Putnam patriot., 1924-12-19
Fl Merry Christmas !!
A CHRISTMAS STORY

type vast rooms and huge frepaces hall from the great As her additions made when the old house its riches and besn those immediately preceding the Civil War its wings had stretched into long structures whose size diminished low one-story each end giving the old sion a unntentoned pyramid effect. af
 Whitehall" they called the old place, and in its palmy days in reality of gstening white center for that life exceenty portrayed the novels of the late Thomas Nelson Page. In those ante -belum days Whiteha Christmas the day of days The head of the family and the master the hundred was kindly genial religious At Christmas he gathered about him all of his blood and friends we'll All the of the old house the outbuidings we'll crowded with guests Holly gathered from the forests round about stooned the v ing and hundreds of candles gowed cys tai chandeliers of darkes at their work the kitchens preparing the Yuede feast parcels from the of Richmond Philadelphia New York
 By the day before Christmas all of the family and the guests had arrived Forty and fifty about the merry dinner table There old Bourbon and the family and punch that justly renowned the "WhiehalH punch After dinner in the great living with it's twin replaces and it's geamng candles all the family gathered The children sat in smcrce the floor the elders behind and the venerable in old Sheraton chairs that the pride of generations And then came the ceremony
 The head of the family advancing to the foreground stood before table which rested the family Bible fanked by heavy candeabra Facing the family he said had his father and his grandfather before him Merry Christmas and God bless you And all the family replied heartily "Mer- Christmas and God bless you Turning the of the heavy old book he read to them his soft Southern voice the Serptural story of The Nativity They picture in the candeght they there that family listening quietly the story whose beauty cannot die And to them pie ture from those rich words so simply spoken.
 They the night in Bethlehem the star gleamng in q sapphire sky the Wise Men the startled shepherds and the bright shining Angel of the Lord the humble Manager beafed with the Infant Saviour To this family gathered in unity Christmas Eve in this moment of thoughtful attention, vision of that Holy Family of Bethlehem And the the elder they listened humby revereny the story closed the words drew before eyes pie ture of Joseph and Mary and the Child and the flight Egypt
 The story ended. There music. The chairs were pushed back and the doors of the paror thrown and there great tree aght and mountains of gifts piled about it's base There kisses and greeting laughter and joy and Christmas morning before the plantation silent again. fY
 In the year 186 four after the annual Christmas festival Whitehall the broke later ended Gone the old patriarch his place the family burial ground in the pines youth o the generation Gone was the wealth and the of the family Gone the slaves who had worked and the fields The white paint peeled from the Georgian columns There was poverty and misery all sides Christmas and went but the replaes of the big we're the portraits the walls hung lonely darkness Christmas Eve.
 to the north to the east and to the west in search of life and living More and the old place fell the yon of desertion Wheha became echo of that was history
 Ai this half century. Then December day year two there from out of the white haired lonely old great luxurious car carried him through the forests of pine and holly down Whitehall where fifty before he had been the the circle that heard that reading The Nativity fortune had laid it's hand the family In those great that had passed this of the family had opportunity grasped it. But the years. had taken their coll war had and Death had taken those who nearest and dearest to him. In his solitude there had back to him the of Christmas Eve at Whteha and with whmscality born of loneliness he had the scene of happy childhood memory
 But even the best of motors fail and late in the afternoon of Christmas Eve the old gentleman found himself waiting in the gathering dusk while his driver repairs It dark and late when the finally passed through the toerng gates of the plantation and threw lights against the still proud columns There single light in of the outhouses but the big cold
 Telling his driver stay with the the old gentleman made his towards the light There venerable darkes the last of those who had stayed master There moment of surprise, almost fright though these two remnants of bygone this fine gentleman his furs ghost from of the past But way please them and the jingle of gold the old find the key to the big house. Holding led the way. e,t.Az
 They entered the long and drafy hall They passed