Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-12-24

CHEIsTuAs To morrow will be Christ
mas Day, and throughout the Christian
world Joy mounts in the brain like a
controlling deity and rushes through the
veins like the enlivening sap of spring,
making the heart beat with rapturous
emotion and the soul soar to the limits OF
sublimity. Although hailed as day of
| deliverance from the darkness of hades
and observed as festival of the highest
solemnty, yet there is something OF
cheer about t-something of the free and
easy, hospitable, good natured gushing
of humanity-thst makes it above all
others day of welcome, of peace and
plenty, of love and piety, of hilarity, fun
and frolic. Every cline has its peculiar
pleasantries on this occasion = its
Mosques and its mummeries, its pageants
and its minstrelsies, its decorations and
thanksgivings, its feastings and its
prayers and all shades of society, from
the wealthy in their mansions of SPLEEN
dor to the poor in their cots by the bleak
roadside or in their novels in the lowly
haunts of crowded cities, are somewhat
acknowledgements etherealized in
thought and softened in feeling-some-
what drawn toward brotherly love and
charity toward their neighbor.
Home and the Fireside, on this Great
Anniversary, become the temples OF
affectionate gossip. The missed ones,
who have taken their flight to happier
and better world are remembered, and
all their little foibles and fancies, their
knknesses and their eccentricities, re-
counted with fearful eyes Then turning
from this solemn sadness due in rever.
ence of the dead, the eye brightens at
the prospect of the present and the cheer
fitness of friends who have waded
through whirlpool of miseries with their
honors untarnished and their titles to
heroes unblemished by the pitiless pelt-
ings of adversaries. Here Sorrow and
Hope mingle, tempering the current of
life while Old Age leans back in his
easy.chair, and with attentive ear listens
to the tale of years.
Joy at this time, like everything else,
hath its lights and its shades. There is
the joy of the pious Internationally,
pure and wholesome-as she twines with
delicate fingers the roses and lilies, the
laurel and cedar, into beautiful wreaths
to decorate the Temple of the Most High;
there is the JOY of the matron--lovely,
precious and divine--as she lays in her
stores of substantials and delicacies, and
prepares to make every one happy on
Christmas morn; there is the JOY of the
parent-touching, tender and luminous
as he carries home in his pockets a
burden of presents; and there is, above
all the joy of children-sweet, soul'mov.
ing, seraphic-as they bounce into the
room with peals of innocent laughter,
asking their gifts, dipping their hands
into huge stockings for apples or toys,
stripping "the tree" of its trinkets, or
barring the table of its piles of goodies :"
These are Household Joys-the bright
est, Unrest and best. There is also the
joy of the acknowledgement and praise
worthy-who, after looking over his
year transactions, finds himself in pos
session of fair profits; there is the joy OF
the meshanic-humble and honest-who
by his noble toll has thrust Want out of
doors and made his hesrthstone cheerful
with the comforts of life; there is the JOY
of the laborer-lowly and meek-whose
drudgery is rewarded in a little home,
where be may rest his weary limbs with
ease and pray to his Heavenly Father
with clear conscience. But there is
doubt that joy, fresh and limpid, ever
touches the souls Of the extremely rich.
The want of work keeps them rusty, and
sel6shuess so hardens their natures that
when they give a moiety in the way of
charity they feel more pain than pleasure.
To them Christmas comes and goes like
any other day its glories in their eyes
are but shadows.
But, alas for the joy of the drunk
ard, the spendthrifI and the gambler-it
is honey mixed with gall-an unsavory
cup, neither tempting to the taste or
beneficial TO the body. That jewel of
the heart, sympathy, is drowned in their
carousal and unlawful pastime; the love,
miseries, woes and lamentations Of man
kind are to them but mockeriesi they
revel and riot as if earth we're a pands-
monium, and whiskey the ambrosial
liquid Of the gods And alas for the
JOY of the impoverished poor-homeless.
bouseless and friendless-the fallen
angels of society-lhe withered leaves Of
humanity But oh worse than these is
the joy Of the poor denizen Of dun
geon-shut in with rude companions,
l.. I-ke r.