Holly is full and healthy at the market this year, and can be purchased at 20 cents the small bunch, Flowers show the wear and tear of the cold spell; carnations ce: $2 a dozen, chrysanthemums—25 cents a dozen and the Chinese water {lily or narcissus puts up a more sturdy front at 20 cents a dozen. Poinsettias show the effects of the frost more than any other bloom.
Mistletoe, that osculatory branch without which no Christmas is complete, sells in fair-sized bunches at $2, somewhat more expensive than a previous season perhaps, but it is well-known that the! luxuries of life represented by th little evergreen must be paid for.
After a ramble through the Hongkew Market one feels more insight into Christmas cheer which has had its wheels oiled by many more hundreds of the mechanics of good living than is obvious when tone fronts the feast on the table. One wonders, also, how many will be thinking, in far off places wher refrigeration cars whir into great cities with a supply of Christmas delicacies, that there are hundreds of foreigners in China who sit down to their feast, undisturbed by hygienic fears though most of the} food which they have before them' comes down the creeks and canals of China on rice boats. This is ancther one of the Christmas eortrests. for which the season is! famous,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.