DISTRICT NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 275, 29 December 1909, Page 3

DISTRICT NEWS

STRATFORD. (From Our Own Correspondent.) The Christmas of lUOi) has come and gone, ami the young children ivill start to count up the months that will elapse before the next one ruils around, while we old on«> sigli and say, "Another year gone, and how how short it seemed!"' There will be a lot of good resolutions made next Friday night, and how few kept, out whutg la willlillll'Ui how few kept,'but what a glorious life it must be to the miin or-woman who can say "I have lived a better life, an 1 done my best to make the world better and someone happy, and hope to do better in the years to come." So molr it be. I spent an hour on Christmas Eve watching the streams of humanity pass to and fro, and the lime was weil spent. Here came the lather and mother with their Hock of olive branches, loaded up with toys and presents, happy and smiling; then Darby and Joan together, no doubt talking of the days when their hearts were young and they too were children; then the young mail from the country with his best girl, hand ill hand, proud to let people know they were sweethearts. And as the picture passed by the "Hands of n>?rry boys, eacu vieing with the other on the loudest trumpet or most powerful squeaker; anon another group, with a boy proudly displaying a combination pocket knife to an admiring lot of other lads, and the girls with their dolls—how dolls .!o appeal to girdes, black or white, the world over!—then the scene changed, and a young woman with'three children clinging to her, a weary, helpless look on her" face, the children crying, and the mother vainly trying to quiet them; and presently her husband, whose idea of Christmas had nothing to do with the Babe of Bethlehem, but had evidently spent ail he had 011 himself; and then another in charge 01 a groom who had looked 011 the wine when it w.ts read, and I thought amid all the joy there wci> some aching hearts ami unhappy homes. Then the hand sLruek up "Christians awake, salute the h:io;iy morn," but the majority had plentv of money and the Christmas of 100!) paV-al away and was nuninercd with the bygone days. One of the railway workers arrived in town with a pocketful of money, bent 011 |ui intimjr tlie town red. He was looking for trouble and soon found it. A request from Constable Mackintosh to behave himself was not taken in good part, and an attempt at arrjst was. likely. ''Mae." found he had struck a sna" and was finally Imid-'d through a plat'e-ghss window, reeeivi.iu serious damage from Hie broken glass, but he stuck maufiillv fo his prisoner and landed him at Sercc-int f'ullen's ''hotel." Xe\f inovninir lie made ins how to the lo»il .I.l'. -1 mi fined f|o for the window and for half killing the constable Co. The sacred rights of property are of more value than a mere policeman. The window can easily V replaced, but It will take a good while to repair the constable. Six month*' hard labor is_ the cure for men of that kind. T wish your paper continued prosperity and a happy New Year to you and you r staff, Mr. Editor.