The Mena star., 1898-12-21
A DAY OF GLADNESS.
,. patience. Generosfty and Love Prevail In Home and Heart "'
 Christmas Time.

What tender memories eHap word calls up!
 How the page of life rolls back ana we read maybe, with fearful eyes tne characters written there, and through the long closed corridors of the past we hear the soft echo of the footsteps of those who have gone out from among us, and come back no more.
 But while Christmas saddens, It IS always a season of rejoicing. There IS hardly any home so poor in this broad land, let us hope, that the children can not hang up their stockings and hope 10 find something in them when morn ing dawns.
 And if there be such homes, would 1t not be quite as we'll for people who en- dow colleges, already possessed ot am ple means-who build churches with steeples which pierce the skies-who snort diamonds that do them no earth ly good-would it not be just as well if they would set apart yearly DOT tion of what they spend so needlessly, as a fund to give the poor around them happy and comfortable Christmas?
 God has no need of steeples hundred or two hundred feet high. He can hear prayer just as we'll from one elevation as He can from another Christ was born in a manager, and He never preached in any costly cathedrals, yet His words have come down to us through the ages-evcr new, ever beautiful and sweet, to fill our hearts with hope, and to make glad these lives of ours which otherwise would be but as the apples of Sodom.
 And, remembering what Christmas commentaries, it should ever be sea son of good will toward men," Petty differences should be buried so deep that no winds of idle gossip would be able to uncover them. We should re- member our own frailty. and have charity for our neighbors. And when the joy bells ring on Christmas morn ing, happy is the man who can listen to them and say truthfully: "I have no hardness in my heart this day for any living thing"
 Shall we give presents at Christmas?
 Certainly. if the heart prompts the gift, not otherwise.
 In so far as you can, let Christmas be day, not of so much feasting that the doctor will be needed the next day, but an occasion of good cheer. It is not necessary to anybody's happiness that there should be great many kinds of dishes. One can eat with comfort and respect to his digestion, only about so much. and everything above that is weariness and vexation.
 And too often the woman who does her own work is so completely tuck cred out" with her preparations for Christmas that she has no heart for anything; and when everybody nas feasted and praised her dinner, she looks at the stupendous array of dishes she has to wash, and groans in agony of spirit. And she may we'll be for given if she says, as she often does: Thank heaven that Christmas comes but once yearl"
 On Christmas day, put away cares and the remembrance of all troubles and perplexities, so far as you can. Let everybody have as good time as it is possible to have. Eat your tur- key with no thought that perhaps tomorrow you may have to dine on salt pork.
 Indulge in no discontented refiec- tions concerning your richer neighbor, who is able to wash down his costly Christmas viands with champagne.
 Be thankful for what you have, and make the best of it. Likely as not it is a good deal better than you deserve.
 Give your horse an extra feed, and treat the eat and dog to the chicken bones, and let them have a Christmas, too
 Fill the children's stockings If you can-even if you have to cut off your cigars and soda water to meet the emergency.
 And for one day in the year let chari- ty, patience and love prevail in your home and in your heart-and let that day be the anniversary of the ever memorable and glorious day on which Christ was born.-Kate Thorn, in N. Y. Weekly
 Paid For.
 "I say Mr Softly o rap,ar1,od 4t.