One of the popular institutions inseparable from the festivities of Christmastide has long been the “cracker.” The satisfaction which young people especially experience in pulling the opposite ends of a gelatine and paper cylinder is of the keenest, accompanied as the operation is by a mixed anticipation—half fearful as to the explosion that is to follow, and wholly delightful with regard to the bonbon or motto which will thus be brought to light. Much amusement is afforded to the lads and lassies by the fortune-telling verses which some of the crackers contain. But the cracker of our early days was something far different from what it is now.
The sharp “crack” with which the article exploded, and from which it took its name, was then its principal, and, in some cases, its only feature; and the exclamation, “I know I shall scream,” which John Leech, in one of his sketches, puts into the mouth of two pretty girls engaged in cracker-pulling, indicated about the all of delight which that occupation afforded. Since then, however, the cracker has undergone a gradual development. Becoming by degrees a receptacle for bon-bons, rhymed mottoes, little paper caps and aprons, and similar toys, it has passed on to another and higher stage, and is even made a vehicle for high art illustrations. Considerable artistic talent has been introduced in the adornment of these novelties.
For instance, the “Silhouette” crackers are illustrated with black figures, comprising portraits of well-known characters in the political, military, and social world, exquisitely executed, while appropriate designs have been adapted to other varieties, respectively designated “Cameos,” “Bric-a-brac,” “Musical Toys,” &c.; and it is quite evident that the education of the young in matters of good taste is not overlooked in the provision of opportunities for merriment.
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