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THE YOUNG SOUTHERNER
A Christmas Word.
From the Edittr
As all my young readers know it is my intention
to often meet and greet them here in their own
special department of our paper, I shall drop the
customary and formal editorial “we” just as I
sometimes do when speaking personally to my
grown-up readers. Somehow it seems to me to
bring us nearer together, and that is what I ■want
first of all I
“Closeness” means, too, that we will help each
other as we* could never do if any formal distance
separated us, and also we will grow to understand
each other better.
Just About “You.”
Did you ever notice how hard it often seems for
our friends to listen when we, have a story to tell
about ourselves? Now. I want each one of you
to feel that between you and me this is not the
case. You have been told enough about my life
and my work so that you should feel that you
know me well; so it’s now your turn, for I do -want
to know all about each one of you! I want to hear
how you work and how you play; I want to learn
all about your surroundings, where you live and
what you do, and, most of all, I want to know if
your young life has come into the divine touch
with the life of your Savior? I want to learn,
too, if you are interested in your Sunday school
work, and. also, which one of your school lessons
you most enjoy, and ■which one seems hardest for
you to do. If I know this I will be able to tell
you what to read to bring about the easy thing’s,
and how to think about the hard ones. I hope
you all know that life is made so much happier
and brighter by mutual efforts to help each other,
and I want you to feel that in the editor of The
Golden Age you have a close friend who is willing
to share with you all the joys and sorrows of
your young lives. Don’t you see that this will help
me, too?
“A Merry Christmas to All.”
You will get this copy of The Golden Age some
time before the dawn of Christmas morning, but
1 it will not reach you too soon for me to wish each
one of you a very Merry Christmas.
When I was a boy, we used to try to call “Merry
Christmas” to our playfellows before they could
call it to us, and the one saying it first would, claim
a Christmas gift! Now, none of you have yet
said, “Merry Christmas” to me, so I can claim
my Christmas gift, and I do claim it! I want Von
to be thinking out the best way to win our Christ
mas Prize, and in making Christmas happy for oth
ers, and telling me how you have done it you will
be giving me a gift all to myself, for you will
be helping me to realize one of my dearest ideals
and you must know that this is one of the rarest
and best gifts we can either give or receive.
Our Prize.
I believe you will all be pleased and surprised
with the prize we are offering, but I don’t mean
to tell you what it is to be; this is part of the
fun, you know’, and a further fulfillment of the real
Christmas spirit—a spirit which should bring joy
and peace to all the world, for it is the anniversary
of the beginning of the only True Source of Peace.
Then, too, we will publish a picture of the prize
winner, and a description of the prize after it is
awarded, so you see, even those of you who are
not successful will still have a share in the pleas
ure, in addition to the feeling of having made
the Christmas season a really happy one.
I find it so pleasant to talk thus to you all, my
dear boys and girls, that it is actually hard for
me to stop, but there are other uses for the space
in your department, so I will close with the words
so appropriately used by one of the sweetest
characters that ever figured in a Christmas story—
that of “Tiny Tim,” in the immortal Christmas
Carol, by Charles Dickens, and I will say, with the
same fervor, and with even fuller meaning, “God
bless you, every one,”
The Golden Age for December 20, 1906.
An Industrial Home Christmas.
>
The writer has recently been to visit the chil
dren at the Georgia Industrial Home, and the
Christmas spirit was already in the air. The “ Dol
lar Christmas Gift Offering” had been talked of
for many weeks, and children and grown-ups alike
were watching the mails for returns. The young
students in the various Georgia colleges and schools
had promised to procure the coveted dollar, and
at least 500 o fthese dollars had been promised.
But how little that is when SIOO,OOO is so need
ed!
But the need is not going to keep these children
of the home from having a good Christmas frolic
all their own. They are to have a gigantic Christ
mas tree, and there will be a gift for each one.
But what is better still, every single child out of
the hundred and fifty is to be given money to pur
chase Christmas piesents for those whom he or
she desires to remember. The general manager of
the home, Mr. J. R. Gunn, has planned to give
each one of the larger girls and boys a dollar to
invest just as he or she pleases. They are to go
into town in small groups for this purpose; tlmn,
the next-size children are to have fifty cents to
spend, and the very smallest ones of all are to have
twenty-five cents!
■Each one, therefore, will have the joy of giving
something, no matter how little it may be. And
you have no idea how a dollar, or even a quarter
of a dollar, may be stretched when purchases are
made with pennies to begin with. If you doubt
the “buying” quality of a hundred cents, try I t,
making up your minds to get just as many things
for a single dollar as you can, and I wouldn’t be
a bit surprised if you could count almost a hundred
gifts! I know a lady who limits her gifts to ten
cents each; she never Spends more than two-us
three dollars, and she boasts that at Christinas she
always remembers at least thirty friends, and some
times twice as many! She is poor in worldly goods,
but rich in the spirit of giving, and that is the
real spirit of the Christmas tide. So, dear chil
dren, measure your Christmas joys this year bv
that standard, and not by the usual one ot “get
ting,” and see what a good time you will all have’
The little children at the Georgia Industrial Home
will do this, I know, and I believe they will have a
happy, happy time.
Inspired By Our Letters.
Dear Y bung Soutdiefrtet t
I have been intending for sortie time to write a
letter for the Young Southerner, but kept wailing
to find something of interest to write. I enjoy
reading the letters iso tnucfa and every time I read
them I resolve thiat I will fi’V to do some good in
the world. I hope when I get old I can look back
on my life and see that I have not lived a selfish
life, but that I have done good to others and helped
to make the world better.
I am trying now, while I am young, to learn all
I can so as to be prepared for my duties when I
grow up.
I had a very pleasant time on Thanksgiving, and
now I am looking forward to Christmas with pleas
ant anticipations. I hope Santa Claus will remem
ber me generously. He always does.
; , Your true friend,
• Vaildosta, Ga. S. C. B.
Christmas in Foreign Lands.
While our American boys and girls' are indulg
ing in Christmas joys of all kinds, it will be of
interest to them to know how foreign ,children
snend this ere at holiday. The following extracts
from an article on this subject, by Jane Stewart,
in “The Puritan,” will be of real interest:
“In most of the civilized countries around the
world, every boy and girl celebrates ChristmetA-
The familiar and home-like custonus are very sijp-
ilar in English-speaking lands, but in other coun
tries there is much that is strange to those who are
used to a New World Christmas.
“Perhaps if an American boy were to spend
Christmas away from the dear home festivities, he
might best enjoy the Russian celebration. There
is one feature of the Christmas observance in the
Czar’s domain which is apt to strike one very
favorably; and that is the great length of the
holiday season. Christmastide covers tw r o whole
weeks; and for fourteen days, from December 24
until January 8, there is one long line of holi
days. The streets present the appearance of a
great international fair, for there are brilliant dis
plays, side shows and booths.
“The Gostinio Door is the great bazaar of St.
Petersburg. At Christmas time, it resembles the
interior of a dense forest.
“In Russia the pleasure of the Christmas tree is
not limited to one or two evenings. The glowing
tree shines out brilliantly every night during the
two weeks, and each night there is a party for old
or young.
“Tn Germany, too, there is no holiday on the
calendar so great as Christmas. And it is the
children’s festival, also. Christmas in Germany
is very much like Christmas in America. Many of
our Christmas customs came from there. Germany
gave us the Christmas tree, and it is the center of
all the Christmas doings for the German chil
dren.
“In some parts of Germany, Scandinavia and
Holland, the custom obtains for all the children
to say a prayer to Kriss Kringle at the chimney
corner on Christmas Eve, asking him to fill their
stockings for Christmas morning. They confide in
him as to what they would like. Kriss Kringle,
Christ Kindlein, is the German Santa Claus who is
supposed to come down the chimney with gifts
for all good children.
“The American boy would probably feel very
much at home in either Russia, Germany, Holland,
Denmark, Norway orj Sweden at Christtmastide.
In these north countries the customs are very like
those of the homeland. But in the Southern Eu
ropean nations, where Christmas is more a religious
than a home festival, he would find the holiday very
different from ours.
“This is especially true of Italy. Italian chil
dren do not hang up their stockings at Christmas,,
or have a Christmas tree. On Christmas morning
they are taken by their mothers to the churches.
There they are called on to recite hymns of praise
to the Madonna and Child in the
which is a representation of the stable of Bethle
hem where Christ was born. Within the rocky
cavern are wax images, often as large as life, of
the Madonna and Child, of Joseph, the shepherds,
and the wise men, and images of animals.
“The children of the Sunday schools of the
evangelical churches in Italy sometimes have trees,
however, though there are not many of them as
yet.
“Very few American boys and girls would care
to spend Ihe Christmas holidays in France where
no one pays much attention to Christmas, and
where no presents are exchanged. But the children
who have no ‘home ’ with a little Ci’ in France,
and who are being' reared in the convents, often
have some beautiful Christmas ceremonies, the
spirit of which might well be introduced into other
lands. For weeks before Christmas, the convent
children begin to prepare for the convent celebra
tion. The crib with the Christ Child is the chief
center of attraction, and the reward of good be
havior is the privilege of helping to make the
crib.
“When the children receive their Christmas
boxes on Christmas Eve, the first gift taken from
these is placed in the basket for the poor. After
the solemn midnight mass on Christmas Eve, which
all the children attend, they are given something
to eat; and then they all return to bed tp sleep
till late on Christmas morning.