The record-union., 1894-12-22
THE CHRISTMAS CARD IN ENGLAND
1t is Looked Upon as Nuisance
by Many.

1t is Looked Upon as a Nuisance
by Many.
The season of official festivity is coming
upon us, and is casting it's customary
shadows before; but while its inconveni-
enceS are yet in the shadow stage, there
may be time TO plead for a mercilul mod
Grafton of one of the most conspicuous of
them. The Christmas cards which are
beginning to fill the shop-windows
breathe benevOlence in every variety OF
tone, from the religious to the comic, but
the feelings which they inspire are, to say
the least, rather mixed. We may pass
over without much pity the grOans of the
Postoitlce and its hackneyed appeals to
the forbearance Of the public. The Post
office exists only for the convenience of
the community, and if the community
chooses TO alnuSe itself at q particular sea-
son OF the year by sending some thou
sands of cards by letter, it is the business
of the Postoflice to make the needfuI ar
rangements. for the occasion. 1t is per-
1ectly well known when this pressure
may be expected, and its approximate
duration can be easily estimated. Clearly,
therefore, the difficulty should be met
not by ignoble appeals TO the public. but
by temporary additions TO the postal
staff.
We could contemplate the woes of the
PoStofnce with absolute unconcern; but,
unhappily, they are by no means the
only sufferers from the strange custom.
Ii Is real inconvenience to business
men to find their correspondence inter
rupted by the flood of cards which chokes
the mail bags through the Christmas sea-
son, aud even to people of leisure it is an
annoyance. Moreover, in this case the
actual annoyance is aggravated by a feel
ing OF sentimental injury. If the Christ
mas card were an honest tribute of re-
gard or admiration, we might be content
TO tolerate II as a well-meaning nuisance;
but 1t is felt at best TO be a threadbare
convention, and IL is often little better
than an lmpudent fraud. 1t frequently
serves as cheap and unworthy substitute
Tor the turkey, the Stilton, the barrel of
oysters, or even the check, in which the
healthier benevolence of former days
found expression at Christmas time 1t
comes upon us in the specious guise of a
letter; but in this respect it shares all the
reprehensible peculiarities of the whited
sepulchre. The new woman may cher
ish fine scorn for social frivolities; the
old woman, however (if she happens to
be young one), is not cast in the same
heroic mold, and grievous is her disap-
polntment when the stiff envelope dis
gorges a simpering Christmas card in
stead of, as she had only hoped, "a ball"
Even from an artistic point OF view the
Christmas card is not free from reproach,
since the Imagination of the artist in its
search for the beautiful has somewhat
unduly neglected the appropriate. The
traditional robin in a snowstorm is more
or less in keeping with the associations of
the season, and he is still to be found
among Christmas cards, but in steadily
decreasing numbers. His place is being
taken by summer seas, winding rivers,
spring lawns, and other similar sugges-
tions of the past and tho future which
tend to make the average Briton pro-
foundly discontented with the immediate
present.-London World.