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DECEMBER 21, 190
The Commoner.
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Writin' Rhymes
ain't clalmin no poet stylo,
Jut jus keep writin', an' maybe I'll
Jrind out somethin' after while
:hat'll bring t' quiverin' lips a smile
An' I'm content if that helps some
To keep a-goin' when troubles come.
Sometimes what I write don't rhyme.
FAn' poetic feet don't keep good time;
An' as f'r grammar, well, maybe I'm
IKindo weak, an th' errors climb,
But I don't iceer; I do my best
An' keep on writin' with added zest.
wood-bottomed "rocker" skates. They
must be club skates today. Then a
home-made windmill was a joy. To
day it must be a mechanical toy run
by springs of electricitypreferably
the latter. Thirty years ago a little
drum and a tin trumpet wero enough
to fill a boy's days with delight. Now
It takes a lot more. And the children
of today don't get a bit more fun
out of Christmas than wo used to get
thirty or forty years ago.
Don't take no flights o' fancy high,
F'r soarin' ain't my mission. I
Jus' sit down t' my desk an' try
T' make smiles chase away th' sigh.
Write common stuff f'r common folks
Whoso tired necks wear weary
yokes.
Can't write no high toned poetry;
Jus' write o' th' common things I
see
O chiPrun climbin' upon my knee,
An humble cots where th' home ties
be
Jus' haltin rhymes o' th' common
things,
An grind 'em out f'r th' joy it
brings.
Jus' common stuff. That I'll admit,
But If th' writin' will help a bit
T' bid good cheer come in an' sit
Right down, I'm a thinkin' it
Won't be no waste of a feller's time,
An' that Is th' very reason I'm
A goin' to keep on day by day
Writin' stuff in my boor, weak way;
An if th' writin' will make smiles
play
On one sad face, then all I'll say
Is, I'm content; f'r one who tries
Don't care f'r them that criticise.
Sing o' th' common things o' life;
Laughin' chil'run, o' home an' wife;
P'rgettin' awhile th cares an' strife
With which this bustlin' world is rife.
Sing in a style that some may say
Is rough an' homely. But anyway
Th' style suits me, an' I'm satisfied
With jus th' fact o' havin' tried
T' scatter a few smiles fur an' wide,
Or havin' a few o' life's tears dried.
The Christmas Tree
I'd like to be a boy again
Christmas-trees grew brighter then.
The first Christmas tree, like the
first circus, will always be held In
memory as the biggest, brightest and
best. As you grow older and have
children of your own you get more
joy out of Christmas giving than you
ever did out of Christmas receiving,
but somehow or other you never can
make your children's Christmas tree
look quite so lovely and bright as the
first one you remember. Today's
cranberries are not so red as they used
to be, and today's popcorn won't string
as beautifully as it once did. And
somehow or other you never could
get quite such a pretty eifect these
days with tinsel and gilt as you used
to get with cranberries and popcorn.
The Christmas presents of long ago
would be very much out of place now.
We are getting to be so artistic, you
know. And it may be that we are
becoming rather shoddy. Thirty years
ago the average family Christmas tree
was loaded with knit mittens, knit
scarfs, crochet neckties, perforated
cardtipayd mottoes worked in zephyr,
comfortable wearing apparel, boots,
shBes, and things like these. It is
different today, The child of thirty
years ago was made supremely happy
It always is a joy to see
The fruit upon a Christmas tree.
In 1885 an American promoter with
more cash than judgment conceived
the idea of starting a daily newspaper
In Caracas, Venezuela. All he know
about Caracas he had learned from
encyclopedias, but he was convinced
that It had a future and sooner or
later would be the greatest city in
South America. He bought presses.
type, and paper and shipped them to
Caracas, then gathered his force of
editors, reporters and printers. He
had no trouble about getting men for
he advanced transportation and gave
bond for return passage at the end of
six months to all who wanted to come
back to the states. There were fifteen
printers in tho bunch adventurous
spirits who had worked from coast
to coast and from lakes to gulf, and
ready to, go anywhere that promised
something new.
It was late in October before the
force arrived at Caracas, and it didn't
take tne seasoned printers long to dis
cover that it wouldn't be six months
before the return transportation would
be handed over by a sadly disappoint
ed promoter. Caracas was the most
unpromising daily newspaper city
imaginable. In the first place less
than a thousand of its population could
read English, and in the second place
less than three thousand of the pop
ulation could read any language. The
merchants were all Spaniards and
much given to putting off until next
week the important things that should
have been done week before last. It
was no use to talk advertising to them.
They just wouldn't listen. The pros
pect of securing more business through
advertising frightened them, for more
business meant more work, and more
work meant less time for bull fights
and siestas. But the promoter had
plenty of nerve aud tackled the hope
less job. He had some big advertise-1
ments from American manufacturers I
seeking a market in South America,
and by judicious use of New York and
New Orleans daily newspapers that
usually arrived two months after pub
lication the telegraph editor managed
to get out his share of copy. It was
a good thing for the force that the
populace couldn't read English, for
some of the stories turned in by the
local staff were enough to start a riot
on every corner. The newspaper ven
ture lasted just two months. But that
bunch of American newspaper men
and printers, were in Caracas on
Christmas day, and they celebrated in
American fashion.
The Christmas tree was a big rub
ber plant about twenty feet high, and
it was decorated with candles sur
reptitiously secured by working on
tho innocence of a youngster who was
supposed to carry them to a church for
the Christmas mass. Everybody got
a present, such as it was, the presents
consisting chiefly of bananas, although
the boys swapped pipes, rules, chewing
tobacco, long Venezuela cigars that
were something horrible to contem-j
tie personal trinkntR.
J Mrco had bcen recruited from
the northern states probably because
no southern men would havo been so
foolish as to undertako tho business
and to these northerners a Christmas
in tho tropics was a novelty. It didn't
seem a bit like Christmas to tho men
accustomed to snow and heavy under
wear at that season of tho year. They
loafed around in light cotton duck
suits and tried to find cool spots in
which to rest from tho extreme fa
tigue of mere living. There were no
brilliantly lighted show windows in
tho stores, no vast collections of
Christmas toys nothing to look like
Christmas except tho church festivals,
tho processions, the dimly burning
candles and the tinkle of tho bells
on tho water boy's donkeys or the
miucman's goats.
That Christmas settled tho fate of
the daily newspaper in Caracas. It
migut nave lasted a month or two
longer, but the Christmas season in
that tropical country was enough for
the northerners. 'The next day they
waited on tho boss in a body and
suggested that they wero so interest
ed in his financial welfare that they
reauy mougut lie ought to quit pub
lication and send the bunch back home.
It was a sensible suggestion and actod
upon at once. The issue of December
27, 1885, was tho last. It announced
the paper's suspension, and on Jan
uary 2 a happy gang of newspaper
men, printers and pressmen boarded a
tramp steamer bound for New Orleans.
One of those printers hurried to his
home in Missouri and reached there
about the middle of February on the
coldest day of the winter. But ho
was happy. The Intense cold, tho
drifted snow and tho sight of bare
trees was to him a welcome home.
And he bought a little evergreen tree
and set it up in his mother's home and
had a belated celebration that, at
least, looked like Christmas.
At Christmas let each one be glad,
From lisping babe to gray-haired dad.
It's a mighty good thing that every
body is good natured during the
Christmas season. Nobody gets mad
if caught in a jam on the street cars,
or elbowed in the aisles of a big store.
If it happened at any other time of
year there would be growls and mut
terings and perhaps personal encoun
ters. But now you get on the car with
both arms and all pockets loaded down
with bundles, and you hang on by
your eyebrows without a protest. When
a neighbor is thrown against you by
a lurch of the car you don't say
naughty things and shove him back;
you just smile at him and he returns
the smile, and then you say.
"Everybody looks happy."
"You bet. Hope you have a merry
Christmas."
"Thanks, old man; same to you."
And then the incident is closed.
If you happened to bump up against
a man in that way in a crowd in Car
acas the chances are that there would
be the flashing of a knife and a sud
den need for the services of a sur
geon. Those South Americans are
great on formal politeness that does
not count for anything, but when it
comes right down to brass tacks they
are the limit of sudden anger and
quick use of weapons.
Tom Bowles never came back from
Caracas. Without kith or kin, his
bones lie burled in the little American
cemetery on the outskirts of that city,
and no stone marks the spot. Ho
died after a too intimate acquaintance
with Spanish politeness. It occurred
about the middle of December. The
printer force quit about 2 a. m., and
naturally drifted to a place where
the coolest could be obtained. A
bunch of Spanish rounders were in
the place, and Tom accidentally trod
upon the toes of one. Before he could
apologize a knife was sheathed in his
side. It was never known who com-
siblo to mako a Spaniard testify
L SnS0 Dut of commission. But In
loss than twenty seconds after it hap
pened there wero a dozen or more
Spaniards who wnm ,n,i,.L ,
n JjurnhS I ' a?d th0 PPr was
h 5 u ,gazIne upon u, r'ns of
his establishment. Tom was buried
vL? 8i clomnunIon8, tho funeral ser
vices being conducted by tho local
5eS5uSin r,88,,onnry and S
there T3'mCrlC(ln,S ,n bu8,nc8s
mere. Toms companions havo never
forgotten, m a dozen American ciUos
during tho Spanish-Amerlcan war wo?o
printers who danced with Joy XS
they got the news of Dewey'scTory
tHcT Schloy' vIctory at 8a
of thlT ?!' uP00r n Bowie :ono
of tho best follows who over odced im
an "em" or "soldiered for a phot fake,"
had been amply revenged.
Arise and sing with fervent glco- '
Behold the glowing Christmas treo ''
How wo wish that all children in
all tho wide world could nnn hi..
eyes on Christmas morning and be
hold a Christmas tree laden with tho
ni5-708t caAculatG(1 t0 "'ease them!
uirlstmas tho season of good will
of generosity, of peace. The groat
day wi l soon be here again. And as
wo contemplate with what patience wo
can mustor its approach, wo smllo
and say in tho language of Tiny Tim:
bod bless us, every one!"
MEXICO AND GOVERNMENT OWN
ERSHIP The Mexican government has en
tered the field of public ownership.
HBociaieu ijresB dispatches follow:
City of Mexico, Dec. 14. The de
tails of the railway merger, by which
the Mexican government takes control
of tho independent lines in the re
public arc now known. By the terms
of the contract tho government se
cures absolute control of the Mexican
Central, the National, tho Interna
tional, tho Interoceanic and tho Hid
algo & Northeastern, all of which will
be merged into one great railroad sys
tem. The government also comes Into
control of tho Texas-Mexican, a rail
road at Laredo, Texas, which is owned
by the National. The mileage of tho
system will, with extensions which
are rapidly nearlng completion, aggre
gate approximately ten thousand
miles. The Tehauntepec National and
Vera Cruz & Pacific, two others con
trolled by the government, will con
tinue to be run as Independent com
panies. A Mexican company, of which a ma
jority of the slock will be held by the
Mexican government, will be organized
with headquarters in Mexico City. The
company will issue its securities in
exchange for the securities outstand
ing of the two companies and the new
company will acquire all tho physical
property and concessions held by the
old companies.
It Is contemplated to create a board
of twenty-one directors to be divided
into a general board which will reside
In Mexico and a local board with
headquarters in New York. The board
in Mexico will consist of twelve mem
bers and the New York board of nine.
The new company will makea lim
ited issue of prior liens at 4 per
cent and general mortgage bonds at
4 per cent, the principal and Interest
of the latter being guaranteed by the
Mexican government. In addition to
the bond issue the company will issue
first and second preferred and common
stock. i It is proposed to leave an
ample reserve in cash and securities
for future improvement, development
and extension of the lines of the com
pany and for the acquisition of addi
tional rolling stock and motive power.
The new company will take over the
holdings of the National railroad of
by receiving a pair of the old-fashioned I plate and dangerous to. smoke, and lit- mitted the murder, for It was impos- Mexico and the Mexican International
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