma Hallet. 1st alto—Mrs. O. B. Burroughs. 2nd alto—Mesdames Arthur Cope land and B. O. Whitten. 1st tenor—Messrs. Haynie Prince nad Jack O’Neal. . 2nd tenor—Messrs. B. O. Whitten and Bamie Parrott. 1st bass—Messrs. Jonn holt and W. P. Jacobs. 2nd bass—Messrs. T. D. Jacobs and C. J. Killen. The public is cordially invited to at tend this vesper service. Wj V ; AAA- w 1 J Mm \ •i? m yt. m#- /'I O & mm I ke Legend of the Christmas Stocking ANY, many years ago there lived in Germany a very wealthy .man named St. Nicholas.' He ■ liked nothing better than to help poor people, but disliked very much being thanked for his gifts. One Christmas Eve he wished to give a purse of gold to an old man and his little daughter, and in order to escape being seen, he dimbed to their roof and dropped his precious gift down the chimney. Instead of land ing on the hearth, however, the purse fell right into a stocking which was hung up to dry, and the next morning it was discovered there! Whervother people k heard of the strange happening they too hung u£ 7 their stockings, and soon all over the land it became the custom on Christmas Eve to hang up one’s stocking for St. Nicholas to fill. COOLIDGE TIRES OF JOB’S WORRY President, No Longer a Candidate, Tells Why He Is Refusing To Ac cept Nomination If Tendered. Washington, Dec. 10.-r-There are some compensations to relinquishing expectation of succeeding yourself a£ president of the United States. Pres ident Coolidge can now tell wk*t he really thinks of things and people. Today, when the newspaper report ers were at the White House, the pres ident let it be known that he was pret ty weary of the complaints and con troversies that result whenever the government tries to help people. The farmers and the shipping peo ple were in his mind when the luxury of plain talking was indulged in. It is, as has so often been emphasized, not permitted to quote the president, but mention of the rivers-and harbors bill brought up the subject and it was dis closed that the president has reached the conclusion that the more the gov ernment attempts to aid particular people or particular enterprises the more it lands in arguments and re criminations. The^governmen" has *pent a lot of money and much effort on irrigation with the result that the secretary of the interior is attacked for carrying out the law. It has turned out the same, way in the shippping business, and in the matter of barge lines or. the Mississippi, the government has gone very far,- but it was never in tended that it should do for the peo ple what the people ought to do for themselves. But the idea of the bene ficiaries of these various policies ap pears to be that they are not for the public benefit but for the advantage of individuals. For thip reason the president thinks the government ought to get out of business, not strictly of a governmental nature and keep out I of that sort of business. One of the main differences between a candidate and a non-candidate is ex emplified by this discovery. The cau- didate would never suggest that the farmers were seeking to get the best of the government or that the other large interests were actuated by other than patriotic motives. President Coolidge continues to stand aloof, from the fight for the , presidential nomination but a couple of developments have had the effect of suggesting at least that he is not hostile to Hoover. Galen Tait, collect- ~$r of the port of Baltimore, has de clared that Maryland is for Hoover. This is interpreted by those who take comfort from that interpretation, as meaning that Secretary Mellon, Tail’s boss, must be complaisant along these lines, else Tait would not be permitted to declare himself, and by an exten sion of the same logic, that Secretary Mellon would not let one of his sub ordinates come out for Hoover unless he was sui# ^1 r. Coolidge would not take umbrage. This is pretty tenuous but it is from such things that poli ticians read what they desire into hap penings. Another straw is that National Committeeman Creager, the adminis tration man in Texas, who was one of those committed to drafting Coolidge, (Continued on Page Two) j ' Parkinson Speaks In Columbia Dr. B. L. Parkinson, president of Presbyterian college, was in Columbia Thursday night and addressed the Forum club of which he is a former member. His subject was, “Some of , the Problems of Higher Education.” Dr. Parkinson invited the club to hpbl its April meeting with him in this city ' and the invitation was accepted. Big: Increase In Cotton Ginned Cotton ginned in Laurens county up to December 1st, totaled 23.173 bales as compared with 12,079 bales for the same period last year. These latest figure* were given out yesterday by G. R. Simpson of this city, special agent of the county.