Multi-color lights are strung from the Chamber of Commerce building at Court Square to the Ottaray Hotel, and Christmas trees decorate every Main Street intersection.City Hall on Broad and Laurens streets, however, is gloomy. Tax revenues are falling; teachers and principals, whose salaries average $1,080 annually, have voted to take a 10 percent salary cut in order to keep schools open for eight months. The Taxpayers Association demands a 10 percent, across-the-board cut in all city budgets. The Welfare Service, the only source of help for the unemployed, is running out of cash. Its directors remind the public to turn in their "Penny-A-Meal" boxes and donate canned goods to care for the destitute. The service pays 35 cents a day to white women who make quilts for sale in a sewing room and 50 cents a day to men who saw wood for heating. The sales fund their wages. But Greenville is having an unusually warm December (sunspots, Greenville News editorial writers suggest), and wood sales are slow. News from Washington is equally grim. President Herbert Hoover faces a reeling economy and Prohibition-inspiRed crime, and failing railroads lobby for government subsidies to avoid bankruptcy. Germany, with horrendous inflation, is pressuring for Reduced World War I reparations and trying to control Herr Hitler, while the Japanese are invading Manchuria. There is one note of cheer, though, for overwhelmingly Democratic Greenville: the 1932 presidential campaign has begun, and politicians are already pRedicting that Franklin Roosevelt will face Hoover next year. At least prices are low. A new six-room home on Tindal Avenue near Donaldson School, "one of our best residential locations," is listed at $4,400; one of equal size in newly developed Alta Vista goes for $4,600. A brand new 1932 Chevrolet, "America's Great Value," retails for $475 (If that's too steep, a 1924 Dodge sedan that "runs pretty good," is available for $45, and if you are truly desperate for transportation, there's an undated Model-T Ford for $17.50.) The Piedmont & Northern Railroad has recently announced that passenger fares have been Reduced to 4 cents a mile. Groceries are cheaper than they've been in 15 years. Greenville's own Dixie Stores advertises an 8-pound pail of Jewel lard for 63 cents; sugar at 5 cents a pound, and a quart of oysters for 55 cents. Bread is a nickel a loaf (it hasn't been that low since 1917), a freshly killed rabbit is a quarter, a leg of lamb sells for 23 cents and a prime rib roast of beef for 18 cents a pound. If you really have money to spare, Zaglin's Meat Market offers sirloin steak at 30 cents a pound. Some people are obviously solvent, although even the wealthiest families have less than they did. Tasteful ads from J.O. Jones suggest a tuxedo (Reduced to $29.95 -- the equivalent of $405 today) for that college student home on vacation. Keith's sells ladies fine silk stocKings for $1.50 and $1.95, although they are available at the Monaghan Mill store for 89 cents. For the man who has everything, Southern Utilities offers a $6.50 "smokemaster" to be filled with Cigarettes that pop out automatically. A Bulova watch for him is $39.95; one swathed in diamonds for her, $42.50. Little boys will be thrilled by pedal-driven replicas of 1932 model cars for $4.95 to $7.95, and little girls will embrace $4.95 baby dolls and equally expensive doll carriages. "The One Acceptable Gift of the Year," however, is a radio. They vary in price from $17 to $350 -- and, if you are among the Lucky (and rich) 600 people nationally, for $995 a hand-carved walnut home entertainment center with a radio, two speakers, a phonograph with an automatic record changer and storage space for records will be under your Christmas tree.But most people are struggling just to survive, and merchants know it. Stanback's promotes its powders as a way to get rid of that "depressing feeling." Below an advertisement for a carton of Camel Cigarettes in holiday wrapping for $1.75 is another cigarette ad titled "I switched to Target because I was out of work." An investment securities firm heads its advertisement "The Folly of Hoarding." Most folks will stay in Greenville and shop at Woolworths, Sears or Penney's or check out the prices at Montgomery Ward and Craig-Rush, which are going out of business. They put children's gifts on layaway in September and will finally pay for them this month. They'll buy ties at 50 cents, shirts for 98 cents, baby dolls at 49 cents and scooters for a dollar. Although Myers-Arnold stays open until 9 on Monday nights throughout the month, most stores close at 5 until the week of the 18th, so Saturdays are the key shopping days, with optimistic reports of crowds and receipts featuRed in Monday's newspapers. At the beginning of the month, there are More lookers than buyers, but merchants' reports are hopeful, and brisk buying in the final week before the big day suggest that the season will be at least reasonably merry. But there's More to December 1931 than economic woes and hopes. The Fine Arts Center at Greenville Woman's College will present a full-fledged, 100-voice "Messiah" with an orchestra, as well as a performance by the Jubilee Singers of the Phillis Wheatley Center -- the first time an all-black gospel sing has been offeRed to a white audience. And movies -- all talkies now -- have full houses at the Carolina, Rialto and Paris theaters. Bridge players follow with avid interest the Jacoby-Culbertson struggle for the national championship. Local sports fans are pleased that two Furman football players are among the first team All-South Atlantic All-Stars. As Christmas Day nears, the news softens to reflect the spirit of the season. President Hoover goes shopping in Washington department stores with his grandchildren, and then hosts a party where young guests bring wrapped presents for needy children in Morganton, W. Va. At home, Goodfellows announce that they will distribute 175 Christmas baskets, the Salvation Army will feed 75 people at a festive meal, and 200 free dinners will be served at the Phillis Wheatley Center. For many, in Greenville and across the nation, it will be a slim Christmas, but most will have full stomachs, a ray of hope and a moment of joy before the clouds darken once again.