Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-02

is shopworn. But
If YOU will turn around three times
and wink your minds eye. you WI
see that this is trny Christmas card
after all, since it bears the hope that
the dav may have brought its bless
ings TO you ana TO all VINO llNe Al
YOUR heart zone.
And now that the last twinkle Of
Santa's sleigh bells has given way TO
the more material excitement OF
other days evaluation of what he mas
done for us, it wont hurt ANYBODY
feelings to know that there is a group
of eminently nice wonderland one
oldish gentleman who never married
who have initiated themselves into
Society for the Reforming of the
Christmas Tree-and you can't blame
Them: not if YOU remember what the
trees used to he. though, naturally,
nobody likes reformers.
Colored balls and tinsel fringe are
lovely. of course. but monotonous, see
ing the same balls and fringe were on
sale for weeks, with everybody buy
ing them for every tree. Children see
the ornaments in shops and windows
and afterward on their own trees ana
the trees of their playmates-also on
other trees that have served as ad-
.vertisements in markets, and so on.
So that if il wasn't for the spirit OF
Chris. mas that no commerclansm can
hammer out of us-anyhow:
The members of this society had
trees that were different-candy ami
mails. ginger.cake babies, cornucopias
and pink sugar plums with straw
stems. popcorn strings and no electro
lights, and on New Year eve they
have a flock of little children i'll 10
cat the goodies and carry away the
books and balls, and like ha ~ stun
banked at the root of the tree. instead
of packing lot OF balls and tinsei
TO be taken out next Christmas 10 90
duty for another tree.
You couldn't honestly expect Santa
TO approve of thing like that
There is another woman. who be-
longs to no clubs whatever, but she has
her own ideas about Christmas trees. !
Some weeks ago she went to the WOODS
10 visit a tree friend named Pine. and
the dear, beautiful thing gave her a
lot of cones-big cones and little cones
some with their woodeny leaves
close folded, and others with petals
outstretched to get good long breaths
of their own balsam air. She took
then home, painted them lovely colors |
and showered each with gold or silver |
diamond dust, until the lot or them
sparkled like Jewels from Aladuns
cave.
and comradeship, for all he counts his
BIRTHDAYS by what you might call the
wholesale, told her to help herself to
aoorns, so she gathered them from
the ground and when they were
strung into a chain of golden beads
and she had threaded the silyered
cups on scarlet ribbon they looked
like Chinese gongs out or a temple
on the road to Mandalay-only that
hut no
had as pretty a tree as if it had cost |
a pile of money-and that's enough |
about that.
COME wise people tell us that school |
teachers make better parents than |
truly Enthusiastically when they |
are single and have been teaching |
long years. One reason given Is that |
while a mother appeals to chllds
selfishness by loading it down with |
gifts and every pleasure Christmas
can supply. a teacher VIII use the |
same blessed day to impress on the
heart and soul OF child the ever |
shining truth that 1t is better to give |
than to receive. In accordance with |
that theory, we might consider the |
pupils Of Jackson School:
Under the influence of Miss Laura |
Rallenger, principal. the children
made little baskets to hold bread |
crumbs. cianberries, nuts and bits OF |
apples for the birds. This little act |
had for it's basis the realization that, |
while a bird is not a human thing, II |
can suffer Just the same, from |
hunger and that 1t is not gracious
or right TO enjoy our own Pleasures |
regardless of the welfare OF others. |
This impression was accented by the |
singing Of carols to the residents OF |
the Home for the Blind, nearby, ana |
YOU can bet-allowing you permit |
Yourself such iniquity. which most or |
,,s do-you can bet that as the years |
60 on and oD each child in that |
school having attained to the age |
when looking backward becomes a |
comforting stunt, will remember. with |
greatest pleasure, OF all Christmas |
memories. the time that Miss Ballen' |
ger taught the class to make Christ |
mas for the birds.
X Y Il y
EVOLVING doors twirled woman
IN into a gay radiance of light and
warmth and Christmas garlands,
with many flower-decked tables
crowded with jolly men and women
whose laughter dubbed against a
background of music--and simply
rapturous whiting of Christmasy
dinner to come.
A waiter seated her at a table where
there were a plump and somewhat
carrulous lady and debonair, oldish
man. though you could see that they
didn't belong because he was looking
over headlines while she nibbled at
4risp stalk she had taken from the
celery waiting" as she said
10 the new Woman~-neW as to arrival,
not looks; being one of those homely
creatures that Mother Nature makes
80. match the ugly. live things that
r;-ltrast with butterflies Of gorgeous
colors and birds that wing their way
across the skies-but which human
gets used to after n while--a good,
long while. Excuse the interruption.
'They promised TO he on time to
dot. and here they are five minutes
behind Every Christmas since the
war. / get homesick for the one /
spent serving coffee to the boys behind
he front. ! wouldn't have missed 1t
for the world You didn't get across?
Well, there were drives enough here
to keep the stay-at-homes busy. I've
been on every drive since the afmi-
stice."
The new woman admitted that she
was only one of the driven, and, at
that, the oldish man chuckled and
Clipped in, until the three were get
ling to be as gay as field larks, when
the war servers friends twirled in and
the ugly woman and the oldish man
had the table TO themselves.
He was the interestingest man! lie
knew Scrooge and Tiny Tim and all
the other folks who live in the Christ
mas Carols and he had memories of
Christmas days in the Orient, and one
especially high old time at the Poodle