T is the same eternal question. And how often will it be asked? Just as long and as often as Christmas comes. You will be asked and 'was, thelittle girl who put'lier question to the great editor, Charles A. Dana. She sought high authority when some one had caused her faith in childhiood's patyos, saint to fall, and this is what the famous editor answer th ve know: : 1S ~ ~~ "Virginia® our little friends been affected by "the skepticism, 0 do not believe except they se All minds, Virginia, whether they little. In this great universe of ou ant, in his intellect, as compared 'wi about him, as measured by the intellig! y SONAL A ing the whole of truth and knowledge. : nN is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as lg Sn osity and devotion exist, and you know that = 'and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Al4% dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus® ate) : would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There = would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance, to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjo,ment except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which N= gghildhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe To Our Many mm Santa Claus? You might as well not believe in fairies! : You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not; but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can 'conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and i§ a mere insect, an 1¢ boundless world able of grasp- Virginia, there ASRS NAN ASSAM NAN TANASE NA SSN Te fod friends and patrons Saran We want to Thank You es for your Po support in the past year and to wish you all . MERRY CHRISTMAS and A HAPPY NEW now, as he puts away these differences as unfit for ason®of good-will, 'the peace arrives. 7 That is the paradox of Christianity. He who seeks peace does not find it. "He who gives peace finds it returning to him again. He who hoards his life loses it, and he who spends it finds iti © at : : "Not w atewe give, but what we share, For the gift Without the givers bare; Who gives himselfswith his alms feeds three,-- Himself, his hunger ighbor, and me." ho of the angel's song CHRISTMAS IN THE FAM time f year all the family pick on father for the y. Christmas presents andso;-by a'circuitous his own present but someone else gives it wherewith: route, father buy to hin, : He lives under a nervous strain and when he sees a mem- ber of the family approaching him with a steely glitter in eir eye he puts his hand in his pocket and says automatically Tow much?" matter how long and caref F present you with some- handkerchiefs but he got alot more and Sister Mary (who has a bilious complexion) got tay rellow blouses! Mother (who never goes anys] pink feather fan! and Dad (a home- ody) a'pair of opera' glasses! Father gave mother a double boiler and.m father a new shovel for the furnace! * EFAPPY MOMENTS This reproduction is from the original by the late Philip Boileau, who was born in Quebec, and later in New York, where many of his works of art were used by the large art publishers of the United States. YEAR unseeable in the world. You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. . Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it real? Ah, Vir- ginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus? Thank God! he lives and he lives forever. AAAS A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten = DALAL NA ANNAN thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the MANN ANN GSS rr heart of childhood." PEACE AND GOOD WILL We are beginning to feel already the sweep of life that Te hurries us all along to the keeping of the Christmas season: ey our music already takes on a Christmas tone, and we begin to hear the song of the angels which seemed to the Evangelists to give the human birth of Jesus a fit accompaniment in the harmonies of heaven. 2 This song of the angels, as we have been used to reading it, was a threefold message; of glory to God, peace on earth, and good-will among men; but the better scholarship of the Revised Version now reads in the verse a twofold message. First, there is a glory to God, and then there is peace on earth to the men of good-will. Those, that is to say, who have the Sl : good-will in themselves are the ones who will find peace on : earth. Their unselfishness brings them their personal hap- piness. They give themselves in good-will, and so they obtain peace. That is the true spirit of the Christmas season. It is the good-will which brings the peace. Over and over again in these months of feverish scrambling for personal gain, men * have sought for peace and have not found it; and now, when they turn to this generous good-will, the peace they sought comes of itself. Many a man in the past year has had his and became famous after studying in France Uncle Henry (who wears a wig) was presented with a handsome bottle of hair tonic! and Cousin James who "never touches the filthy weed" two boxes of cigars and a cuspidor! 5 The home brew that father had made specially for the festive season unfortunately turned into vinegar and cast a gloom over some of the male members, otherwise the Christ. mas celebration is bound to be a huge success. And 11 p.m. Christmas night! Mother: "Father! have you seen the castor oil bottle anywhere lately? Willie seems to have a pain." Willie sitting limply in his chair sees a vision of two helpings of turkey, peas, potatoes, salad, plum pudding, mince pie, nuts and raisins and candy passing before him. Willie: "Mother, it's not 'zactly a pain, it's only I'm just too rounded out!" Family Chorus: 'No, it's not a pain, it's just we're too rounded out." (deep sighs). DICKENS AND CHRISTMAS Christmas! A well-known public man once said that: "Charles Dickens, to a great extent, made the keeping of Christmas what it is." There is little doubt that the Master- Author's Christmas stories infused inte the World that Christmas spirit which is so prevalent to-day--the Spirit of Love and Charity. Charles Dickens' works are as popular to-day as they were fifty years ago. Branches of the Dic- kens' Fellowship Society are established®in many towns on both sides of the Atlantic, and their membership is incresasing yearly. Charles Dickens will never be forgotten. The mil- lions of his readers speak for that, and he will be always especially remembered at Christmas time. It is more than half a century since all that was left of the great heart and brain was deposited in Westminster Abbey. Yet the magic of Charles Dickens still touches our lives, and the manhood of the whole Anglo-Saxon race is covered by those hours of our boyhood when we laughed at Sam Weller, hated Jonas Chuzzlewit, and Carker, loved little Nell, and trembled at Quilp. ully prepared your list is; towards the whole® ALFRED PITT, A Card of Thanks [\) J AN > 4 = 4 d The Dryden Pharmacy extend to the Community Their Sincere Appreciation and Thanks for the generous pawronage and support received during the past year. a ] N A Wish | In wishing you the old, old wish we hope that your . Christmas will be a "Bright and Happy One," and that your New Year will be crowned with Prosperity and Peace. "Gloria in Hxcelsis Beas of in Tere Fax Hominibus Bonae Waluntatis." » x: EY