New-York tribune., 1890-01-03
4 0rEER CHRISTMAS EXPERIENCE.

We awaited with considerable interest the ar
rival of THE Mif1lin Centre lPcnnD Blade for
December %, being anxious to know how our
editorial friend enjoyed his Christmas. The
paper did not arrive till yesterday, and we are
sorry to learn from it that his holiday was not,
apparently, as happy as it might have been,
though, rs usual, he appears to he cheerful.
Since the brilliant success Of his attempt to burn
stove-wood with ounce Of blastng-powder in
each stick. we have not looked to see him put
down by trihes.
Christmas eve the Editor of The Blade" hung
up his stocking lie is not, he says, in the
course Of a leading article, in the habit of doing
this, but the children, of whom he has several
wished him to suspend his stocking along with
theirs, so % please them he complied, " care
rully tying up with n string a small hole which
existed in the toe When the last explosion
had died away in the stove the family retired
to bed.
In some way the fact that the Editor of The
Blade" purposed hanging up his stocking got
nosed around the village Of Miffiin Centre
probably from n neighbor who dropped in during
the evening On hearing of it number of the
people "concocted most diabolical plan" as
The Blade" article has it. We were awakened
early Christmas morning by the children the
account COnllHucS, anu ltpdlIcu "luh III h'i"o
to where the stockings were hanging. The
children soon extracted the toys and other things
from theirs amid great hilarity. and our wife
found a few little remembrances in hers, gifts
from her unworthy spouse. We then turned to
ours and found by the side of it, not, of course in
it, a large upholstered easy chair 1t was from
our wife, and after duly admiring it we gave our
attention to the stocking itself, which we OBJ
served was stuffed almost to bursting. But what
was our astonishment, not TO say disgust, to find
that the first thing we drew out was an unre-
cripted bill for SIG from Nose Rosenstcn, the
Aleghany ave. clOthier, for fine suit of clothes
purchased from him over eighteen months ago
Our feelings can better be imagined than de-
scribed We threw the insulting piece of paper
on the floor and again reached in our stocking
This time we were rewarded with bill from
McCracke, the shoe man, for a pair OF boots
bought of him last spring. We expressed our
opinion, in as forcibe language as we could be-
fore the children Of the mercenary spirit thus
shown on a glad holiday occasion, and made
another excursion into the stocking, only to
draw forth another detested bill, this time from
Aaron Peters, of Schuylkill-st, for groceries fur
nishcd us at various times during the last five
years. The amount was Si5 so. We were
disgusted. We then emptied out the entire
contents OF. the stocking and found it consisted
wholly of bills from our heartess fellow-citizens
for different articles bought from six months to
fifteen years ago We then saw through the
whole thing. Some miscreant, learning that we
nroposed TO hang up our stocking, had spread
the report and the enterprising tradesmen Of our
city had each called around after we retired,
opehcd the window, near which the stocking
hung. and inserted his bill There were fifty-one
in all and after stacking them up we gave them
to our little girl and told her to make paper dolls
of them We turned to our new chair with the
tbought that we at least had that TO make our
Christmas happy. AS we pulled on our stock
ing we could not help contrasting the cold
mercenariness Of our so-called friends with the
thoughtful kindness of our wife in thus pro-
vidino us with what we had long wanted, an
easy chair. We felt something in the toe of the
stocking, and, taking it off, reached in and drew
il out. il was bill for S15 from IIarl1ins d Co.
for the chair. We sank back in kind OF
stupor and did not rouse up till our wife an
nOunced breakfast
Few. we presume, will withhold their sym
pathy from the Editor Of The Blade" on this
OCCASION Such an influx Of bills would have
heen hard enough TO bear at any time, but it
was doubly so an occasion when others were
rejoicing. But he did not despair-and right
here comes the lesson fer the rest of u.s. Golng
70 our office" he writes, we Immediately set
70 work. and with the aid of all our account
hooks the files and our memory in several vital
nlaees. we succeeded in getting up bill against
each man, slightly larger in nearly every case
than the one presented against us If We can
collect the balance we estimate that we shall
come out in the neighborhood Of $40 ahead
Look out for us, because we begin our collect
ing tour to-day"
All honor to the Editor Of The Blade, and
NAV he vet put down his sordid enemies who
took such a base advantage Of him