1470 
THE RURAL NEW-VORKEK 
December 19, 
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“At Christmas play and make good cheer 
For Christmas comes but once a year.” 
L OOKING over some old books I found 
this from “The Farmer’s Daily Diet,” 
by Thomas Tusser. It was written about 
1560, and has kept alive through 354 
years. If you smile at the rhyme ask 
yourself how many of your own words 
will be remembered 50 years hence! It 
is very evident to me to-night that Christ¬ 
mas is coming. We have had our first 
snowstorm—a little thing just turning to 
rain—but enough to whiten the ground 
and relieve the melancholy gray of the 
landscape. Now is the time to get out the 
copy of Whittier and read “Snow Bound.” 
My children read it and think they un¬ 
derstand, but in these days of electric 
lights, water conveniences, telephones and 
all the rest who. without experience, can 
ride imagination back to one of these big 
farmhouses on a windy hill, with only one 
stove, and shut off into solitude by the 
storm? It was in such lonely places that 
the true Christmas spirit was bred. It 
is one of the things that never can be 
taken out of the human race. Men who 
call themselves wise and imagine them¬ 
selves great, may ridicule the old story 
and think they can turn the world away 
from it. but they get nowhere in the end. 
If they think otherwise let them look into 
this room to-night and watch the group 
of children. The open fire is blazing up. 
I am writing on a board laid across the 
arms of the chair, so as to be close to the 
fire. The children are scattered about 
trying to make rude gifts, or figuring 
what they can buy out of their little 
hoards. It seems that they have found 
“Santa Claus” in the dictionary as “the 
friend of children.” That settles it with 
them, for is not the dictionary the last 
resort? It is Christmas. Christmas! 
The great beautiful day of all the year, 
and already on lonely farms and in soli¬ 
tary places, there is a glow and presence 
in the air which beats down all the argu¬ 
ments of the cynics and the “great think¬ 
ers.” Before our fire to-night the children 
and I are sorry for those unhappy wise 
men who have lost so much out of life. 
They might well go star hunting as other 
wise men did before them. 
Every Day. —Old Thomas Tusser tells 
us that this beautiful holiday “comes but 
once a year.” True, there is but one date 
on the calendar’, but I think one great 
trouble with the world is that we are too 
ready to agree with old Thomas. I do 
not believe in airing the Christmas spirit 
once a year with great parade and show, 
and then packing it away in the closet 
with the wedding garment, the family 
skeleton and several good resolutions. If 
we are to celebrate the birthday why not 
also every day as we go along? You see 
this world of ours is an everyday affair— 
not a matter of holidays alone, but of 
plain, common days, during which people 
need our love and care far more than on 
the great feast days when all hearts are 
aglow. It is a standard joke that the 
attendance at Sunday school for the 
month before Christmas is abnormal—as 
the children all look for a present. Some 
of us who are gray-haired have worked 
this joke out into a serious practice of 
life. I do not believe in expensive gifts 
at Christmas—little tokens of remem¬ 
brance are far more in keeping with the 
spirit of the day. I would rather scatter 
the gifts through the year when they are 
most needed. Here I know I strike at 
habit and long-established practice, but 
that has been done before. It seems to 
me that something vital comes out of the 
beautiful holiday when we lead our chil¬ 
dren to expect so much of material things 
at Christmas. I would associate the holi¬ 
day with small tokens of love and give the 
larger gifts as they are needed through 
the year. I know how most people re¬ 
gard this. Long ago Shakespeare said: 
“At Christmas I no more desire a rose 
Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled 
mirth 
But like of each thing that in season 
grows.” 
Or Byron who said: 
“As soon 
Seek roses in December, ice in June.” 
That was sound enough when he wrote 
it but what would my lady say to it now? 
What about the florists with their mil¬ 
lions of dollars invested in the flower 
trade? We have carried May under glass 
right up to Christmas and in the cold 
storage houses we have carried Christ¬ 
mas right into May. If we do this with 
the material things of life why not with 
the spiritual things—the leader of which 
is what we call the Christmas spirit? Can 
we not have something of a Christmas 
tree in the wet ditch, the hot cornfield or 
the cold ride to market? 
Mature Years. —If I had the power to 
do so I would hang some Christmas gifts 
on your tree that would last all through 
your years. Take the men and women 
of mature years first. I would have you 
fully understand the meaning of Emer¬ 
son’s saying: 
“We do not count a man's years until 
he has nothing else to count." 
Now the world needs the sum and the 
essence of your life’s experience. People 
of your age do not need it half so much 
as the younger generation. It is only 
through these younger people that you 
can hope to pass on what the world has 
given you. The only way you can pass it 
on is to hold on to something of the spirit 
of youth. I would like to give you a 
broader and fairer charity for youth and 
its ambitions. Too many of ns become 
absorbed in our work or even in our 
prejudices and cannot realize that life has 
changed. There are roses now at Christ¬ 
mas and we should not wonder if our chil¬ 
dren long for them. We agree that we 
cannot profitably farm now as was done 
40 years ago. It may be a part of the 
Christmas spirit to realize that we can¬ 
not handle our children now just as we 
were handled. My gift to you would be 
a kindly and broad philosophy which will 
cut prejudice away from truth as rust is 
taken from iron. As for the young— 
have they not youth, which we know is the 
most precious tiling of all? Do we not 
also know that they cannot realize its 
value until they have lost it? It will not 
be a popular gift if I tell these young peo¬ 
ple that I sincerely hope they will be 
forced to work hard for their place in the 
world and that no one will curse them 
by leaving them a fortune so that they 
never will feel the sting of necessity. 
Some people think there is poison on the 
sting of necessity. Not so, it carries 
power—not poison. 
“Son. have too much yet still do crave. 
I little have and seek no more. 
They are but poor, though much they 
have, 
And I am rich with little store. 
They poor. I rich; they beg; I give. 
They lack, I have; they pine, I live.” 
The Better Way. — I could give our 
farmers no finer present than the con¬ 
vincing thought that we must carry the 
spirit of “good will to men" into every¬ 
day life. I think we have now come to 
the point in history where we realize the 
business evils which have made the 35- 
cent dollar possible. It ought to be evi¬ 
dent to all of us that we cannot perma¬ 
nently increase the size of this dollar 
through fraud or fighting or through poli¬ 
tics. The remedy lies in the gentler, truer 
practice of the Christmas spirit. Instead 
of trying to “do” our neighbor or the 
man with whom we do business we must 
give him what is honestly his due. Think 
of it for a moment. Every business in¬ 
terest which handles and sells our pro¬ 
duce is organized. How can we expect 
as individuals ever to stand for our rights 
against these powerfully organized inter¬ 
ests? How can we ever expect to co¬ 
operate with others unless we can learn 
to carry this Christmas spirit right into 
every-day life each day in the year? If 
there is distrust between you and your 
neighbor so that you cannot co-operate, 
how can you expect to co-operate success¬ 
fully with strangers?? My Christmas 
gift would be the power to realize that 
we shall not gain our full rights until 
we trust each other, rise above petty ill 
feelings and join hands in fair brother¬ 
hood. 
“Go put your creed into your deed" 
says Emerson, and also this: 
“It is as impossible for a man to be 
cheated by any one but himself, as for a 
thing to be and not be at the same time.” 
Comfort. —Another thing I would hang 
on your tree if I could is the desire and 
ability to make your home as comfort¬ 
able as is possible. Some have the ability 
but fall down on desire. I think it is the 
God-given right of every child to have a 
happy care-free childhood. Denied that 
his life always lacks an essential. It is 
just as much a right for mother and the 
girls to have a comfortable and conven¬ 
ient home with facilities for doing their 
work. If I could put running water, hot 
and cold, into every farmhouse, I would 
wash away more of the trouble of farm¬ 
ing than you and I can fight out in 10 
years. Let me also put a good garden 
and lawn by every farmhouse, with roses 
and vines on the porch and trees about 
the house and I will increase the charac¬ 
ter and reputation of farming by 40 per 
cent. These are the things which we can 
all do in a small way or on a larger scale, 
and they will help us more than politics 
or discussing the war or the tariff at. the 
store. These things all help to make a 
kindly and happier feeling at home and 
among neighbors, and this home and 
neighborly feeling is the foundation of all 
that we are trying to do as farmers to 
better our condition. Instead of buying 
some large present at Christmas why not 
put a little time each day in fixing the 
house and grounds so they will make life 
happier? 
Finally, Thought. —I would, if I 
could, put at the top of your tree, right 
under the star, the bulldog determination 
to think and reason out your hard prob¬ 
lems. The man who givps you a rule and 
a sign charge? you more than it is worth. 
There is no other farm or problem just 
like yours and no stranger can give you 
a complete rule. There are many who 
can help or suggest but. finally, you must 
apply the information yourself or live for¬ 
ever in a rut where the wheels of pro¬ 
gress will run over. Hand a man a saw 
and a chisel and hammer and tell him 
how to make a door. He has the tools, 
but what sort of a door would he make 
until he studied it out and learned how? 
Give a man a general rule of farming and 
what can he do with it until he reasons 
it out for himse’f and applies it to his 
own conditions? I put this ability to 
reason and think at the top of the tree 
because the hand can be made free only 
through the mind. A man may read and 
study for years, yet his mind may be like 
a cellar full of potatoes. There would be 
a great collection of facts without any 
cohesive force or vital power. Far bet¬ 
ter half the reading well thought out and 
tested. For many years we have been 
letting lawyers, teachers, politicians and 
others do our thinking for us. When 
they gave us false reasoning we followed 
still because it was hard and unpopular 
work to reason for ourselves. The world 
could get on very well if there were a 
shortage of “high thinkers” for the next 
half century provided the great middle 
class of our people could come to think 
sanely and fearlessly over what there is 
already in the world. h. w. c. 
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