Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1883-11-29

Charles Dudley Warner, in Harper, d,
Magazine for December, writes Christ
mas almost tnrns December into May
in these latitudes. 1t illuminates the
shortest days and the darkest month of
the year. The Pilgrim Fathers tried
to give November a lift with Thanks
giving. But November got such bad
name in literature in England that
little could be done with 1t. We threw
in our Indian summer, but that makes
only faint impression In our appre'
hension over against the London fog.
This fog has spread all over tie
Eng speaking world, as all slavish,
ly submit TO it, and, through the
English literature and tradition, let il
color our views of life. We are main
ly unconscious of the subtle influence
upon ourselves and upon national
character of what we read, and we
never know how our Imagination and
fancy in daily life are controlled by the
poet and the story-teller November
in many paris of this country is not a
month to be ashamed Of, and | am
convinced that our feeling toward it
would be very different if We were the
incal inheritors of Italian instead of
English literature.
We have been more fortunate about
December The Yulc-log and the
merry-making in cottage and hall cast
a glow over it, Germany decks it with
evcrgreenS, and, so much stronger is
our Imagination than our senses, we
can almost hear in it the rustic of
Oriental palms. Perhaps the reality to
the Scotch peasant when he goes to
dig his sheep out of snow-drlft on
ChriStmas.eye is that other scene,
''Whlc shepherds vatch'd their lOcks 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 or II journey, and left nature
stark and laid out in white. Just at
lho time by the calendar when the
SympathieS ought to be all fro2e up, 10!
human nature, in disregard of the Bit
ter season, blooms out in the sweetest
lowering. time Of all the year. 1t is a
bad season for the peSSimists and the
utiltarian philosophers who maintain
that it is the first duty of every man
and woman to take care of his or her
own self. Christmas comes in, not
only to make December tolerablC
month, but to teach that he who does
most for others does most for himself,
and that a 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 tc
keep that old-fashioned virtue, loving
kindness, alive in the world.
The Drawer could preach a little
sermon on this topic without invading
any pulpit. but it is quite unnecessary
it has come about that ut Christmas
time nearly everybody is practca
preacher OF charity, SO completely doe
the divine contagion of it transform
the so.callcd Christian world for thu
time being. II only the world woulC
not so quickly lay it aside, and send il
its bills for it on the 1st OF January
Christmas is in fact a sort of electric
accunlulotor, and wo comotimon thinI
there is enough of it condensed into {
week to last the year round if it wer'
properly distributed. Why should al
the turkeys and the geese die in on
holocaust? Why make a fashion o
divine charity? Why not initiate tn
Drawer-this is n suggestion of CORES
pondents, and not of its modest self
which seeks to dinuse geniality an'
good-fellowship throughout the twolv
months?