ANOTHER CHRISTMAS. Some Stray Thoughts.

Free Lance, Volume VI, Issue 286, 23 December 1905, Page 6

ANOTHER CHRISTMAS. Some Stray Thoughts.

THERE is a time when the business man, jaded with the cares of the year, seeks respite in the joys of the season It is Christma&-tune. There is a time when severed families re-umte to hold festival and compare notes. It is Christmas-time. There is a time when the large majority of people spend their accumulated savings, and expect in. return much enjoyment and good value. It is Christmas-time. There is a time when postmen swear and railwaymen don't cheer up worth a cent., and sailor-men are not parliamentary in their expressions. This, too>, is Christmas-time. * «• * Christmas-time has a stimulating effect on all countries. The week or weeks preceding the 25th of December are weeks of whirl to the shopkeeper and his assistants, and if anybody earns a day or two of sunshine away from the daily grind it is the people whom you consider very little as they tramp their miles a-day behind a counter showing you the very latest m Christmas gifts. If you have lived in New Zealand since last Christmas-time, you have reason to be glad. The country has thriven, even despite voucher charges, which have been a distinctive feature of the year. If there is unemployment in New Zealand, it isn't glaring, for there have been difficulties m getting men for railway and other public works. Please take particular notice when you walk down crowded Willisstreet or Cuba-street on a holiday night. You will see happy, healthy, well-dressed crowds, filled with the joy of living, and evidently without any thought of care. This is the Christmas spirit. A country is not going to the dogs because it is gay, and dresses well, and has a good time at Christmas and forgets work. It is likelier toi proceed to the bowwows if it is too' hide-bound to break out into joy once or twice a year * ♦ ♦ You may compare the Christmastime you are going to get with the Christmas-time that some other peoples are going to get, and you will claim a distinct advantage over them. You would rather be at Day's Bay with your favourite girl or "the only man in all the world," than at St. Petersburg 1 . You would rather have the job you hold, even though it doesn't constitute you a millionaire, than be one of the British poor, to whom, as a whole, the bitter British winter is a crowning blow. * *■ * But — and this is a serious but — everyone isn't parading m nice clothes and smiling. There are weighty troubles m many houses in Wellington, in many houses in New Zealand. There is sorrow, and there is even poverty. It may depress you a little in your Christmas enjoyment to think of the sick, the suffering, and the poor who* won't get any presents, and who won't get any Christmas cheer. If it depresses you, cheer yourself up

by making some of your poorer fel-low-creatures a bit happy. You can't do much maybe, but you can console yourself by reading the story of the widow's mite, not forgetting to go and do likewise, And, in the meantime, away with your care and the other fellow's care. In the words of the rhymer : Have you any little trouble That prevents you being gay 9 Drop it, or it may be double By next Chribtmas Day. And, as the great day will have come and gone before the Lance speaks again, we cordially hope that all its readers may, in the truest sense, enjoy "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."