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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 23, 1904)
sETTssSjrjsriP5 - -, vTx-"WfnSr"" - ""-".imiwi- iT-i! jWw"d' aw rfry-apw!BWwSK'Wfclit"inygi'"HM, W wyU)iiJWy''IWPWWBiIWJlWWlI The Commoner. VOLUME 4, NUMBER 4j 10 IS In " Coming Horn For Christmas .They are coming homo for the Christ mas time, From the places wide apart; Old songs we'll sing till the echoes ring, While the heart speaks unto heart. So, ho for the joyous Ohrlstmas cheer Surrounding the yule log's glow! We'll live old days in the ruddy blaze As tho glad hours come tmd go. , ,They aro coming home for tho Christ mas time That chair in the corner here. Though badly marred and by Time's hand scarred, We'll keep for sister dear. In years agone it was there she sat To study her lessons o'er; 'And now wo wait with our hearts elate Sne's coming back home once more. .They are coming home for tho Christ mas time That chair in the corner dim The brother bore in the days of yore," That one we'll keep for him. Just there where the flickering shad ows fall And glints of the embers play, - He dreamed life's dreams int the em 1 bers' gleams Ere he 'rose and went his, way. v -, They are coming home for the Christ i mas time! The quaint old armchair low , JWill face the light of the yule-log bright In tho sheen of its ruddy glow. And the father's face will again light up At the old home circle's call; And he will pray at the close of day For blessings of God on all. ! They are coming homo for the Christ mas time! i But the best loved one's not there. And a silence falls through the old home's halls As we stand by her fav'rite chair. Thoy are coming home for the Christ ' mas time, And, O that the mother's face Could greet each one as the day was done From the old accustomed place. tho Egypt referred to is southern Illinois. Tho fruit is fine As lino can be That hangs upon The Christmas tree. It was the Christmas of '67, and tho country was still suffering the" imme diate effects of a long warfare. Thou sands of homes wer homes of mourn ing, and the Christmas day of that year was a day of tears and heartaches for wives and mothers all over the broad land. But there were countless little children for whom war had no mean ing, and these little ones had to have Christmas joy, no matter how sadly heartstrings were wrenched. It was on this particular Christmas day that the compiler of this department had his first Christmas tree. He can see it yet. A bit of stunted evergreen, trimmed with popcorn strung on thread, a few red cranber ries similarly fixed, a few bits of tal low candles and some old newspapers cut into narrow strips and curled by being drawn quickly over the edge of a knife. But it was the prettiest Christmas tree that ever grew, and it bore finer fruit than any that over graced a tree in the Garden of Eden. that graced tho top of that Christmas tree on December 25, 1867. It was only a flag -on one side. Lack of material, and not lack of time, as responsible for it being only a flag on one side. The good mother managed to secure a few bits of red and bluo flannel. She also found a bit of white goods. There was material for a flag, and she used it She sewed red flan nel on for stripes, and a square of blue flannel served for the field. Some lit tle scraps of white goods served for the stars, and there was a flag good enough for any boy. It was fastened to the very topmost branch of that wonderful Christmas tree, and it looked bigger and brighter than any flag that has since then waved whore the writer could see. For upwards of thirty years that little flag was treas ured, and then it suddenly disappeared. What became . of it no one knows, al though tho writer would give a month's salary to recover it. In every clime. On land or sea. In glory blooms The Christmas tree. Old-Time Chrlatmns Dolys Tho finest fruit That eyes e'er see Is the fruit that grows On the Christmas tree. Of course you can not remember lyour first Christmas, so let your mind ' jpo back to the first Christmas you can ' remember. You were about four years ! cfld although some people claim thev caa remember when they were 'three years old, and now and then we strike oe of thoze elastic-minded people yrho claim thoy can remember things ttajt happened to them when they were two years old. When we meet ach we smile politely and keep our real thoughts to ourselves. "Riih -mnst. nf hr. nnrhnns nil (nn t ntember tho fourth Christmas that .jpassed over our heads. The compiler of this department has a very clear j recollection of his fourth Christmas, although it was more years ago than , fee cares to think about It was in M little town down in Egypt. Not the Sgypt watered by the ftyerflow of the Nile,, but the -Egypt too often watered fey the overflow of the Ohio and Mb Issippl rivers. Of course you know O wondrous joy For you and mo Is 'borne upon The Christmas tree. "Store candy" was a .luxury not to be dreamed of in those days. But Christmas without candy is not Christ inas. So the good mother secured a bit of old-fashioned New Orleans su gar, and out of It she manufactured some candy and moulded it Into fan tastic shapes. Ever eat any candy made out of that kind of sugar? Yellow, sticky, and "smearable" without limit There must have been a couple of pounds of it upon this particular Christmas tree. Nothing half so good In the way of candy has ever fallen to the lot of the writer. But joy of joys. In addition to the candy, this Christmas tree had wonder ful fruit in the shape of the first pair of pants that ever encased tho under pinning of the grey-haired boy who writes these lines. They were blue pants, not from choice but from neces sity. The cloth was not new. Far from it. It had seen some hard serv ice, for it was once contained in tho overcoat of a father who had worn it through field and swamp, in bivouac and camp. He brought it home with him, badly worn and torn, but still an overcoat. You older readers well re member how many years after the war closed that the veterans wore those old blue overcoats. When this particular overcoat was about "all in." as the boys say, and no longer -wearable by the father, the mother took it in hand, and with Infinite skill and patience and a bit of legerdemain that would put a Herman to shame, changed it into the finest pair of pants a boy ever donned. Go where you will. You must agreo The best of all Is the Christmas tree. Of course there was a jumping-jack on that Christmas tree. It was a home-mado toy, but it was received with shouts of delight The hands that made it were cold in death before another Christmas passed. It was -a nimblo jumplng-jack, clothed in a suit of red paint. No, it wasn't red paint, it was elderberry juice, or pokeberry juice, one or the other. But no mat ter about that It was carved out by the hands of the man who had fought and marohed alongside the father whosfc old' army overcoat had fur nished a boy with Ills' "first pair of pants, and 'altuough the writer lives far past the alloted four score years and ten Iia 'will never forget Cyrus Rush, whose skill with, the jack knife was not less than Ills skill as a story teller whose tales' could hold children in a magic spell. A few apples, some hickory nuts, some doughnuts and a ball ma'de by ravelling out a yarn stocking these with the things aforementioned made up tho sum total of what appeared on that Christmas tree just thirty-seven years ago nextSunday. Come, gather round In joy and glee And gather fruit From the Christmas tree. Ten years later there was another Christmas tree to be remembered. It was bigger, boro more fruit and was far finer in appearance, and it was in a church. The superintendent of tho Sunday school presided, and as tho presents were taken from the tree he read the names, and the owner of the name came forward, always eagerly, usually bashfully, and took the gift. There Were several gifts bearing the writer, s name, but there was one in particular. It was from her! It was a little autograph album, and that littlo book seized the one to whom it was given and dragged him into about a dozen fights with his playmates. She had, in her innocence, written the name of the recipient on the inside of the book, instead of on a tag, and be low the name sho had written: "If you love me as I lovo you No knife can cut our love in two." Below it sho signed her name. What name? That's telling. But the su perintendent read the whole thing, and an embarrassed boy stumbled forward amidst shouts of laughter to receive his present. There was no school the next week, but that embarrassed boy managed to get mixed up with two or three schoolmates a day on account of that Christmas present, and the chief satlsfactipn he has to this day is in the knowledge that he was not the only onp who left those little sessions wim i aumownat pungea up eye and ft.niiaor cnmjgpji nose. bum Is still alirft. and ,.. children of her own. Glvefau? 3? ceivet have not met for a 8Srfl nJ years, but the memory of th L , days nearly thirty yearan'ZS is worth treasuring up. pa3t If I were rich As rich could be Each child would have A Christmas tree. Eight years later still there was no Christmas tree in sight. The room was rather scantily furnished wherein the writer lay. There was littlo of Christmas cheer. A white-robed nurse wore a sprig of holly on her brewr and a bunch of flowers from some loy al comrades nodded from the little ta ble at the head of the bed whereon the writer lay, trying to believe that he was going to get wen and meeting with poor success. He had about everything he wanted tho trouble being that he didn't have ambition enough to want anything. When a fellow is cut oK from home and friends and comrades by a strict quarantine, .and looked upon much as the Jews in olden days must have looked upon a eper, he isn't very apt to think about Christmas toys and Christmas joysespecially if his temperature is about 106 and he is see ing things rever described in books. This particular Christmas day was spent in a pest house horrible word, that wrestling with a case of small pox that was determined to come off winner. It was a sharp contrast with the Christmas days mentioned before. How awful mean That man must be Who will not plant ' A .Christmas tree. Put axman never knows what Christ mas really means until he has little onespf his own and is privileged to hear them laugh and shout in an aban don of' joy when they are led Into tho front room in the gray dawning of Christmas morn and behold the won derful tree standing in all its glory. There's more music in that than there is in all Mie orchestras over or ganized. What better music could you ask up yonder above -no blue than a chorus of children laughing in pure joy? America's Largest Laad Owner William Cornell Greene, known as "the copper king of Mexico," is rated as the largest landowner in America. His holdings in Arizona and in tho state of Sonora, Mexico, amount to about 2,000,000 acres, including somo of the most valuable copper-produc- . ia i wmHnont. It Was while" raising cattle in Arizona that he became interested m sumo uv TL'htnii Gonatnr ninrle of Montana ana other big copper men refused to pur chase. The products turned out to uo enormously ricn. ana now u- -many times a miUonaire. Kansas City Journal. There was a tiny flag on that Christ mas tree, too. It was the prettiest flag ever manufactured, and the writer would .give a great deal if he had It today. Ho has since seen thousands of bigger ami more expensive flacs. but not one of them equalled the tiny flag she who w7ote in' the autograph al- Burlington Bulletin. Whv Hi&ernate WINTER TOURIST RATES to Cal ifornia, Colorado, the Gulf Countrj. Florida, South and Southeast . LANDSEEKERS' RATES,-aPPro mately half rates December 20tn j uary 3 and 17 to Oklahoma, Texas ana the Southwest. ivpttcrS' LOW OWE WAY SETTg RATES December 20th to Soutneus points beyond the Ohio River. CHRISTMAS AND NEW Jg greatly reduce' holiday rates for swot and long journeys in territory between the Rockies and Chicago, Peoria au "LIVESTOCK COlNTION S YPr. One fare plus $2.00 for the rouu trip January 7 to 9, 1905. .forma- era'i Passenger Agent, Omaha, eu. J W -jUv r ?W , t til - tAttma,