Though we have no snow and icicles are rare, still all agree that Charleston has its own grand Christmas tradition. There's a restrained elegance about the stately homes and the simplicity of the decorations. Neither a gloomy sky nor a global recession can dampen holiday mood here.
Despite the timelessness of our cobbled streets and old buildings, Charlestonians of a century ago prided themselves on being up to date with fashion. Unlike today, however, they did most of their shopping on King and Meeting Streets. Local merchants didn't have to compete with chain stores or internet commerce. However, we won't be able to shop in many of these stores today though quite a few the family names associated with them still survive here.
Banov and Volaski advertised that they were 'The Home of Good Clothes' on the corner of King and Calhoun. These merchants of tailored gentlemen's clothing went out of business decades ago, but their rival, Berlin's, carries on after 126 years in the same location.
Shoppers wanting to get a head-start on Christmas dinner headed to Walker and Baldwin at 79 Reid Street. They advertised turkey, duck, and geese already plucked. Fresh fish and fowl could be had at the stalls in the Market.
Grandpa was easy to buy for in those days - folks just dropped by I. M. Pearlstine's on East Bay for a box of its best-selling 5-cent cigars.
Up King Street at number 222 Dr. Ralph Kennedy advertised osteopathic medicine at its finest -- no knife, no drugs. But, if you had a cough over the holiday you headed to Zeigler's Drug Store for its famous Zeigler's Cough and Colic Remedy -- 15-cents a bottle.
Whereas a shopper today might stock up on several 12-packs of soft drinks for the holidays, local Charlestonians of 1909 loaded up on wooden crates of a beverage called Malt Toast. The ad in the News and Courier said, 'A drink for everybody - man, woman, child - A beverage containing all the nourishment of a pure and wholesome beer -refreshing and healthful and free of alcohol.' The purveyor was The German Brewing Company.
Holiday shoppers caught out at noon time made their way to Louis Cohen and Company for hot lunches at its new Soda Water Fountain. There was a lot to converse about at Louis Cohen's at lunchtime - the mercury was dipping below 32 degrees at night during Christmas week a hundred years ago, but more importantly, cotton had reached 16-cents a pound on the New York Cotton Exchange. It was expected to bid up to 17-cents by New Year's.
Charlestonians were much more attuned to the various cotton exchanges than they were to the stock exchanges. About the only stock any one cared about was livestock. An advertisement ran in the paper on Christmas week 1909 that 25 head of the best milk cows ever offered could be viewed at Nelson's Stockyard, phone number 230.
Holiday travelers did not get stranded at airports in those days. Indeed, travel was more refined in 1909. One contemplating a trip merely dropped by Atlantic Coastline Railway at 10 East Bay to see Mr. W.E. Renneker, or at 185 Meeting Street where Mr. J.S. Walpole was ticket agent, and they made all of the arrangements. The trains arrived and departed at the station on John Street.
Locals could visit New York City for $27.50 round trip fare and stay in the Hotel St. Denis at Broadway and 11th for a dollar a night. If you were just going up to Columbia, as local bankers, legislators, and lawyers did regularly, the rail fare round trip was a modest $4.50.
Oddly, there's little mention of toys for Christmas in the newspapers back then. Bicycles locally made at the Army Cycle Company at 130 Meeting Street were popular gifts for the young. A store that had just about everything was Furchgott's Daylight Store at 242 King.
Fresh fruit could be bought right off the docks along the Cooper River. Ships offloaded in plain view of locals and the ships' crew members were a common sight on the downtown streets. The Clyde Shipping Line of New York was the most famous of the lines calling on Charleston in 1909; however, ships bearing registry from all over the world were common in our waters. Clyde Lines arranged to have the Army Corps of Engineers dredge Town Creek to accommodate its 20 foot draft hulls.
On Christmas Eve of 1909, the biggest political news was the coup d' etat of President Zelaya of Nicaragua. There was some speculation that the United States may have had a hand in the speedy departure from Managua by the tyrant Zelaya. President Taft was quick to concur that it was a good thing that Zelaya was gone.
The crime beat reporter certainly enjoyed his duties as is evidenced in the rollicking write-ups he gives of local highjinx. One luckless chicken thief was accosted by Sgt. Healey of the Charleston Police when a crocus sack borne by the defendant began to flop around and squawk just as the thief greeted the officer on the corner of Coming and Line Streets. The hapless chicken bandit was reported to have arrived at the Charleston jail house just as the inmates were sitting down to their Yuletide banquet.
Another arrest was made on Christmas eve of an overly celebrative gent who lurched at the ladies from the steps of a saloon at King and Columbus Streets. He, too, got a hot holiday lunch courtesy of the Charleston lockup.
Football didn't make the sports pages in December back in 1909. Club football was the order of the day and colleges fielded clubs as did prep schools and private business concerns. Porter Military Academy had one of the premier football clubs in the State and won a state championship during this era --whipping the likes of USC, Clemson, and the local Navy team.
The biggest sports headline of 100 years ago was that the College of Charleston thin-clads planned to host the much-vaunted Clemson Track and Field on May Day at the College's home track. Clemson College had just hired Dr. F.H.H. Calhoun away from the University of Chicago to coach the Tiger track men. Names coming to the Lowcountry to compete included Hill, Furtick, and Stevens on hurdles, and Garrett, Epps and Bird as sprinters. The two-way match was to be a showcase of nationally-recognized talent.
A hundred years later we still shop the stores of King and Meetings Streets and some of us still buy cigars for Grandpa. Children receive far more than a bicycle - even it is made in China. However, those old Charleston names keep recycling anew every decade to give the only real continuity that a city can really have.

(Dr. Thomas B. Horton is a history teacher at Porter-Gaud School. He lives in the Old Village of Mount Pleasant).