Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-12-24
MERRY CHRISTMAS WISHES,
WITH SOME EXPLANATIONS
Tho World Knows How Il Feels to BE
Tipped Into a Snowbank on tho
Way to a Holiday Festival

T1HERE are times now and then when it
seems impossible to express wish for
a Merry Christmas generally for all people
in city like ours without feeling somehow
guilty of graceless audacity and thoughtless
utterance. This is one Of them.
The whole world has had the normal
course of holiday journeyings twisted, OBJ
structed and diverted in strange ways. 1t
has been tipped into n snowbank, lost In
storm, shunted into an inhospitable wilder
ness, and all the words In oil the languages
would not be adequate alone to make
Christmas merry for many OF the people who
have had to bear the continuing hurts OF
the disaster.
Now, one of the best liked of all legends,
and one that takes many forms, is Of people
who went forth in lordly fashion for the
conventional Christmas Of lights and giving
and receiving and, after losing their way,
found the real happiness and the true mean
ing of the season in lowly and unfamiliar
place. 1t would be pleasant to say and be-
lieve that humanity is sure to find some such
ending to its present troubles. Perhaps 1t
may. Certainly 1t is right TO hope that 1t
may, and sporting view of bad spill is
the better and more helpful one.
Yet It isn't easy to wish Merry Christ
mas to all people, high and humble, good
and bad, deserving and undeserving-as we
set out to do-without misgivings, without
n troubling sense Of places in which there
will be no rejoicing and a memory Of little
lonesome faces glmpsed on the edges of
crowds and thought Of multitudes to whom
Christmas must be as any other day-not
merry and not bright at all
If we we're all very old and wise and
packed with the knowledge that comes only
with experience at the end of life, it might
be possible to find comfort IN the thought
that faith and patience and courage are,
after all, the best of the virtues, and that
all ought to be we'll in a country that has
been giving a fine display of these rare
qualities of mind and heart 1t might be
enough to remember that we are far better
off even in material ways than any other
country.
That is true, but it isn't enough. Most
people are young and eager Tor the happiness
that is their right. If, for reasons outside
themselves, people are unhappy at this
season, something is wrong somewhere.
Yet even though the words sometimes
sound idle one must go on wishing Merry
Christmases at all hazards. For the simple
thought itself seems to carry n power not
altogether of this world. There are chests
upon which the Ice is normally almost thick
enough for skating that actually warm to 1t.
Too many of the processes of business and
onI nr6I
move in an atmosphere below zero.
II we let go of Christmas we should
abandon the mood that, If 1t were extended
over all the year, would create for mankind
a new heaven and a new earth. For 1t is
at this season, and in this season only,
that the hardest headed people learn to look
at existence from the other fellows point
of view, to experience the luxury Of doing
generous and unselfsh things and know
that 1t Is actually better to give than to
receive. So, even in the deeps of the snow
! bank, with the vehicle damaged and the
horses tangled In the harness, it is not USE
| less to talk of Merry Christmascs and even
hope for them.
This, then, is Saturday. There remains
| a,
conventionally Merry Christmas to remem!
Der the unusual number of people who have
no such comforting prospect, to resolve that
no child shall have reason to feel so lonesome
| and forlorn as many of them look in the
| midst of homeward crowds and to drop in
on the little family In the little house that
you have been trying unsuccessfully to
forget
| 1t is when you come to the little houses
that it is hard to say "A Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year" in the right tone
of airy assurance. Winds of misfortune
have been blowing upon many of them
without rest. And yet they are wcathering
through. The mothers Of some of those
same shy and wistful and empty handed
children have been holding them together
women who, without at all suspectlng It, are
the true heroines Of these times.
l. To know the sort of Merry Christmas that
no upward jump of the stock market could
provide it is only necessary to go about
among the least of these and take the look
Of disheartenment out Of their eyes. Every
body would beneht-you, yourself, most of
all. Then We, for our part, could do more
comfortably what we set out to do higher
up In this column. We could wish a Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year to all
people; to the good and the bad, the high
and the humble, the rich and the poor; to
every one who reads this and to every ON
who doesn't, without discrimination.
| "
TRAFFIC coUNClLMEN?
TNHE educational value of experience