The Yazoo Democrat. [volume] (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1858-18??, 1859-12-24
CHRISTMAS.


This time-honoreu holiday is again at hand and
many stockings, we opinO, will be hung tonight
with light hearts end tiny hands for presents rch'
which the old man with the reindeer and sledge
has for time out of mind had credit for bringing
Christmas, the most widely observed, perhaps, Of
all holidays, is to the children Of Christendom an
event fraught with peculiar interest and happl-
ness. In the minds of them it is connected with
visions of sugar candy, mince pies, and other
sweetmeats too tedious to mention; and in large
cities, perhaps, with hopes ola visit to the Chrst-
mas Tree"-an institution which we admire.
Nor are the 'children of larger growth in
different to the advent of Christmas day, as the
avidity with which they swallow glasses of egg
nogg abundantly bears witness to. Indeed, in
the minds of Americans the idea of Christmas
and egg-nogg are utterly inseparable, albeit that
of egg-nogg and Christmas are not
Our greatest poet has not failed to notice this
beautiful trait in our nationality, as MAY be seen
from the following verse:
He that on Christmas day hath no egg-nogg in
himself,
Nor is not moved by a bowl of this sweet beverage
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirits are dull as night,
And his affections dark as rebus:
Let no such man be trusted"
Christmas day to us bring, many pleasant
recOlections. We happen to distinctly remember
our condition just twenty years ago. We had n"
idea then that the world is big as it is, nor Of
great many other things since "dreamel of in oul
philosophy" but we knew this, that Christmas
was close at hand and that we had seven coon
value OF 87@ cts, in,good merchantable raisns ana
sugar candy. The skins constituted our share Of
q winters hunt with another white boy and three
nggers from a neighborlg plantation, which had
cost us perhaps night walks to the extent of q
couple of hundred miles, and the nggers the fell
ing of enough trees 10 have cleared respectable
patch of ground. Christmas morning came, and
we went with our furs to the establishment of one
grew. This Brinkey was noed parsonage in
those days in that neck of woods. His fame ex-
tended in radii Of twenty miles from the roadside
where he kept GROCERY" with stock in
trade of at least three hundred dollars. There
was ''run" on Brinkley's establishment that
morning, and coon skins poured in by the dozen.
The result of this was fall in the price of furs,
and loss to us of seventeen cents, for our skins
only brought US dime apiece. But we felt that
in so large a trade we could afford a small loss
SO we returned home with our treasure of raisins
and candy with light and merry heart.
How different it is with us now How we Sigh
for the enjoyment of that happiness which we
purchased twenty years ago with seven coor
skins Half the enjoyment of Christmas now is
in the recollection of how we used to be. Then we
looked not beyond tue glorious Christmas day
now we look plump through what was impenetra-
BILE to us then, and see beyond long days and
years Of toll and labor and trouble and vexation
but happiness, alas it comes not again to us as
it used to do with Christmas day.
Died-ick Knickerbocker. in his History Of New
York, hath recorded that the Yankees, as an aux
iliary in Outstanding the Indians, sold them
guns which were sure to "bust' on the first dis
charge; and it was magnanimously arranged that
the breech pin Should enter the sconce Of the
Indian about between the eyes. We make this
note that we may be understood when we express
hope that fire crackers (about which we intended
to say Something) will be invented on similar
principle.