| Show SAD SIDE OF CHRISTMAS the world is given to fads these fads riso flourish and fade away like the swinging pendulum they vibrato from one extreme to the other to wax and wane and wane and wax has been and is the order of the universe in no other way Is this spirit exemplified more than in our present methods of observing the christmas holidays from a simple well intentioned custom ot remembering friends by giving presents as tokens of true friendship it has grown into a custom that renders it in many pases a positive burden not only so tout a fruitful source of sorrow disappointment and heartaches A christmas tree is often a scene of real sorrow instead of joy the poor attempt to cope with he rich in the matter of presents bestowed at best this bankrupts them which must be atoned for by days of privation it the father falls to supply as good ind attractive presents aa his rich neighbor then he la made to feel the humiliation of it in a public way in either case it Is inviting sorrow and think of aitho real sadness felt in tho heart of a neglected child at a public christmas tree it is not old enough to understand how or why it is that its parents do not provide for it presents as attract giveand tive and costly as other parents do tor their little one then follows a feeling unkindly toward fathers and mothers that could not be created in any oher nay it the confiding child is a believer in santa claus it Is hard to make it understand why that sage dispenser of good doles out to it some worthless undesired present while ho remembers some other child with the big doll that occupies a prominent place on the tree children feel the slight much more deeply than people suppose have you forgotten that time in your own life when 5 cents meant more to you than 50 does now these children are just like you were they feel just as keenly and as deeply as ou did at their age these acute emotions pass to a very great degree with age but remember children have not reached that ago yet weeping is but an outward indication of what is going on in the human breast whether the person be young or old children weep profusely over what we regard as very trivial affairs older persons weep when great sorrows come did you ever stop to think that after all it takes a given amount of sorrow to bring tears and that your greater sori row is no more a teal sorrow than the most trivial of the days of childhood that is to say the weeping child suffers as much over small matters as you do over greater ones we should not forget these things and should so order our lives and action as to avoid anything and everything that would create sorrows in the hearts ot these little people and more especially at a time when their hearts are attuned to joy every child looks forward to the christmas holidays as a time of joy and to disappoint them is little less than a grevious grev lous sin they go after joy to reap sorrow it you want to get the full benefit of the bitterness of a dose of you can do so by first eating a lump of sugar great care should tie exercised by all that the children are not disappointed guard against giving them dead sea brulls that tempt the eye but turn to ashes on the lips worse than all is the fact that in some cases it actually assumes a mercenary phase people grown up ones as well as liello ones figure on coming out of the holidays several dollars better off than when they went in by cultivating the friendship of those noted for their generosity in making presents their scheme la to give small presents for big ones thus making merchandise out of friendship we hope to be understood do not for one moment think that wo are opposed to people giving presents to those they love at christmas or any other time of the year be it lafrom us nothing Is sweeter or nicer than the giving and of presents to and from those we really love indeed this would be a dreary world but for the spirit that prompts such acts it Is not its use but its abuse that wo are talking about |
