El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-11-13
Begin Your Shopping Now
Christmas Is Coming Soon; Get
Ready-Don't Buy Useless Pres
ents; Get Something Good.
By Dorothy Dix.

~ OST realize, beloved sisters, that
the Christmas tide is almost
upon US, and the joyous season
hath arrived wherein we must Crap
pie once more with the Christmas gift
problem? Before you can say scat
it VIII be Christmas again.
Hence I am writing these few lines
to urge you TO go and do your Christ
mas shopping right away. Don't put
il off. Begin on 1t today, while the
shops are comparatively empty, be-
fore the salesgirls are worn and har-
ried until they are reduced to bundles
OF nerves and temper, and while you
are stin in command of your own
sane senses.
Don't put off buying your Christ
mas gifts until the week before Christ
mas when YOU, and million other
women, viii be afflicted with Demen-
tia Christmasana, and go running
around in circles in the department
stores beating your head up against
the counters. and crying out, "W hat
shall L get for my husband, and my
sen, and my daughter, and my mother,
ard my father, and my sister, and my
brother, and my inlawS-drat EN-,
they won't like what I give them,
anyway-and for Uncle John, and Aunt
Sally, and Cousin Sue, and the people
across the street who will send me
something, and whom I've got to send
And you won't be able to remember
a single lad or fancy, or taste, or in
CDnatiOn, or habit, or occupation Of
a single human being you know
Wherefore I urge, entreat, implOre,
and otherwise request you to bear in
mind your own comfort. and the good
OF that brave little army Of working
women, the salesgirls, and do your
shopping early. It's a time to show
that YOU are a real big sister who feels
for the little sister behind the coun-
T-5,o,, ,bo,,+ A.. ~,E,-7-+,-,,.- --ie+ a.
Unless you are making a present
to someone who is very rich, the one
best bet for an acceptable Christmas
present is money Don't be afraid of
anybody being offended by a check,
or even a few dimes They won't, and
every one of us could use a little
money so handilE, and get something
We secretly pine for, and can't afford,
If only you would send US a little
money instead Of the fool thing you
do send
Say. beloved didn't you ever. on
a Christmas morning, sit down among
the junk that your kind friends and
family have bestowed upon you, and
figure out what it all cost, and wish
that you had all of that money to
Put into something that you are crazy
for, something that would do you some
good, and that you would rejoice IN
as long as you lived2
There are silly gift books. with
padded backs and fine pictures that
cost SO or SIS, and that nobody ever
looks at a second time; there were
lamps that cost SIS or $50, when your
home is flooded with electric lights;
there were table centres that cost IS,
and scarfs that cost SO and 81, and i'm
ltation japanese vases that cost 81
and 81, and so On-enough money
thrown away in things that were absO-
lutely useless to you to have bought
something worth while If only YOU
could have pooled it all, and if peo-
To
sent you IS cents or $3.50 or whatever
their gift cost
As for children. always give money
dOubly happy.
I used to wear myself to a FRAGILE /
buying presents for children, but I !
don't do it any more. 7 send them |
the money and they invariably buy !
something that wouldn't have /
thought of in a thousand years, and /
their mothers tell me that they look I
forward to my present more than any 1
lh1ng else they get
If you are thinking Of giving a /
woman a present. don't waste your /
Good money on ldOtic jimcracks that /
mousse and catch dust Give her I
clothes Give her furs. or blOuses, or 4
stockings, or something that has got \
some sense and use to it Nothing but 1
the grace OF God enables a woman I
who needs pair Of new slippers to 1
loonk grateful for q hand painted 1
handkerchief case that some silly
friend bestOWs on her at Christmas.
And # you are one of the women 1
VINO make your own Christmas pres !
ents-and nothing else is a sweeter or !
a more gracious thing to do-don't /
throw away your time and your money /
a what do you call il ]
out of plush, and ribbon. and tinseL
and sachet powder combined with
tomato can Use that same time and !
money making your friend a bit of /
q LEI
and bless your name every time she
puts it on
Finally, beloved, remember this:
II YOU want a happy Christmas and /
to make others have happy Christ
mas begin your preparations in time
Buy sensible things. And don't spend /
any more than you can afford
Remember the first of January,
when the bills come in!
lOAn DIET &c An,Trs T1r "