Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-12-25

i A MEKKX CHRTsTzrAs AND HLPPY NFw
YEAR."-"A A pleasant Christmas and Hap
/ py New Year" is the taIismanic congratula-
ton that, passing from mouth to mouth like
a message on the telegraph wire, conveys
the hearty triumph Of goodwill and friend
ship over ali lesser and more worldly eonsid-
erations during tho festive season, htly in
augurated on the anniversary Of the day
which is recognized as that upon which the
sublime Preacher Of peace on earth and good
viii towards men came among those Hewas
to save and suffer for.
There is girdls Of joy and happiness sur
rounding the earth at this period; the inter
change and Intervening of warm-hearted-
ness and eOngepiality, making it the social
tropic of the year. What though stormy
winds are hoRlihg round the ghostly gables
what though the hail knocks at the windows,
or the nOiseless- snow chOkes up the blinds
there are light and joy and full hearts and
laughing faces gathered round domestic fires,
and "heads Of families /" have their happy
offspring and their ehildren's children, "pOOr
relations" and all, enjoying themselves
around the patrlarehal hearth and board.
1t is quite prOvidential that this portion of
the year is set aside almost exclusively for
festivity and hospitabIe interchange. The
summer which the heart now enjoys over
balances the wintry chill that Nature its
beard of icicles prOtruding from beneath its
snowy cowl-frowns upon the earth. The
gloom of the season is forgotten in the exhu-
berant generosity and happy Open-handed-
ness Of a good and healthy custom. The
Heart-summer of to-day is unlike the June
Of the Almanac Whith changes under the in
huenee Of climate, and which, while it is as
hot as peppers at New Orleans, is as cool a
ice-cream at Hudson's Bay. But our social
June, which makes all gleeful to-day, reigns
in happy and equable sovereignty through
out Christendom, bringing like smiles to
the faces of the whiskercd Russians and the
shaven Yankee, the tinted Spaniard and pale
faced Mormon the dapper Partisan and the six
fOot-and-a-halfB Buckeye, the angular Scotch
man and graceful Virginian, the dreamy
Teuton and the practical Manhattaner, the
Norwegian /" Julebukker" 4" and the tiny wor-
shipper Of Santa Claus, the plum-puddiDg
Briton and the potato. strengthened Celt. All
are happy under the one influence now. All
acknowledge the one sovereign, and verify
we say, such time, that makes incongruOus
humanity alike loving and symPathizing, de-
serveth well at our hands-and mouth.
Society is, as it were, one great odd-FellOw
or Free-Mason lodge, and {" merry Christ
mas and happy New Year are the pass
words to the confidence of all the members;
it is a cave like the one in the Ali Baba
story, the benison of the day being the
"open sesame " to all the edible treasures
within. It is an admirable arrangement, and,
like the good Netherlanders who introduced
it among US, has more of solidity than COM
pliment about it. 1t is pleasant to think
that there is one day, least, in the year on
which all things give way to amity and
friendship-one altar, as it were, of reconcil-
iation, where all may meet, recognize and re-
joice. tits a good custom, and all the better
for being at this time of the year, for it the
more fOrcibly carries out the grand design,
thatman should trust and hope in man and
that when all is dim and cold, the resuscita-
ton of the head and heart is only found in
the head and heart Of our fellow men.
FlLet US raise our voices with Dickens in his
Christmas Carol:
II NJ aaraer I trail al1t
For Christmas stout,
The hearty, the true and bold;