The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-12-27
\ VIEWS OF
v A WOMAN
THERE is Christmas cheer which
all can eninY and liffuse Whe Their

| HE.ItiI is Il CHRISTMAS cneer Whlcn
all can enjoy and diffuse, whether
i they are rich or poor. 1t costs no
money, it entails no small jealousies
and leaves no regrets. 1t will bring
more return than vast expenditure of
gold and effort, and can all be accom-
plshed while sitting at home by the
| fireside.
1t is IA sort of clearing house affair.
this Christmas cheer. and it works
largely through reflex action. 1t isn't
SO much New Years custom to be
established as for Christmas, since by
the time New Year arrives we are not
in the proper frame of mind to carry
out the details. The only time in the
world to arrange it correctly is at the
1uletide of the year.
| Perhaps you have been doing it right
along. If not. this is Il good time to
begin forming the habit. although it is
nothing new ana original, but some-
thing as old as the songs the shepherds
sang on the plains of Bethlehem. 1t is
the idea of dismissing the grievance
committee of the brain and clearing the
heart of the dismal accumulation of the
year. in the shape of snubs and Sights
| and offenses and injuries, and starting
| all over with no incumbrances.
There is no incumbrance in the world
so utterly cumbrous as a grievance. 1t
can burden one like the Old Man OF
the Sea. / should not be surprised il
| the real Old Man of the Sea was n
| Grudge in the beginning. He was prob
| ably a big, old hateful Grudge, that
sat down at the fresde like a Care Cat
and camped out on ones pillow at night
and clung about ones neck when one
walked abroad, ana poured bitter
waters in ones cup ut dinner and whis-
pered evil things when one would have
had lovely day dreams. Christmas is
such a good time to drown the Grudse.
One will be too busy at New Year
making resolutions that one has no in
tention OF keeping, and planning out
thirty-SiN hours work in every day OF
the three hundred and SiNly-tive 10
bother about the eNtermination of last
year.; Grudge 1t is better to attend to
the matter right now. He will be hard
to Kill, for he Will mutter over and over
again: "You are such a fool. Why
under the sun do YOU want to forget
that Mrs. Snippie snubbed you? 1t
isn't fair to yourself to ignore the fact
that Tom Sharp tried to do you In that
business matter. 1t is the sweetest aim
in the world to keep in mind that you
want to get even with the girl who
said that you We're crude. You owe IL
to your dignity to resent these Sights
that you have been receiving from peu-
pie not at all your equal"
Eut one will never in n whole twelve
month feel like chasing the giudgc
away from ones hearthstOne if it is
not attempted now in the little pause
before the New Year stands ON the
threshold: now when the Christmas
spirit is in the air and the heart Is
softened with tender memories of the
dead and the warm ministHtions OF
the living. Yet he has such habit Of
staying about with his miserable croak-
ing to make II discOrd in the merriest
mirth, that it is difficult 10 dlslodge
him.
The oldest thing about it all is that
one seldom realizes that the only per-
son whom he makes really uncomfort-
able is never anybody but ones own
self. one sends him forth to wreuk |
harm against another who has done |
the wrong, but with II preposterous |
sense of justice he never stirs on his |
mission bur crouches there at one's |
own door to annoy and torture the |
keeper of the home. 1t is only when |
one cpnvinces him that there is no least |
crumb left of the loaf of resentment |
for his eating and no last drop of the
hearts bitterness for his drinking, no
corroding thoughts for his dreaming,
that he ranshes, Now Is "A good time
IN make him vanish,
nj x,-h. L.,
her innings this Christmas as she never
had before. She hasn't been wasting
her time on doylies and centre pieces
almost everybody has doylies and cen
ter pieces enougll-but she has been
making all sorts of bcautlfying acces-
sories 10 dress. There was never time