Life — December 20, 1883 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

326 feast is graced with that phthisical, tough, grimy fossil, redolent with onions and savory with bad lard, to which only the plighted word of a perjured butcher can attach the name of turkey? Oh, no. Why, that venerable glomerate of gristle and bone has been the expectancy of those eager-eyed children for three months at least, and the saving and scrimping and over-work of both parents that it might be procured, yoes even back of that. Turkey !—there s magic in the word among the poor—it is an anticipation from September to Christmas, and a delicious mem- ory thence until May. Can our children, cloyed with sweets and weary of splendor, enjoy with their rich presents that sense of awe, that thrill of intensest delight, that burst of unspeakable satisfaction, with which the brats of the butcher, the baker and candlestickmaker gaze upon their fifty cent Christmas tree, garnished with the glow of a dozen penny candles, and burdened with at least a dol- lar's worth of jumping-jacks and whistles and taffy? Ah, no— nor will they give us half the gratitude, as they toss their jewelled belongings with careless hands into the casket with others, nor will their sleep that night be one whit the bappier, nor will we feel that with our plenteous purse and little care, we have added much to their sum of happiness. It is strange, all this. Stranger too the fact that with all our inability to add much to the Christmas of those of our own circle, we have the power to royally enlarge its enjoyment by these self-same Lower CLAssks. How strange that whilst we CHAMPLIN’S BOOKS -LIFE- are even oppressed with luxury and superabundance, there are within a pistol shot of us men and women, shivering, breadless, and almost naked, and children dying by scores of actual priva- tion, or by diseases bred by defects in those tenement hells on whose revenues we thrive and fatten, Queer, is it not, that the price of that one twinkling piece of foppery, for which our daughter will requite us with a conventional kiss and a placid murmur of thanks, would lift a hundred families on this day from starvation and despair, and perhaps death, and give us ourselves a thrill of joy to see how eagerly they clutched at the help, how sadly it was needed, and how much real good came of a gift whose price we could never miss. M.E.R. A FRENCHMAN ON THE METROPOLITAN ELEVATED ROAD. E. R. veille! Zis people is superbe ! * Vat great sings zey arrive to do ! Zey build un grand chemin de fer, Wiz naught but air to run him troo, M.E.R. itde plus! It go so fast Dat it is ** Rabbit Transit” call ; Because, like Papin in ze chasse, It run avay and leave zem all. M. E.R. ci, mon Dieu! A terre at last ! No more I ‘ll rashly tempt ze Fates, But leave zis elevated road To people of zese drdle de States. M. H. G. Fair Words about Fair FOR YOUNG FOLKS. Cyclopedia of Common Things. Price, $3. Cyclopedia of Persons and Places. Price, $3.50. “Should be placed wherever children meet for lessons and reading." —Boston Advertiser. History of the War for the Union. ILLUSTRATED, $2.75. Fohnson's (Helen Kendrick) Our Familiar Songs. And Those .who Made Them, Three hundred standard songs of the English- speaking race, arranged with piano accom- paniment, and preceded by sketches of the writers and histories of the songs. 8vo. $6. Henry Holt & Co. A Splendid Holiday Boo A CHRISTMAS CARD. THE Dovate, Houipay NuMBER oF St. Nicholas is the most beautiful book for the money that was ever issued. It contains 184 pages and nearly as many wood-engravings, with a colored frontis- piece, etc. This extra issue is intended only for those who are NOT REGULAR READERS OF St. Nicholas, as it is the November and December numbers of that magazine bound in a special cover, The latter, PRINTED IN ELE COLORS, is worth more than the price of the whole book as a CuristMas Carp, When you are buying gifts for the children, leave a place for this. All dealers sell it. Price, 50 cents. Tue CENTURY CO., New York. THE CENTURY. Sucn an array of brilliant features is in- cluded in the plans for the coming year of The Century, that it seems safe to say that $4.00 will pay for No Better HOLIDAY GIFT, nor one which will bring more satisfaction to the recipient, than a subscription to that magazine. Have you not some friend to whom a first-class periodical is a treat which cannot often be afforded ? Prick, $4.00 A YEAR. All dealers and the publishers take sub- scriptions. Tur CENTURY CO., New York. Women. GATHERED FROM THE POETS BY O. B. BUNCE. With Nine Illus- trations from designs by Wit. H. Low. Crown 8vo, cloth, extra gilt. Price, $3. A collection of poems in exaltation of woman, gathered from English, American, Italian, French, German, and other poets, choicely illustrated and elegantly bound. Fifty Perfect Poems. A Collection of fifty Acknowledged Mas- terpieces, by English and American Poets, selected and edited by CHARLES A. Dana and RosstTER JouNson. With Seventy-two Original Illustrations on Wood, from Drawings by leading Ameri- can Artists, Large 8vo, cloth, extra gilt. Price, $9.00. The engravings are printed on Japanese silk paper, and mounted on the page, pro- ducing a unique and beautiful effect. D. Appleton & Co., Publishers, 1, 3 AND 5 BOND STREET, New York. comicbooks.com