The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1883-12-27

Christmas almost turns December
into May in these ATTITUDES. 1t illumi-
mates the shortest days and the darkest
month Of the year. The Pilgrim
fathers tried to give November lift
with Thanksgiving. But November
got such bad name in literature in
England that little could be done with
it. We threw in our Indian summer,
but that makes only faint impression
in our apprehension over against the
London fog. This fog has spread all
over the English-speaking world, MS all
slayislly submit to it. and, through the
English literature and tradition, let il
color our views of life. We are mainly
unconscious Of the subtle influence
upon ourselves and upon national char
acter Of what We read, and we never
know how oar Imagination and fancy in
daily life are controlled by the poet
and the story-teller. November in
many parts OF this country is not n
month to be ashamed Of, and l am con-
WINGED that our feeling toward it would
be very different ii we We're the lineal
inheritors Of Italian instead of English
literature.
We have been more fortunate about
December. The lule-log and the mer-
ry-making in cottage and hall cast
glow over it, Germany decks it with
evergreens, and, SO much stronger is
our imagination than our senses, we can
almost hear in it the rustic of Oriental
palms. Perhaps tho reality to the
Scotch peasant when he goes to dig his
sheep out of snow-lrift Oil Christmas
eve is that other scene,
while shepherds watch'd their fiocks by night,
All seated on the ground"
Somehow it has come about that this
is the most cheerful time of the year,
Notwithstanding the sun has gone away
on journey, and left nature stark and
laid out in white. Just at the time by
the calendar when the sympathies
ought to be all frozen up, 10! human
nature, i'll disregard of the bitter season,
blooms ont in the sweetest Towering
time of all the year. 1t is a bad season
for the pessimists and the utilitarian
philosophers who maintain that it is the
first duty of every man and woman to
take care of his or her own self Christ
mas comes in, not only to make Decem-
Der tolerable month, but to teach
that lie who does most for others does
most for himself, and that mans only
sure possession is that which he gives
away. The moth hunts around in vain
for the free-hearted gift. Perhaps
Christmas does more than any other
one institution to keep that old-fash-
Toned virtue, loying-kindness, alive in
the world.
A little sermon on this topic could
be preached without invading any pull
pit, but it is quite unnecessary: it has
come about that ut Christmas time
nearly everybody is practical preach
er of charity, so completely does the
divine contagion of it transform the So
called Christian world for the time be-
ing. If only the world would not SO
quickly lay it aside and send in its bills
for it on the LIST of January! Christ
mas is, in fact, a sort of electric accum-
ulator, and We sometimes think there is
enough of it condensed into week To
last the year round if it were properly
distributed. Why shou'' all the tur-
keys and the geese die in one holocaust ?
| Why make fashion of divine charity
Charles Dudley lInner, ia Har-
| pe,'s Magazine.