CHRISTMAS WITH A DIFFERENCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 15, 15 December 1937, Page 19

CHRISTMAS WITH A DIFFERENCE.

“Long, long ago,” as the fairv tales put it. sa.y fifty years ago anyhow, before the great progress ramp began, a man might go out on a winter’s night and gaze at the stars .and think his thoughts as varied and sparkling as they, writes D. L. Kelleher in a London travel journal. Then Christmas especially meant the gathering in of friends and families* and the greeting and exchange of news of the distant world through the slow mellowing of the carried tale. The sunken word, like the Christmas wine, had its bouquet and, as you listened, you tasted it subtly and savoured the homeliness of the world. “Peace on Earth” still Inad its significance, the slogan of the new civilisation “Skiddoo! Skiddoo 1 Look out or I’ll run over you” had not been beard down all the ro.ads. But, oh dear, oh dear, as the dearest of the dear drawingroom past might hare said, how we have moved awa,v from all that! Now the moon’s face is fretted with radio, the last hollow of the hills chivvied with the cry of “This is the 8.8. C. testing,” the stars’ eyes blinded with the exhaust of aeroplanes. Only in a few places such ns Ireland, where the features of the past have not been lifted out of recognition. is the true balance of a pleasant life 'preserved. When you .walk down the village street a.t Christmas and see the seasonal candles burning in the windows as they did hundreds of years ago you know that here .man is making some kind of a stand for the old -unhurried philosophies. And if you lift the latch and walk in, even unannounced, the chances are that you are the welcome a.nd unexpected guest. This is not to rav that the switch and the telephone will not be in the hotel around the corner, and that.ilie throb of a motor encine may not be beard any time you like to command it. The. point is that here the new and the old keep their sense of proportion._ and some dignity is added from their as yet drawn battle. So the unattached traveller in search of a Christinas with a difference might find just what will delight him almost anywhere round the corner of a road in Ireland.