Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-22
OVERRIDING CHRISTMAS.
Fear that The American People are
Making Too Much of Present-Giyiug,

Charles Dudley Warner in Harper's Magazine
1t would be the pity of the world TO destroy
1t, because 1t would be next to impossible to
make another holiday as good as Christmas.
Perhaps there is no danger, but the American
prople have developed an unexpected capacity
for destroying things; they can destroy any,
thing. They have even invented phrase for
it-running a thing into the ground. They
have perfected the art of making SO much of a
thing as to kill it; they can magnify man or a
recreation or an institution to death. And they
do it with such hearty good will and enjoy
ment Their motto is that you cannot have too
much of good thing They have almost made
funerals unpopular by over-elaboration and
display, especially what are called public funer-
ais. in which an EFFORT is made to confer great
distinction on the dead. So far has il been
carried often that there has been a reaction of
popular sentiment, and people have wished the
man were alive. We prosecute everything so
vigorously that We speedily either wear it out
or wear ourselves out Oh it. whether il is a
game or a festival or a holiday We can use
up any sport or game ever invented quicker
than any other people. We can practice any,
thing, like vegetable diet. for instance. to an
absurd conclusion with more vim than any
other nation. This trait has its advanta ges:
nowhere else will delusion run SO fast and so
soon run up a tree-another of our happy
phrases. There is a largeness and exhuber-
ance about us which run even into our ordinary
phraseology. The sympathetic clergyman,
coming from the bedside of a parishoner dy-
ing of dropsy, SAYS with a heavy sigh, 1.-The
poor fellow is just swelling away"
Is Christmas swelling away? If it is not, it
Is scarcely our fault. Since the American ma
ton fairly got hold of the ho,iday-in some
parts of the country, as New England. il has
been universal only about fifty years-we have
made Il hum. as We like to say. We have ap-
propriatedt the English conviviality the German
simplicity. the Roman pomp. and we have
added 20 1t an element OF expense in keeping
with our greatness. Is anybody beginning TO
feel 1t burden. this swee. festival of charity
and goodwill. and to look forward to il with
apprehension? Is the time approaching when
We shall want to get somebody to play it for us.
like baseball! Anything that interrupts the
ordinary flow OF life, introduces into it. in
short. a social cyclone that upsets everything
for fortnight, may in time be as hard to bear
as that festival of housewives called house,
cleaning, the riot of cleanliness which men
fear as they do panic in business. Taking
into account the present preparations for
Christmas, and the time it takes to recover
from it, we are beginning-are we MOTTO
consider II one one of the most serious events
of modern life.
The Drawer is led into these observations
ont of its love for Christmas. 1t is impossible
to conceive of any holiday that could take its
place; nor, indeed, would it seem that human
wit could invent another so adapted to human
ity. The obvious intention of il il to bring to-
gether. for a season, at least all men in the ex-
ercise OF common charity and feeling of
goodwin. the poor and the rich. the successful
and the unfortunate, that all the world NAV
feel that in the time called the Truce of God
the thing common to all men is the best thing
In life. How will it suit this intention, then II
IN our way OF exaggerated ostentation of char
ity the distinction between rich and poor is
N IL Al.
days? Blessed are those that expect nothing.
But are there not an increasing multitude Of
persons in the United States who have the most
exaggerated expectations of personal profit on
Christmas day? Perhaps it is not quite 80 bad
as this. but it is safe to say that what the chill
dren alone expect to receive, in money value,
would absorb the national surplus, about
which 30 much fuss 10 made. There
IL really no objection to this-the ter
ror OF the surplus is q sort of nightmare in the
country-except that it destroys the simplicity
Of the festival and belittles small offerings that
have their chief value in affection. And il
points inevitably to the creation of q sort of
Christmas ''trust"-the modern escape ont Of
ruinous competition. When the expense Of
% that the
the rich even feel II Q burden, there would
seem to be no way but the establishments Of
neighborhood "trusts," In order to eoualize
both cost and distribution. Each family could
division ON Christmas day would create uni
versai satisfaction in profit sharing-that ID,
the rich would get as much a. the poor, and
the rivalry Of ostentation would BE- Quoted
Perhaps With the money question little sub
dued, and the female anxieties Of the festival
:-iiayed, there would be more room for the de-
velopment Of that sweet spirit Of brotheriy
kindness or all-embracing charity, which We
know underlies this best festival Of I'll the ages
= this IN old sermon2 The Drawer trusts that
It u, for there can be nothing new in the
preaching Of simplicity.
which b Right?