The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1899-12-28
"A CHRISTMAS TREAT TO
CHILDREN.

the city to whom Christmas is as apt to
bring unsatisfed longing as it is enjoy
ment. He had splendid Christmas
tree nicely decorated in one of the larger
rooms of his house. Large quantities
and a varied assortment of good, service
able clothing We're piled up in the room
awaiting distribution when the wonders
Of the Christmas tree had ceased to alb
sorb attention. There were toys too,
and puzzles and dolls. A basket of
fruits and nuts was prepared for each
when ready to leave for home. They
came in body and left in body.
Mr. Rahr had some ladies to assist
him in inviting the children and they
We're brought to and taken from his
house III omnibuses The delight of the
children was held in check by the unac-
customed sight of such grand Christ
mas tree. They could hardly realize
that such preparation could be for them,
and the kindly inquiries of the ladies
and of Mr.. Rahr while distributing gifts
elected but slight response When leav-
ing. a cheer broke from them spontane
ously for Mr. Rahr
1t was a study of human nature, this
group of children whose conception had
not reached what they We're then ex
periencing There was a feature of the
pathetic in the repression which unfa
miliarity with such surroundings inn
posed. In some cases there was the face
of age set in the frame of childhood, and
the WEAKNESS of care had supplanted the
! buOyancy Of youth Dotheboys Hall
could not fail to he called up and the APP
fpeal in Mrs. Browning's Cry of the
Children" could not fail to run through
ones consciousness.
1t was not the evidence of material
need or of suffering, but the absence of
youth, sort of of spiritual malforma-
ton. One could pick out the children
who were motherless whose childhood
was eliminated by responsibilities to
which they had not grown and which it
was cruelty to impose.
A brief period of happiness, through
the kindness of Mr. Rahr, added com
forts of life for time, and imagination
made active, perhaps aspirations Great
ed And what then? A return to the
misery from which they had brief
respite!
That should not be the result. There
proper sense Of parental duty paternal
is perhaps the word that should be used,
as the mother never errs through selfish
ness or lack of affection. Heaven lies
about us in our infancy but not to the
child who is treated by the father as a
chattel perhaps through no unkindness
but through habit We may not hear
the children weeping but we car see
the weight of deprivation craven on their
faces by an al list whose every touch is
true 1t is a sin against humanity,
against society and against morals that
some people should be fathers. They are
not Intentionally cruel, but civilization
with them has not reached the domestic
hearth.
Is not the preaching of the doctrine ot
the emancipation OF the child from prac-
teal serfdom still necessity? Progress
in domestic life has not kept pace i'll
some quarters with progress i'll civic life.
1t seems strange to us that in the early
day the science of astronomy received
more attention than did those matters
having close relation to our happiness
and well being But the present has
anomalies no less inexplicable Reform
ers are busted with things which do not
touch the lives If those whose convic-
ton they try to govern Churches teach
dogma and foreign wars appeal to our
sympathies, or prejudices and our pas
sions. But the children at our gates are
neglected.
The Young lambs are bleating III the
meadows,
The young birds are chirping i'll the nest,
The young fawns are playing with the
shadows,
The young flowers are blowing toward
the west,
But the Young children, 0 my brothers,
| They are weeping bitterly.
They are weeping i'll the playtime Of the
others,
In the country of the free.
! MAKES fat, blood and muscles more
rapidly than any known remedy. It's
! food for the blood brain, and nerves.
! That's what Rocky Mountain Tea is. F.
| G. Buerstatte.
! MICRAEL L. KEEHAN has takenup his
residence i'll the city. Now that he is a
married man he thinks city life the prop
er thing.
DIR. F. H GEHBE of this city and Miss
n Ia1 st.a,.-