Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-01-02
BILL ARP ON CHRIsTaAs.
LAYING UP A BANK ACCOUNT IN
HEAVEN.

: LAYING UP BANK ACCOUNT IN
HEAVEN.
Though = week after Christmas, the fol
: lowing suggestive recollections and reflec
lions, written by ''Bill Arp" for the At
lanta Constitution, are seasonabe
1t does seem to us that Christmas would
| wear out, but it does not. OF COURSE
mean the frolic of it. How easy it is fol
us to forget that we are old, and there is a
new crop of children coming on all the
time. To them Christmas is Just as fresh
and bright and just as big thing as it was
to us in our childhood. What long, long
time year was then. Compared with the
time now, day was week, week was a
month, and 365 days was period beyond
our reach in figures. The multiplication
table was big thing, but it couldn't span
the number of days in year. Some oi
our grandchildren are now passing through
the same happy dreams and imaginative
fancies. Christians is the great day Of the
year, and old santa Claus, the greatest aud
and goodest and richest OF all Gods Great
ures. The town is full of beautiful things
for Christmas and Newly ears, and moth.
ers and sisters and aunts are cruising
around on The sly making choice for the
loved ones, and hiding away the intended
presents. The children are wild with ex-
pectation, and even some Of the grown
folks are on the lookout am, know, for
there are some maneuvres l don't UNDER
stand. Mrs. Arp got some cotton money
the other day while was gone, and she has
never mentionedit. I'll bet that money goes
into writing table or some books or some
garment that abe knows / would like to
have. 1t is no trouble for me to find out
what she wants, and SO do my best to
keep even and make things calm and
serene. People never get so old as 10 be
Indifferent to present that is useful and
| appropriate. 1t shows that they are still
| loved and not forgotten. Old age is very
sensitive about this. # the old man is a
little blind or little deaf he feels like be
is an intruder; many time he would like
to hear what was said, but will not ask
When children become careless ard neglect
full of their aged parents it is the unkindest
cut of all. There is nothing more beauti-
ful in a family than to see the mother or
grandmother assigned the best place by the
fireside, the best chair, the best bed and
the choicest food at the table. Let loving
hands smooth her silver hair and fiud her
spectacles and anticipate her wants, for she
wants but little, and will not want that
little long. Make her last days her best
days, for she has had q world OF trouble
that she has never told.
But giving costly presents to those who
do not need them is a poor way TO celebrate
Christmas. 1t does not fit the day. Christ-
mas means something. Its motto is "Peace
on Earth and Good Will to Man" 1t means
human kindness. It is time to make the
poor and the dependent happy. The poet
says -
"Count that day lost whose low descending
Sees from thy hand no loving action DONE"
Riches are blessing and comfort when
used Alright, but man who boards his
money and is all bottled up with his own
sel6shness is a fool and fraud. Nobody
cares whether he lives or dies. In fact,
they would rather he should die. The ma
ton moaned for Peabody, but who moaned
for A. T. Stewart?
Now is the time for a man to start
good bank account in the next world.
John Brown. DIR.
To money honestly gained....... $4,000
Cr.-By charities to the poor 81, 600
Balance to be accounted for
But with most of the millionaires it
stands:- -
JOlD DTORn. Dr,
To money gained by sharp practices.
...$1, 200, 900.
No credit except the gifts
contained in his will. Ex-
cuses rendered-"The poor
have no gratitude" 'The
poor are lazy and might be
better off if they would
WORK. ..-................. ........
never knew q StinUY. selfish man who I
didn't roll those excuses under his tongue.
John Bsown was r-rsitssing along one cold
morning aud saw poor woman picking |
up scraps at q lumber yard to make fire. 7
but it was nothing to him st. Peter was
looking down and charged him up with |
wood and clothing for that woman and her |
children, aud he is charging up something |
to US almost every day. 1t troubles me |
and l am afraid to see that book. Some |
poor folks arc not grateful, l know,
but most of them are. That was true |
and beautiful verse that Lady Duferin
wrote in the '1rish Immigrants Lament"
81 am very lonely now, Mary.
For the poor make no new friends;
But oh! they love the better still,
The few our Father Sends"
The trouble with many of our rich peo-
pie is they don't know the wants of the
poor. They never see them. Their daily
journey is from their beautiful homo to the
counting room and from the counting
room to their home again. On Sunday
they never go about the homes of poverty,
nor see the rented cabins with broken win
dows and cracks in the floor, and the scanty
covering on scanty bed, and Tom Hood
says
"A wall SO blank my shadow thank
For sometimes falling there."I
London did not know she had poor peo-
pie until Hood wrote that "Sopg of the
Shirt and all of sudden London began
to weep with pity and was aroused, and did
more for the suffering, starving thousands
in one month than had been done for ten
years before.
l never did believe that human nature
was iunately, radically, incorrigibly mean
1t is selfish and thoughtless, but just let a
tender, touching case come right up square
before man aud be will surrender. One
time l saw a reckless, God forsaken man
jump into mad, swollen, rushing river to
save a poor boy from drowning, and ho
saved him at the peril of his own life. In
1854 saw man lodged on the end of
log that lad been caught among the rocks
Just above the brink OF Niagara Falls.
trying to rescue him, and thousands had
congregated there from neighboring cities.
All efforts had failed, and his wife and chill
dren were weeping upon the bank. Sud-
denly man mounted upon a box and
shouted, with upraised arms; 81 will give
ten thousand dollars to anybody who will
save that man. Here is my check for
the money" and he handed his check
to the mayor. "Who is that man?" in
quired, and the answer was: HE is the
meanest man in Buffalo," There is ten
der spot in almost every heart.
But still these spasmodic charities won't
do to rely on. 1t is systematic charity
that keeps the world alive. There was an
old gentleman in Rome, Ga, who was a
banker, and he laid aside one dollar out of
every ten that he made. That was the
Lords money, he said, and he gave it to
the churches. He kept it in different
j.. 81, r.. II