The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1913-12-26
SOCIAL AND PERSONAL
Mrs. BerryhiIl. Editor.
ItTcUHOHc T.
veuient.
JOY Bells.


the small boy and girl who have never
known the sorrow Of competing with
Sears Roebuck or Montgomery-Ward
but only the joy. are the merchants.
George Fitch wrote OF Christmas at
Homeburg to fit in the holidays. He
said that every Christmas the corner
druggist in Homeburg brought out the
same old silver manicure set to sell and
was gradually sinking its price so that
by next Christmas he thought he would
be able to buy it. That is not the way
our druggists do.
See the poor delivery horse as he re-
turns time and time again to some
household where the celery or cram
berries or spaghetti has been left out Of
the order by the confused housewife
who has been dividing her attention be-
tween crocheting several miles ofthread
up into ibrarytable run for her
eldest daughter who is married and has
no library and yet no table, and five
grandchildren who are trying to eat all
the nuts and candy out Of the mysterious
box behind the pantry door. Poor de-
livery horse. You will not be remem-
bered on this great anniversary by any
crocheted gifts nor yet those oceans Of
goodies that call for an aftermath Of
castor oil. You do not realize that a
great deal Of this celebrating depends on
you, for you are dumb and defenseless
and can only dream OF good shelter
and your feed. One has to read Gull
liver's Travels to see how kindly the
horses treated the people who had to
work for them in Brobdlngnag.
There will be funny. fuzzy Christmas
trees in some homes, strung with pop
corn, tinsle aud gifts and fluttering with
the Stars and Stripes. forever catching
fire from the candles and having to be
stamped out by some big brother or
uncle. What greater JOY than to deco
rate a Christmas tree for the kids? You
are at it nearly all Christmas eve. You
sit up until the wee hours Of the morn
ing and toll and toll You string pop
corn and sew your fingers up by mis-
take in colored gauze bags filled with
other indigestibles. You buy holly
wreathes and blocks and toys that wont
run when they are wound up and story
books not worth dime for fifty cents
each, and tissue paper things and in
struments supposed to be musical whose
only recommendation is their infirmity.
You climb on stepladders to adjust
them on the tree gracefully and you fall
and step in figs and smash the legs and
arms off dolls.
II is hard work but you are repaid
when you stand off and look at that
tree. Then you have to clean up the
litter SO that the kids won't see it, and
you throw several skyrockets, by mis-
take, into the CRATE fire and somebody
accuses you OF doing it on purpose.
That's all very nice, but it's lots nicer
when you have to awake after a few
hours exhausted sleep and crawl out in
the cold to light the tree up and can
find your slippers and step on some
English walnut hulls the broom had
left. That's all right - you do not
shrek, you do not swear, you light up
happily, because you were just dream
ing through thenight OF seeing the tree
blazing in aIlits glory. It's all very
Hice but it's lots nicer when the kids
burst into the room in their nightgowns
and look at the tree. There is no pic
ture quite SO fine There is no noise
quite so happy, quite SO Christmasy
and quite so excruciating as prolonged
blowing on little tin horn and the beat
ing OF small drum. Some OF us will
miss great deal this Christmas, even
il we do miss the bills.
But there is no need to miss JOY for
there are plenty Of children, and some
OF them won't have any Christmas.
One very little black one showed me a
huge shaving mug with the inscription,
Fond Remembrance, on the side.
An old negro man had given il to him
for Christmas present. Sometimes
when think OF the little orphans and
dereIicts ! wonder who on earth all the
papas and mamas belong to. However,
there are no very poor people reported
by the charitable organizations in Union
City and We can enjoy things and wish
all merry Christmas with a clear con-
science
~ GO. Cl-,,s.