Oroville Daily Butte Record

The Day we Celebrate.

Christmas has come! Throughout the land is sung that grand old anthem, "Joy to the world, the Lord has come," and what a host of voices join in the chorus! The whole Christian world hail this as a general holiday, and by common consent, the millions of Christian Europe and America rest from their labors to do homage to the memory of Him who died for all. Such is the purpose for which the day is set apart, and let us hope that amid the merry-makings incident to the occasion, the sacred object is not forgotten.

How many a heart is gladdened at a "Christmas Gift," and how many a sad, neglected creature's heart yearns in its bitterness for some little token that on this "happy" day it is cared for and loved; and how many a poor, lone lad goes supperless and penniless to his wretched bed to weep, that amid all this happiness he is unblessed with even one little bauble to make it a "merry Christmas" to him. What a heart-breaking, tearful day is this season of merry-making and thanksgiving to many a homeless orphan, and what a mockery are its sounds of joy, its merry chime of bells, and the shouts of happy girls and boys.

What a bitter day must Christmas be to the wretched being who is chained within his cell awaiting a certain doom, when recollections of his boyhood's merry Christmas contrast themselves with this awful return of the day, the last on earth for him. What a Christmas gift would liberty be to him!

But we are making but a sorry Christmas carol for our readers by this recurrence to the woes and sufferings, rather than to the joys and comforts, that characterize to-day. We are surrounded by many means of making ourselves happy, and let us enjoy them as best we can. Thank Heaven, instances of penury and want are comparatively few in this our golden State, and if general prosperity and comfort make it meet that we should "make merry and be glad," truly we as a people should hail to-day as a most merry Christmas, and may it indeed prove such to us each and all.

We greet you our readers, with the usual salutation, and hope you may all live to enjoy many another return of this anniversary; and may everyone of you be blessed with Christmas gifts to your heart's content; may every man woman and child, experience their fullest anticipations of joy.

We wish a "duck of a bonnet," or a "love of a dress," to every lady in the land, a wife and a hundred and sixty acres of land to every gentleman, and dolls, rocking-horses, drum and pop guns without number, to every little boy and girl whose mothers feel no objection to their having such things, and finally we again reiterate, a MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.