A Retrospective View.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 86, 31 December 1887, Page 3

A Retrospective View.

BY P* DUTY. “ Christmas comes but once a year. ” I am giau ox it. 1 Wien it only came every uU years iu iact. 1 win support a pennon to parliament; to have ic aboilßiied a.toyelliei'. Il is the season when Christmas boxes are ail the rage, one receives several gilts and is expected to give iu return. 1 cauuol attorn it, but custom is a stern master, and it 1 non t give x am called mean. 1 hate to be called mean, so 1 make my creditors wan aud X buy guts for my friends. 1 buy cheap image. X Know they are useless, but one must look at lue spirit, aud not at tue thing given X know my mends will seuu me rubbisu, so I pica tue cheapest rubbish 1 can hud. 1 waste rnucu time cuooeiug lue guts. 1 ejve the storekeeper euuiess trouble iu f lug to find suitable articles. Al , x buve chosen theinl go home unde- 'oi belief luat X have been swludied, and 1 am anxious to know bow my gius win be received. 1 know as wen us anything they wifi be gianced al aud tueu thrown on one slue, bui x strive to convince myselt that they will be appreciated. livery tdirisimas it ia jusl tue same, aud 1 reel the truth oi luose words of a great writer woo knew ail about it, auu suffered like X bav«. Uitts are giving tuiugs you cau l afford m return fur tuiugs you doui waul. But it is not only the gilts that 1 object to. Aam usually a large eater, but 1 must eat more at Guristmas. X must stuff my stomach with ail kinds ol indigestible tood. ft matters not what it is, custom demand, that X should eat iu temperately. Christmas comes but oncu a year, and what matters it if 1 do make myself sick. At every house 1 Visit it la, ’’ Uli do taste our Christmas pudding.” Xf n is heavy as lead and as sodden as dough x am expected to taste, and to praise it against my conscience. “it it very nice ” 1 must say every time, although my stomach may be waging war against tue imrudmition or tue detesiau.e mixture, but this is not all. There, ” cur home-brewed ale is really splendid” aud with a sigh X admit n is. X think it is for the take of Christmas, and while 1 drink 1 suffer iu silence. As X lay sleeplu.e at night suffering troui inuigestion or as X awake troui a burriu.e uigutuiare, X bless Christmas with an uuto.d depth of leeliug aud X vow that on the next oeeasiou X will not make such aloof oi myselt. But Christmas comes again aud with it tue same old lolue. and sufferings. [lhe remainder of this article uas been reserved for nexCurislinao._f