The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1905-01-05
The EMPTY STOCKING.

Sne leans hers rshead upon her arms,
And Weeps as thougt her heart woud
break:
Her soul is filled with strange alarms,
That might stronger.spirit shake.
With pain that.hardly can be borne
Her trusting little heart is torn,
So great her childish grief, because,
She finds no gift from Santa Claus.
The world is full of light and cheer,
And merrily the bells resound;
The happiest day of all the year
Has come, and yet no joy is found
In this small heart. Behold there lies
The empty stocking. Childish cries
Betoken depths of childish woe
That older hearts may meyer know.
The empty stockingl On the bed
It lies. a limp and shadeless thing,
Intended to embrace instead,
The gifts that Santa Claus would bring.
Oh, symbol of the hopes of men,
Who strive and hope and strive again,
To this poor little child in sorrows power,
What must it mean at such an hour?
:
The empty stoclng All the years
And all the joys that yet may be
Cannot dry up those CALLING tears
Nor sweeten that sad memory.
Forgotten! sTis bitter word.
By it this childish heart is stirred,
And thus how soon stis taught to know
How pitiless is human Woe:.
A few days ago this little poem in be-
half of the little ones came out ins a st.
Louis paper and the appeal the writermade
for children whose parent were unable to
contribute as much as toy to gladden.
their simple lives was touching indeed.
There also appeared cut representing a
little girl who had Just awakened from a
slumber of beautiful dreams of fairyland in
which all was candy and dolls and play
things, to search with childish eagerness
and hopes her stocking, and found it emp
ty!
Such disappointment, such grief, such
sadness and such blighted hopes none of
us know who never experienced it. No
where in this broad land, where prosperity
beams from every honorable industry,
where comparatively few people are out of
employment and where abundant harvests
are bringing good returns, should a single
child know the sorrows of an empty stock
ing on this approaching Christmastlde.
There are, no doubt, children living in
agpssessps sEhsse asreat See.
poor 10 provide the actual necessities of
life, and not cent can they contribute to
luxuriea. To that case their duties are
shifted to US We owe it to them. Can
you adjust the matter in way that you
feel exactly right if a little boy or girl has
to go another year without wagon or doll
just because its parents couldn't possibly
afford the price? It is an honorable and
honest debt and we ought to pay it. That
crime which comes from poverty is largely
due to the craving for something beautiful,
and if it in denied from year to year, the
desire becomes ruling passion and theft is
the natural result.
Somebody once said that boys and girls
pretty bad sometimes, but that they were
were the only material out of which we can
make men and women. Any toy that
furnishes harmless amusement viii aid a
new soul to grow beautiful, and after all
the price of prosperity is charity to the
poor, especially that charity which helps
child to spend It's time as it should spend it.
L pays society to be good to children that
they may grow up to be polite men and
sweet women, full of high ideals and noble
sentiment But the greatest profit is the
simple unaffected JOY of the child when it
receives gift from the saint of all child
rem, toys wrapped in the mystic spirit of
Christmas. And even if it is denied US to
see and hear the expression of the remem-
bered child's joy, the consciousness that we
have prevented such sorrow as is told in
rhyme above ought to be profit enough for
any man. N. 3. HueeNs
Worlds Fair, st. Louis, Mo.
December 22nd 1908.
49,