Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1858-12-25
The Merry Christmas Time.

W lSh hOu A AlEhh1 OhklSIMAs4 Is luC
Joyous greeting this blessed morning through
out Christendom Childhood shouts it to pa
rents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins,
grandmas, grandpas, servants, and the ''stran-
gers within the gate" and the heart-wish is
responded back from every tongue. cottage
bare' or 'palace fair it is all the same The
salutation is universal; and there are more jo-
cund, rollicking people, big and little, on the
footstool this Christmas Day, than On any 9TH
er of the three hundred and sixty-five the gIO-
rious sun shines into. Gifts are given-no
matter whether costly or not, the good wishes
which accompany them are priceless They
stir the waters of affection, family. social, and
neighborhood, and they well up and overflow
from soul to soul, moistening the most arid
spots and vitalizing the coolest Family feuds
and arrangements are healed, forgiven. and
forgotten, and the angel part of humanity tn
umphs. Home enjoyments and home felicities
do most abound in the Christmas time, and
wherever they do is realized
domestic happiness, the only bliss
Of Paradise that has survived the fall.'
Christmas is in truth the festival season of
afl classes. 1t comes to ALL the poor as well
as the rich, for the old carol by Martin Luther
sung three centuries ago is no less true now
than then. 1t
-"bears good news to every home"
This was exsmplifed last market day The
wagons laden with evergreens were surrounded
with buyers of every degree, but mostly by
the humble, and Christmas trees and branches
were borne alike to palace, cottage, and cabin.
The thin clad child who carried but sprig by
the side of the mother with her scant filled
basket, looked happy in the thought of the
Christmas gifts that mother would hang upon
it-gifts more precious to even, the children of
poverty than apples of gold. But we have
only space to wish ga MERRY CHRISTMAS ~ to
all, and repeat from some good fellow the fol-
lowing right pleasant
| CHRISTMAS TALK WITH LITTLE FOLKS.
Everybody wonders why SANTA CLAUS al
ways comes down the chimney on Christmas
eve, instead of entering at the door-bus every
body don't know that he has only one hour to
night till one in the morning, Just sixty min
utes is all the time allowed him to distribute all
his presents, among about fifty millions of stock
| ings, and he can't stop to ring bells and call up
the people in the house. Besides, he don't like
to be seen with his great load of toys, and
things that little children like, for fear people
should tell stories about him, and laugh at his
odd appearance. A very sensitive old fellow
is "SANTA CLAUS" and anybody who ridcules
him, needn't hang up any stocking on "Christ-
mas eve.' He is testy fellow too, sometimes,
gets out of humor at any little slight, and won't
&c put upon by anybody.
SANTA CLAUS, a great many hundred years
ago, used to go right into the houses among the
children, and hand out his presents to them face
to face, and the little ones used to love him very
much, but some big boys and girls that thought
they more than anybody else, made fun
of the old fellow, and then he declared he
would never make any present to chill
dren who didn't hang their stockings in the
corner on Christmas eve and go 10 bed, leaving
it to him to determine what he would put IN
their stockings. People used te leave their
doors open for him, but it sometime happened
that after old SANTA CLAUS had been around,
thieves went in to the houses and stole all the
presents he had left, and good many things
besides, SO that for safety, people locked their
doors. So the next year when
Old SANTA CLAUS came to the door
| He found it all locked up tight;
And when be looked in at the window
And saw that within was no light
And in low dutch he swore,
And declared it bore,
And many things more
to keep an honest old dutch gentleman out in
the cold, when so many little children
Were snug in their beds,
With dreams in their heads,
| And visions so bright
| Ofhis coming that night
and filling their stockings with oceans of nice
things, as he had done every Christmas Eve for
Thousand years.
Then he thought how they'd grieye,
Hperchance he should leave
Or go off in huff,
| In humor SO grutf,
How the coming to o-morTOW,
Would bring with it sorrow,
if SANTA CLAUS should fail to drop his holiday
presents, as was expected of him, into the stock
ings that hung in the corner.
Then he shouldered his traps,
Took a pull at the Schnapps,
And up from the ground,
With a wonderful bound
/ ba, IL. D-l