Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1914-10-15
Jefferson October l5 1914
Christmas Giving.

oaNHa6'
The ability TO give with grace and ap-
propriatenesS is fine art-as rare as the
ability to receive simply and gratefully.
II if were the custom to give Christmas
presents once day, instead OF once a
year, we might-with so much practice
acquire roth accomplishments IN a life
time; but since the opportunity comes
only at long intervals, il behooves us to
try our best to learn the art. Not long
ago daily newspaper awarded prize
of ten dollars to the writer OF an article
in which the author told how she had
made sixteen Christmas presents for
dollar and half. She was working
girl who earned small wages, and the
three half-dolIars were all she could pos
sibly spare for her Christmas gifts. So
she bought Bristol board, tissue paper,
ribbon, lace and silk; and with scissors,
needle, paint box and glue, she so tor
tured, twisted, distorted and combined
the unreSisting materials that presently
she had sixteen useless but pretentious
articles. She had given herself the Sits
faction of knowing that she had not for
gotten any one of the sixteen who were
expecting her TO remember them.
What better could she have done2
Any one OF several things. She might
for example-have given each friend an
initiated handkerchiei-modest, but cap
able OF surviving the jaws OF the aashtuo
and the teeth oil the wringer. She could
have prepared, at The right season, six
teen glasses OF jelly, crystal clear and
glowing like jewels, capped with white
paper and labeled appropriately. Or, if
circumstances permitted, she could have
spent happy afternoon in the kitchen
making a batch of wholesome cookies.
Wrapped in sixteen packages, their very
fragrance would have exhaled Christmas,
and their spicy crispness would have
warmed the hearts OF those to whom they
were sent.
"There hang on my daughters mirror,
writes contributor, two gifts received
last Christmas, the purpose OF which we
have not yet perceived. One consists OF
three small china dolls, their bodies in
cased in blue satin bags. and all dangling
from lengths of blue ribbon topped by a
huge bow. The satin bags are not stuff
ed, and cannot therefore be pincuShions;
they are not open anywhere, and there
fore are not receptacles; and as there is
no odor, they are evidently not sachet
bags. II is mystery that the three plac-
idly smiling little china faces keep to
themselves, like so many sphinxes.
"The other gift. which required, as did
the first, a very carefully constructed note
OF thanks, in order that our ignorance
should not be displayed and the donor
offended, consists chiefly ofa small straw
basket, which, in IFS natural state, would
be both useful and pretty. But alas II
has been contoned into something else,
TO its great disadvantage. First, the bot
tom was taken out, and the cruel wound
then filled in with puffy kinks OF pink
worsted, and upon the handle was tied
butterfly bow. Does anyone recognize
il? We could stick hairpins or hstpins
into il, but as the recipient OF the gift is
still early enough in her teens TO justify
her dangling braids and the elastic behind
her ears, we did not feel that we had
guessed the mission OF the bottomless
basket correctly.
"Then there is my older daughter, who
received no less than three glass tubes,
hbbon-b bound, TO hold hatpins. This is
entirely proper in her case, as il takes
five pins, speared securely in, to hold her
hat on. She began chemistry this year al
high school. One day recently the tubes
disappeared from her room, leaving be-
hind only little heap Of faded ribbon.
"Mother,' said the girl, those test
tubes must have been awfulIy glad TO get
back where they Belonged
Could the donors Of strange and use
less gifts but see the contents of the re-
fuse cans of their friends when spring
house cleaning time has rolled round,
they might wish that they had spent their
energies and their money on something
more worthy Of preservation. Had the
tired working girl realized the sacredness
Of giving, she would have given only upon
generous impulse, not as wearisome
duty.