Waterbury Democrat., 1902-12-26
CHRISTMAS IN WATERBURY.
Churches We'll Attended-Snow Storm
 Iuterfered With Festivities.

CuurcueS well EMBARRASSMENT 0toIlp
 Interfered With Festivities.
 Christmas day passed off quietly in Waterbury, so much so that were it
 not that some of the places of business
 were open one would not know it from Sunday. To be sure there was 8 little
 excitement here and there, but nothing
 worth mentioning. It is true, too, that
 several people acted as if they were completely tired out and didn't care
 how soon they reached a place where
 they could sit down, lie down or do all
 most anything but walk; but those who
 looked at such folks from their will
 doWS should bear in mind that the
 SHOW was deep and that after 9 man
 had ploughed his way through it for
 some distance he began to feel that it
 was bigger job than he figured on and wished he had remained in the house and put off making his usual
 Christmas calls. But on the whole the
 city has reason to congratulate itself
 on how it's inhabitants spent the great festival of Christmas, for while a few
 things may have come to public notice | that were not creditable, they were
 trif1ing compared with the numerous
 instances witnessed on all sides where 1 people were aiming to do good. One nllaflOuS man creates more unfaVora- Die comment than a hundred rushing this way and that on errands of mercy
 can offset, and no doubt this is the req son why we hear so much about the
 wicked ways of the world and so little
 on the other side. We don't hear much about the great army of men and wo-
 men who turned out of their warm
 beds as early as 4 o'clock in the morn l ing in order to get to an early mass, so that they might be on hand in the 1 kitchen on time to save the children from pulling the house to pieces and killing themselves in mad scramble I to grab things left in their stockings l by Santa Claus.
 The attendance at all the churches. l Catholic and Protestant, was large,
 and the music was of a high order.
 Sermons appropriate to the day were | delivered by the pastors or their as sistants, the preachers in each case
 prefacing their discourse by wishing the congregation the compliments of l the season. s.:- zs Captain Mataxas and his wife of the | Salvation Army fed about 400 persons at the rink. In addition to this baskets
 were sent out to several poor families about town. The collections taken up for this purpose on the streets netted $50. It was hard job and the man. l agement deserve credit for the pa tience shown in watching the pot
 which showed such disinclination to 1 boil
 Superintendent Combellack of the Boys club did not give a public dinner l this year. He thought it would be bet l ter to see what he could do towards | rriu
 wood, and he made the most he could
 of himself with the limited funds at l his disposal. Of course all the regular l boarders at the institution had a fine l spread and spent the day in a very pleasant manner l Thomas Moran and his good wife
 made the inmates of the Brookside
 home as happy as it would be possible 1 to make people who had seen better l days but found it necessary to ask for
 charity in their old age. One of the 1 secrets of success in managing such in- stitutions is to not make it too plain l to the inmates that they are paupers. They have to be fed and cared for, and this can be accomplished at much less | cost and labor by keeping them in 1 happy frame of mind than in any other | way. With this end in view MT and | Mrs Moran have always endeavored to
 make those about them forget that they | are public charges, and in this way
 they save the city large sums in doc
 tors fees. drug bills and burial ex- penses. Considering the number of
 regular boarders at the Brookside very few deaths occur there, and we hear
 of but little serious sickness or trouble at the institution. It Is an ideal home, one of the best of the kind in the coun- | try, and yet it costs as little if not less
 per head to maintain it than other towns pay, for the care and main
 tenance of their poor. --