Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-12-22
Christmas Day.

Before another issue of our paper the JOY
Gus season of the Christmas Holidays will have
arrived We, in advance, extend to the read
ers of the Spectator the happy greetings OF
the season-wishing them all merry Christ
mas and happy New Year. In the language OF
a contemporary, we hail the advent OF this
grand old Christian holiday with pleasure
which neither age, misfortune nor grief can
subdue. Although shorn of many of the glo-
ries of more prosperous and propitious times,
it still returns to us hallowed by peculiar Vir-
GINA customs which render it, Of all the festi
val anniversaries of the Christian Church, the
most DEAR
The true Virginian, in the palmy days of the
Old Dominion, always kept Christmas as JOLLY
as our English ancestors did in the infant days
of the colony The country was, in those days,
the place where the festivities of the season
were most boisterous and protracted.
Before sunrise the stiffness of the early dawn
was broken by those christmas guns" which
left so many bruised shoulders as painful rem
iniscences Of the heaviness Of the charge and
the sharpness of the recoil of overloaded mus
ket and shot gun. In the cities sky-rockets,
pop- crackers and the whole family Of Roman
Candles torpedoes, blue DEVILS fiery wheels,
and the shouts of urchins half crazed with ex
element. made locomotion dangerous to staid
and elderly fogies. Alike in town and country
goodly bowl of egg-nogg, foam crested and
fragrant, stood ready in every parlor or dining
c., h, dc al
kers. Much harmless powder was burned for
fen de joie was fired at every hospitable door.
The rich planters and farmers gave prlncely
banquets, to which whole neighborhoods were
invited, and the ebony SCIPIos and C1EsARs,
and DINAHs and CHLoEs with their classic pro-
geny were filed to repletion, and danced the
double shuttle to the sound of the banjo and
fiddle Then from each generous master CUT
fee received enough -four, sugar, chimes, spare
ribs and lard to feed a company Of dragons,
and with the aid of barrel of persimmon beer
spent week without thought or care for to-
morrow, and gorged himself with good things
like boa constructor. Alas, there are no such
glorious days of feasting for Cufee, the freed
man. Under the shadow of the Freedmans
Bureau he eats his Puritanical goldfish, and
moralizes upon the blessings of liberty, and the
superior comforts of ragged blue blouse to
comfortable new suit of negro clothing. -
But at a season like this we are not disposed to
recall bitter memories Of the irrevocable past.
Away with discord let US bury the Ratchet,
handle downward, at this great Christmas tes-
tival of love and harmony. Congress has ad-
iourned and spared the nation for a week from
the shame of its lawless Radicalism. Let
therefore all vexed questions sleep during the
interregnum. IF there are care wrinkles on
our brows, let US smooth them out with holiday
laughter. Let us contribute literally to the
children's hose department, duplicate the home
turkey for the benefit Of some poor family that
might otherwise go turkeyless, send seasonable
tokens Of affection to those we love, dine on
Christmas day as gentlemen with educated
palates should dine, imbibe not unreasonable
amounts of pleasant fluids for the stomach's
sake, and forget for time perplexing cares and
troubles.
Let US also bear reverently in mind the orr
gin of this solemn festival of the church. We
have reached the season Of the year when
Christians of almost every name commemorate
the birth day of their common Master. 'On
Christmas day. beginning at Jerusalem in the
Church of the Sepulchre of our Lord, the
Christmas anthem has travelled with the star
that stood above his cradle, from region to re-
gion, from communion to communion, and from
tongue to tongue, till it has comprised the
land and the sea, and returned to melt away
upon the sides of Mount Men By the feeble
remnants OF the ancient Syrian and Armenian
Churches, creeping to the festive waters amidst
the unbelieving hosts Of Islam, in the noun
talns of Kurdstan and Eryroum within the
venerable cloisters, which have braved the
storms Of barbarism and war for fifteen centu-
RES on the revered peaks of Mount Sinai: in
the gorgeous cathedrals of Moscow and Vienna.
OF Madrid and Paris, and still imperial Rome
at the simple affairs of the Protestant Church
In Western Europe and America. in the 70.
hottest missions of our own continent, of the
Pacific isles, and of the farthest East on to-day
Tor the Protestant and the Catholic Churches
alike, the song of the angels which hailed the
birth of Christ, will be repeated by the myriads
of his followers all round the globe
Why does the Lexington Gazette and Banner
attribute to Judge Shelley pencAant for office.