St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-12-25
Christmas Eve
Ey CHARLES JAMES WILLIAMS.

Jack Frost! An eager, nipping, keen
crisp, yet altogether pleasant and COM
panionable fellow, is jack! A sauc,
fellow, too. barking and biting play
fully at your toes as you go briskfy
along the cracking sidewalks; tweakirt
your nose and pinching your ears,
catching your breath as it pours fortf
| from your swelling lungs III volumes q
sTeaming vapor, and transforming 7
| into something very like himself, WITH
which he makes you look prenlatureiy
| old by coating your hair and eyebrows
and eyelashes and beard with hoat5
! dye, while with mischieyous incoisiSt.
| ency he charges your cheeks with the
| rosy hueS of youth: making the beard
less boy vain as tie latter feels the fuZ2
of adolescence stiffening under his nose
/ and endeavors to add 10 the effect of hrs
rudimentary and unSub5tantiai NOUS
tache by protruding his neither lip IN
| order to give his respirationS an up,
ward tendency, thereby increasing the
deposit of frosty dew.
Now Jack Frost shakes hands with
you, and your fingers Jingle under his
quick grasp. Now he coquets with the
dimpies of pretty miss who trips by,
and like the impHdent rogue he is, gives
her plump and inviting cheek bit
| ing kiss. and leaves tell-tale patch OF
white upon it: then he bids you intro
duce her to his cousin, the snow, which,
nothing loath. you do at once by rub
bing the whitened spot with. handful
ofthe feathery crystals until it bushes
back at you with a ruddy glow, and
| pretty miss says ''thank you" with
| charming grace, and you bow return
| and vote Jack to be perfect Boyet OF
uShers-''mend him wnO can"
There he goes, now, over the windows
| of the stores along the streets, mapping
| out his realm like an enthusiastic geog-
rapher laying out province after prov
! ince, and joining country to country IN
| most wonderful variety OF lights ana
| shades, dOttiDg them with Hills anu
mountains. trenching them with daleS
| and valleys, building unsnbstanttal
| fairy palaces of fantastic architecture
upon the plains. the while from brilliant
| lamps within bright rays fall upon his
| etchings in shifting prismatie hueS.
| lighting them into delineationS of ell
| chanted spleudor.
! He is magician, too, is Jacki with
| a touch of his wand he clothes the leaf
| less trees along the highways with cryS-
| tai buds and blossoms and hoary foil
| age. He fills the air with nfyriadS of
| scintllating. sparkling diamonds, and
| showers them down upon the Christmas
| throngs with lavish and unStinted hand.
| He spreads his polished mirror upon
| the waters surface, wherein his favorlte
| luminary, the moon, may view the re-
| hected beauties Other fair vlSage; and,
| as he perceiyeS vain Luna'S smurklng
countenance given back from II, he
| fits over the CLASSY plain, and seams II
,itt MY
away laughing at the Wry and wrlnkled
grimace of the disconnected Queen
| Of Night. He threads the air and space
with webs of glinting rays extending to
| the twinkling stars by which the eye
holds them as theyfloat afar like golden
kites, guided by tiny, silver cords, and
as you gaze upon the distant points OF
| light, and think of futtering paper
messages to be sent up to them along
the shining striugSs he pins the ShimI
mering threads with sharp thrust
upon your nostrils, when you are forced
to have recourse again to Cousin Snow
begging her with fearful eyes to help
you melt the singing strands away. g
What bright, busting, busy fellow
Jack is at all. times, to be sure; but
brighter, buster, merrier than ever upon
this merry Christmas Eve! What de-
ploying, sklrmishing, charging, attack
ing he revels in, especially upon people
with bundleS.@A everybody Is quite
helpless under the weight ofbundles to-
night-Whole armSful of them; and we'll
he seems to know it. NJ.
Bundles! There is Miss Dainty, who
at any other time never purchases SO
much as a single knot Of Skeln silk
without having 1T ''sent," now tripping.
from the shop door to her waiting
Sleigh, quite alarmingly laden with
packages, while the attending Jebu is a,
perfect Pilgrims Progress of burdens.
But, bless you! Jehu bears them with
as much fortitude and good nature as
Christian carried his membranes, and
actually chuckles as he losses the
smaller ones into the interior or the
sleigh. and selects particularly large
one-and all obstreperouS and hairy
one, too, to Judge from its persistent eff
forts to come out of its wrapper for air,
in which it is partially successful about
the corners-which he deposits care
fully under his seat OH the drivers box,
with the Sententious and emphatic
declaration that he wouldn't give that
there BUTLER coat for the bilin' on 'em."
There is old Heavysides, a double
decker, who, whenever you Jostled him
accidentally in your attempt to go by
him without giving him due Ieeway, al
WAYS demanded hotly, what the
something OF other not to be named
'.makes YOU so deuced awkWard?' now
pulling along labOriously under his
weight of care and freightage; and as
YOU run against him in your blind haste,
| and scatter his packages and your own
upon the walk in hopeless confusion,
| with ''bup!" at the collision,he laughs
~ ,nf
| entire good nature, to assist you in sort
| ing the wreckage. warning you that
"one of those bundles of mine is set OF
underwear for large party now exist
| ing, and not for the Colossus of Rhodes,
or the Irish GIant;n and cautioning you
| against trying them OH il you should
| take them by mistake. ''nnless you want
| to get lost, or sm0thered, or labaryntlicd
in the legs of 'em, and be late for your
| Christmas dinner-ha! ha! hap t''i
| There are papas and mammas without
| number, all out in full force, engaged
| in whispered consultations OF a mysteri-
Gus nature as they go to and fro among
! the store counters, and have Suudry con-
| fidental dealings with the representa-
tivps of Santa Claus in charge, and as
they prepare to turn homeward they
| take strange inventories of an incom-
|
| fused over the operation themselves.
One mamma exclaims: "Dear me.
John! Where's seventeen? | can't
find seventeen high or loW!" And she
looks perplexed and worried, and
John looks bothered and helpless, and
they renew the investigation without
result, until the suggestion that, perhaps,
there wasn't any seventeen" "Whys
| of course there was, john" says the iii
tie lady, decidedly. Don't you knowg
Seventeen was" and she whispers III
his ear. 'Gracious!" exclaims John
$50 1t was; how unfortunate! 1t can't
be lost, though; Eli ask the clerk about
it." and turns to do so, when the little
lady calls to him and says: ."Oh, never
mind. John; it's all right. Here it isl
| here's seventeenth my mutf." And
thus, everything being set TO rights.
they leave the other papas and mammas
to Wrestle in the same vague manner
with their ''seventeens'' and other nu-
merals, and hasten away to the waiting,
| L., - -