The Mail-Journal, Volume 8, Number 44, Milford, Kosciusko County, 1 December 1971 — Page 7

Look At Values In Finding Friends

By REV. LEE TRUMAN Copley News Service There are very few pests in this city more common than the man who sets out systematically and methodically to "make friends." There are always a few such souls in every service dub, fraternal organization or church congregation. You can always spot "Mr. Friendly” who breaks his way into small groups of congenial souls, slapping them on the back and inquiring with a forced tooth-filled smile as to the "howness” of everything. As Mr.-Instant Friend goes about, you can smell the musty page of rules he is following. Very few persons are ever deceived. Folks who try too desperately for the goal of universal friendship never learn that you can't make friends. The word “to make" means compulsion. Any suggestion of a forced relation is fatal to friendship. You can't make friends. You have to grow them. You have to plant the

iS||gp A distinctive selection of wedding invitations and announcements featuring the newest styles on the finest papers can be found at “The MailJournal" offices in Milford and Syracuse. You can be sure your stationery will be socially TJJh correct and perfectly printed. JO If rtJfTVS We feature the following invitations: « fi 1 IvC CARLSON CRAFT WEDDING I A SOCIAL STATIONERY BJggirij| I STARLIGHT WEDDING LINE 1 if 1 P FLOWER WEDDING LINE H V BRIDE AND GROOM yfTX WEDDING INVITATIONS /WCVnX. /fiwT Wedding napkins, bookmatches, coasters, Z|j Not • I placemats. cake bags, etc. are also available. J WSKt^ Thank you notes, printed or plain. | FOR A / WONDERFUL Ijjl \ | WEDDING! ! The Mail-Journal I f Milford — Syracuse j I \

seeds and cultivate them in very fertile soil, as patiently as anything else that is worth growing. Often, the friend-maker is a lonely, well-intentioned lad who sincerely wants the esteem and regard of his fellows. If someone has enough concern about this kind of person, he should take him aside and whisper in his ear these humble words of wise and worldly counsel. If you want to make friends, it can’t be done. You have to grow them. The other side of the coin is, if you want really firm friends, go and make yourself some powerful enemies. Os course, I realize that this may momentarily shock your finer sensibilities coming from a cleric. It sounds paradoxical but it isn't really. Listen! The man who boasts he hasn’t an enemy in the world, is either totally oblivious to the world, not telling the truth or a piece of seaweed. I can’t believe that such a person is very

good company. So hear me out as I say, "Go make yourself some real good enemies." Select them with deliberate and sensitive care. Go after them with earnestness. Soon, the people who have felt something authentic in you and feel as you do, will start migrating toward you on a somewhat deeper level than the shallow kind of relationships we most often have. The precedent for what I am saying is seen in every forceful • character in recorded history. Did George Washington have enemies? He was not out there swinging his sword at his friends! Meanwhile, at his back were a goodly number in the Continental Congress who were long ready to throw in the towel. Not only did they want to stop the war, they were doing all they could to sell George down the river. Remember Lincoln'’ Half of this nhtion believed, to its dying day, that he wa£ the most evil thing on two legs. Did Teddy\ Roosevelt talk about carrying a “big stick" for purely decorative purposes? This is where I am going to get into trouble but it is still truth. 1 believe Jesus, the Christ, had as many enemies as any other man in Palestine and

maybe a few more, and I can find no record that he ever compromised with than. When He walked into the midst of die money changers desecrating the temple, we do not find Him trying a chapter from the book: “Tact and Compromise." Holy Writ said He took a horsewhip and drove the leeches out. So the clue to getting a friend is first look at your values. Know what you believe and value. Then look at the values of your would-be friend. Maybe he should be your enemy. Then if you proceed, you are cultivating selected friendship on the firm foundation of mutual ideas, values and ideals as an authentic person It is best to have a few honest deep friends and a great many acquaintances. If you would like a few further thoughts on how to be a friend and a few warnings about what not to do if you wish to have a friend, please send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope in care of Copley News Service, P.O. Box 19®, San Diego, Calif. 92112. A mosquito is an insect created for the purpose of making us more tolerant of flies.

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FIRST GREETING---Believed to be the first Christmas card, this design by British artist John Horsley was published in 1843--the year Charles Dickens published his "Christmas Carol." It depicts a typical early Victorian Christmas family gathering, with reminders about good will, particularly toward the less fortunate.

'Christmas Carol'Still Has Meaning Today

LONDON — A big candlelit Christmas tree, glittering with tinsel and loaded with gifts tied up in colored ribbons, stands in the drawing-room of a gentleman’s hone in Victorian London. His children, a little, pinkcheeked girl in curls and pinafore, and a boy in velvet knickerbockers and lace collar, romp in front of a crackling log fire. A door opens, and in comes nanny, stiff in starched bonnet and apron, to take them off to bed. It’s Christmas Eve, and a big day lies ahead. A few miles away, in London’s rat-ridden slums, a poor wretch shares out thin broth and some crusts of bread among her hungry, ragged children, and wonders if there’ll be sufficient fuel for a fire on Christmas Day. It is the London of Charles Dickens —a grey, grimy, usually bustling city that now is hushed by the approach of Christmas, its stem outlines softened under a mantel of fresh white snow. It fails on roof and steeple and descends into narrow, winding streets. It settles upon a group of carollers as they sing on a street corner under the yellow light of a lantern, on a cloaked gentleman in curly brimmed topper and on his crinolined, caped, and bonneted lady as they alight freon their carriage to enter an elegant house that is aglow with festive cheer. The snowflakes also flutter down into dark alleys where footpads lurk, into dreary slum streets from which urchins emerge to beg a copper from a passer-by. Dickens's London is a city of palaces and debtors’ prisons, of fine town-houses and crowded workhouses, of warm, happy homes where the kettle boils merrily on the hearth, and of

LEGALS NOTICE Hot.c* is hereby given to me residents and citizens of mo Town ot Syracuse. Indiana, and to Turkov Crook Township. xoaciusko County. Indiana, mat mo Board o* Trustoos at mo Town of Syraeuso. Indiana, did on mo tjd day o» November. ini. pass and ordain an ordinance proving tor mo amondmont ot mo effective data of annex at *on of con tiguous territory to mo To«wn of Syracuse, wn.cn ordinance roads as follows ORDINANCE NUMBER 71-17 ORDINANCE POSTPONING THE EFFECTIVE OATE OF ANNEXATION BY ORDINANCE NUMBER 374 tor ANNEXATION OF CONTIGUOUS TERRITORY TO THE TOWN OF SYRACUSE. INOIANA, PROVIDING FOR THE PERIOO OF SAID POSTPONEMENT WHEREAS. Ordinance Number 574 was duly oassod and ordained by mo Board of Trustees of mo Town of Syraeuso. Indiana, on mo 25m day of February. itTO. and WHEREAS, mo provisions of said Ordinance provided as follows Section 4. That m<s ordinance is to bo in full force and affect from and after its enactment, and shall become final and binding 40 days after me last of me two publications heroin prewidod tor", and WHEREAS, it is in me bast interests of me Town of Syracuse. Indiana, and of the territory sought to be annexed mat mo effective date of such annexation under Ordinance Number 574 be me and day of March. 1*73; NOW. therefore, be it ordained by me Board of Trustees of the Town ot Syracuse. Indiana, that Section 4 ot Ordinance Number 574 be amended to read as follows: Section A That mis ordinance shall bo in full force and effect from and after its enactment and shall become final and binding 40 days after me last of me two Publications herein provided for. and mat the effective date of annexation hereunder shall bo me md day ot March. 1*73. Passed and ordained by me Board of Trustees of the Town of Syracuse. Indiana, mis 23rd day of November. t*7t. A Byron Connolly WiHard S Nusbaum Loren E Longanbaugh Vernon t. Beckman ATTEST. Ronald Sharp Clerk Treasurer * O-ML

cold, cheerless orphanages where the only warmth is a birch rod on a boy’s behind. He knew both worlds, and he wrote feelingly about them. Master of the vivid description, Dickens used his art for social criticism. Not only did he thrill his readers with his stories. He wrung pity from their hearts with his descriptions of the desperate misery of the poor. Into his fictional plots he wove a thread of awful truth about social evils of his day. How many social and economic reforms were instigated by this great Victorian champion of the underdog, it is impossible to say. By his brilliant portrayals of the contrasts of human life — richness and poverty, vice and innocence, age and childhood, birth and death, happiness and misery — he moved pauper and king alike. Always the moralist, he was never more so than at Christmas, a time he saw for recalling and upholding all the Christian virtues of charity, love, family fidelity and household happiness — despite the imperfections which marred l4s own domestic life. Particularly he saw it as a time for children. “It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself,” he wrote. It was a time when his concern for the plight of poor, unloved children — no doubt stemming from memories of his own neglected childhood — was most eloquently expressed. Dickens wrote several Christmas stories, but the most famous of them all is “A Christmas Carol,” published in 1843. It has all the classic ingredients for popular Christmas reading today — cold winter’s night and cozy family fireside, seasonal fare and festive cheer, carollers in the snow, and a chain-rattling ghost whose frightening visions convert a cold, mean heart into a joyous well of goodwill toward men. It is a simple story, with a sentimentality that is probably overplayed for the modern reader. The horrifying moans of Marley's ghost may still said shivers (town the spine. But the vision of crippled Tiny Tim. with his “plaintive little voice,” clinging to Bob Cratchit’s back aid ailing for want of food, but finally saved from death and made happy by the bounteous generosity of a converted Scrooge, was enough to wring tears out of the lesssophisticated Victorian reader. Cratchit represented the poor, downtrodden class of the Victorian era, exploited and mistreated by the hard-hearted employer in the parson of Scrooge. While the book’s social message may have only historic echoes today, the story lives on as a touching, delightful and, in these hectic, ' troubled, times, nostalgic portrayal of the true spirit of Christmas.

Wed., Dec. 1, 1971—THE MAIL-JOURNAL

"which is mm ?" Yule Artificial Trees Growing More Popular

Remember the first artificial Christmas tree? It was made of bright shiny aluminum and the branches were so flimsy that ornaments couldn’t be hung on them. Like so many new products, those original trees left a lot to be desired and the people who bought them bore the brunt of such comments as, "How unChristmas,” or, “Oh, you bought one of those; well it certainly is shiny.” But in the 14 years since that first aluminum Christmas tree raised its shiny branches over the multitudes of holiday shoppers, artificial trees have undergone a transformation and have become a multi-million-dollar business. “There are still some of those original aluminum trees around,” said Everett Comings of Kahn & Comings of Los Angeles, western sales representatives for sane 15 companies specializing in Christmas trees, lights, ornaments and novelties. “And every year we sell a few of them to individuals and stores, but most of the people want their artificial trees to look as realistic as possible.” Sound like a contradiction? Well, maybe, but seeing is believing and believing is staring up at a 20-foot-high Douglas fir so thick and lush that it s hard to tell from a real one. “There have been a lot of problems with artificial trees,” said Comings. “The first green' trees had needles made of vinyl plastic. They were very' pretty trees but if they were near the furnace or fireplace or stored in a hot place the vinyl needles would shrivel up. “So manufacturers came (Hit with long, hard needled trees which resonble Scotch pine. The needles are made of a flame retardant plastic called Poly-Vinyl Chloride (PVC) and which can now be molded into several other types of pine needles, too,” he said. According to Comings, the biggest advancement in artificial trees will be unveiled this year, primarily in the East and Midwest. It is a tree with needles male of polyethelene plastic. "It's amazing, but this one

almost feels like a real tree as well as looking like one,” Comings said. “One drawback to this tree is that it is more flammable than trees with PVC needles and for this reason it can’t be sold in certain states.” Comings estimates that artificial trees sold in the United States to the tune of $45 million in 1970 which is only 25 per cent of the total Christmas tree market. Who buys artificial Christmas trees? According to Comings, people who are allergic to real Christmas trees, are ecologically minded or want a second tree for the childroi’s room and don’t want to buy another real one because they already had a large tree in the • family room. Nearly 90 per cent of all the artificial trees sold in the U. S. are made by small manufacturers from Los Angeles to New York, and the remaining 10 per cent is imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan. The incredible rise in popularity' of artificial trees can be attributed primarily to the ecology movement and is especially strong in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, Comings said. “Last year we did sl3 million worth of business in artificial Christmas trees and we expect to do sl4 million this year,” he said. Comings said that artificial Christmas trees sell for as low as $9 to $45 for a seven-foot Scotch pine. “Our biggest sellers are around the S2O mark,” he said. “But we recently sold two 15 foot artificial Ponderosa pines to Leisure World for $250 apiece.” Tree prices are based on the number of branches and the number of tips at the end of each branch and twig. The more tips, the fuller and more realistic the tree is. “The branches are much stronger now than they used to be and will hold ornaments easily,” said Comings, who noted that the trees are easily assembled now because the branches and tree trunk holes are color coded.

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