The Danger of the 0: perfunctory Coledration Do you remember? We do, we hate to confess it. Own up. although it anunds 40 old-fashioned Do you vou remember thu Chr "ranged for monthe in advance, when one looked farseerd to the 'Midsummer, made notes of imber, or early, December' was an easy matter? "And Eas ae rage that' the selection of gifts, You remember even making gifte tree? during the summer to hang on the Doesn't all this sound frightfully out of date? Now we can rush out in a motor on the twenty-third for fourth of December and standardizing our gifts, say gold mesh bags or a handkerchief every lady, according as our purse dictates, and cocktail sets oF be: of cigars left over from last year to men, a doll to every girl and a knife to each lad, with cards to fill in chinks, manage to dispose of all our relatives und most of our friends in the matter of a few hours, What strides our time has made, We could—should our do-Iesties goon strike—drop in one of our large stores and amble a whole Christmas dinner, tinned, and a jolly good one too. Of course' it might suggest the delica~ tessen, but that Is the flavour the tines.
As we sit here, musing over the rohartis wanettions of the bred Tans who lege wus pet goal detec we ave Tnelin Feneaiiey the ole perhaps tne Cet ug not forget oat we are living in Shanghai, @ port of so wean chtuate Toot bag fas tobe
merce on 8 moment's notice, TE Ww her mental gears Gets go ita the ate and randy
tore or aking Wat at Clete Began male Grtnaiwe deere.
ud! ad tat Rail our fiends ft town before December and.
ihe others had dette out Welcome, Chiivtmas Stranger!
A certain impromptu spontaneity your holiday celebrations is a de-Vightful thing, too, It is always
comet at such a season and making pleasant to be entertaining a him free of the city, even if one has to drag him off an incoming boat to welcome him. There is nothing like a stranger at the feast to make the old-timers feel pleasantly superior and hospitable.
There should be some resident public-spirited enough to import a cargo of griffins for every Christ mas, just as our merchants import. other more obvious Christmas gifts. It might be a little hard on the rivals to be butchered—excuse us, course, entertained to make a Shanghai holiday; but after all, one has to break into town sometime, and why not then?
"That Personal Touch"
Yes, we are for the spontaneous, what - ho - is - it - Christmas - to morrow - and - if - so what - are we. going - to - do - about - it cele. bration, on the whole. Living in small quarters it is difficult to accommodate too much of the Christ int ahead of time. Besides, we have been a little off the pre-poredness idea of Christmas since [an insight was vouchsafed us into the inner workings of one efficient holiday-maker. It had been one of cur holiday thrills to receive from a much admired semi-celebrity of our acquaintance a Christmas card addressed in her characteristic script, wit own writing also.
Being entertained once at her home we had orca-sion to go into her literary workroom, where her busy secretary rose from an immense card catalogue to greet usw "Yes, I'm revising Blank's mailing list," said she, "it keeps me busy all the time, and there are s0 many changes that she will have to address lots of cards all over
only as far as the Hees.
October now, and abe's Yes, course she has to select a the next year at Christmas them all engraved for the next year in January so as to be able to work on addressing them at odd times through the year We still get the cards, but the thrill is missing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.