The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-12-23
Evening CHIT.
The Culmination of the Ye.r.


Day after tomorrow is Christmas.
the elimination Of q year.
For when you stop to think Of 1t.
you will find that the whole year
works up to Christmas.
On the printed calendar January l
is the beginning of one year and the
end OF another, but in the calendar of
our hearts the year measures from
one Christmas to another.
Scarcely has one Christmas passed
before the world begins to prepare for
the next If you were going to get
out, book for Christmas sale you
might think September would be early
enough to publish It. but az a matter
Of fact, II the Christmas book il to
be sold at wholesale 1t ought to be out
in February. for it is then that the
road with their books for the next
Christmas.
Surely there IL nothing that sug-
gests Christmas lea than the breath
less heat OF q July or August day. 1t
seems almost impossible that there
ever was such Q thing ~ Christmas, or
ever win be again. And yet never a
summer day passes but that hundreds
and fhonsandA lot. women AL over the
country. arc busy with their needles
making something for Christmas."
1t IL the middle of-September before
we are all home from our summer va
cations. We have q week or two to
settle down In. and two or three weeks
to get our fall clothes into shape, and
then. if~we do not mean to be last
minute shoppers, it IL high time to
begin our Christmas shopping. have
often seen Christmas bargains adver-
tised in October and by November the
Christmas rush has actually begun.
At about this period we discard or
binary time reckoning and date ev-
erything. before or after Christmas.
when are you going south 2" "Oh,
some time after Christmas "Are
you going to buy a new suit this
year?'s mot. till after Christmas"
when il your sister coming home :"
"A couple OF weeks before Christmas"
So the reckoning goes.
Thanksgiving. our typical American
festival, which In the old Puritan dayn
Tar outstripped Christmas, IL becom-
ing now merely little side eddy in
the powerful current that rushes IN
toward Christmas. mo. I shan't try
traveller or the student, tits too near
Christmas." II Thanksgiving wants
moro attention 1t will certainly have
to get ftso1f moved into some other
part OF the year.
OF course. Christmas II the culmi-
nation OF the year in q financial way.
People spend in q reckless fashion
they never dream Of at any other
time. The amount Of money that
changes hands in preparation for
Christmas must be simply enormous.
- q person (and do not
think that II large, for while there
are q great many people Who do not
spend as much. there are millions.
who spend q great deal more) that
would mean that In the United States
81 so, 100000 II spent on Christmas.
One wonders what the merchants
would do without this tremendous Inn
petus to trade. And what would be
done with the money that was not
spent in this way. One cannot help
also-at the risk Of being
thought a kill joy moralist-if poverty
in the United States could not be al
most abolished by the proper use OF
81 80. 100000 a year.
But 1 didn't intend to moralize
when began. So I'll drop the SUBJ
ject and just remind you once more, in
case you have forgotten: Day after.
tomorrow IL Christmas. the culmina-
lion Of the year.