The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-12-19
About Christmas Shopping.

Commonplace shopping Is pfO>y ous-
mess: at least it is so to the male halt
Of humanity But Christmas shopping
is not commonplace. 1t is trade con-
verted into poetry, business dramatized,
buying and selling set to music. From
ordinary, ail-the-year- round shopping
the average man shrinks with aversion,
but in their holiday dress the stores
take on the picturesque interest of SO
many tableauX vivants. The man who
has any sense Of scenic beauty at all
finds himself drawn by the fascination
of the shopping fairyland in these holt
day hours almost as irreslstlbly as a
woman. And with woman shopping,
like tears. is gift Of nature.
Not only is it worth ones while to
go and look at this shopping carnival
as one of the large commercial facts OF
the time, but also to consider it as
cheering manifestation Of the better
side Of human nature. All the cynlcs
| i'll creation to the contrary nOtwlth-
standing, this vast volume OF buying
and selling represents, in the main,
genuine outpouring of 1.-The milk Of
human Kindness" Discount all you
please for fashionable habit, for the
con pulsiOn Of custom, for the Ostenta-
tious pride that must needs make grand
presents as a mere proof of the power
to make them, and for all the other
mercenary and vulgar motives that en-
| ter into the matter, and there is still
left a solid core of perfectly sound and
healthy sentiment at the heart of this
holiday shopping. There are doubtless
mere mOney-changers in the temple of
Father Christmas now, as there were
in Solomon's nearly nineteen hundred
years ago, but the great body of wor-
| shippers are surely touched with the true
| spirit Of the seasOn-''good-Wlll toward
| men,
There is no room to doubt the SINGER
| ity of spirit in which the great mass OF
! Christmas giving is done. Seven out
of ten Christmas shoppers are seeking
gifts for dear ones at home or in dis
tant places, as the heavy-laden mails
will soon testify in every post-office in
the land. Such gifts are from the
heart as we'll as from the pocket-book.
They stand for love that is true and
friendship that is loyal. They mock
the cync's creed and confute the pessi-
mist's philosophy. They prove the
existence of a vast reservoir of tender
ness and warmth in nearly all human
hearts that needs only to be unlocked
by the magic wand of the sorcerer we
call Sympathy to flood the world with
gracious and kindly deeds.
The Christmas shopping carnival is
a comparatively new feature of Ameri-
can life. In its present proportions
and in the many-sided variety that is
now given to its manifestations Of good
will, it is a new creation within the
last twenty years. Christmas was
always a merry season with our Eng
fish and German cousins, and their lit
erature embalms innumerable quaint
customs that connect it's annual cele-
bration with the very earliest pagan
days The mistletoe bough is legacy
handed down from the ancient Druids,
a relic of their worship in the primcval
forests of Britain before Christmas had
been instituted. Naturally enough.
seeing that we are composite nation
drawn from the various races of Europe
our American Christmas is compos-
tie celebration. In some part or other
Of this country every Christmas form
of festivity known to Europe is extern
sively reproduced. The German has
brought us his Christmas tree and we
have Americanized it. The feasting
and general good cheer which are in
the foreground of the Englishman' s
Christmas we have also adopted, and
probably surpassed-and it's oh, the
roast beef of America and likewise the
plum pudding. The gift-giving custom
we have appropriated, too, but we have
extended it far beyond its European
limits.
Above all, we have made our Amer
lean Christmas great children's festi-
val. The youngsters have the front
seats at our annual Notification. There
is, to be sure, plenty of fun for adults
in these holiday days, but the children
them that we load the Christmas trees
with good things and light them up in
all the glory of gay tinsel and shining
beads. 1t is for them we make ap-
pontments with Santa Claus for the
due delivery Of toys per the chimney
express, and it is for them. too, that we
hold our domestic reyels and permit
our houses to be turned topsy-turvey as
a necessary incident Of juvenile games
and diversions. There is truly no land
like this one for children. They rule
us largely all the year round. but at
Christmas they are the absolute mon
archs of all they survey. But then,
we who are older can take our share OF
the fun, too, and re-enter the en-
chanted realm of childhood. We may,
indeed, well be proud and happy that
the children have clasped their arms so
tightly around the neck Of Father
Christmas and made his festival so
largely their own. There is a song of
summer that says:
Here blooms the warm, red clover,
There peeps the violet blue;
Oh. happy little children,
God made them all for YOU"
SO, too, in the great festival that
warns the cold heart of winter with
its glowing fires Of mirth and good cheer
the children are still the chief benefic-
iaries. 1t is well so. and let us be
thankful that their bubbling JOY is con-
tagious and the fountains of their hap.
piness free to all gentle and genial
hearts. Baltimore San.