Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-28
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRACEWELL.

A mans Office never seems so quiet
as on the day after Christmas.
Thousands of men find the old desk
a perfect sanctuary after the hurly-
burly of the Christmas tree, guests,
! candy, turkey.
| christmas comes but once a year
| thank Heaven!" sighed many a man
! dropping with relief into the worn
| chair in front of his office desk.
Here was peace and quiet, despite
the peculiar rumbling of typewriterS,
! the whang of doors. the distant whirr
of street cars, the sounds of automobile
! horns, the inceSSant clatter of meSSen-
! gers.
| Ordinary noises, which on some days
worry a sensitive worker. on the day
after Christmas took on aspects of
! pleasure.
No doubt, a resumption of the rou-
| tine of life helped account for the feel
: ing which assaulted the returned office
man.
Habit plays such large part in life
! that a slight break only is necessary
! to prove just how large a part it fills.
One days absence and the world
seems out of adjustment. Whether this
| feeling Is a good one or not must de-
pend upon the viewpoint of the indi-
vidual, but no one can dispute the
validity of the thing.
When one settles into the customary
jog of the day after Christmas, he Sees
as never before just how unSettling a
day Christmas is.
A merry, clustering day 1t was, filled
with the shouts of children, the greet
ings of old friends. the unexpected calls
from persons forgotten, perhaps the
unexpected absence of some who might
have been expected to drop in.
But there was so much excitement
that there was plenty of happiness for
all, even in the homes from which chill
| dren had departed or to which they
had never come. If any one believed
that the ChristmaSes of such persons
were but hollow mockery," the opin-
| ion but showed the ShalloWneSS of
youth and ineXperience hiding behind
a mask of pretended omniscience.
Christmas has in its depth of love q
! feeling Of reverence which mixes
strangely, yet gloriously, with all the
Santa Claus play of the Yuletide and
| keeps the spirit of it true in every home
where decent people abide who keep in
| their hearts q sense of the real mean
| ing of the day-ChriSt rather than
Santa Claus.
The first half hour or so in most Offices
the day after Christmas was spent in
"reminiscences. One man told how his
boy had received, among other pres
ents, a toy Saxophone and a real ac-
Gordon, the latter from Germany.
A friend of an older daughter, seiZ-
ing the accordion, played upon 1t so
StrenuouSly that at the peak of a
melody it split exactly in half and she
was left holding the treble in the right
hand, the bass in the left. Or maybe
1t was the other way round.
Another spoke of the many trips he
had been forced to make in taking call
ers (who came by street carr back to
the homes in his automobile, A third
piped up to assert that although he had
travelled eight miles to visit a friend
with car, the latter had not offered
to take his bus out of the garage.
A fourth limited darkly that there
were too many of his wife'S relations
visiting him, but that aside from that
little flaw 1t had been a very Merry
Christmas, indeed.
Some complained that they had too
many relations in town, others that
their fam les were living all over the
country, but 1t was plain that the ma
jority were glad the day was over,
despite It's happiness.
Few apparent Christmas neckties