The New York herald., 1876-12-21
Christmas and tho Poor.


During the remainder of the present week
the various stores of the city, crowded with
their tempting holiday goods. will be filled
with customers in search of gifts'as Christ
mas tokens of affection to those who are near
and dear to them. Happy fathers will be
there-happy in the thought that, despite
the hardness of the times, they have it in
their power to add something to the happi-
ness of the good wife and the expectant lit
tie ones at home on the sacred anniver-
sary that draws together in sympa-
thy the whole Christian world. Happy
mothers will be there-excited and mystic
rious, anxiously pricing such articles as
attract their fancy, smuggling away little
parcels in muffs and pockets, or giving
strict directions as to cunning modes of
secret delivery at the house. Bright-eyed
girls will fit hither and thither, examin-
ing smoking caps, cigar stands, pocket
match-boxes, rings and similar trifes
with IN assumption of indifference
and a self-convicting blush. Young men
will be around, looking gravely over show
cases and mentally calculating the exact
condition Of their pocketbooks. Glowing,
joyous, rosy little faces will strive, through
the aid of tip-toes, to peep over the well
filled counters or hide themselves pettishly
in mammn's skirts. Overcoats and furs and
wraps will enable the bustling crowdt to brave
~the cold outside, while love and hope and
the JOY of rendering others happy will sup
ply them with warmth inside.
What gleeful, blessed time would this
holiday time be if every picture in its
changing panorama might be painted in
these bright and cheerful colors But, alas !
there are clouds as well as sunshine in the
Christmas sky. There nre homestead par
don us for calling them homes lin this
great city on whose darkened walls the
cheerful light Of Christmas fire has never
danced; into whose patched and narrow
windows ray of sunligh. seldom pierces ;
whose atmosphere chill and damp and foul,
is the withering breath of disease and death.
The wretched, half-clad men and women
huddled in such homes shame humanity.
The pnched and shivering little ones who
pine and suffer there should make the heart
bleed to thiuk that there can be such
childhood in Christian land. Christ
mas, except that it brings them more
piercing cold, sharper hunger and greater
suffering? Toys The wan eyes may have
gazcd wonderingly on such things in store
window. but the nervous fingers would
tremble to touch them. They are as far re-
moved from them as are the bright stars of
heaven. On Christmas night, should it be
bleak and cold, they will seek the comparative
warmth Of nest in unwholesome straw and
cry themselves to sleep to forget the gnaw-
ings Of hunger, while happier little ones
throng about their glitterlng Christmas
trees. singing and dancing, feasting and
romping until they drop, tired out, into
their warm beds, only to repeat in their
dreams the fun and frolic which have at
last weighed too heavily on their dropping
eyelids.
| Will the gay crowds who will throng our
streets for the next few days, happy and
hopeful, spare a thought to the sadder
Christmas picture we have endeavored to
paint? Will mothers and fathers, rich in
the blessed gift of healthy, loving children,
pause for on instant in their holiday prepa-
rations to reflect how many little creatures
are hungry, sad and neglected in this season
of Christian love? If they will we can
not doubt that some few of the sufferers
will find at least temporary sunbeam pierre
ing the gloom of their darkened lives, and,
as they clasp the hand of charity, will bless
| God that Christ was born to teach us that