The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-12-25
CBr Bertha Hempstead. }


While the youngsters shrink in fear
of being old-fashioned. their parents,
waxing toward middle life. are sigh
ing: Give US back our yesterdays.
To the children the golden age is the
Yuletide just ahead. and to their pa
rents il is the Christmases that have
passed.
The newspaper files of twenty years
ago tell af the gayeties of the fash
ionabIe folk OF our village when the
parents of the present Junior Set
were the bellies and the beaux of the
town. In these days the last minute
shopping is the only record of holiday
festivity. Then the Christmas parties
were big family gatherings, and as the
families were bigger. the gatherings
were noisier; more goose was con-
sumed. resulting in more indigestion,
and then there was goose to be
warmed over all the rest of the year.
till the most execrable word in the Ian
guage was goose. But in these days
the cook is off for the day. The wo-
man OF the house refuses to give her
self a norid complexion and buzz
saw disposition by pasting fowl and
mixing plum pudding; so ever so
many families leave out their kin and
take their dinner at restaurant,
where il is certain no one will eat
too much. After that fashion do rel
atives and other enemies cease from
troubling
In the old days the splurge was all
for holiday week. when the big houses
were opened TO callers All the men,
married and single, put on their stiff
shirts, their high hats and their dress
up suits and bravely made their calls
But Kansas men are losing their old
New England conscience. Now when
they all own canes and look topping
when they walk out. it is a hopeless
undertaking to pry them out of the
Morris chair. where they cross their
slippered feet on the radiator and
spend their holidays with the Satur--
day Evening Post or the Police Ga
zette. In the old times. after the
open house, there was a German at
some of the houses. for people danced
at home then. on canvas spread on the
floors. OF course in those glorious
times every girl had half a dozen
heart-touched SWANS trailing the rus
tie of her silken skirts. Now the
skirts are so short they can't swish.
and somehow the men who play that
game lose the trail and get in the lead,
and unhappiIy the pursuer becomes
the pursued
In the oIden times-twenty years
ago, the exchange or gifts was strictly
a family affair. The children bought
a baking dish for mother and a spec
tacie case for father. and the parents
provided their children with some nit
tens. a Noah's Ark, a biSque doll. and
il they were very well-to-do.a rocking
horse. Today a school girl receives
from ner rather a ~, 0UO auCOfn0 pile
yes, one right here in town. An en-
gagged daughter gets a grand piano.
The babies have graduated from the
tin horn and the cloth elephant, and
their pink fingers wind up the auto
matte Ferris wheel and the electric
aeroplane, while the bright lettered
blocks are passe since the word
method became fashionable in
schools.
But whatever the special manifesto
ton of the Christmas spirit the chill
dren have the same old eager relish
for il. tell US what they will of the
presert-day worldly wisdom of youth.
Yesterday a little girl bought a neck
tie for her big brother. and the trial
of keeping the secret was as heavy for
her as it would have been for any lit
tie girl twenty years ago. She relieved
the tension, after the fashion OF small
children everywhere and always. thus:
The present 1 have for you is silk.
The first letter of the name of it is
neck. But I'm not to tell what it is,
so you needn't ask me-