New Year's Calls

Marietta Register, January 1, 1880

Caller's Code Carefully Revised by the Latest Authority

1
Gentlemen may commence calling as early as nine o'clock but the ladies of Marietta and Harmar have signified that twelve o'clock is as early as they will be fully prepared to receive. If any choose to call at an earlier hour, say before breakfast, the lady of the house is expected to say, "O cheese it!" and slam the door in their faces.

2
Ladies should be in the parlor by 10 o'clock according to old-fashioned usage, but 12 o'clock is time enough, especially if they have been in a stew earlier in the day.

3
Nine o'clock in the evening is the latest hour for calls. Every well-ordered gentleman ought to have enough of it before then.

4
Call first on the clergy or their families and probably it will be some time before the parson will preach again from the text "whosoever will, may come."

5
Refreshments consist of coffee and good substantial food, partaken of at the usual hours, which, with us, is whenever we can get it. Wines and liquors are prohibited, but it is considered genteel to go down cellar and suck cider from the bung-hole of a barrel with the hostess.

6
Ladies expect calls from friends, and if gentlemen introduce strangers the latter must produce certificates of character from where they have called before.

7
First calls, especially neglected ones, should be made New Year's Day. If friendly relations have been disturbed this is the time to resume them. If the above rule is carried out in Marietta this year, won't some of our citizens have lots of callers though?

8
If prevented by ill health or any other cause from making the call, send a card or go as soon afterwards as possible, otherwise they might think you were waiting to get your boots tapped or something of that sort.

9
Cards may be written or engraved with the date or New Year's compliments on them. An autograph card is considered the most complimentary according to some authorities. Perhaps it is, but we will swear that the one who made that assertion never saw our autograph. The Register Office has used it for a map of the Ohio River for nearly two years.

10
Always leave your card when you call, otherwise confusion might result, and the hostess, not knowing who had called, find it useless to count her spoons.
 

Barry Home Model for Decorators

The Marietta Daily Times, December 15, 1929

A model home selected by The Times to furnish an example of what can be accomplished in outdoor Christmas decorating and lighting has been decorated with the cooperation of the Monongahela West Penn Public Service Company. It is the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin K. Barry, 322 Fourth Street. It was selected because of its beauty of line and its adaptability to this kind of display and because of its central and convenient location. It presents a beautiful sight and it should be seen by everybody, both persons who intend to enter their homes in the outdoor decorating contest and those who do not.

It is understood, of course, that the Barry home is only a model and, beautiful as it is, it will not be in the contest. It will serve as an inspiration to persons who intend to decorate and light their homes on the outside.

In decorating the Barry residence the Monongahela company had the assistance of an engineer of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company at Pittsburgh. He also helped the company decorate and light its own properties in Marietta, and they now present a gorgeous addition to the out-of-door illumination of the city. They are well worth seeing as examples of decorating and brilliant lighting.

 

Miles of Spruce Fronds Making City Attractive for Holidays

The Marietta Daily Times, December 5, 1929

Christmas greenery by the mile has arrived in Marietta to kindle the holiday spirit and the streets of the business district are being gaily festooned and decorated with it. It arrived on Thursday and a committee of Chamber of Commerce members at once began putting it in place.

From the mountain forests of the state of Washington this supply of spruce fronds, woven into an endless chain, came and nearly three miles of it arrived in the initial shipment. It has been adopted in place of the pine trees that have been used in past years. Those in charge believe that it is more beautiful as a decoration and it does not represent this destruction that accompanies the cutting down of hundreds of young pines to line the streets.

The spruce chains are being suspended from the ornamental lighting standards along Greene, Front, Second, Putnam and part of Third Street, and at each pedestal point there is a loop of greenery with a large poinsettia as the center.

Walter Wood's committee is in charge of decorating the streets and they expected to finish before the day ended. Helping in this work are Harry E. Schramm, Alonzo Barnes, B. F. Reiter, Clarence Gruber and H. W. Rose.

Merchants and property owners along the way are being asked to extend their lighting fixtures to "hook up" with the festooning, and the whole is expected to make the streets attractive and gay for the yuletide season.

Putnam Street lined with small pine trees as Christmas decorations prior to 1929.

Concrete at Boat Landing Being Poured

The Marietta Daily Times, December 22, 1938

Pouring of concrete in the lower platform of the boat landing project being done in Muskingum Park by the Federal Northwest Territory Commission is expected to be completed on Friday and have a chance to set while WPA workers employed on the job are off for the Christmas holiday.

With this lower part of the landing project finished, the worry over a possible rise in water level will be abated, E. M. Hawes, commission director, says, and construction of the upper part will proceed unhindered.

Construction of the esplanade at the corner of Virginia Street and Gilman Avenue is reported to be progressing satisfactorily. The wings are now being worked on. A 10-inch curb has been placed in front of the structure, which is to provide the setting for the bronze tablet recently sent here as a gift from the government of France. The large section of sandstone on which the tablet will be mounted has been cut at the Holmes Quarry in Dunham Township. The stone stands nearly seven feet high and has a sloping plane surface on which the tablet will be mounted.

Friday marks the end of the current pay period of the 40 WPA workers employed on these two projects of the commission. They will resume work on Wednesday, December 28.