Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1875-12-24

Santa Claus. or lKriss -Kringle,- and
worry him out. Of the children's SWEET
kingdom Of dreams.
Whoever wants to make his child t
iron older thanany wholesome grand
father 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 in
.Iterrogatiop- points for eyer dancing in
another pair of eyes, resolve the
thrones and paradiscs and angels they ,
sec in the plighted clouds, into
heavy and delusive fog; and, by-and-i
i by, for the quicksiiverish atoms
.Eof humanity that hunt out every grain
of true gold in tic rubbsh Of life,
full of marvel and fAucy and poetry as
any old ballad, le vii have row of
little aesiccatcd, unspeculatiye, phi!o.H
sophical donkeys all draped in wet
/ blankets.
| 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
! / looked.lor. 1t was not, as you may
think, the. threshold worn smooth and
beautiful by the touch Of feet that
have played truant forever; nor the
dear home room with its altar place
for beech and maple offering; nor yet
the nook Of darkness under the stairs
were goblins and .ogres held sweet
counsel together by night. 1t was on
Fly the old chimney-top my eyes first
: sought, to whose rugged edges and
sooty mouthpiece thousand boat
swan winds had put their lips and
whistled up the storms for sixty years.
Il was the homeliest structure that
i, ever seemed beautiful to anybody.
/ Shall | tell you why? Down that
chimney the angel descended with my
first Christmas gift. What was the
ladder ofBacob to me then, has turned
; at last into a rude, unlettered mon
;. umcnt Of the dead past. Those whom
I-surprised with my ".Merry Christ
mas " in the gray of the morning,
= have -gone-away-.lor the everlasting
7 holidays. The children with whom |
. Joined hearts and hands are-where
8 arc they? There are fences in the
f graveyard tipped with funeral urns
! Of black. There are broken slabs OF
: marble bearing names that have not
: fallen out o. human speech. There
arc hard, grim men. There are meek
! and sad-eyed women-full Of care. Has
!, the sparkle Of life utterly vanished
g from the cup? Can the sleigh bells
8 chime and the glittering nights, ant
1t thc laugh Of young girls, and tho
A. Measure Of old songs charm no more
II o, comrades! O, sweethearts! let mt
N give you touch of the time wher
happiness was the very cheapest thing
in the round world; let me give yo,
a. g Merry Christmas out of tie lone
lincss!
But children are not out of fashion
c and so the world is>not bankrupt. Her
< od-he deserved the compliment an,
IS he shall have it-Herod was nothin!
=. less than devilishly shfewd whcn<h
= fancied he could qucnch Ghristmds i
. the blood Of the children; Yorif eve
p two things were made for each other
Y a merry child and merry Christina
g, are the two. What poor creature
ne did and were born apd grown befoy
n the clock Of the Christmas er
en- struck "onc," nobody can tel
ID We all need these starry days
r, the young that they may never gro,
% old; the old that they may always b
. young II think it might be write
:. among the bexutudes. Blessed ar
" they whose sons are all boys, an,
and whose daughters. are all girls.
'dH 1t was when Ccsar< Augustus dc
Z creed that all the world should b
an enrolled-an cdict never to he repeat
i'd ed on>the planet until the coming {
he the Seventh Angel-and everybod
Id was on the move to report in Ills ns
rd tive city; for in that country the lea
from howfing wilderness to cit
- was as easy as panther's-ifit it did'r
- =. howl=it had a Mayor. Among thos
% who came to Bethlehem on this c
ar rand were n man-with his wife frol
Nazareth; and as the tavern wa
Id crowded they went to the barn, an
rt Graded in a manger. And that wa
the first Christmas. There were an
" gels without who brought their glor
with them, and stood and sung" Clio
ry to God in the highest, aud on cart