The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1908-12-22
CHRIS TMAS AND HOME
WE SHOULD MAKE EACH OF
THEM MEMORABLE.

And Kindle in Souls Lights Which
Will Shine Radiant and Beauti'
full Forever.
The following beautiful prose
poem is from the pen &C Mr.. A. B.
Williams, the accomplished editor ol
the Richmond News-Leader, and who
is well-known in South Carolina
1t will do you good to read it:
Through many souls the rever-
berations of the bells of the coming
Christmas will fall in the faint and
mournful tones of distant dirge
Hearts will be burdened by sorrow
not to be defined nor weighed but So
heavy that no human strength may
lift it, will be darkened by clouds
which none can see, but bringing
with them the blackness and chill of
a starleSs winter midnight. No
desert is so lonely, no wild waste of
ocean waters so desolate as Christ
mas time for the absent from home
who have known Christmas times at
home.
Wanderer, outcast, stranger or ex-
lie, each sight and sound of the sea-
son is new bitterness. By merci-
less, mysterious transmutations old
pleasures of past happiness become
present miseries. The more intense.
the nearer perfect the joys once
known, the deeper and sorer is the
lack of them, the more drearv the
recollection. The laughter Of by
gone days is dead and silent, hut
the ghosts of it come in the sighs
which mean more sorrow than any
others because nobody hears nor
heeds them, the tears which sting
more than any others because they
do not find vent from the eyes.
Each Christmas light for these
strange and lonesome hearts throws
a darker shadow, the voices from
festal homes are mocking remind
ers of privation, the exulting thrill
ing Of the TIE Deum becomes an in
coherent wall for the lost and gone.
In every part of the civilized
world people are at home or on their
way there for Christmas. How
many kinds of. people, how many diff
ferent circumstances and conditions
they present and yet, how many of
them have the same stories, hopes
and expectations and will know the
same experiences! There are the
young men and women, who are go
ing home after their first indepen-
dent flights into the big world. Some
Of them carry bad consciences, the
dismally oppressive sense Of wrong
done, opportunity wasted, failure
and disaster threatening. Others
are taking home triumphs over lit
tie successes, looking large now.
destined to look pitiful and trivial
when looked back to few years
hence.
Older people are returning after
long absences, hearts crowded with
old retrospections born of renewed
thought, of once familiar places, fac
es and scenes. Some go back beat
en- and bruised from the, great battle
disconsolate and needing the tender
touch of friendly hands, the heal
ing balm of loving sympathy and
caressing voices. Others, victors on
large fields or small, are going to
have the pleasure Of the winning
sweetened and hallowed by the gen-
erous affection and adulation We
find nowhere else as at home, per-
haps, secretly looking forward to
taking some tribute of the envy and
freshly developed honor of old ac-
quaintance. They are carrying home
WEAKNESS to be refreshed, sore
wounds to be soothed and bound up,
mournful stories Of defeats to meet
consolation, boastful accounts Of vic
tories to be gloried in.
Some arrogant and eager to dis
play their success, some ashamed
and seeking strength and comfort,
many going because Of the pure,
strong yearing of honest and clean
hearts for home and home people
and. the sharing with them Of the
Christmas impulses and feelings
the many thousands from every
quarter of the earth are bound for
homes in every part of it. Poor peo-
ple who have pinched and accumu-
lated little by little are using their
savings that they may be once more
in the simple homes to which their
hearts have been turning all the
months or years of absence; and the
rich are returning to splendors and
luxuries, moved by the same beau-
tiful and holy spirits.
For the other thousands who can
not go home or who have no home
to look to, there is the sadness
desolation, the vain. vague yearning
for intimacy and love and the rest
fulness and warmth Of home and
home circles and firesides. No mat
ter. It may be fate and it may be
fault 1t may be estrangement
weakness or wickedness, casual cir
cumstances or deliberate choice
However it may be, for all these
the Christmas must bring the sense
Of loss and lacking. Of being exclud-