Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1873-12-25
A CHRISTMAS SKETCH.
BY b. +. TAYLOR.

1
in his years of discretion, but a world |
at his age would hardly have been
out of it's swadling bands. There is
a star less than two thousand years
old that lights day for us, the fair
est, youngest of all the Spangled null
tltude-the very Benjamine of hea-
ven. The telescope of the astrono
mer never summoned it. Numbered
In the celestial census, | am sure it
will not be there when the constel-
latlons are rolled together as a scroll.
1t is immortal as the candle of the |
Lord. 1t is the Star of the East that
lights up Christmas for us with won
derful radiance. Ifthere is ever
time in all the year when the two |
worlds touch, / think il is Christmas
eve. What less than first small act |
OF faith is that hanging million of
empty stockings by million pins at
night and then tumbling into the trun.
die beds of Christendom with the de-
lightful and sleepless expectancy that
they will find them all filled in the
morning? Let man play Saturn
and eat his children and be done with
1t; but let him not set dog on their
angels-a cur of q fact, that should
have been born with its nose in a
muzzle, upon Santa Claus or Kriss
hrlngle, and worry him out of the
chlldren's sweet kingdom of dreams
Whoever wants to make his children
older than any wholesome grandfather
ought to be, has only to strip the
world stark naked before their faces:
bare all its exquisite mystery that keeps
one pair Of FURNISHED interrogation
points forever dancing in another pair
OF eyes; resolve the thrones and par
adises and angels they see in the
plighted clouds, into heavy and de-
luslve fog; and, by aud by, for the
quicksilverish atoms of humanity
that hunt out every grain of true gold
IN the rubbish of life, full of marvel
and fancy, and poetry as any old bal
lad, he will have row of little des si-
Gated, unspeculative, philosophical
donkeys, all draped in wet blankets.
l visited, not long ago, the house
where something happened to me
when | narrowly escaped being too
young to be counted; but you can
never guess what was the first thing
l looked for. 1t was not, as you
might think, the threshold worn
smooth and beautiful by the touch of
feet that have played truant forever
nor the dear home room with its alter
place for beech and maple offerings
nor yet the nook of darkness under
the stairs where COLLINS and ogres
held sweet counsel together by night.
1t was only the old chimney top my
eyes first sought, TO whose rugged
edges and sooty mouthpiece a thou
sand boatswain winds had put their
lips and whistled up the storms for
sixty years. 1t was the homeliest
structure that ever seemed beautiful
to anybody, Shall | tell you why?
Down that chin ney the angel de-
scended with my first Christmas gift.
What was the ladder of Jacob to me
then, has turned at last into rude.
uulettered monument to the dead past.
Those whom | surprised with my
Merry Christmas" in the gray of
the morning, have gone away for the
everlasting holidays. The children
with whom | joined hearts and hands
are-where are they? There are fen
ces in the graveyard tipped with fu.
neral urns of black. There are bro.
ken slabs of marble bearing names
that have fallen ont of human speech.
There are hard, grim men. There
are meek and sad.eyed women full of
care. Has the sparkle of life utterly |
vanished from the cup? Can the |
sleigh. bells chime and the glittering
nights, and the laugh of young girls, |
and the measure of old songs charm |
no more? 0, comrads! O., sweet
hearts! let me give you touch of the
time when happiness was the very
cheapest thing in the round world; let |
me give you "Merry Christmas"
out Of the loneliness!
But children are not out of fashion,
and so the world is not bankrupt.
Iierod he deserves the complimen
and he shall have it-Herod was moth.
ing less than devilishly shrewd when
he fancied he could quench Christmas
in the blood Of children for if ever
two things were made for each other,
a merry child and merry Christmas
are the two. What the poor crea-
lures did that were born and grown
before the clock of the Christmas era
struck "one," nobody can tell. We
all needThese starry days the young
that they may never grow old; the old
that they may always be young. /
thi"S Il II; GIT DC written among ,he
beautitudes. Blessed are they whose
sons are all boys, and whose daugh-
ters are all girls.
1t was when Caesar Augustus de-
creed that sail the world" should be
enrolled-an edict never to be repeat
I'd on the planet until the coming of
he Seventh Angel-and everybody
vas on the move to report in his ma
ave city, for in that country the leap
rom bowling wilderness to a city
vas as easy as a panther's-if it did
IT howl it had a Mayer. Among
hose who came TO Bethlehem on this
brand were man and his wife from
\ azareth; and as the tavern was crow
led they went to the barn, and there
he Chief of children was born, and
radled IN manger. And that was
no first Christmas. There were an d
,els without who brought their glory !.
With them, and they stood aud sang,
Glory 70 God 10 the highest. and an
arth peace u the men OF good will - .
Ind that was the first Christmas car :
]. A few SHEPPARD. watching their !
ocks not far away, came just as they \
'ere, IN their every lay clothes, aud :
'ondcred and -loriiiei aud were glad. Z