Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-28
CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS.
rws1rrrx ron THE p1sp pArcn.,

| WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATCH.l
i Now what we want is to have little
Christmas every day. The 25th of December
is most excellent-as a sample. Let US order
whole year from that same piece. Let us
have Christmas every day!
The trouble with Christmas-beside the
annual difficulty of fitting very large hearts
| to very small pocketbooks-is that it is too
| short. 1t crowds things together too much.
| why, Christmas is as bad as halfa-dozen
weddings in single week "Mr and Mrs.
| Blank Blank-Blan Blank request your
presents at the marriage OF their dauHhter!''
Christmas is time when you especially
| desire to give something to every
| friend you have. But most respectable and
well-conducted people have a good many
friends; and to get something for them
all. and to do it between Sundays. is
large undertaking. Yes, between Sundays.
| or course, there are in every community
certain exceedingly forehanded people, who
begin in days of peace to prepare for war.
| They lay their Christmas plans as long
ahead as the illustrated papers. III the heat
| of summer they knit red mittens for skating
| parties.
Too Sudden for Comfort.
MOST people, however, to judge from the
| crowded streets and stores, go on the time
| honored, though not especially commenda-
| that can be put OFF till tomorrow. And so
Christmas comes all of sudden, and the
consequence it that people lose their tenn
pers, and the selection of gifts at the rate of
60 every minute becomes vanity and vexa-
tion of spirit, and men and women behind
counters wish that Christmas never came at
all.
Nobody can choose the right presents for
considerable company of friends in one
day. and do it well. In Venice, however,
according to Mr.. Howells they have this
matter of selection more easily arranged.
There are just three kinds of proper gifts in
Venice at Christmas. One is fish, another is
mustard. and the third Is mandorlato. II
you like your friend pretty well you give
him fish, a cold fish. If you like him
little better, you present him in addition
with a pot of mustard. This is not the mus
tard of commerce. There is no connection
between this gift and the consequences of
too much Christmas candy. Venetian mus
tard at Christmas time means q conserve of
fruits with mustard seasoning. II. however,
your friend is particular friend, you may
give him a fish, pot of mustard, and a cake
OF mandorlato, Mandorlato is kind of
candy made ofhoney and filled with almonds.
And then to variety you can add quantity.
The size of the gift is measure of
the size of the donors affection. Unless
people pleasantly deceive one another in
Venice, as they do here, and pretend to
think more of each other than they really
do, the receiving of Christmas presents must
be aninterest1ng and Instructive experience.
What the venetians Lose.
-ONE difficulty which can see in such an
order of things-with all its obvious advant-
ages-is that nobody in Venice would get for
gift this charming book of Mr.. Howells' out
of which 1 have just quoted-"Venetian
Days" had the great felicity of reading
Venetian Days. for the first time in Venice
itself. just between st. Marks and the
Doge's Palace is marble lion-possibly two;
lam sure there is one, because brought him
back with me to Pittsburg-in a kodak.
And sitting on a pedestal Of that old lion
looking out over the busy Piazza, in full
sight of the supreme glories Of Venice, the
Cathedral, the palace, the Campanile, and
the grand canal had Mr.. Howells for guide
and companion several most memorable
days.
My copy was little paper-covered Tauch-
nitZ edition, just of q size for a coat pocket
But this Christmas edition of Houghton,
Mffflin & Co.'s is in two volumes, vellum-
covered edged with gilt and set out with
score OF more of particularly dainty little
pictures done in color, very vivid, as every
thing in Venice is, and quite impression
ist in style-little, informal, rather in
definite, but altogether charming, glimpses
of canals and corners, of markets and
churches, like the pictures of q tourists
memory. Mrs. Deland's "Florida Days" was
illustrated in color. There is, no doubt. a
great future in this direction for the max
ing of book pictures.
= Mr.. Howells' Venice and Mr.. Ruskin,s
Venice are two quite different places. In
deed, it is Mr.. Howells himself who declares
that when after a residence of several years |
in that city he read for the first time
Mr.. Rusktn's description of st. Marks,
he wondered where it was, and how
he had SO unfortunately happened to miss
it. The commonplace tourist sympathizes |
with Mr. Howells' criticism. Ruskin's de- |
scription of the great church is almost as |
beautiful as the church ITSELF but it is no |
more an explanation of the real looks of st. |
Marks than Turner's "Heidelberg" is an ex- |
hibition of the actual appearance of that |
city of the university and the CASTLE I'VE |
netian Days" is an altogether delightful ac- |
count of everyday, nineteenth-century ex- |
periences in that strange, medic val Venice, |
which, even to-day, takes the hand of the |
visitor, as the fair lady of the mountain |
took the hand of Tannhauser, and conducts |
him out of the world. The book is empha- |
sized by its worthy setting of white and |
gold, and the CLEANS of color between its !
pages.
Not Enough Christmas.
IN Venice, Christmas is not crowded |
into one week, or if it is, there is not nearly |
so much of it to crowd in. Fish and mus
tard and mandorlato can all be easily pur-
chased, with no perturbation Of mind what
soever, in a mornings shopping.
Christmas ought to be spread out more. |
Christmas is like good many peoples vaca-
ton. Men work for ten months twice as
hard as they ought to work; they sit up late
nights and get up early in the morning, and
increasingly an unnatural, and un-
and generally pernicious hustling
And then they devote eight weeks to getting |
rested. But a better way might be 10 take
little more vacation as we go along, to take
o little vacation every day.
And that, it seems to me, is good advice |
about Christmas. We ought to spread the
Christmas spirit over the whole year. 1t
might be well to give fewer gifts during the
last week in December, and make it up by
giving more gifts in January and June and
September. Christmas, that is is only q |
sample of the sort of human life that it
would do all of US good to live 365 days every
year, and one more day than that next year.
Christmas is a synonym for unselfishness
J ust now, hundreds of commonly selfish peo-
Pile are thinking about other people. The
bundles that were piled up in everybody's