The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-31

Who VIII allow that wife to read
The morning paper first?
ington Post.
This Merry Christmas and Happy
New Year business is an annual joke
to a certain Topeka man whom we will
call Mr.. Lawrence because it isn't his
name. Every December he puts in
most of his leisure time making fun of
Mrs. Lawrence because she worries her
self almost i'll, as he declares, preparing
for the merry festival. When he finds
her sitting up until midnight to finish
fingers, or when she appeals to him in
pathetic distress: What shall I give
Mrs. So-and-So?' his only comment is
a sarcastic Merry Xmas" A few
days before Christmas friend of Mrs.
Lawrence, whom we shall call Mrs.
kentOn, because her name is something
else, dropped in and found Mr.. Law
renee as well as Mrs. Lawrence athome
and Mr.. Lawrence wouldn't have miss
ed it for anything.
do you KNOW" said Mrs. Kenton (of
course they were talking about Christ
maS) that I awaken every morning
with a sense of some horrible calamity.
What has happered,' say to myself
and then it comes over me with a rush:
o, yes, Christmas!"
A little later in the midst of a con-
versation about something else, the WIS.,
itor who had been sitting staring in
claimed tragically, Don't you think
one of the worst things about it is do
ing up the packages? '
And Mr.. Lawrence shouted: Merry
X-mas!"
OF course somebody remembered you
whom you forgot but on that account
I trust you didn't rush out and buy
her New Years present. There are
other ways in which you can repay the
kindness which will appear more spon-
taneous and will give more pleasure.
In this way you can avoid adding an
other to your Christmas list. The birth
days of your friends, which are usually
strung out through the year at cOnVen-
lent intervals may be taken advantage
of and there are other anniversaries
when gifts, while quite appropriate are
not so many: Easter and ST. Valen-
tines days notably. A favor needs not
necessarily be repaid in kind. Take your
thoughtful friend to a matinee or send
her some flowers or books when she is
i'll. Besides, don't think that the gift
was sent only with the expectation OF
q return or the anticipation of an ex-
change: it was probably part of your
friends pleasure in remembering you
that you didn't expect it and in pic
turing your surprise and happiness at
the unlocked for evidence of herfriend-
ship.
If there are any women in the world
who want to give a man a present he
Will appreciate, let them give MIN d
pillow cushion with two covers; one to
use while the other is in the wash. The
covers must be plain and soft to the
touch without a suspicion of trimming
on them. They must be SO ugly that
his wife will not roar when he puts his
tired head on them. The men for too
long a time have scratched their ears
on cushions covered with spangles,
caught their hair and torn their cheeks
on the beads in a, Cupid trimmed affair,
and been screamed at for daring to touch
the cushion at all. They have looked
longingly for something on which to
lay their heads in vain, though some
lounges have contained as many as
dozen cushions. The pillow cushion is
used to drape around the young man
caller, and is snatched from the tired
father who wants to rest his head. The
pillow cushion, in its present decorative
form, is the greatest farce the world
knows ANYTHING about-Atchison Globe.
The Chaperon, in the Kansas City
Star, says it is bad form to write any
thing on the fly leaf Of a book given
at Christmas. This has always been
the Globes contention. Doesn't it pre-
vent the recipient passing it on to some
other friend another year? OF course
it is bad for1n.-Atchison Globe.
remember a thousand or so years
ago, says the Woman About Town in
the Washington Post, when every
woman stopped on the front
basque down, and, with forward
poke of her chin, to adjust her short