New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-26
SANTA CLAUS RElGNS.
SERVICES AND FEAS1o.
Essentially Home Observance Day
-Fezc Without YaIetide Cheer.

Christmas dawned yesterday in driving Whi'e'
and the streets still smoked with snowdrift wiien
81 died For once the clamorers after real oio
Fashioned YuIetide must have been content.
F,or, the Christmas birth hour. when in seVefai
uptown cafes the orchestras suddenly s''ucA ~
The first sweet chords OF The PAINS anu '
.,.I,ars st,ilsd their chatter for a space. until
AarIv this morning. when the same orohestras
we're playing THE Shade Of the sheiterins
palms, 20 men and women who did not NOTICE
she refrain. every good citizen celebrated eacH
after his kind.
The day was marked by special services IN an
= the churches with special musical programmes
Thanks 20 various city institutions ana cnar-
itably disposed persons, the vast buik Oh INC
hungry poor of the metropolis found temporary
content, at least, from physical anxiety WINE
It was true that the driving Hnowstorn scii
ously inpeded travel and transportation, II was
+ equally certain that combined with the fact that
the day fell on Sunday, it made the occasion
..home" day more than ever.
s. The annual Christmas festival for the children
of the stage was held usual at Tony Pastor
Theatre and in Tammany Hall. Here, with the
sUarrns of youngsters of both sexes scattered
over galleries and main auditorium as thick as
cherries in July, the spectator Tor once iouho 1t
.a,ffcult TO say which interested and pleased MIN
!, r,ora-the small actors or the midget audience
of the little children sounded the most nttlhs
KEYNOTE OF the day, for at Christmas IN New
Z yorIx far more than in Paris, King Bebe holds
znohaiienged sway.
II may have been far cry from the boar's
head and roast peacock Of the good old days
20 the berried turkey and nlincefneat OF yes
.erdav but II Is safe to assert that with the
present unexampled prosperity and the assur-
ance of ct least four more years of good gov
eminent citizens of whatever class had sn1ali
cause 10 1rumbie Naturally there were pessi-
.nists ard misanthropes in evidence-of the type
.hat for lack Of something better TO rail at
complained that the holly or the mistletoe had
not as many berries as in bygone years. On
the other hand, there were some who received
reremotory legal letters of unpleasant flavor
as q Christmas box and looked up from their
perusal still smiling There were stll others
who gave themselves their only Christmas pres
ent by taking their clothes out Of pawn. One
POOR woman and the story confirmed. asked
nothing more than bunch OF red roses. and
thereby hangs another tale.
The majority purposed to celebrate and faith
fully 10 observe the day They did so to the
foot of the letter. Some wined, some dined and
some tasted. There were loving exchanges Of
gifts relaxations reunions. church parties, house
: parties. supper parties and what not But in
essence it was white Christmas. home day
and a children's festival.
With a breakfast and luncheon TO homeless
Bowery men. the Bowery Mission hummed all
day. Nor were the wards OF the city and the
hospitals forgotten. At the city hospitals. pris-
ons and aIrnshouses savory dinners awaited the
inmates.
But with ali the soncitude displayed for the
sick and the needy, there was stil another class
of suffering humanity that was utterly and
Not ,lxT 1T nc hut
year in and year out, the sympathy, judicious or
misplaced theoretical or practical. that is Law
ished on those in sorrow. need. sickness or other
: adversely fatty overlooks and dsregards this
type Of men and their mental and physical
needs But who is this man for whom is know
ingly spared never kind word thought
deed by any OF the myriad really charitable per-
sons and institutions that refine the work-a-day
round of American life?
He disdains your sympathy with a curling
lip. He derides the very thought of your phi
slanthropy be it pure and purged OF
dross How be it there was perhaps no man
more in stark need OF sympathy at this Christ
mas season?
But who is hep you repeat bewiderediy
He is the utterly idle whether relatively poor
relatively rich. He Is generally young and
invariably alike selfish and inane. He travels
round and round his wheel of selfish folly as a
squirrel round its cage.
Though time was when the name of the
Idle rich was legion, to-day. thanks to
the spread Of education and civilization, its
larger synonyme; TO the completely of mod
ern activities and Industrial activities and
industrial conditions, to the march of prog
ress and the widening sense of personal re-
sponsibility, he is slowly but surely dying out
II was only the other day that the richest man
in America. and perhaps in the civilized world
4 remarked to a friend that IN the speakers tudg-
ment no work or worry could compare with the
labor and anxiety devolving on a rich man in
the judicous investment Of his wealth
Consider the abject condition OF the man who
by his own wllful doing has no Christmas
respite TO look forward to; the man for yybono
possession and familiarity have left nothing to
desire. 0ie "
= What OF the man who Is perpetualIy dvsnentic
with everything. who is stated With ease and
presents, 20 whom Christmas brings no reunion
no relaxation. TO whom expectation and associs.
stion cannot lend even spark from the Yuletide
log?
This another side of the Christmas co,n
and II was a wandering pedestrian whom a
strayed reyeller encountered near Fourth-ave
rented II. 49, ~
Standing unsteadiiy against a lampnost the
Pornon OF his features not concealed by his lIp-
turned coat collar Observation-Disclosures unde,s q
thin layer Of rhine, the pedestrian said hfs Nv
with many fluent gesture Then for q snaca
wild gust OF driven snow blotted him from, fbe
pedestrians vision, and when IL had nassed the
reveher looked round and he had vanished in
the night. 1 IA
TREAT EoP Tue .,r,.,az