The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-12-25

and lilies, and the sight of green lawns
and golden fruited trees enters the
open window of my Office in Los An
geles this December morning.
s'For this is the land where the olives
grow,
THE land where the fragrant south
winds blow
Blue bubbles Of grapes down vine
yard row.
But nor flowers, nor fruit, nor beauty
of purple mountains and emerald val
deys can hold my wandering thought
The years shrivel like a scroll and I
hear once more the creak Of the sleigh
runners and the jingle of the bells.
AAA
Yes, girls of today you are bright
and fresh and lovely in despite of the
frizzes and bangs, and tea-tray hats
with which you disfigure your crowns
of glory" But you should have seen
your grandmothers with their golden
or ebon locks flowing in Grecian sim
plicity and ampleness from brows of
snow, crowned with scarlet hoods
trimmed with ermine. How we young
fellows helped them to snuggle under
the buffalo robes, and when the sleigh
bumped over the bridges-there is no
country like a country with plenty Of
brooks-how we awaited ourselves of
the license which allowed sweet toll
to be taken from pouting yet yield
ing lips. The buffaloes are extinct,
but the memory Of the girls endures.
AAA
The six young fellows who composed
the members of the dinner party that
assembled in little bright north
western city or Christmas day in the
year of our Lord, one thousand, eight
hundred and fifty-eight, were as buoy
ant spirits as ever soaped the comets
or creased the violin strings of rival
serenaders, or danced until the dawn
stars lifted the blanket of the dark.
Two of the party became great cap
tains of Industry, and left a hundred
millions of dollars at the foot of the
golden stair. A third held aloft
through all the storms of Wall street
panics the banner of his stainless cred
it, and, strengthened by his millions,
helped many a lame dog over a stile. A
fourth charmed the Senate of the Uni
ted States with his eloquence. A fifth
in the Civil War fought his way to
the Brigadier's stars, and then climbed
the red path to Immortality.
AAA
The sixth and youngest of the party
failed to realize the hopes, or fulfill
the ambitions of his youth. The pomp
of office has passed him by and he has
e..
sesses not riches and poverty does not
possess him. He has. however, all
that any millionaire can have that is
really worth having, and he is not in
the least worried for fear that he may
lose the million which he has not got.
There is not a luxury of the palate
or a song of singer, or a view Of
painting or statue or wonder of arch
itecture, that is not in these days and
in this land as readily accessible to the
possessor of a decent suit of clothes
as it is to a millionaire. There are no
reserved seats in Gods amphitheater,
and for an hours earnings one may
ride on an electric car to the very
verge of the sunset, and, equally with
the capitalist watch the clouds of glo-
ry that surround the sun as he sinks
into the arms of the sapphire sea.
Harassed by burdens of wealth and
the weight of public cares the five
friends of youth and manhood of the
writer of these lines have journeyed
on into the Great Silence, while he
neither weary of life nor fearful of
death lives in the vigor of green old
age, and quotes Socrates to the young
men about him, saying, 81 am to die
and~ye are to live, and which is best
the gods alone do know" And all
the while Ne has not the least inten-
ton of leaving this world, but expects
for many years to live on and fight
on. and die with harness on his
back
At our Christmas dinner in 1863 there
was neither song nor jesting, but 81
lence and moist eyes, when, after the
from the beautiful poem of James Rus
sell Lowell:
s'Rat, tat, tat tattle through the street
] hear the drummers making riot,
While / sit thinking of the feet
That followed once, but now are quiet.
White feet, as snowdrops innocent,
That never knew the paths of Satan,
Whose coming steps there's ears that
won't
No, not lifelong leave off awaiting"
The religion of Jesus has ever been
an inspiration to patriotism and love
of liberty. The churches of the North
were the powerful supporters OF the
Government during the war of the re-
bellion. Shall we ever forget how the
young men of the land went forth with
the down upon their cheeks moistened
as with chrism by the farewell tears
of mother and sister and sweetheart?
Marching along, marching along, for
God and for country they went march
ing along
AAA
It was my good fortune to be present
in the late seventies at Christmas
dinner given to General Sherman at a
frontier post. The great soldier was In