Life — December 14, 1922 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

> te parvey ~ Sir Walter Raleigh (to Queen Elizabeth): 1 should say I won't take you home now! If you're “A Calendar from Mother!” tired you sit here and I'll dance with Margery! Wherein Is Shown Why It Is More Blessed to Give than Receive N our family, a gift whose precise nature is discovered before Christ- mas is considered a dismal failure. “Don’t open till Christmas” is more strictly observed than the Ten Com- maniments. This element of sus- pense is developed to perfection and, up to the moment before kissing granimother on the forehead, one anniot distinguish a necktie from a Victrola. This, of course, entails a lot of ingenious wrapping with the red tissue-paper and hours of patient practice behind closed doors—any- one who has tried to disguise a rock- ing-horse will appreciate this. * * * I gave little Roscoe one last year and I must say he was very good about it. Its upper was very well bundled but the legs and rockers did sugcest a rocking-horse, and although Roscoe rocked on it long before its character was officially unveiled, he had the tact to restrain his “Whoa” until afterwards. Then there are other exigencies one cannot guard against. When a burly drayman appears at the door and asks Father where “this —desk goes,” the latter no longer ex- pects the diamond shirt-studs; and Mother just has to look excited when the box marked “Brentano” comes. +e + I remember last year Arthur had just a terrible time with the Estey Residence Organ for Muriel. -It ar- rived three days before time. Muriel caught Arthur and the men, with their arms full of pipes, trying to sneak into the cellar and thought Ar- thur had bought a still. She raised an awful rumpus but good old Arthur stood it like a martyr. Muriel’s con- trition on finding out was touching. *.* * I know a man who is a perfect trickster at disguising gifts and pro- longing the suspense. Last year he bought his wife a very valuable opal ring and packed it in a large crate with hundreds of little bundles of paper. To make it more intriguing he took the ring out of its case and wrapped both separately so that if his wife found the case first and thought her search completed, it would only start her digging with re- newed ardor. She found the case all right, but the ring must have been thrown out with the paper. * * * Young children are awfully hard to please; they are getting more and more jaded every year. I bought a jumping-jack for little Edith, aged five, who gave the customary squeals while it was being unwrapped and then stood looking at it in an unde- cided way. “You see,” I explained, “you pull the string like this and its legs go up and then, you see, they— they go down again,” I ended weakly. Edith gave me a long stare, pulled the string once or twice, and then laid the toy upon the table without audible comment. Nine-year-old Har- old liked it, though. “Looks like it's doing the Chicago,” he explained. J was never like that when a child— (Continued on page 29) comicbooks:com