New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-12-26
THESE. HIS BRFTHRTN.

Christmas, Of all DAYS III the year. Is the
time whrn well-to-do people delight in maxi
ing each Other happy. II was not by the case
tnls ycar. The amour; was en- Im0us which
was spent yesterday in New-York alone in
the interchange Of rare and beautiful gifts
! among members of that class whose income
is large enough to entbl. them wholly to
overlook the question of money in gratifying
the taste or vhims of their friends. Pictures,
priceless fabrics add bric-a-brlc, diamonds,
all the countless costly tiHes which are but
the perfume and the su plapce Of the moment
for which they last, posed from house to
house VITA warm greetings OF good Will.
Ala4du's gene seemed to have opened his
hand and s0ogcred his brilliant treasures INTO
the wealthy homes OF the city.
In palmer and poorer homes, too, there was
the same cheerful evidence OF the il creased
prosperity Of the country III thu lavish ex-
change O. Christmas tokens. Families in
dulgcd their love for each other with a hearty
generosity which they bad 10 curb during the
hard times. That house was poor indeed from
which some stvOry scent Oid not come out
into the pure ar, giving hint OF Christmas
cheer within; through thousands of lighted
windows it, the evening sh ne the Christmas
tree with the wondering children about it..
Shabbly dressed men hurried home on Christ
mas eve with q paper parcel green
wreath. There were toys heaped in every
corner. and street boys with their new skates
and sleds net You at every tun in the
streets. In the house the father and
mother turned over the chlldren's little
gifts to themselves with full hearts.
The knitted slippers; the soiled motto over
which the little fingers had secretly worked
80 long-what Fortuny or GODeln tapestry
could equal these2 Here and there, in the
warmest corner of the hearth a gray-hared
old man and woman held in their trembling
hands the gifts which showed that the chill
dren with children of their OWN had not for
gotten them or their old home, and the happy
Chrstmascs long past In the evening money
flowed freely aCan-balls, receptions the the
aires were crowded. All this to celc brate the
birth of Christ.
To-Day another side OF New York life comes
uppermOst. Hele and there through the city
are houses which are enormous rec .tacles of
misery and suffering. Here is one filled with
those threatened with blindness; poor men
and women with children ill most cases de-
DtUUIHP vi tHth udily idb'ls anu tH' tcIllDIt
darkness which is to make them utterly help
less creeping day by day over their eyes ; here
is another, of which the inmates are all de-
formed, hoping to be made in some sort like
their luckier fellow men; another, into whose
duiet pleasant rooms poor cOnsumptves have
crept from wretched cellars and tenement
houses to die in peace another, where
hopeless creatures going slowly to the grave
with ncurable disease are sheltered and ten
derly cared for. There many others to
which the sick and wounded and strangers
without home or friends or money are taken,
and brought back TO life and health. And
here are Others filed with little children, sick,
blind, defOrmed, crippled, taken from miser-
able homes to be nursed and tended. Our chill
dren take home and food and clothes as matters
of course, as they do the rain and sunshine; but
these poor little babies look from their cots
out into the gray sky and snow to-day, not
knowing whether the hospital will be able to
keep them next year or whether they will be
turned out to Indebtedness and starvation
again.
1t depends upon the people of New-York
to-day whether these great Christian homes
are to be sustained during the coming year or
not. We can make what answer we choose.
Yesterday we lavished our money on costly