The Portland daily press., 1883-12-25
The New Christmas.

The most striking proof of the rapid prog
gess of Americans on the sentimental side of
their nature is the more and more general
and hearty observance of our holidays. The
tendency to the severely practical and utili-
tartan, which has been proverbial charac-
teristic Of our people, is being checked from
an undue development by growing love for
beautiful things and wholesome merriment,
for the sole sake of their beauty and mirth,
without thought of pecuniary gain or mental
improvement-the two deites which hither-
to seemed alone worthy of worship by
New Englanders. Our ancestors are not to
be blamed for the ssern and practical views
of life and duty which made existence so
sombre for them. Theirs had been a hard
school, with little of sweetness or light in it.
The severe tenets of their religion, exagger-
ated and made intense by persecution and
the hard conditions of their life on this CONT
nent, left little room for joyousness, and it is
small wonder that they COMPOUNDED the mer-
rymaking and observance of days by their
prosecutors with the cruel intolerance
which drove then from their native land,
and came to regard the wholesome diversion
and the unwholesome bigotry as equally OPP
posed to godliness. Men suffering affection
for righteousness sake are not likely to dis
criminate nicely between the practices of
their oppressors, and a stern sense
of the duty of opposition leads
them to reject all alike. Nor were the alb
sence of physical comforts and the inces-
SAINT danger to life from savage foes at all
likely to encourage our fathers to mirthful
diversions. So it happened in an entirely
nataral way that the prevailing tendency in
New England society was adverse to special
observance of joyous holidays.
How far we have gone in changing this
tendency may be seen on all hands. To-day
everybody-each in his own way and in ac-
cordance with his character and circum-
stances-gives himself up to the spirit of the
time. The CHEEKY greetings, the giving of
gifts and the social gathering, show the
kindly feeling everywhere prevailing. 1t is
well worth while for once in year to def
nitely mark an era of good feeling The
distinctive feature of the time, the inter-
change of tokens of affection and remem
brance, brings US nearer to our friends and
gives knowledge of them which we other
wise should not acquire. We love our
friends as we meet them day by day without
much thought of their peculiarities of char
acter or disposition, but when we come to
think of making them gift which shall
suit their tastes and situation, we take more
thought of them, know them better and are
more drawn to them than would otherwise
happen. So each little gift carries with it a
freight of love and thoughtfulness, which
makes its chief value to the recipient, while
the giver is enriched with new knowledge
of, and tenderness for, his friend, and it is
indeed more blessed to give than to receive.
But it is to the children after all that the
celebration of this birthday of the little child
OF Bethlehem peculiarly belongs, and they
have things very much their own way. The
brains and hands of men and women are
taxed TO their utmost to provide amusing
gifts for the little people. Writers tel
them stories, artists make pictures for them
and inventors exhaust their ingenuity te
devise elaborate toys, while parents ani
friends thoughtfully and carefully examine
compare and select from all these produc
lions such things as are most fitting. Ii
this general carnival of childhood men mus
bring themselves to realize the simple anl
innocent thoughts and wishes which the,