The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-12-18

mothers too. Their parents are the |
wretchedly poor and shiftless who al
ways have too many children. A wo-
mans place is at home, you say But |
what Christmas joy, what joy of any
kind, would the numerous progeny of
the unfit have if it were not for the
good women who spend many hours
away from their homes every year to
be mothers and helpers and comfort
ers in place of those who are too ig-
norant to realize their duty to their
children.
Founding asylums somehow stir the
most tender pitifu1 feelings of a wo-
mans soul, and no wonder The clos
ing of baby's velvet soft, elinging
fingers around a grownups fingers has
sent strange vibrations through the
frame of a rough man before now
With the best of care and the tenderest
of parents there is often due to chill
dfen a perpetual apology for their in
voluntary appearance in this world.
What then of the waits that have none
to care for them at all. that would
perish of cruel hunger and pain but for
the ministrations of the benevolent?
Women understand this with subtle in
stinct, and SO at Christmas most of
all, which is celebrated because of the
birth of Divine Child nineteen centu-
ries ago, women make happy the in
mates of founding -asylums, orphans
homes and children's hospitals.
Oh, yes; Christmas is, above all the
rest of the year, the day of women and
| children.
The childs thoughts are of the pres
| ents it will get, the woman's are of
| the presents she will give First, there
| is her own family. Every member
must be provided for Are there stu
| dents of her blood away at college,
! young people away at work? Plum
| cakes and baskets of such delicacies as
| can be provided nowhere else than at
| home must be sent to each of the alb
| sent, while those at home must be
| equally remembered. Those nearest
her being taken care of in advance, the
woman's mother heart goes out to the
F.! rest of the world-to the children at
| first, then to the grown people in the
homes for the incurable and for the
aged and to the inmates of hospitals,
and for these charities young ladies and
old ones do not hesitate to beg and
wheedle and fatter in the most shame
less manner. At the Christmastide wo-
men, young and old and of all races and
! beliefs, beg and hustle and work and
| give, bless them, and Jewish women
| are many a time among the most ac-
| livery benevolent OF all.
Ministering Christmas angels are the
| devoted women of the college settle
ments in the slum hearts of the cities,
where the children many time are ig-
| norant of the meaning of the word
country as distinguished from town
/ and literally believe that all the earth
| is a mass of brick walls and cleaning,
iron rallied trolley ear streets. If an
/ archy is ever to be counteracted among
| our foreign population it will be large
4 ly through such work as that done by
women in the slum settlements of our
cities. those who labor most of all at
Christmastide to fill with light the
places made dark by ignorance. In
deed and word sermon these women
messengers of grace to people of all
nations preach ever, but most of all at
Christmas time the glorious, creedless
religion of human love and charity.
There was one woman Christmas an
gel who ministered yearly to TO- 600
souls, whose all embracing love was
poured out upon the just and the I'M
| just, who knew no race or creed, who
| recognized no crime. depravity or I'M
| worthiness at the sacred giving season,
who knew only that those who hour
after hour filed past her were made in
| Gods image. Year after year when
| Christmas came bright. gentle Emma
| Booth-Tucker of the Salvation Army
stood in the center of the vast Madison
| Square Garden, New York, and hour
by hour passed out dinner baskets and
sweet, inspiring words to those who
marched by in the doleful procession of
the miserable This year the baskets
will be there, but the Christmas angel
| is no more with her people
LILLIAN GRAY.