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I. U. BENTLEy, Editor and Proprietor. -DONA9 81VILLE LUJISIANA teame out of hureh; the grand musio was over, , Theiells had been rung; But my heartwas still singing the ibyfllest carol My heart ever king. I went through the verbs: To be.loved, to be hated- For there in the glad, Christmas sunshine he waited, On the church-steps. You see, I had promised to make him a pres ent That beautiful day, And though it was costly, I'm sure I was willing - Tlo give it away: knd though on that moment my life was de pending Too proud of my power, I stood-there pro tending, On the church-steps. And what was this present the dear boy ex pected ? You goose, can't you guess ? Well, listen-he asked me so hard with his eyebrows, I had to say-yes. He knew he had conquered, I made no re sistance, But gave him my love for his love and exist ence, There, on the church-steps. --N. Y. Graphie. "First my mother she died, than my father he got married; then my father he died and my mother she got married-and now I've got no father, no mother, no Christmas, no turkey, no nothin'." Christmas and New Year's Items. -Rejoice. our Savior He was born On Christmas day in the morning. -(Ad Christmas Carrd in "SLhtch Bo'c." -The best Christmas presents are those that will beautify a home for a life-time. -At Christmas be merry and thankful withal, And feast thy poor neighbors, the great with the smalL --Thomas Tusser. -How to present a Christmas pres ent to children-sock it to 'em.-L9w ell Courier. -Without the door let sorrow lie, And if for cold it hap to die, We'll bury 't in a Christmas pie, And evermore be merry. --Wither. -In England a barrel of oysters is a very common Christmas present to a country friend. -The night that erst no name had worn, To it.a happy name is given; For in than stable lay, new-born, The peaceful Prince of Earth and Heaven. -Alfred Dommett. -Christmas comes but once a year; :but then it makes its presents felt.- Kf. O. Picayune. -Christmas! Hear the joy bells ring! Gladly in the churches sing Of His mercy, of His power, And the gifts the angels shower. --Miriam Lester. --I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time.--Dickens. -As flits the holy Christmas-birth. Be this, good friends, our carol still Be peace on earth, be peace on earth, To men of gentle will. -Thackeray. -Devise liberal things for the poor, that they may, by your gifts, be re minded of the coming of the Christ child. PVNSPOtKET BOC ý' #' Pa's Pocket-Book Before Christmas. BUSTED How it Looked After the Holidays. I -The poor will many a care forget; The debtor think not of his debts, But as they each enjoy their cheer, Wish it were Christmas all the year. --Thonmas Mifler. --Christ mas is the only holiday of the :ear that brings the whole human fainm ily into common communion.-Charles C .Dickens. -Some say, that ever 'gainst the season comes Wherein our Savior's birth is celebrated. Thbebirdor dawning singeth all night long, 3o hallowed and gracious is the time. --ahakespeare. t -It is good to be children sometimes, n and never better than at Christmas, b when its mighty Founder was a child a 3inmself.-Dickens. e * -Rise happy mcorn I ri-e noly morn! a Dmw forth the cheerful day from night, g 0, Father, touch the East, and light b The light that shone when Hope was born. -Tennyson. 51 -'Tis the season for kindling the fire ' of hospitality in the hall, * * the f tgenial fame of charity in the heart.- a Washkington Irt'nq. " -The belfries of all Christendom Now roll along i] The unbroken song in Of peace on earth, good-will to men. -LonfeUow, --"If somebody will kindly whistle 'There'll Be No Sorrow There,' we shall be very glad to join in the chorus."-Many Turkeys. -With gentle deedr and kindly thoughts, And loving wolMds witla,,.... ickgome th t perry (Jhristnmuitsn, And heara brotlier's call. "-F. Lawrence. -The only time In the long cadendat of, the year -when men and women Seem, with one consent, to open their shut-up hearts' freely.-Dickens. --The church bells of innumerable sects are all chime bells to-day, ringing a in sweet accordance throughout many lands, and awaking a great joy in the heart of our common humanity.- Chapin. -Fogg says his son William is always particularly well-behaved about this . time. With him Christmas is indeed the season of good Will.-Boston Tran script. --This happy day, Whose risen sun Shall set not through eternity. This holy day when Christ, the Lord, Took on Him our humanity. -Phowbe Cary. -Who taught mankind on that first Christ mas day, What 'twas to be a man: to give, not take; To serve, not rule; to nourish, not devour; To help, not crush, if need, to die, not live? - harles Kings eil. -A Williamsport (Pa.) young lady was asked by her "feller" what she de sired for Christmas. She said: "Call around for me Christmas morning and bring a minister with you." Two souls, two hearts. -Sound over all waters, reach out from all lands, The chorus of voices the clasping of hands: Sing hymns that were sung by the stars of the morn, Sing songs of the angels when Jesus wasborn I - Whittler. -In making Christmas presents al ways choose a useful gift. If you have a friend who is a hard drinker give his family an order on an undertaker, or else present him with a cemetery lot.- Philadelphia Chronicle. -There's a song in the air, there's a star in the sky. There's a mother's deep prayer and a baby's low cry; And the star rains its fire while the beautiful sing, And the manger of Bethlehem cradles a King. -J. G. HolUand. -"Cupid"--You ask how you shall best prevent a quarrel with your inam orata? Be still, Q loving heart, and draw comfort from the reflection that your best girl isn't going to break away from you until after Christmas anyway. --Lowell Courier. -The morning dawns with brighterray, To herald a new natal day Of peace and love. For lo! In yonder manger lies The Holy Child-while songs arise From choirs above. He comes-He comes-let earth rejoicing tell The story of its young Immanuel. -- .lliam B. Chisholm. -The Christmas cards this year are beautiful, and it-is a pleasant custom to send them to friends, but the best Christmas card that we know of, says the Mobile Register, is one tied on to the leg of a turkey, -with the name of some deserving poor man or woman written on it, who is not able to buy any Christmas cheer. -It is said that the custom of mak ing New Year calls is on the wane. Last year '.best society in New York merely hung out baskets." To travel about a city all day. in a suit hired for the occasion, dropping cards into a basket, is about as wild and hilarious fun as to sit on a fence and see your best girl go by with another fellow. Norristown Hera!d. -"l'se only been like Santa Claus," said a little seven-year-old girl found by her mother dragging a basket in a Philadelphia street Christmas day. "Mamma said last night Santa Claus never comes to the por, so I saidlwill give some of my toys and fings to the poor children myself. So I got mam ma's basket and put in the fings, but I didn't find any poor children, and I got lost and didn't know what to do." -Charley want.rd to give Clara a Christmas present, Lut couldn't make up his mind what it should be; so the next time he called he frankly told her the difficulty under which he was labor ing. "Want to make me a present, Charley!" Clara exclaimed. in well disguised astonishment. "Why, Char- ii Iey, you forget yourself." Charley f took the hint and offered himself on the c sopot. h --As Christmas is near at hand. we may expect soon to see in our St. Louis exchanges such items as this: "A Chi cago young man, in a rash moment, told his girl that if she would hang up her stocking on Christmas eve he would fill it to the brim with something nice. He has since seen her stocking, and is undecided whether to get into it him self or buy her a sewing-machine." Norristown Herald. -The old north breeze through the skeleton trees Is chanting the year out drearily: But loud let it blow, for at ho.e we know The dry logs crackle cheerily. And the fioen ground is in fetters bound; But pile up the wood we can burn it, For Christmas has come, and in every home To summer our hearts can turn it. Wassail! Wassail! Here's happiness to all, abroad and at home, Wassaill Wassail! Here's happiness to all. for Christma3 has come! --Albert maniih. -A lively writer of "Girl's Gossip," in the London Truth makes some com ments on the- Chr:stmas-card mania, the force of which will impress itself on many people, just now. She says: "One does not like to throw them away --they are too pretty; and yet, after the first week or two, no one ever looks at them. The worst of sending cards is that one is almost sure to forget some body, and get into a scrape. I think I shall advertise next Christmas in the daily papers: 'Madge Manners offers the compliments of the season to all who care to accept her good wishes. No cards." It would save a quantity of trouble." -Capacity of the Chicago Stocking: " Papa," said a gushing young damsel of Chicago, "I want you to give me this Christmas -. seal-skin sacque and muff,, a pair of diamond ear-rings, that beautiful writing-desk we were looking at the other day and bushels and bush els of French candy. Will you, papa?" and the dear thing's eyes danced in glowing anticipation, while her feet beat a tattoo on the velvet carpet that sounded like muffled thunder. "Ah, my dear child," replied the proud father, as he gazed at his daughter with a pensive. upward-tendency-in-pork look, "indeed 1 will. Just hang your stocking up in the back yard and I will 1 fill it for you, darling, if I have tochuck in a house and lot."--Rochester Post- t Express. THE BAcIIIuOR'S I IPShET. "Thank Heavei," said old Pinkerton Pucketrpurse, "that I have no brats to 'I buy Christmas presents for, or bothera tions of that sort--" Just then there came a violent ring ing at the front door-bell. "What-! Who-! Why-!" Yes, sure enough, here was Mr. Pink erton Puckerpurse, bachelor, with a real, live baby suddenly thrust upon him. and making night hideous with its loud: "Awa-awa-awa-a-a-a!" Obviously, the first thing to be done was to try and soothe the little savage to sleep, or the neighbors would be roused. Bachelor Puckerpurse's "Hush a-bye baby, thy'daddy is' green," sound ed very much like the wail of a doomed man, as he wildly swung the basket to and fro. - "Ha! she sleeps at last, and now to my revenge!" "Stay! " said the mon itor within, " perlps you were an in fant once yoursel ' This view of the case never occurred to him before, and he hesitated. Another ring at his door bell. "Ha! twins this time, I'll war rant." He had barely time to thrust the in nocent cause of his agitation out of sight, when in walked his old fiiend Slorgam to spend the evening. "Hello! what's that?" said Slorgam, "sounds like an infant amiicted with )ins, or"- "Cats, only cats," replied 'inkerton Puckerpurse, in a sepulchral voice, "it's a famous neighborhood for, :ats." SI' t; a But his friend was a man of family al imself, and was not to be taken in by n cats." "Come!" he said, sternly: "I fc 11 you, Pinkerton Puckerpurse,- ou - -e concealing something from me!' d inL So there was nothing for it but to bring out the now howling infant and explain, While doing so in a rather in coherent manner Hiis friend suddenly disappeared, and Pinkerton Puckerpurse found himself alone hugging his bottle instead of a baby, for he gad only been dreaming. The very next day be s'gned the pledge and his check for $1,000, which last he gave to an orphan asylum.--L. Hop kins, in Christmas Graphic. A Christmas-Box. It wasn't a pretty box all trimmed with paper-lace and embossed pictures and filled with bon-bons. It was made of wood, and once upon a time it came to Mr. Daley's store full of soap. It was under Mr. Daley's L counter that very afternoon before 1 Christmas, when Dakie Lane came to 3 buy ten cents' Worth of raisins and a pound of sugar and a pound of crackers and a very little spice. "Going to have a pudding?" asked Mir. DaIey's boy, weighing out the sugar. "Yes," said Dakie. "And I want a stick of candy, too, if you please, to put in the baby's stocking. There's a cent." It was a very large cent, and it shone as if Dakie had polished it. ;"That's worth two sticks," said the grocer-boy. "We don't often see such a shiny one. "What're you going to have in your stocking?" "Nothing, I guess," saidDakie; "I'm too old. I m going to be the baby's Santa Claus." "Oh," said the grocer-boy, wrapping up the two sticks of candy; and Dakie didn't see him pay for one, of them out of his own pocket. "That's it." A lady-customer at the other end of the counter was giving Mr. Daley a good many orders, but she had ears for the conversation going on between Dakie and the grocer-boy, and she smiled at Dakie as ;he went past him out of the store-door. Perhaps that would have been the end of it, if, on her way home in her car riage a little later, she had not passed Dakie again with one arm full of his small parcels. Just at that minute a big dog bounced up against him, and down went Dakie on the sidewalk; and the paper of sugar burst open, and the raisins were scattered about, and more than half of the cra2kers went into the gutter. "Oh, dear me!" said Dakie, as he be gan manfully to repair as much of the mischief as he could. "No pudding now." thought the lady; and in a minute more she was being driven back to Mr. Daley's store. There the soap-box was pulled out from under the counter, and into it went all sorts of nice things; raisins and currants and figs and nuts and candies, until it was quite full. Then the cover was nailed on, and Mr. Daley's man was hurried away with it to Dakie's home, where it arrived almost as soon as l)akie himself." "Why, why, who sent it ?" cried Dakie. "I don't know," said Mr. Daley's man. t But Dakie knew the moment he read, in big letters on .the cover: "For the baby's Santa Cla:us." "It was the lady!" cried he. "Oh, isn't shie beautiful!" "Bu'ful!" echoed the 'oaby.--Youth's I "ompanion. t How the Sunshine Came. A boy of twelve stood leaning against a fence on Duffield street yesterday, hat pulled down, feet crossed, and his right hand going up occasionally to wipe his nose, when along came another anatomy about his size and asked: "''Sick?" " No." " Any the family dead?" "No." "Going to run away " "1 dunno. I've just been licked." "Who dun it?" " Dad." "Did your ma ask him to?" "Yes. She told him I had been aching for it more than a month." "Say," said the liew arrival, '"you are in luck. I'm trying my best to git dad to whale me. Id give fifty cents if he had tanned me this noon and it was all through hurting." " Why?" "Why! Haven't I got three dollars saved up to buy pap and marm Christ mas presents, and if I can git 'em to whale me before Christmas won't I spend every cent of that money on my self? How much you got?" •' Two dollars." "Bully! You are all r'ght! You've bin licked, and they won't expect even a stick of gum from their pounded son. I'll go home- and slam the baby around and steal sugar and kick the cat and sass mother, and if I can git walloped to-night I'll meet you here to-morrow and we'll pool in and buy more pistols and scalping-knifes and rock-candy and nuts and raisins than you ever saw be fore! Yip! Peel me down, dear father --hang my bide on the fence, mother darling!"--Detroit Free Press Cihrestmas a 'hrstmas te uIt is a teriose factthat the*olels raditionsof our iac etorst, coniect ndth ours bst have beena to 'soatih with ;very few chap , lsogand Ceriatmas .c ace ass full of meantby main the New home of thof to-day lieve, presy were hem fromthe ld gland wheat Herrick w of facns. Kindle the Christmas vern untbiik c.i l at nest let ittburn." ` One of tane earliest ustom s is the decorating of our homes and churches with evergreens at Christmas-time, for our forefathers believed othat the€ re 1 oration of private dwellings in eca tion of the Jarnation of the Divinity would, by marking the homes of tho believers, preserve them fromn, wthe iutn trusious and orineuspices of eharmi b It is regarded as a very unluckky ciit must be burned cumstance if any leaves or sprigs are dropped or remain behind membeon the re moval of the church orf hoeme dera tions, and al must be learen old om - fore Candlet him -daysend a holly 2); branc to on no accofrient should the sacred wistle toe bough may the standing symbole of rough-and-ready flirtation, withoutcon sciousness or necessity of harm-be cas ddinto the street or carlessly thrown aside; for love luck it must be burned by the oldest unmarried member of the family maghte or female. If one wishes to revive an old Roman custom, let him send a holly branch to his friends as typical of good wishes, and it may have a double meanings been wby adding a sprig of mistletoe, the glea. - ing berries conveying a message of hope, forif the holly carries ood wishes and foresight or lorethought, the mistletoe is an assurance of "I surmount difll culties," and many a wife has been won by this little token of assurance. From the remotest times of the burn ing of the Yule or Christmas log, it has had all kinds of superstitions connected with it.- In some parts of Europe the log must be of a certain kind of wood, as in Devonshire it consists of fagots of ash bound together, and an extra.glass from the cider barrel is expected by the guest for every crack made by'the blazx ing fagots. One log is the general cus tom, but we have known a hod of coal , selected for that purpose when wood was inaccessible. A bit of the Christ mas log must always be saved to light next year's Christmas fire with, and be sure that the fire does not go out during the night, nor unt!l Christmas Day at sun down. In many homes music isplayed during the ceremony of lighting the tire, but on no account must it h li ght ed before the proper time, which is at I sunset, Christmas Eve. The Yule or Christmas candles should b, lit soon after, but for good luck the light must be taken from the Christmas fire. It is * very bad luck to snuff them, and they i should be set on the highest shelf or table in the room. The oldest person present must extinguish them, but a bit I of each must be saved to relight on t New Year's Eve, to s:e the old yver out and the new year in. It is considered a very bad omen for any one to leave the I table during supper on Christmas Eve .u until all are through, and sc : that there is an even number of guests, if you will make friends during tie year. Be sure 'I and have a cheese and cake untouched. in the house, andlet n5" one tempt yow to cu them before the proper time. s Never refuse to take or give food and ( shelter at Christmas-time. It is very lucky for a child to be born on Christmas Day, especially if the-day falls on Sunday. And the girl wihoIs a bride on the 25th of December is aci4 to t have nothing to fear. I, At no other time is a black -cta au strange black cat-thought to be lucky a but at Christmas. If one comes into the house, it is a sure sign of money. u No person but the boys must presume ti to go out-of-doors on Christmas morn ing until the threshold has been con secrated by the incoming footsteps of a man. "Dem folks what hab short talking (quarrels) on Christmas Day or night won't hab no luck in friendship, love or pocket," said an old-colored mammy; and be sure you wish some one a "Mer: ry Christmas" before you put your shoes and stockings on timid for real good luck kiss the oldest person in-the house fiyrst on Christmas morning, and the youngest on New Year's mornng.- Harper's Bazar. The Jones' Skeleton. Peace, like a white-winged dove, has lately brooded over the Jones family, but one day last week the demon of dis cord entered most unexpectedly. Jones was getting ready to go down town in the morning, and in looking for a hand kerchief in the family bureau found a drawer that resisted him-in fact it was locked, a most unheard of thing in that family. At first it only made Jones mad, because the resistance threw him across the room, and bounced him up against a chiffonier on the other side, but when he regained consciousness he called Maria and asked her, with white, calm lips, where the key was. She said it was in her pocket. He demand ed it. She refused to give it to him; and then ensued one of those painful do mestic silences which are so much more harrowing than words or blows. Jones went out and came in for three days, and sulked during the whole time, for an awful suspicion had taken possession of him. He remembered that Maria had been distraught and" mysterious lately, with a glassy look in her eyes. He recalled the fact that several times the door bell had rung in the evening and she had evaded his inquiry as to who was there. He knew the evil ten dency of the age and shuddered at the idea that Maria had met a handsomer man than he. Green-eyed jealousy took possession of his soul and ate and ate nto his heart like a canker! But all things come to an end. One night Mrs, Jones went out, and as she 4 tripped past the parlor door she looked 1 in and said: "Jeptha, if you hear the baby gurgle I wish you'd look at him." That was his opportunity-now or never. He crept softly up stairs and entered the peaceful room where -heir s child was sleeping and turned the gas down to the merest glimmer; then he f stealthily produced a key rnd fitted it t into the lock of that drawer and pulled I t silently open, and there lay before i ion-the picture of that other man? e-, a~ene sftish It wa ~ ~as n'sMwiltiadg to. lire - *1 hakthfrThex4 was a .a hel - it Uit het- ronmi the man" who soled the shouar( it includedt one for % .th.evlve - and d hb-.or the embrofaFrfy~ ad4 Jones was trigto. foot th o u t min.Jlst -atl on,. whels ae blog a omed l •-i. -hea ~ot rehent h air as Bjridket shrireslh f edwy f isbfyo e thieven, iMothud in' blaggard, 71Iftachiq ye to s%*le iatot -oies mooringsting. m tery l ea...s-l n ..... n bo at . ;aIt i. tie itache yeyer at nnhes, anbba eae .te s At home with the ohldeonnext e ,Year i Tor ,oorw erecot wi e te talkhnge irtlebea I'ye mollnd, now--jiustwishrd ae '1Iapp~ylne. to him. How was I to tell him, from~ eniny other thafer" Jones patched ; up a peace witb hridget, who pntomisedi to k sa "Ni'ver a wurrd" to Mrps J., bant oh, with what a. weary hetrs does the unhappy manno wait for the coming Yhista- a -D Woif Post ani Th (une. OIJ Traditions. There is an old tradition that Christ was born about midriirht. From this, .d4.'].e~ ~~ .. ,.f. . . f bell aPre rungd at mide ght tin Egland rand on the Continent. In ean isth ie oeatuaries it has long been e tom-. ary to inaugurate Christmas with the elebrationg f .a mid ·ight miares which. boutg 'the"rt -h~esd.>.md$~i:.. is followed by one at dswf , ni d huoth er Iti the morning. It was an. ol En glish- siperstition that on (Jhristms :eve the oxen were always to be found om bheir knees at midnight; that theookx o 'rew; that the cabbage seeded, 'et. the devotion of the oxen was deklve& !rom an old story that an ox and ass, which were in the stable at the birth f Christ, fell on their knees in a sup llant positions, and that a coock cew. Phe custom of singing onrola at Christ nas, which has posssed into oblivoion, isn raidtdhaei spiig 1fronm the songd of 4 ishepherds and others at the birth of Jhrist. The comBon custom ofa dec >rating houses and churches wit ever greenda4 i vtudeed cfom a comont be kef that7 van spirlts would- flok to hose eveor eso and remnain'therotzntl. he comin in of a milder season. Hol.. y and iyare the evergreaen ehiefly ised in Egland; these are alsti worn -bout the head, -and the phs~ to. 'kiss under the rese? *nd and c4hjber. inder the mistletoe," have to his praetioee. -Cs ri s ns eo srt He , _ '1 He comesL Hloies in tahe wt dwsgt him, Schoolas ma&* SPft..e. . ... h m , .ery moor Wet, and o, ;Make him: the And et h mebene Universatl'ir And IneyJ i Of fire, and $e dyspeptic: *Elderly eopleareeofe.en,--al to compete with theenrobner members -f the family in the enjoyment of Christ 'nas cheer in a manner which amazes their middle-aged relations. The .ex planatioa is that the digestive elemnents are long preserved, so that a man who, ia the prime of nanhood, was a martyr to dyspepsia, by reason of the sensitive ness of his gastric nerves, eats and drinks with the courage and snccess of a. boy in his later years, when his nerves; are blunted, and when, therefore, h~s peptic cells are able to ursue tbeir chemical work undisturbed by nervous Are you going to make Newr Years calls this -yearF" asked Burrell Chase, on the day before New Year's, f Brouson Alcott, another Austin so -iety young man. "No. I am not. hoing to make any New Year's cally his year, bt am oi to make call " t year, which w1 be to-morrow. It a a little late to make Nw Year's call his year.-Texa,, Ssftngs.