The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-17

cally-and watched the better for it that
night. f -9 H. =
Take the servant III your kitchen-if
she annoys you by a sob or two, or Il fit of
temper on holiday week, does She, there
fore, deserve a scolding for il?
Investigate the case She may
need the tenderest consideration of any
member of the family. Do you know her
history, her circumstances, her friends!
A child's nurse was drowned recently, in
successful effort to rescue the baby left
in her charge. When the body of the girl
was taken to the mansion of her mistress,
it was found that no one knew where she
came from. who her family were, nor even
her last name.
If the cook sulks. or the waitress cries,
count twenty before the rebuke flashes
from the lip. No statistician has ever es-
timated the amount of pluck and depth of
inconsistencies i'll the lives of our young
Irish girls, Just come over. and mourn
ing for home and parents One, | knew,
who, whenever she was hurt by any little
accident. instinctively cried out: "Oh,
me mOther.' Just rs most of us say "Oh,
my Cod Christmas did not omit to
happen, in the old country in the warm
hearted peasants loving home Too often
we act as if we had forgotten this simple
historical fact.
Even if the sob means no more than
that well-natuIalized Bridget must give
up her dance at her cousins to stay and
roast turkey for us and our cousins, there
Is deprivation, there is a grief. Let US
be patient with it.
There is Il small way of giving great
comfort. in which l think we do not
enough educate ourselves or each other;
and that is by remembering other peo-
pies anniversaries.
The relative or guest who Isl widow in
deed, steals away and locks herself in her
own room when she is particularly
wanted; she comes down in answer to
somebody's impatient knock. Why did
she not stay to play the waltzes for the
children to dance. She brushes off the
streaming tears. Last year,-two years
or was it a hundred years ago-she
bowed those wet cheeks to the last kisses
of lips that are cold. Her Christmas is
"a day to be got over
There sits one at your fireside. be.
reaved of the light Of his life 1t is his
first Christmas without her. He wanders
about the house with the pathetic awk-
wardnesS of a homeless and a wretched
man. He tries to brave it out as men do.
He would get over it, somehow, if he
can. He strolls into all sorts of umoccu-
pied places, ostensibly 10 smoke He
filings himself out for long walks on the
ground of a headache. He Joins in the
chorus of "Home, Sweet Home" and
breaks down and takes his hat and disap-
pears. He is not there to distribute the
presents, and somebody says chow un-
gracious of him." Who understands that
every glance of love from happy eye to
happy eye, every touch of a live wife's
hand upon her husbands arm. every little
loving attitude with which she turns to
him or clings to him, stabs the bereaved
man TO the hearts corel
To sum it, in a word. be merciful, he
merciful to sorrow, to desolation. to I'M
comfortable positions that are but half
understood, to irritable nerves. whose
causes are not known. to memories whose
underground rivers YOU cannot follow. to
the past that everyone else has forgot
ten, To the present that Is overweigbted
with perpleXity too heavy to be thrown
of at the beck of a dance or dinner. TO
that temperament which is most unlike |
your own, to the sensitiveness with which
you have least natural sympathy. to
every human heart that is getting over,
hard places which you do not see&and be |
most merciful on anniversary DAYS.
But the page is printed on both sides
The leaf does not turn with a blank which
no corresponding obligation fills. The sad !
nave their summons as well as the clad |
and the desolate, like the blessed. must |
answer TO the great call of the Christ |
spirit which rings through the world. He |
whose sacred birth we celebrate was |