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Show Kathleen Norris Says: I Our Third War Christinas Bell Syndicate WNU Feature!. Kerry 5Tms There was a Sunday school tree for poor children, always a wonderful spiritual spirit-ual uplift for the luckier children who wrapped and distributed packages. By KATHLEEN NORRIS NOW that Christmas is so close some of us who are getting on in years are remembering other Christmases. It rather sobers me to realize that my Christmas Christ-mas recollections go back more than half a century say to Christmas in 1893. We lived in the country then; father, mother, unmarried unmar-ried aunt almost every family fam-ily was supplied with one of these, and six children. My father was a bank manager on a salary of six thousand a year, which was considered wealth. We had a horse and a surrey, two cows, chickens, a cook and an upstairs maid. The cook did all the washing in a day when ladies and little girls revelled in white starched petticoats and embroidered em-broidered muslin nighties; she did all the cooking and put up 400 jars of fruit every year. The maid helped with ironing, made the beds, swept the rooms, and acted as nurse about half the time. These girls were paid $22 and $17 a month, respectively. respec-tively. Beef was 10 to 16 cents a pound, "soup vegetables" came for nothing; bread was five cents a loaf; children's "pebble-goat" shoes cost less than two dollars a pair. We children had plenty of jobs; we had no sense of sitting back and being waited upon. My older brother broth-er had full responsibility for the cows, horse and chickens; my sister and I had to dust rooms, to fill 17 lamps every day, to set and clear the dining table, to sweep porches, to run errands for the grown-ups. When the semi-annual sewing orgy was on, and Miss Wilde came, we had to clear the sewing room every night, a job I think of even now with loathing. Scraps and threads and paper patterns Church Important at Christmas. Christmas was a great time. Preparations Prep-arations had to go on about four fronts. Church was one important item. There must be special music, which meant night rehearsing with all its thrills of walks in the swinging swing-ing lantern light; there must be special spe-cial decorations. There was a Sunday Sun-day School tree for poor children, always a wonderful spiritual uplift for the luckier children who wrapped and distributed packages. Then there were presents to make and more rarely to buy. There was the tree to find, and fell, and trim. There was the kitchen excitement excite-ment of seeding raisins and chopping chop-ping citron, with all the grown-ups buzzing about. And finally, there were family arrivals, cousins, aunts, Grandma, coming in cold and beaming, beam-ing, and being welcomed by roaring fires and dancing children; dinner all ready, beds carefully assigned, red berries on the table and fragrant fra-grant wreaths at the windows. And the solemn ceremony of stocking-hanging stocking-hanging for the last thing Christmas Christ-mas Eve. There was no war then, no talk of war. There had been a Civil war not too many years earlier, but as the family had been sharply divided between Boston and Richmond, it was never mentioned. What was going on in the Balkans, in Lady-smith Lady-smith or Manchuria concerned us not at all. That the machines that men were even then inventing would one day grow into such hideous power pow-er that whole cities would fall in ashes beneath them; that war would reach out across the wide oceans and engulf us, never occurred for one instant to the ladies who sat rocking before the great wood fire. Telephones were new and considered consid-ered a somewhat fearful power. No mention of automobiles, radio, movies mov-ies as ye!. No wireless; no planes. Without all these the world was a SPREAD JOY ON CHRISTMAS Kathleen Norris reminisces remi-nisces about the Christmas of her childhood. Everyone in the family was kept busy. Most presents were not merely bought. They were created by the giver. Church affairs occupied oc-cupied most of the younger celebrants' time with rehearsals rehear-sals of carols and Christmas dramas. Out of all this activity blossomed the Christmas spirit which found its way into the hearts of the whole family. Today To-day it may be difficult to find the glowing warmth of Christmas. Christ-mas. But those who look forward for-ward to a better world realize the necessity of singing the eternal message: "Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth, peace to men of good will." safer-feeling place, whatever great good they may bring to mankind in the wiser years to come. Empty Chair This Tear. There will be no Christmas like that old Christmas this year; not anywhere in the whole world. Not anywhere father, mother, children, kinsfolk sitting down together to turkey tur-key and oyster soup and mince pie. There is an empty chair this year beside Mother, and Aunt Emily is very quiet in her new black. The smallest baby gets his rattle and his new blankets, but he doesn't get a kiss from his Daddy. Daddy has been a prisoner of war for long and weary months. Everyone is resolutely cheerful, but the old gaiety is laid aside for awhile. The women's voices aren't murmuring about sage in the dressing dress-ing or the ridiculous cost of doll buggies. No, this year it's "Still missing, Grandma. But Jim was a wonderful swimmer, and we hope " "They heard last week; he may have leave in February." "They got the boxes off 'way back in October, but of course we don't know that they got there." "He's a lieutenant now, Uncle George in Italy, we think." And so on and on until the roll call of every beloved name and the Brown boy, and the Smith boy, and Mary Jones' husband, and Helen's father, is complete. Oh, I hope the boys know it, know how our hearts are with them, how we pray for them and think of them and thank them, on all the battle-fronts! battle-fronts! In the long dull days of marking time in our camps, in the dreadful lonely white Aleutians, on the blazing roaring red lines of war, their mothers and wives and sisters are with them, every hour of the day. Spirit of Day Must Not Suffer. And at home we must do what we can to keep Christmas still Christmas. Christ-mas. If the turkey has turned it self into a lamb stew or a fish chowder; chow-der; if the ice-cream Is only a rather rath-er weak frozen custard; if the presents pres-ents are only what was left after the boys' boxes were shipped away, the spirit of Christmas need not suffer. suf-fer. There may still be wreaths in the windows and candlelight on the tree; the children may still arrange their tableaus and charades; the cousins and aunts may still come trooping in out of the cold to the welcoming fire. "I hoped you were in church, praying for me at that exact moment, mo-ment, Mother," wrote a boy from Sicily last July. "I thought of you all, Ellen and the kids and Dad and Betsey, and where you might be. I placed them all at home well, say getting ready for Sunday supper on the porch. But I placed you in church, thinking of me and praying for me. Somebody must be, for I seem to lead a charmed life. Don't stop." |