The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1911-12-10
Notes and neW$
Of Interest


Children" is the subject of a charm
ing article by Jacob Riis in the
Craftsman. December at last is
back again, Old December, men say,
and the almanac pictures him as a
bent old man with a scythe pain
fully gathering the harvest of the
twelvemonth. If | had my way |
would show the best of all the
months as a joyous child sowing the
seed of years yet unborn. For De-
|Cember is the month of the chill
dren, of the child, who upon the
threshold Of the dawning year, holds
out TO the world the solace for all
its sorrows, rejected often in scorn-
full self-seeking. yet offered again
and again with yearning love that
no refusal. no hardness of heart, has
power to chill And some day the
world will listen.
They come trooping. the memories
of many Yuletides in the old town.
as ! write. II is long time since,
and two oceans lie between, yet |
can hear across it all the peal of
solemn bells that rang in the holy
eve in the revercnt hush of twilight.
| count the ticks of the clock as we
children waited in darkness for the
doors To be opened upon the shining
glory of the great room. with father
and mother bidding us a merry
Christmas and joining hands with us
in the dance around the, tree. There
are few such trees nowadays: at
least SO it seems to me looking back.
| wish every child had a Christmas
tree like ours. There was not so
much gold and silver on it as now
adays; in fact there was none.
which gave the green tree much
better chance, but there was a plen-
ty of little wax candles, which have
not yet quite gone out of fashion.
Red apples hung from the branches
and drums and dolls that had been
dressed by stealth. when we chill
dren had been put to bed. Our toys
cost but little. Good reason, they
had TO reach around to so many
but we got quite as much joy out of
Them as children do today of play
things il takes little fortune TO
buy. But the best part of all was not
what we got, but what we gave. For
months we saved our pennies to buy
Dur Christmas gifts. There were
deep consultations with shop keep
srs to see how far we could stretch
our purses or shrink the budget TO
suit them. Shall | ever forget that
bread knife for mother, in which |
the first half dollar ever
earned. I hid it for two long months
1t the bottom of my bureau draw
ar, where mother probably saw it a
score of times before it was borne
into her presence and accepted with |
glad cries of admiration and STIR
prise. Blessed motherl A greater
was in store for her when,
The next day, ragged man called
and inquired privately il it was all
right for him to accept silver eight
shilling from me. He was tenant in
q slum tenement, and the meanness
and squalor of his home had some
how offended my boyish soul.
took over the job Of
their lives, with the dis
tinct proviso that before making
happy for the children,
he should clean up and set his house
to rights all with my eight shilling,
which was about five cents!
II was social reform upon a min
ute scale. but ] remember that
Rugged us children tight as
she said il was all right, and there
were tears in her gentle eyes
can read the meaning of those
tears now. and ii comes over me as
am writing that they have a mes
sage even for this distant day: for
the Inolher-heart knows, and that
which ii has TO tell never grows old
or out Of date.