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The Commoner.
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Vol. a, No. 49.
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Ce jjijffe Department
,. Conducted by..
dekn W. TtlcUtp.
After Christmas.
I have lately heard a secret
Heard It, too, from truthful lips;
Santa Claus, the sly old follow,
Makes his after-Christmas trips! -
In these trip3, ho has discovered
Many things that cause him pain
Discontont, and hate, and envy,
Thoughtful love bestowed in vain.
He lias soon his choicest presents
Torn and broken and defaced;
Santa Clr.us, tlio' rich and lavish,
Frown3 on willful, .wanton wasted
All unknown, he watched some chil-.
dren,
In their pleasant home, at play
With tho very toys he gave them ' :
On the latest Christmas day.
t.
Johnnie's horse was kicked and beaten,
Just because it could not neigh!
Thought that Santa should have
brought him
Two live horses and a sleigh!
Katie wished her doll was larger,,.
Wished its eyes were black, not blue;
Finally, in anger, threw it
'Cross the room it broke in two!
Santa Claus looked grave and troubled,
Shook his head and went away,
"I'll remember this," he murmured,
"On another Christmas day."
Then he peered in dismal places, -.
Where he was not Wont to go;
Where the little, hungry children
Never any Christmas know.
V
And- his heart was filled with sorrow
. That he could not help them all,1
While -he thought in grief and anger
Of the broken horse and doll.
As he took his upward journey
He was seen to drop a tear,
And I almost know he whispered
"I'll remember this, next year." '-
Selected.
ically all adown the columns and try
to understand clearly what has swelled
this side, what has shrunken that; let
iu seek to know what has made the
answer what it is.
If the balance is in our favor, let
us rejoice, for thus we shall measure
our soul's growth toward our stand
ard of excellence. Let us advance the
standard Jtp still, greater heights and
resolve to climb more sturdily yet
If the balance is against us . Let us
not grieve overmuch about the irrevoc
able. The past, cannot-come- back to
us for correction. We should now
know our weak snots, and should rp-
solve to strengthen ourselves on those
points, in the days to come. It is a
useless waste to fret and mourn;
rather, let us .take up the tasks that
?&$339$f5S35.
Question Box.
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In the Year's Twilight.
In the closing days of the old year,
it is. well to pass in review before us
the doings of the twelve-month gpnc
to invoice, as it were, the possessions
of our soul. What have we gained
of the good? What sot aside of the
bad? Let us go away into the silenco
of self and, opening our ledgers, bal
ance accounts of the dead days.
The conductor of the Home De
pnrtment will bo "clad to answer
questions concerning matters of S
interest to Housekeepers. Make
your questions as brief as possible $
and address all communications W
to "Homo Department. Thri Horn- W
jv moner, Lincoln, Nebr." $
V.
TTnrm
which side ot the sheet shall we write
mo nvai-iiia ivij- . .-..inn
uioi-inua. ucuu ui ureuitf iu tsuuu, lo an, may;tno xsew xear
"Soul, what hath it profited thee?' about to dawn be Indeed a blessed
"I'll rV n av a Uh. 1 i ... Avf ni nl a . IS mf '
a"cio uttvu uvuu. u. aeeu-cime sowing, cawubiuu. ui rime,
a summer growing, and autumn ripen-
lie before us in the firm determination
to live closer to. pur ideals, to so Tegr
ulate our. future acts that our lives
shall not bo stumbling blocks to those
About us. Lot us cultivate hopefulness,
cheerfulness, and the faith that makes
of us willing tools. in the hands of
Him who doeth all things well.
' It is well to have lived. It is better
to know that we have yet time to right
the wrong, to add to the growing' good
of humankind. It is best to devote all
our energies to the work, riot only of
lifting others to a higher plane, but
of lifting our own selves into a purer,
stronger atmosphere, so that, when
our call shall come, wo can place our
record in the hands to which it be
longs, and say, truthfully and con
tentedly, "I have made the best of
Tthe material entrusted to me."
j-o eacn, to all, may; the New Year
ing; what of the harvest? There have
been a morning, a noontide and an
ovening; what of the' night? Every
hour of every day has its record. Good
or bad, "it is written." Wo are always
giving or taking; a lifting up or cast
ing down. By -word or thought or deed, .
weare adding to or subtracting from
the .world's store of general gopd;
helping or hindering human progress.
Into the lives of others, as into ov
own, we are continually bringing the
sunshine or casting the shadow; we
are strengthening with our courage
or enfeebling with our complaint.
Have wo-fed the hungry, clothed the
naked, or visited the "sick and im
prisoned?" Let us ask ourselves all these ques
tions and more. No ear save ours
may catch the reply. Let us honestly
write down the answers; no eyq save
ours need dwell upon them. This is
our business. Let us sit in stern
Judgment upon ourselves. When wo
have added and subtracted until the
XV.! Clear' untU we feo1 tht(
stand, let us look carefully and crit-
Othcr People's Opinions;
It is a common failing for Pne to
ask, in view of some humiliation hav
ing befallen us, "What will people
think Of US?" Did it ncvnf nnnnr tn
you, dear Madam, or Sir, that peoplo
reuuy tninic very little of you, "nor
think that little long?" The world is
so full of stirring events, great affairs
and far-reachirig questions, that it
has no time to trouble over the hap
penings to the individual. Even one's
closest friends can pause no longer
than to utter a word of sympathy,
whilo our- enemies are generally after
biggei- game." Very few people are
saying or thinking anything about
us, good or bad, unless we are ex
tremely out of the ordinary and very
few pf us are.
Our little humiliations or hurts are
like our- petty triumphs-rof very little
consequence outside of our own door
yard. It is but a ripple, and will die
out very close to the shore.
After all, -why should we care what
others 'think of us?" Have we no
higher tribunal before which to trv
our case? What is the puny affair to
those who know but one side perhaps
not oven that of it, or whose knowl
edge consists solely of what some
gossip has told them? In our own in
ner being should be found our judg)
and jury. Before our higher self
Should our cause be plead. If our own
conscience approv.e, do yotf . need ,a
higher court? Can you not abide by
the decision of -your inner sense of
right? If this inner consciousness dis
approve if you feel, in your heart,
that blame is yours, you -should sot
about recovering your own self-respect.
We should strive to have such
confidence in our little world as will
enable us5to believe in. the justice of
their judgment passed upon actions,
and then we should seek diligently tp
merit only sympathy and kindness at
their hands, and if we do this, hold
irg firmly onto pur own. self-respect,
it will hot crush us to realize that the
world has too many interests of its
own to spare; much time for the -individual.
- '" " : ' : ;
What Chrlftttnas Really Means.
When the need of observing the an
niversary of Christ's birth became ap
parent in the fourth century, there was
nothing by which the date could be
positively fixed. No one knew exactly
when he was born. No shred of evi
dence shows that the, date of his
birth was even preserved in oral tradi
tion. At first, January 6, the day of
his baptism by the prophet John, was
fixed upon, but eventually December
25 was chosen, when the days begin
to grow longer and the nights fb'grpw
less, that thus, according to one tradi
tion, might be symbolized John's
prophecy as the foreteller of the. com
ing of the Sun of Righteousness "He
must increase, but I must decrease.
. .
There, seems to be little doubt, how
ever, i;hat the change was actually due
to the difficulty of commemPrating
both tin "birth and the baptism of
Unrist oh the same day, and still more
to the advantage of adopting an an
niversary already so deeply rooted in
popular favor and so readily suscepti
ble of religious interpretation and de
velopment as was the festival known
among the Romans as the Saturnalia,
and among the nations of the .north as
Yule, which was held, at the winter
Solstice, and celebrated the turn of
the year from the death and dark
ness of mid-winter to the life and
light of returning spring. By an ob
vious and striking transition, the nat
ural pagan rejoicing at the approach
ing triumph of the sun over the cold
and gloom became exalted Christian
rapture at the rise of the Sun of
Righteousness with warmth and com
fort for mankind.
In early times, the rays of the rising
sun as- tljey shot up and broadened out
in the sky -vvore believed to be the
branches of a celestial light-tree, the
leaves of which were t1 o. clouds, the
sacred flowers, the mysterious light
ning flashes, and the golden fruit the
sun itself, as well as the moon and
stars. The small white clouds about it
were swans and doves; the largo black
ones, eagles; and the forked lightnings
were leaping goats and stags and coll
ing dragons and: snakes. This is ox
empliflcJ in the Christmas tree of to
day. At Yule, small fir-trees were
adorned with animals and covered
with candles to -signify that the light
tree had begun to renew its growth;
so, vhen Christmas supplanted Yule
these fir-trees became Christmas trees,
representing the .Heaven-sent tree of
Life, whose leaves are for the "healinr
,of the nations,", arid whose glorv is
"the light thereof."-Ladies' Homo
Journal. '
St. Nicholas
St Nicholas, or Santa Claus, as we
love to call him, is the patron saint
of childhood. He it was, who, under
a different name, used to descend to
earth on a white steed at Yule, and
lead the annual army of denartori smii
Later, he was supposed to lead only
the souls of thc.unbaptised, who were
all children. Finally, ho exchanged
his white steed for roindeer, born of
the sun-stag on the celestial light
tree, and became the friend, hot only
of all departed children, but of all
living ones, as well, to whom he still
"brings gifts of toys and sweetmeats
at Christmas time. But in the process
of his curious evolution from the pa
gan prototype of Death on the white
horse to the Christian representative
of the Christ-child, the giver of every
good and perfect gift, both his nature
and looks were changed, and he be
came the merry, kind-hearted, fur-clad
being, 'chubby and plump, a right jol
ly old elf," whose prancing reindeer,
toy-filled sleigh, and beaming face
thrill the children with delirious rap
ture on Christmas day. Ladies' Home
Journal.
Tiio Origin of the Stocking.
An ancient legend thus accounts for
the custom of hanging up the Christ
mas stocking. While yet St. Nicholas
was a pagan immortal, he became in
volved in a struggle with giants, in
which his son slew a ferocious wolf
by thrusting his foot, clad in a great
shoe made by the poor from strips of
leatlier given by the prosperous, into
the monster's mouth. The shoe stood
for the deeds of loving charity by
which the wolf of want and sin and
death is overcome. So, when the
leader of departed souls came to earth
on his white steed at Yule, the chil
dren placed their shoes, filled with
oats for his horse, before their doors,
and- in the morning the shoes were
found to contain apples and nuts in
stead of oats. In time, the more con
venient stocking was substituted for
the clumsier shoe as the symbol of
the happy hopefulness with which
Santa Claus' yearly .visits were ex
pected. Ladies' Home Journal.
For the Bath.
You must be exquisitely clean if
your would be beautiful. One. of the
greatly-rto-be-desired things in this
life is u good complexion, and this can
only be obtained by health and clean
liness. To be sure, you cannot bring
back the bloom of sixteen to the
cheek of forty-five, but you can in
duce a "ripened glory" to even the
faded cheek of a grandmother by at
tending to your health and properly
caring for the skin. To obtain the best
results one must have a good cir
culatory and respiratory system the
heart and lungs must do their part.
You cannot do without borax in the
bath-room. Its uses are multifold.
Sometimes it is the nostrils that need
attention. Sniffing a borax solution
every morning, letting a little of the
wash trickle down the throat, is ex
ceedingly purifying, and will greatly
benefit you if you have nasal or throat
catarrh.
Salt is alsP excellent when used
as a nose or throat wash, or as a
cleanser for tho teeth, "Bathing weak
eyes in salty tepid water is very
strengthening a teaspoonfurof salt
tp a pint of water; it' may be used
stronger. It is recommended, also,
for making eyebrows and eyelashes
grow.
If you can secure tho sea salt for
your all-over bath, it is better than
the common cooking salt, and to a
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