The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-21 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL, HOLBORN.

TIM Evincrsa, ", TETE BATII ROAD. At 7.45, LOVE'S
SACRIFICE: Mr. Barry Sullivan, Mrs. Hermann Vezin, fie.
And STATE SECRETS.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Sole Lessee and Manageress, Mrs. Swanborongh.
THIS EVENING, at 7.30, AMONG THE BREAItEBS: Mr
Clarke. With THE TOODLES. And INO. Concluding with
THY CHOPS OF THE CHANNEL

CHRISTY MINSTRELS, St. James's Hall, Every Night, at 8
Wednesdays and Saturdays, at 3 9. n d 8 all the year round.

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, Regent's-park, OPEN daily (ex-
cept Sundays). Admission, ls.; on Mondays, 6d. • Children
under twel'ce, 6d.

ROYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. THREE BALLETS
Promenade Concert. Band of 60. Begin at 8. ls. Box-office
o pen fromll to 4.

•eljg %444 e-i: - Sun

LONDON, TUESDAY, DEC. 21, 18;9.

Christmas week has fairly begun, Christmas holi-
days are close at hand, Christmas festivities and
gifts and greetings are around us, in spite of the fog,
damp, and mud, that set all our old traditions at
defiance. Already the shops are sparkling with un-
wented splendour, and redolentof seasonable dainties ;
already holly and mistletoe, red and/white berries, are
telling their cheerful and kindly story. Even the
Scrooges of humanity begin to soften a little ; even
the outcasts and the wayfarers have a gleam of hope.
Preachers and philanthropists will, of course, avail
themselves of this occasion, as they have done of all
preceding ones, to point morals and illustrate argu-
ments, to persuade the reluctant giver, to mollify the
unforgiving and the selfish. When the very season
itself supplies the text, who would not be ready with
his semen or his homily ?
There is happily no need to fear that these appeals
will be fruitless, no reason to apprehend that the
poor and the sick, and the homeless, or even the
pauper and the criminal, will have no- share in that
general rejoicing which constitutes one of our rare
acknowledgments of universal brotherhood. But
there is a humble charity which is especially charac-
teristic of the season, which we would commend to
our readers notice. It is being carried on in
several parts of London by kindly and charitable
hand?, and though the different associations in
Spitalfields, in Greenwich, in Poplar, in St. Gilea's
and other quarters may have no direct connection with
each other—they are all identical in their object, and
kindred in their spirit which animates them.

It is proposed this Christmas week to give a din-
ner of beef and pudding to the children of the Ragged
Schools in some of our poorest quarters. Such an
attempt is to be made in Hope-street, Spitalfields,
in Green-lane, Greenwich, and in similar poverty-
stricken districts. Who ca❑ resist the appeal? What
moralist, however stern, what political economist,
however rigid, can forbid us to make the little ones
glad this Christmas time? Who, that looks on the
glowing faces round his own Christmas board
planning the; Christmas party or decking the
Christmas tree, can give a thought to the 2hoeless,
unkempt, uncared for little urchins groping in the
gutters, and cowering in fireless attics, and
shrinking from angry blows without helping every
effort to give them, to.), some memorial that it is
Christmas. Poor in food, in clothing, in pleasure,
they are poorest of all in the children's first claim—
Love. Shall we not show them that some at least
in this busy city can spare them a kindly thought.
Children of the same heavenly Father as the smiling