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12 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.