Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Women and Men

[270] selected for that unsatisfactory corner in Cousin Mary's drawing-room. Day after day passes; nobody can find time to go to the city, or, if some one goes, it is dark before she has got half-way down her list of errands. At the end, Cousin Mary's awkward corner remains unfilled, the children's stockings are stuffed hap-hazard, and Uncle John gets only a third smoking-cap, though he took pains to explain last year that the doctor had ordered him to quit smoking.

I am surprised that some enterprising woman does not see how clearly all this makes a providential opening for Santa Claus agencies. In many other departments we do not now go to purchase articles needed; they are brought to us. Instead of our going to market the market-man rings daily at the back door, and orders are taken and filled for chickens and celery, canned tomatoes or Hubbard squashes. If we wish new window-curtains, the upholsterer comes with plans, patterns, and prices. Why does not some agent for Santa Claus come in the same way with samples, circulars, and above all, suggestions What a boon to many a struggling family would be the sudden arrival at the door of some competent and clear-headed woman, replete with information, running over with measurements and prices, and carrying specimens of a hundred unthought — of treasures in a little handbag!