The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-23
CHRISTMAS IS COMING.
Bah Has thg Feelings Of a Child
Once More.

Q
Your Own Be at Your Own Hearth to
Claim 1t From Your Hands-Childish
Memories and the Kris Kringle of the
Days That Are Past-The Lessons of
the Old dvmn.
/ New York. Dec. 22.-The time has come
when we are not troubling ourselves in
the least about the sciences. or the i'm
+ portance Of analytical novels. or the much
vexed question Of suffrage. but in stead
we ponder over a large woody dog and
wonder if his curls will come out while
we give the rest Of our intelligence to de-
Gliding whether a doll shall be French.
/ German or American. when it is desired
+ that it shall say Mamma" as only we'll
bred doll can. There is something fascina-
/ ting about toys to the feminine heart
! They make women, who are tired ana
worn and weary become children again
and force them to find in the fran things
something that makes them companion
able with their own little people You
know perfectly well that when you
bought that box Of blocks, you desired. as
soon as they reached home either to build
a house with them, a house with a very
strong foundation. or to piece out pic
ture. You said you bought a doll that
wasn't dressed because the dresses in the
shops weren't pretty. Oh you wicked wo-
mani You dressed that doll because Il
gave you ineffable pleasure to fiddle and
fool over the little petticoats. TO fit on the
lilliputian stockings and to trim a tiny
hat with a tiny feather.
Didn't you have a good time the other
night, when all the children had gone to
bed. and you and Jack wound up all the
mechanical toys, and saw them work?
You excused yourself by saying that you
/ wanted to see If they We're in good order.
As If one needed an excuse for being young
again. Why. l can understand how I
/ fingered over the kitchen stoves, bought
the tiny basinet and were. OH so very
particular about getting such a tea set as
was suited to the size of the house, and to
the bisque lady who lived in it, 1t is won
derfully good to be young again, and we
women are made so when the Christmas
feeling is in the air. Men manage to con-
ceal this feeling, and they are mean
enough to be ashamed of 1t; but even
man tests the miniature steam engine,
tries the cars that are warranted to run
over the carpet for half an hour, and looks
at the bag of marbles, and wishes he had
had marbles like that when he was boy.
Ii makes us all boys and girls again. We
trot out and get a bit of holly. and look at
the green leaves and the berries, and
realize how cheerful they are and how
good this world is. And there is a great
deal to be thought of, stockings to be
filled, and a tree to be dressed.
l once heard Of a hard-hearted woman
a wicked woman, I call her-who, when
Christmas day came, gave each of her
children hve-dollar gold piece and told
them to buy what they wanted. She said
it saved her lot of trouble. Who wants
to be saved such lovely trouble as this?
OF course, one pricks ones fingers and
runs the chance of setting the house on
fire, and is tolerably certain to fan off the
ladder; but stiH what family Of children
would want to be given the doubtful privi-
lege of buying their own things. when
they have always seen this tree that bears
such wonderful fruit? l like to see it,,
with it's green boughs heavy with bags
filled with candy, with strings of popcorn,
with glittering red and blue and gold
balls, with long sticks of peppermint, with
sugar dogs with pink noses, and sugar Gle
phants with blue tails that stick out and
sugar cats that are larger than the ele-
plants and then on the very top branch
of all l like to see the Christmas saint
beaming at everybody And underneath
the tree swimming on a sea Of looking
glass, must be Noahs Ark, while the pro-
cession of animals must be heading to-
wards Mount Ararat, and the elephant re-
questing the mosquito not to shove Then
] like a baby doll sitting up in a chair,
with its blue eyes looking out for its moth
er; and | like a lady doll standing on her
own feet and eagerly seeking for the young
person whose companion she Is to be.
Then l like to see tennis nets and racquets,
and big foot balls and trains of cars war
ranted to run from Santa Claus Land to
Good Boys Land, and best of all, ] like
to think that with every toy and every
bit of sweetness there is real loving kind
ness prompting the giving.
A gift that comes because of conven-
tionality is not worth having. 1t must
bring an expression Of good viii with II
so strong that it permeates the gift it,
self as if it were some sweet scent.
Sometimes we cannot give just what we
want. Sometimes it seems as If we
couldn't give at all, but we can, always.
We can sit down, and, pen in hand write
a few words of Christmas greeting that
will show of whom we are thinking, and
will suggest what we would like to do.
Then, we can always economic a little
bit, and have something for the children.
An obligation rests upon every mother
to make her children happy, because
these young days are the ones that they
remember.
You and l have forgotten about Christ
mas before last, but we distinctly remem-
Der Christmas twenty years ago, when we
crept down stairs barefooted, and night
gowned, to see if the good saint had
stopped at our house. And we can remem-
Der how we were driven back and told
we should see nothing until we appeared
shod and properly dressed. That was
quick work. And oh. what joy il was when
we got therei How did Kr.ss Krinkle
know that what I wanted was that de-
lightful book? That book that told about
Little Nell and her Grandfather. and the
other book just beside It which introduced
me to Paul Dombey, and that other book
that had hidden between its pages, the
quaint Warehouses, and, best of all, that
book that said to me: This IS David Cop
perfield, poor little chap; viii he ever
finish washing out those bottles?" And
how did the saint know that one boy
wanted a foot ball and a pocket knife
while another one who was Of a mechan-
zeal turn of mind, had yearned for
steam engine that he might take II to
pieces and see how it was made to work d?
And the doh for the baby and the blocks
with pictures upon them to keep her
lat Tor rv,rref har