The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-01-04
THE PRESS AND CHRISTnAs.

We have bad mug to say in thes'
pages, even as the pulpit of the cit!
has discussed the philosophy of Christ
mas joys and festivals during the weeA
and through preceding Christina
weeks for centuries. We have heard
one pastor. talking learnedly Of the so
lemnity of the blessed anniversary be
cause we were made to reflect upon The
goodness of God in consummating the
plan of redemption, while another re
minded US that the day and date OF
Christ's birth were unfxed and un
known chronological facts, and that
God never intended that the Savlor's
birth, but that his death, shoU'd be
memorable, and therefore the els
appeared to shepherds in the fields and
not in the manger in Bethlehem.
Moreover, chronological tables are SC
uncertain that four years have been
lost, and we do not know whether the
Savior was born in winter or sum.
mer. That herdsmen were sleeping on
| the hillsides about Bethlehem when
tic fact and we might infer
that the weather was not harsh
as that of winter time on Jud9an hills.
But these are questions for the pulpit
in reference to which the secular press
is MT supposed to have opinions, and
we newspaper people, the World says,
can only moralize upon the rapid lapse
of years and the brevity of human life,
which we measure by span and liken
to dream. We compare a mans pas
sage through time to the flight Of a
bird through a lighted room. AS the
creature passes from darkness to dark
ness across narrow Illuminated space,
so we emerge from eternity, flutter
through time, and disappear again in
eternity. In some sort this view of
human life IS just. 1t is nothing COM
pared to the age of the mountains,
whose foundations were laid far back
beyond the horizon of recorded time.
1t is tritle compared to the age of Il
great tree, which consumes centuries
in its growth and decay. 1t is ephem-
eral even in comparison with mans
own works; fer u grand temple will
survive in ruin not merel Y those who
built it, but their creed, their klrgdom
and their language. And yet life is
long enough after all. When we con-
slder how the physical powers of men
fail with years; how their mental
faculties decay; and how even be-
fore that time enjoyment be-
gins to pail upon them, and all old
pleasures, sensations an9 appetites be-
come wearisomc, we are apt to think
that threescore years and ten are
enough for mans uses; that he may
in that time grow tired of the worlds
labors, satisfied with the worlds good
things and sick Of the worlds evils.
This Is a curious train of thought for
the holiday season, and yet holiday
joys suggest it. In looking upon the
rude toys in the shop windows and the
gaudy trinkets for decorating Christ
mas trees, men wonder that once on n
time their delight lay in those things {;
that their mechanism seemed as won
derful as the workmanship of an en-
chanted castle and their gliding as gor-
geous as the ornaments of Aladdin's
palace. In word, they have out
grown one great part of what is enjoy
able in life. In due time all other de-
lusions follow. Love becomes an old
story; pictures lose their charm; ia
vorite strains Of poetry no longer have
their old familiar melody. The plots
of plays, the tones of actors and the
tricks of stage-carpenters no longer
produce any effect; even the sweet mo-
notony of sermons grows tiresome,
and the noise of political debate bur-
6en. Party anxiGties and party tri-
umphs have a certain sameness even
when an administration that deals in
treason's stratagems and wiles, and
keeps the country walking between
the memory of past rebellion and the ap-
prehension of future civil war, con-
trolls public affairs. The almost per-
ennial freshness of the newspapers fails
in time. The epithets which rival edi-
tors bestow upon each other acquire a
sort of perfunctory sound, the revela-
tions of rascality during a canvass ring
follower from year to year, the very
murd rs lose the spice of variety, and
tue methods in which charlatans ad-
yer ise themselves seem so transparent
that only very young people or very
old fools can be duped by them. The
fable of Tithonus, a human being en-
d " ID with immortality and surviving
every old comrade, every old affC ction,
and every manly attribute, and finally
praying for death, expresses very
plainly how much of bore life might
become. Just now the halo of en-
chantment has descended over sthe
c, m Lunity, and the children revel in
!are enj ,yments. Those of US who see
that Santa Claus Is a toy-shop; that
the fabrics are mullen-stalks that the
p7ancing paladins are merely sheep,
may conclude that we are no longer
capable of getting all the good out of
the world we live in, and content our
selves with the thought that we win
weary of life before life wearies of US.