The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-12-23
tRInly EVENING. DECEMBER %. 1892
ANOTHER CHRISTMAS.

Another CIHlstmhS uaJ p $1,000 -
dawn. and the customary thanks are
awaiting the customary presents, and
everybody is prepared to icriticise the
a Christmas sermons, and compare the
weather Of last year and we are all
ready to wish our friends +" Merry
Christmas and good many more Of
{ them.
: We speak softly Of those who are
zone and recall with tenderness the
gracious memory of their sweet pres
Z ence we wonder where we shall be
next year at this time, and we hope
for something better and more salts
factory as time goes on.
The young people sigh because
Christmas comes but once year the
old people are sad because it comes too
often.
The man of large family and lean
pocketbook wishes it did not come at
all, and the hungry boy, with his grow
ing appetite, welcomes it as an epoch
Of plum pudding and turkey, with all
the /" stuffing' he can cat, and pound
cake in unlimited quantities to top off
with.
The churches hang their walls with
graceful ferns and evergreens the
choir practices for week beforehand
on some noted anthem with zigzag
quavers and trills in it, and the good
and hard-worked pastor changes pull
pits with brother in some adjacent,
I town, and by this arrangement the
two manage to work off their last
years sermons on the new and unsus-
pecting congregation. And who can
blame them. For if it does not require
genius to say something entirely new
on the same theme for fifty-two days
in the year-something that somebody
else has not said before-something
that will not displease a good-paying
member, something that viii be thor
oughly within the old orthordox stand
ard--h yon think II does not require
genius, then you had better try to do
it, and if you succeed you can name
your own salary.
About the time when Christmas
puts in an appearance you can safely
expect cold weather. Your aunt from
the country will come on visit and
stay all winter, and every day she will
tell you that there is not money enough
in the world to tempt her to live in a
town.
The shortest day in the year will be
upon you, and it will be dark at A p.
m, and the gas bills will be frightful,
and the coal bin will lower with the
mercury, and all the coal dealers will
be building brown stone fronts; and
their wives will wear diamonds in their
ears and on their fingers.
All creation will have colds, and the
man who has patented a cough syrup
and advertised it will be snseyof big
ger income than the President 81 the
United States.
III Bright colors will fame on the streets
as the pretty girls and the fashionable
women go by to look into the shop
windows and note the cut prices and
observe with complacency the numbers
of merchants who are ready to ruin
themselves by selling their merchant
disc ten cent. below cost! A strange
philanthropy which prevails about the
time the demand for Christmas and
New Years goods is over.
The merry sleigh-we have always
heard it called the "merry Sleigh" so
we thus dominate it--skimsratang .ifs
there is snow enough, filed with people
gighoenjoy having their ears and toes
ffozen and their eyes knocked out with
snowballs and the horses like the fun
as they toss their heads and jingle
their bells and seize the first opportuni-
ty to upset the whole business into the
deepest drift in the road.