Newspaper Page Text
CrawforflnllB Democrat.
CRAWFORD VILLE - - GEORGIA.
A CHRISTMAS CLUB.
« was F.rmeS an* Iks U••* Wsrfc U
ArcanpliskMI.
I W«> reprint from the OhrMrruu BL fllidto
h. tin till lowing account of the formation at
fbrtJana. Me., of a Children’s Christiana Chib,
«lucb i>ve last year a Chriatmas-tree and Ilia¬
ns hj hundred poor cbUdrec of that city.]
A number of notes were and written, ask¬
ing two or more girls city boys from
^wery Sunday-school in the to meet
ml m certain honse st five o’clock, on the
tallowing Tuesday afternoon.
Did they come?
Dome? They did not know what the
«*U was tor, save for a whisper about
Christmas work; but they came: came
in pairs, in trios, in quartets and qnin
% eta—a whsie squad from the Butler
acfaool; big boys with big hearts, wee
tote only four years old from the kinder
gortiw—one hundred children, ready for
no thing wish . * could have been there
Oh, I you
at tbe forming of that club.
A lady came forward to speak to them,
«md voices were hushed In ex pec ta¬
ttoo. I can’t tell you, just what she
•aid, but her words were beautiful. She
spoke of their Christmas festivities
«vesy year, of their presents and their
ainnds; then of unfortunate children
who had fewer, some none of these joys.
When she ssked; “Does anyone here
vraut to do anything for these others ?”
the thought that they could do any
flung was new to almost all—to many
' wish but like
even the was now; one
(kd! heart-throb came their answer :
“Xe* 1 II 11 III want to do
womething 1”
“Children, what can yon do ?”
A pause, and then one little voice
“Dive ’em a cent 1”
That was the first offer, but it was
fallowed by many another: “Give ’em
«andy 1” “Give ’em a turkey 1” “Give
'em a coat I’’—each tiegiimiug with that
gyand word, “Give.”
Tbe result of that meeting was this :
To form a club which should last
“forever”; to call it “The Children’s
Christinas Club’’; to have for its motto:
“Proely ye have membership received, freely fee give”;
to place the at ten
cents, weuteid so that no child should be pre
from joining because he was not
■“rich”; to make no distinction in regard
to sect or nationality; to permit to join
tbe club any girl or boy under eighteen
years of age who To accepted be ready its at principles, all
•which were: times
•with kind words to assist children less
tort acute than themselves; to make
even- year, in Christmas week, a festival
of some kind for them; to save through
tbe year toys, books, and games, instead
■of carelessly destroying practicable, them; to save
and, whenever put in good
re pur ail outgrown clothing; to beg
mothing from any souroe, but to keep us
tbe key-stone of the club the word
“Give [; to pay every year a tax of ten
ante: and to make their first festival in
tbe City Hall on Thursday, December
98. 1882.
Iff A GIPSY CAMP.
A UnRS Dssrrlpiton si « Itsraasy Mettle
tuetu la Musses.
The London Telegraph says: “Of
"the younger fry there were as many as
lolf a dozen, four of them girls, whose
•gee may have ranged from eleven to
Suurt-oen, and they were worse clad even
"Unit the two women, nor were the grow¬
ing boys better covered. As for the lit
llr children, whose skins, poor little
■wretches, for lack of washing, were of
the color of light mahogany, several of
Sbcrn were as naked as they were Ixirn,
and there in an atmosphere pungent
writl' the odor of onions and misty with
11m- steam of the stew, they were all
Noddled higgled' - piggledy on the
ground, some reclining at full length,
others squatted ‘nose anil knees' to¬
gether. discussing their supper with an
tepfietite only to heohtained by a day's
ail iu a hop garden.
“The tout contained no single article of
favniuire ip the ordinary sense of tbe
term. An empty barrel, that apparently
bad one*- contained flour, stood in the
■centre with a Ixiard across the top of it,
and on this stood a shallow brown pan.
which contained wlmt hiul been cooked
an the large kettle. Riid beside it were
arvrraj (oaves of bread. Two of the
woman presided. The three men squat
ten! cross-legged, with a large zinc wash
aug-bowl filled with the savory mess ou
the ground in their midst, and a foiur
iutivee, ponitd k*f, from which, witli their clusp
they hacked n ‘chunk’ ns they
acquired it. Plates and spoons there
were none. They thrust their wedges
at breed into the howl, and so extracted
tbe broth, and they helped themselves
to meat with their dirty fingers, tearing
st asunder with their teeth when the
y i vo *' were too large to put at once in
■the mouth. In a gallon stone bottle
they Its 1 beer, which for eonvenienc ■C IV
drinking was tilted into a yellow pint
tom.
••! a i less ceremony was observed by
vho children iu eating. Tlie female in
«barge of the bread cut a substantial
*rmmd* from « loaf and tossed it to the
rider ones as they reclined on the ground,
and then the custodian of the stew fished
out a pit'Oe of meat and thrust it all hot
.uid reeking at the end of n fork toward
die eayer hand held out for it, and the
scot if was clapped atop of the bread, and
•o. without the aidof a knife, the ration
was devoured. f ~ smaller children
were nerved in the
Id*.-toy. When the men had hud their
howl replenished ami the women ha<i
cooed the pan with the remains of the
broth and some bread broken up in it.
wbb placed OR the ground, and squealing
(freedily hustling each the other like so
many other little pig,, gypsy infants
made abort work of it.
After Immigrants.—As a means of
j,l<tii] a small part of the onormoiu
emigration that is pouring into the
Xorthweet, a writer in the Charleston
OUBrver suggest* to Southerners that
can find profit in parcelling out al
vast domains and giving away
l* Batches of fiftv acre*.
EDITORIAL JiOTES.
Thr Tennessee cotton mill, at Nash¬
ville, has just declared a dividend equal
to an annual dividend of fourteen per
cent., after having quite recently doubled
its capacity. The cotton mills north and
east are complaining of Laid times, but
in the south there seems to be no reason
for complaint.
The report of the general superinten¬
dent of the life saving service shows
4,617 lives, and $5,671,700 worth of
property saved during the past year.
During that period there were 300 disas¬
ters to vessels within the field of the sta¬
tion operations, and of the 3,792 persons
on those vessels only fifteen were lost
Of $7,176,540 worth of property im¬
perilled only $1,564,740 was lost The
number of vessels lost was sixty-eight.
At the close of the last fiscal year the ser¬
vice embraced 194 stations ; 149 being o*
the Atlantic, 37on the lakes, 7 on the
Pacific, and 1 at the falls of the Ohio,
Louisville, Ky.
The immense canned goods interest
in Baltimore have recently held a con¬
vention, and agreed upon size of oans.
This was done to prevent the cutting of
rates by the use of small sized cans.
The convention also agreed to ask the
legislature to absolutely close the Ghesa
peske oyster l aids from April 1 to Sep¬
tember 1. This is demanded to prevent
overtaken dredges from claiming that
they took the oysters in dispute in Vir¬
ginia waters. The proposition to make
the Potomac river forbidden ground to
all dredging vessels during tbe warm sea¬
son, will, it is claimed, protect the beds
upon which the canned goods interests of
Baltimore is bused.
At the Louisville exposition Major E.
A. Burko spoke of tbe recuperation of
tbe Southern States in a most hopeful
strain. He said that during the past
four years the twelve states constituting
what is commonly knowu as the south,
liave increased their assessed values
from $640,700,000 on an average of $160,-
176,000, and the increase of 1883 over
1882 amounts to $253,000,000, which is
nearly equal to the value of the whole
cotton crop. Alabama, Georgia, North
Carolina and Booth Carolina, have built
twenty cotton mills in the past year.
The coal fields of these state cover 5,310
square miles, and the output of these fields
has increased from 10/100 in 1872 to
1,200,000 tons in 1882. No section in the
union has shown anything like such pro
gross.
The Bartholdi statue is mode of cop¬
per, strengthened \ry an inner skeleton
of iron. For each piece a center or mold
was made of wood, on which the copper
could be worked and fitted. The sheet
copper epidermis of the figure is made
of 300 pieces and weighs 178,000 pounds,
whi e tho iron frame weighs 264,000
pounds. When finally erected the
molded sheets of copper will be riveted
together by copper bolts, and the iron
skeleton will be secured to tbe masonry
by twelve great foundation bolts. The
variations due to temperature are pro¬
vided for hy elasticity in every part, and
corroding will be cheeked by painting
with red lead wherein iron and copper
ore in contact. It is reckoned thst the
pressure of wind upon the statue, which
will lie 150 feet high, may go as high as
1‘.Ml,000 pounds
Mu. Leo Daft recently made a aue
oessfnl trial of his electrio railway motor
on the Saratoga, Mr. McGregor and
Lake George railway at Saratoga. 1 he
motor is a peculiarly shaped, box-like
structure, jointed bright ml, a id sur¬
mounted by a brass bell. The driving
seat holds only one person, aiul the ma¬
chinery is covered from sight. Between
die rails of the track upon which the
motor r« sted a third rail was insulated
from it* fastening spikes at each tie by a
strip of vulcanized rubber. The elec
tricity for the afikir is manufactured by
u generating machine a quarter of a mile
away. The wheel under the motor takes
up the electricity and passes it into the
dynamo in the box. The electro-magnets
are set iu motion and small pulleys com¬
municate tbe power to the axil's by layer
pulleys on the latter, aud convey the
current to the outer rails and complete
the circuit,
The dangers that accompany the
stringing of electric light wire* are be¬
ginning to be understood and dreaded.
If a wire of ^ie Brush light forms “a
ground” it roaches a white heat, and a
fire ensues if it touches wood. _ If 'lie
wood is wet, it becomes a conductor, and
a fire is almost certain to occur. Tlie
^ insulating material can not renter
secure against all accidents of tins
kind. The current is so strong that
death ensues instantly if it is pawed
*
thro ’ 1 « h . «»* . , ^ anJ , tLe ., „
*ieu are very naturally averee to too
close an acquaintance with these wires.
Not long ago the •uperintendent of the
eiectrieilight company at Dev ton grabbed
a wire to keep from falling, and he was
killed as by a flash. It had been raining.
and ... the current . passed , through . .. bun
an electic-light wire forma a connection
in wet weather with a telephone wire,
something or somebody is snre to be
melted.
The only confederate eye-witness of
the death of General A. P. Hill gives a
thrilling account of that event in tbe
Philadelphia Times The writer. Ser¬
geant G. W. Tucker, chief of General
Hill’s staff of couriers, state that after the
general’s right gave way in front of
Petersburg, General Hi 1 made on effort
to reach General Lee’s quarters. Taking
Tucker with him hecrossed the Bowdoin
plank road, aiid striking through an old
fiell the two eame upon a party of
federal* in tbe cover of the woods. Two
of the blue coats were some distance in
advance of the others. General HiB and
his courier called on them to surrender,
but the only response was a bullet which
struck General HiB with fatal effect
Tucker made his way into Longstreet’s
lines, and thence to General Lee, to
whom he made his sad report Directing
the courier to accompany Colonel Palmer
to Mrs. HiB, General Lee said: '‘Col¬
onel, break the news to her as gently as
possibe.”
In England there is more land lying
idle in sporting grounds, game preserves
and landlords’ porks, than the whole
kingdom of Belgium, which supports in
happiness and prosperity 6,000,000 peo¬
ple, and sends large food exports to
London. An income of $175,000,000 a
yen* is received by 8,142 landlords as
rent on 46,500,900 acres of land. They
do no work, but recall Carlyle’s picture
of the French’ Marqwiq perfumed and
petted, who sat in his castle window and
watching a poor woman gathering nettles
in the rain, received one nettle of three,
as rent. If Eng 1 and were cultivated as
closely and as thoroughly as Jersey it
would not only amply feed its present
pojmlation but 50,000,000 besides. So
vast are its t acts of idle laud, however,
that $150,000,000 a year is sent out of
England annually to buy food. It is
with such arguments as these that the
land-hunger of the poorer English classes
is sharpened by the leaders of the radical
movement.
The erection of large oil refin rios in
San Francisco by ex-Governor Pei kins,
Charles Goodall, Captain Knowles and
other capitalists, will enable the Pacific
coast to handle the entire whale product
of that section, instead of shipping it to
New Bedford. About 30 out of the 150
vessels engaged in the whaling trade are
employed in Pacific waters. American
whaling dates from 1794, and the tonnage
has increased from 4,129 tons in that
year to 32,802 in 1882. At present the
chief use of whale oil is for lubricating
axles and machinery. The sperm is used
for candies, fancy and toilet articles.
The old-time abuses on whaling vessels
have almost entirely disappeared. The
seamen are well treated, they have an
interest in the catch, and it is to the in¬
terests of the officers and men to get
along harmoniously. Men get from $30
to $75 a month. The perils of the busi¬
ness are very great, but tbe profits are
proportionately large, especially as the
price of bone has gone gradually up from
50 cents per pound to between $2.50 and
$3.
The new canti-lever bridge over the
Niagara has been practically completed,
though it wiB not be opened until the 1st
of December. It is an enormous struc¬
ture of iron 910 feet long without the ap¬
proaches. The total weight resting on
the towers is under the maximum strain
6,400 inns, and the track of the Canada
Southern, which crosses the bridge, is
239 feet above the water at the central
span. This work represents the first use
in bridge building of tbe principle repre¬
sented in the name. Canti-lever expresses
the leverage obtained by an external
angle. Take two pieces of timber or iron,
join them endwise at a very wide angle,
set this angular part upon a pillar,
balance the arms so that the ends are on
a leve with each other, and you 1 ave
the principle of the power which sup¬
ports the great bridge. This plan is
cheap and quick, white in strength it
compares well with the best of the old
methods of bridge building.. The new
eanti-levor bridge stands only 300 fett
above the old suspension bridge and pre¬
sents a strong contrast to it. The wires,
railways, and tine work of the old bridge
give i. the appearance of tbe finished task
of the basket weaver ; while the canti
t° ver stern, rugged and boki At the
foot of the tower of the new bridge the
first rip;>le of the Whirlpool Rapids can
be seen. So fast does the torrent increase
that the water is boiling and seething
ua ^ er tbe old bridge only 300 feet "below.
Not long since a little three-and-a-hall
year old was out in the garden, when she
P ..p er i ull L th \t was i motW
Catherine food for her children at home
and they mav suffer with hunger;” ’x_ when
I.tn renbd P with Fru.k^ tS’tJ ,. T
j^,. ™ Ut'rte ™ was £f
, wtle j T the
mrl ’’ *
— — -
Hbkbebt Bmncbr says Americans are
'° dnTeo by business that they never
5top t0 leisurel y ermine anything,
Guess he never saw 500 or 600 busy
Americans standing around for two hours
watching three men raising an office safe
to a fourth-etory window.
GE^EKAL NEWS.
Key West, Fla., is to hare a street
railway.
Mioa has been discovered in Cobb
connty, Georgia.
Rockboro. N. C., is building a $12,000
court-house.
Florida is utilizing convicts on tur¬
pentine farms.
A sew silver mine has been opened in
Wautauga county, N. C.
“Liberty” street in Milledgeville, Ga.,
leads from the penitentiary to the cem¬
etery.
There is a Mormon church east of
Aberdeen, Miss., just over Hie Alabama
line, Tulare’s total donation to the
Mr.
University in Louisiana now amounts to
$1,00#,000.
Lewis Hawkins, colored, is editing a
paper devoted to the interests of the col¬
ored people in Rome, Ga.
It is said that ten pounds of solid gold
recently taken out of the Ball mine
in Georgia in one day.
A man in Bumpter connty, Tennessee,
has gathered 600 bushels of hickory nuts
which he proposes to sell.
Two hundred and thirty-one children
are enrolled at the colored public school
in Pine Bluff, Ark.
Vessels are in great demand for the
lumber business at Mississippi City,
which is said to be thriving this season.
At the next session of the Mississippi
Legislature an effort will be made for
the establishment of a State female col¬
lege. sword of honor, which
The Appling
has hung in the Executive office for
nearly seventy years, is to be turned
over to the Georgia Historical Society
for safe keeping, until the new eapitol is
completed.
Clement Cato, colored, 104 years old,
walked from his home to Rome, Ga.,a
distance of four miles, to pay his tax.
He is still hale and hearty. Floyd conn¬
ty also boasts of a white man, Mr. Huck
by, ninety-three years old, who has
picked cotton every day this season.
Jaokson county, Fla, beasts among
other things a natural well, formed by
the sinking of earth, near Greenwood, a
few months ago. and a natural bridge of
limestone across the Chipola river, about
three miles above Marianna, formed by
the river sinking for the distance of half
a mile.
The long-expected development of the
marble quaries of Georgia is at hand. A
party of gentlemen have just closed the
purchase of two of the most important
fields, and the managers of the Rutland,
Vermont, Marble Company are now in
“flanhi for the purpose of investing in
some of the same property.
The passage of the steamer Silverton
through the jetties below New Orleans,
is considered the best evidence yet given
of their success With the exception of
the Great Eastern, the Silverton is the
largest freight carrier afloa', and there
are now only half a dozen ships in the
world that can not easily land at that
city.
Atlanta Constitution : The failure
of the Mississippi Valley Bank grows in
magnitude as the facts come out. It is
now admitted that the liabilities are over
one million. The bank seems to have
been a family affair, the President being
Geo ge M. Klein, the cariiier John A.
Klein, Jr., assistant cashier William M.
Klein, and John A. Klein, Sr., as a sort
of business director. Tbe advertisement
announces that the bank is “not incor¬
porated.”
The winter exodus from the North to
Florida is unusually large this year.
About 250 people leave New York every
day for Jacksonville, and probably 500
people arrive in the latter city every day
from different parts of the country. I he
manlier will continue increasing nntil
February. A good many settlers are go¬
ing at present A majority of the set
tlere go to south Florida, in the neigh¬
borhood of Sanford. Great numbers are
going from New England, New York and
Pennsylvania.
The Mistake of a Bank Teller.
A few days ago it was announced that
Mr. Henry Davies, a gentleman of good
position in,Liverpool, had been arrested
in the Isle of Man for having improperly
obtained a large sum of money from the
Liverpool branch of the Bank of Eng¬
land, Mr. Davies, on Saturday, asked the
22d instant, went to the bank and
for smaller change for $150 in notes.
The teller, instead of giving him $20
notes, gave him by some error several
notes of tbe value of $100 each. After
Mr. Davies left the bank the mistake was
{ ™ D< } led to Jie am
•
,
the She bank Ml Davies wrote
his name and address on the notes, and
^rote on a piece of paper what change
he wanted. This was about
Mr. Davies was engaged to go to the
Me of Man by the 10 p. m. boat After
bank, he out wrote the a numeu ® note ad * to me ^
manager of the Ivank, telling him a mis
porter ^fh is dub and sailed for
^ j g j e 0 j Th e bank manager got
the note, but saw fit to issue a warrant
against Mr. Davies, under which he was
arrested. After inquiry into the matter,
however, Mr. Davies has been released,
—Pall Mall Gazette.
PECK’S BAD BOY AGAIN.
HE RELIEVES THE SBPFKIlIXfiS OP
AN OLD ISCIIOOI.MATE.
Hr- Tries His Hand at a Little Work •!
Charity and Succeed# very Well.
“ You say a word against that poor
girl, and down comes your grocery,"
said the bad boy to the grocery- man.
“ She is a Christian, that girl is, though
she don’t put ou airs and go to church
with silk dresses and rich duds. But
Bhe prays, by jingo, lietter than any of
’em. You see her she father is a drunkard,
and he takes half makes peddling
apples, to buy gin, and her grandmother
has got the consumption, and that takes
the other half to support her. I knew
that girl when I went to school, and
yesterday she come to me crying, and
said she was going to ask a favor of me
’cause I had a heart in me. It seems her
drunken father had taken all her money,
and had gone on on awful bum, and she
didn’t have any to buy some of those
eough syrup lozenges for her grandma,
and the old lady was chokin’ up pretty
rough, and she wanted me to lend her
a dollar till she could realize on the ap¬
ples she was going to get trusted for.
Probably you have noticed I haven’t got
any watch this morning. I have got my
chain, with a bunch of keys on it in my
pocket, but nobody will know I haven’t
got any watch unless they ask me what
time it is, and then I will tell them it
has run down, and I guess it has, ’cause
pawnbrokers never wind np watches.
Well, sir, I got four dollars on my watch,
and I went and bought apples for her
and medicine for her grandma, and then
I went down home with her. When I
went in the little room, where the old
lady was on a bed, and heard her let off
one of those regular hark-from-the-tombs
coughs, that sounded away down cellar,
where it is damp and mouldy, I tell you
it rqade me feel serious. And when that
ragged little girl got down on her knees
and prayed, there in the dirt, and asked
God to bless the friend that had risen
np and lifted such a load off the sufferer,
do you know, I felt as though I had
swallowed a piece of turnip or something
hard, and couldn’t get it np or down,
and the tears came to my eyes just like
when you peel onions.
‘ ‘She didn’t use any of this highfalutin
language, such as the high salaried
preachers use, where you want a diction¬
ary in your pew to find what the words
mean.' It was no full dress formal
prayer. The little girl got right down
on her knees, and said, ‘Oh, Father in
Heaven,’ just as though God was sitting
right there in front of her on a three
legged stool, and seemed confident that
the Heavenly Father heard her. She
didn’t tell God anything about my
pawning my watch and buying the
apples, and she didn’t mention my name
at all, hut I could imagine that He who
watches even the sparrows fall, was onto
the bunch of keys in my vest pocket,
hitched to the watch chain, bigger than
a honse. I could have listened to that
dirty, ragged girl pi-ay for and an hour, she
was so natural, and pitiful, talked so
God could understand it whether He had
ever graduated at college or not. But
she wasn’t talking against time, for
wages and she just seemed to ha ve a
little conversation with the good Lord
jnst as a child wonld with its father, and
then she got np and fired some medicine
down her grandma, and made her a enp
of tea on an oil stove, and toasted a piece
of bread and poached an egg while I sat
there thinking. Do you know she broke
me all up. If it wasn’t for that old calico
dress, and the shoes ran over at the
heel,' and the moth eaten stockings, I
should have thought she was an angel,
and by gum, I will pawn everything I
have for her to get things for her grand
ma, but somebody else has got to chip in
to buy gin for the old man. I can’t ran
a hospital and a distillery I both, on one
cheap watch, but am going to work
for the humane society next week, and
that girl can have all the money I make,
as long as the old lady’s cough hangs on.
‘ ‘Say, do you think there is any bath¬
room in heaven where they can take
such a dirty girl will as that and make crowd an
angel of her that from pass under in her a ?
Take the dirt out finger
nails and soak her hands in hot water,
nnd put cold cream on them, and let her
sleep a few nights with rubber gloves on,
and I suppose they could make her pass
as an angel. Well, I have got to go
down to the Humane society office. I
was in a street-ear the other night, and
the car was full, and got off the track,
and the mules couldn’t pull it. All the
men sat there and wouldn’t get out.
They read papers, and acted mad, while
the driver pounded tbe mules. I was
on the back step, and I yelled, ‘The
members of the Humane society are re¬
quested to get out of the car and help
push.’ You ought to have seen ’em.
They all looked at each other, and then
they all got out, and some of them looked
ashamed, bnt they helped society tne muies. heard
The boss of the Humane
of it, and he said he wonld give me a job
watching for butchers who maul cattle.
I guess I can work my way up so I will
finally hold the proud position of looking
after lame horses that draw swill wagons.
Well, I must go and send the doctor
down the alley, to sound the old lady’s
cough, aud have him charge it to pa. ”
As the boy went out the grocery man
told the carpenter that (he boy had a
heart in him as big as a barrel, but you
had to watch the raisin box, all the
same. when he was around.— Peck's
Sun.
Women Lawyers In Italy.
Italy is getting as much ahead of us
as America. La Signora Lydia Poet
has just been admitted to practice at the
bar of Turin, and appeared for the first
tone in her barrister s gown to plead tbe
cause of a young painter whose pictures
had been unjustly detained hy his land
lord, and much injured by ‘he damp of
the garret to which they had been con
signed. The lady barrister obtained a
great success for her humorous descrip
tion of the subject of the pictures, and,
amid much applanse. obtained a verdict
with goodly damages in favor of her
client. She was escorted home, still en
veloped in her lawyer's robes, by a large
concourse of people, who in gave her a sere
nade in the evening, which the tenor
voice of the young painter was conspicu¬
ous by its deep expression .—London
Herald.
A WORD ABOUT CHRISTMAS.
Its Arrival Unexpected Every Year—Some¬
thing About Presents.
When what was burdan, designed it is to time be to a
pleasure becomes examine a it carefully, and
stop and see
if it is the thing itself which has grown
to be such a weight, or whether it is
simply an awkward manner of carrying
it. Certainly there must be something
wrong in any celebration of Christmas
which results in serious fatigue of mind
and body. During the first three
months of the year, nothing is more
commonly given as a reason for ill
health than an overstrain during the
holidays. "She got so worn out at
finishing Christmas,” her or “She Christmas worked too hard in
“The before Christmas presents,” or
week she was
tired out with shopping,” are excuses
which appear as surety as January and
February come. The question must
occur sometimes to every one, whether
all this worry and wear of heart and
hand and brain are really worth while.
Is there not some better way of celebra¬
ting this day of days than for women to
wear themselves oat in making or buying
pretty trifles for people who already
have more than they can find room for?
Betting aside all effort of eyes and fin¬
gers, the mental strain is intense.
Merely to devise presents for a dozen or
more people, which must be appropriate
and acceptable, and which they do not
already possess, and which no one else
is likely to hit upon, is enough to wear
upon the strongest brain; and when
one’s means are not unlimited, and the
question of economy must come in, the
matter is still more complicated. The
agony of indecision, the weighing of
rival merits in this and that, the dis¬
tress when the article which is finally
decided upon does not seem as fascina¬
ting as one had hoped, the endless round
of shopping, the packing to send to dis¬
tant friends, the frantic effort to finish
at the last moment something which
ought to have heen done long ago, result
in a relapse, when all is over, into a
complete weariness of mind and body
which unfits odc for either giving or re¬
ceiving pleasure. Now, when all this is
looked at soberly, does it pay ? It is a
remarkable fact that, although Christ¬
mas has been kept on the twenty-fifth
day of December for more than a thou¬
sand years, its arrival seems as unex¬
pected as if it had been appointed by the
President. No one is ready for it, al¬
though last year every one resolved to
be so, and about the middle of Decem¬
ber there begms a rush and hurry which
Is really more wearing than a May mov
ing.
It seems to be *a part of the fierce a c
tivity of our time and country that even
our pleasures must be enjoyed at high
pressure. While it is almost impossi
ble, in matters of business, to act upon
the kindly suggestion should of things intelligent
critics that we take more
leisurely, surely, make in matters of enjoy¬
ment, overworked. we might Cannot an the effort keeping to be less
of
Christmas, for example, be made to con¬
sist in other things than gifts? Let the
giving be for the children and those to
whom our gifts are real necessities.
As a people, we are negligent in the
matter of keeping birthdays. If these
festivals were made more of in the family,
especially among the elder members, we
should not find that we were losing the
blessedness of giving and the happiness
of receiving, even if we did omit pres¬
ents at Christmas time. In many large
families a mutual understanding that
the Christmas gifts were all to be for
the children would be an immense relief,
although, perhaps, acknowledge no one would be
quite willing to circle brothers it. Some¬
times a large of and sis¬
ters can unite in a gift, in that way
making it possible and to give something of
more value, at the some time to
lessen the difficult task of selection.
Above all things, if you give presents,
be more anxions to give something which
“supplies a want” than to send some
pretty trifle which can only piove in the
end an additional care. A little fore¬
thought and friendly putting of yourself
in another’s place will make this possible.
In the great world of books something
can be found to suit every taste. Flow¬
ers are always a graceful gift, and can
never become burdensome by lasting
after one has grown tired of them.
There are numberless other things which
can be procured, without a wear and
tear recipient of mind feel and David body did which of the make water the
as
from the well of Bethlehem, that what
cost so much was too valuable to be ac¬
cepted.— Susan Anna Brown, in tbe
Century for December.
About the Birds.
A bad boy on Tremont street the other
afternoon threw a stone at a roadway, pigeon which
was walking about in the and
tumbled it over in the dirt. It immedi¬
ately recovered itself, however, and flew
away before the boy could catch it. An
energetic and rather muscular woman
who was passing caught hold of him,
however, and treated him to alternate
shakes by the ear and blows over the
head with an umbrella, accompanying
this exercise with shrill outcries against
his brutishness and the despicable
cruelty to animals which his conduct re¬
vealed. “If I were your mother,” said
she, as she gave him a parting cuff, “I
would whip you within an inch of yon
life, and if I were the Governor” (charm¬
ing feminine ignorance of affairs politi¬
cal this !) “I wonld pass a law to send
every boy to jail birds”—and who threw stones at
poor, innocent thus giving
vent to her emotions she sailed down the
street, very much aglow from her exer
[jons. And as she departed a cynical
person who stood by observed that she
bad upon her hat three stuffed swallows
the pearly wings of two small sea
birds—beautiful, inoffensive taken creatures,
wll ose lives had been because a
passing caprice of fashion called for the
sacr ifice. And this philosopher said to
himself something very uncompliment
arv it about woman’s appropriate inability to pensive
th the sauce to the goose
„ ave a zest also to the flavor of the
p * ac * ~ dtr. '
----»-
A Mormon is now as bold as a grizzly,
and Uncle Sam loves one quite as well
as tbe other,
Going Sotth. —Twelve locomotives
were shipped week. from Philadelphia foi
Brazil iv one