The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-12-25
Holders of Cards and
Spades in Playing
Game Of Life

with more or less of a shock. Womer
look forward for twelve months t
the arrival of January /, and then
are nightly surprised when, Deem
Der 90 being past, they are, confront
ing the actual ushering in Of the new
year.
The different way in which womer
welcome the new year and render ar
account of themselves depends large
" upon the way in which women in
dtvidually are situated, a member OF
the sex was supposed to be asked
recently by an inquisitie friend: II sup
pose you'll haze yule log,v wassail
bowl, Christmas tree and all the other
pretty features associated with the
festive season."
No" was the reply, u live in a
fiat, and the bestsI can do is a gas
a diminutive Japanese tree in pot
Now it is easy to understand that
woman who looks out of such an
environment must, to a certain ex-
tent, reflect her cramped and artifi-
cial atmosphere To her the advent
of 1911 will simply mean the check
ing off of another round in the sum
of her existence.
II is the uncommon woman intel
lectually and physically, who is Will
ling to pay her debts TO the old year
and start in the new with her slate
wiped clean. Not alone pecuniary
debts; but the many other obliga-
tions incurred and often carried I'M
I'll they become a burden too heavy
to be borne.
Indeed. it is the study of many
women TO avoid payment OF such in
nebtedness as long as they are able
They play the game of life to get
as much out of 1t at as small cost
as possible. Consequently they disre-
social and humanitarian viewpoin
or from any point whatever.
But in their playing of the game
TO finish they are compelled willy
nilly, to remember that the under
taker holds the cards and the grave
digger the spades"
SO every time a tweivemonth causes
the turning of the hour glass in the
slender. sinewy hands of Time, the
undertaken scores point, The
woman may not scruple to cheat and
TO use her every art to prolong the
game. She may NOT be honest enough
10 admit that her adversary is slowly,
but surely, winning. But after awhile
The score is reckoned up, and then
exit woman.
To the woman who watches for the
new year wretchedly, because she
must stand in uneasy shackles as a
debtor, the strokes of the bell that
mark the dividing line across which
the past looks back at the present,
make most unwelcome music to her
ears. To her who settles her reck
oning as she goes the new year is
q friend to be received courteously
and treated kindly.
In China it is considered disgraceful
If all accounts are not settled the
last day of the old year. Conse-
Guently, the Chinese women and Amer
ran women living in China can fire.
quently purchase articles of ornament
or curiosity at low rates the last of
the year from the desire OF merchants
TO sacrifice their stock, rather than go
without ready money.
The custom of giving New Year
gifts in Rome grew as great nuis-
ance as wedding presents bid fair to
become in America, and sumptuary
laws had TO be passed to restrict the
lavish expenditure in them. The ear
lter Christian divines took occasion to
abuse them hotly. St. Augustine
called them "diabolical," and Chrysos-
tom characterized the first of the year
as Satanic lsXtravagance."
! Wishing .thes. Chrlstianize a pagan
custom as they always tried to do,
these earlier divines invented Christ
mas gifts as substitute. Therefore,
jewellers in the West have both
Christmas and New Year survival. In
Greece, Christmas gifts are unknown.
but there exists not in Greece
woman, however poor. who does not
make an effort to give her friends
gift on the day of the Kalends.