The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1897-01-02
1T WAS XMAS EVE, 1895.
The Presidential Election was Over
and Prosperity had Finally Set
tled-Way Down.
For the Democratic Advocate.

For the DeEOcratlc AdVOcate
cit was the night before Xmas That is
what others have said. | won't say it, be-
cause others have saidit. | say ut was Xmas
Eve r. | say it because it is true and not
novel, and because if / said ut was the night
before Xmas / would not have as popular a
phraze as ] have when / say for a change ut
was Xmax Eve. 1896. When started this
my first attempt at a newspaper story, and be-
cause it is Xmas Eve and because / differ as
how to start it with those who have written
about it heretofore | am unwilling to get
mixed up about common ideas, and my own
uncommon ones, or, get even with Santa
Claus or Kris Kringle, for the reason they
have more to give away tonight than | ever
saw, or ever expect to see-or have to give,
and consequently like the populist that OBJ
iected to candidate e-President Sewall,
wish ito keep in the middle of the road, ;"
and thereby clear my skirts of other ''story
tellers, Or as Captain Randolph said, ''Draw
it mildly, when he pulled President Andrew
Jackson's nose at the Alexandria and Wash
ington steamboat docks years ago. 1t was
Xmas Eve, 1885, therefore, when | was
quietly alone at my home; snow still in evi-
dence in the Park, and the weather as cold as
the conscience of four times millionaire. |
was alone in the house with the cat-and a
wonderful cat it was-the cat was more lonely
than /, because there were neither mice nor
rats to employ its attention, hence it slept
quietly upon rug, occasionally turning over
and stretching itself. Thus upon Xmas Eve
everything was as quiet as death and not even
a mouse stirred, leaving me to think over
what politicians describe as s'the situation.
To wonder what the result of the November
election would be? smoked, thought and
wished that Santa Claus might come, yet the
old fellow, as the Hyellow kid might say,
s'never showed up. / knew full well the old
fellow had not yet come in contact with the
mckinley Hanna Boom" and hence his
failure in his old line of business. His non
appearance call to my mind similar aston
ishment of the disappearances of their very
popular personages. | wondered if Dock
Slater and j. Frank Morrison were guilty of
Santa Claus absence? | thought it over and
remembered that Santa Claus had ''shown
up several times since they had been lost
sight of | could hardly conceive the trouble
until | recolected that the Hon. |. Freeman
Raisin, the Hon. Sonny Mahon and Bishop
NJohn Quinn, together with the Hon. Harry
Wells Rusk had retired from politics last
spring and then call of sudden, it .'struck
me- that Santa Claus had joined these latter
day Saints and would not make any more
Xmas gifts to "Silyer men, or their progeny.
This sort of accounted for more things than
one. will forgive Santa Claus, however, if
he keeps aloof from the Presidential Receiver
of the B. & o. r. r. and did not seAd his
presents via. the City Postotfice this year.
Another idea suggests itself, and il is how can
things have "a great boom" next year when
so many National Banks are bursting up this
year? What is the cause of these failures ?
just as have penned these interrogatories /
glanced at the cat and it rolled over upon its
back, stretched itself and appeared to smile
Ny cat is sensible one and / am sure it has
an idea of what ''rats in meal tub will do. Z
looked at my cat and took it in my lap and
tried to be agreeable by petting and smooth
ing it down, and as a result it became as kind
and affectionate as possible. | called it by its
name "Torch,' and it looked most kindly
toward me and | asked it, "Do you know
what part President Cleveland and Demo-
cratic Bosses generally took in electing Mark
Hanna and Mckinley President?' 1t imme
diately clawed, scratched and jumped out Of
my lap, ran off short distance and screeched
| was astounded and could only take It's ac-
ton to mean that it utterly abhored these per-
sonages or else was afraid of being summoned
before Senator Aliens investigation Of the
presidential steal, or purchase, in the U. S.
Senate In ''Pinafore, it will be remem-
bered, that ''the cat figured conspicuously,
also in the ''house that Jack built, and be-
sides as ''Puss in the Boots The Hon.
George Cotton once upon time told a story
about eats in comparison with the Demo-
cratic party, but the result of the election last
fall shows that he had the "wrong- bull by the
horns.i He should have compared "cats in
an alley with Republicans and their allies.
1t is now, however, Xmas day in the morning,
but like everything else this year no Santa
Claus, ne cannon, no crackers, and no noise
of any kind. There is no noise either in or
out Of the house in my neighborhood, not
even horn, except in ''the decantsr, and
that is also unapprecated in its solitude as the
cat does not take anything but ''cat-nip."
1T was Xmas Eve, 1885, when started and
it is now Xmas itself, and the subject of this
article should be dropped with the best wishes
for all and every one of your readers, together
with the hope that they may have happy and
most prosperous New Year, irrespective of the
apparent hand writing upon the wall for 1897
to the contrary.