Reposting: Words of Wisdom, circa 1880 ( #faithpast)

Here's another in my series that seeks to draw inspiration for these difficult times from the writings and memories of people of faith who are no longer with us. I'm calling the series "Faith Past." 

This post originally appeared in 2014.       #faithpast

Words of Wisdom

At a recent estate sale, I bought a box containing a lot of 1950s Christmas cards.  In with all the images of Santas, puppies, kittens and trees, I found a single page of lined paper that was obviously a lot older than the cards.

The very top of the page had been cut off, but you can still read the lines below.

Someone -- someone with very good penmanship -- had copied (or composed?) poems.

I tried looking the poems up online.  Apparently at least some of them are not original to this author; all the citations I found, date them at least to the 1880s.  I found one other hand-written document on similar lined paper from the same estate, dated September 1, 1880, so my guess is that this sheet of poetry is about the same age.

Here are the poems:

There is not a grand, inspiring thought,
There is not a truth by wisdom taught,
There is not a feeling pure, and high
That may not be read in a mother's eye.

There are teachings of earth and sky and air
The heavens, the glory of God declare
But louder than voice, beneath, above
He is heard to speak through a mother's love.

We may write our names in albums
We may trace them on the sand,
We may chisel them in marble
With a firm and skillful hand. 
But, my friend, there is an album
Full of leaves of snowy white
Where no name is ever tarnished
But forever pure and bright.
In the book of Life, "God's Album"
May your name be traced with care,
And may you, my dearest friend,
Write your name forever there.

...And remember when you're tired and weary
And long to be at home,
That God in all his goodness
Knows what is best for you and me;
And who on earth do heavy crosses bear,
In heaven all bright with beauty
The brightest crown shall wear.

Choose not your friends from outward show,
The feather floats, but the pearl lies low.

Life is a sea, where storms must rise;
'Tis folly talks of cloudless skies;
He who contracts his swelling sail
Eludes the fury of the gale.

Friendship, like an evergreen
Will brave the inclement blast,
And still retain the bloom of spring
When summer days are past;
And though the wintry sky may lower,
And dim the cheerful day,
She still perceives a vital power,
Unconscious of decay.

Margie and Norma's Amazing Christmas Cat Scrapbook

Margie and Norma were sisters, born in the 1930s. They lived in Southern California.  From what I could gather when I went to the sale of items from their estate back in August 2015, it looked like neither sister married and they lived together in the family home all their lives. Norma became a school teacher and later a school administrator. It appears that Margie had some sort of chronic health condition, and she passed away before her sister.

Margie and Norma had collected things. One entire bedroom of the house was dedicated to their cat collection.  I bought several Hagen-Renaker Designers' Workshop cats to rehome with another collector.

Hagen-Renaker "Madame Fluff" Persian, first issued Fall 1954

Hagen-Renaker "Moonbeam" Persian kitten, first issued Fall 1958

Hagen-Renaker lying Persian cat, first issued Fall 1957

Long tables arranged along one wall of another bedroom at the estate sale held Margie and Norma's scrapbooks. One or both of the sisters must have spent years carefully saving newspaper clippings, magazine articles, photographs, postcards, greeting cards, and other paper ephemera, trimming them with embroidery scissors, then skillfully arranging them in the dozens of large scrapbooks filled with sheet after sheet of heavy beige paper. 

Based on when the paper items were printed and the dates written on them from the 1950s and 1960s, the sisters must have collected most of these when they were adults, even though many of the greeting cards were ones you would have given a child.  

Some of the scrapbooks were falling apart. I examined the greeting cards inside and saw many, so many, "Get Well" cards addressed to Margie, sent by family and friends over a period of years.

The scrapbook that really spoke to me was the one dedicated to greeting cards, gift wrap, postcards, and pictures of cats, all around the theme of Christmas. These items dated from about 1900 to the mid-1960s. It tells me that, long before the Internet was taken over by cat videos, images of cute felines were a force in the celebration of the holiday.  We can see various sub-themes on the scrapbook pages: kittens with Christmas trees, kittens with (or in) hats, kittens "helping" their humans, and so on. 

Most of the kittens and cats in the scrapbook are not just cute -- they're also busy being part of the festivities.  I believe some of the cards and gift wrap were produced by Norcross and Hallmark. Norma, Margie, or both sisters must have been skilled craftswomen with a good sense of design, because every item on every page in the scrapbook has been carefully arranged, often by theme. 

There were also a few loose cards not pasted in the scrapbook.

Norma gave one of the cards to Margie in 1962.

What you leave behind after you're gone from this life, tells others what you valued. Even scraps of paper, carefully saved and painstakingly, artfully arranged, speak of love and a shared playful sense of humor. The sisters valued each other, and Norma saved the scrapbook with the Christmas cat cards she and others had sent to Margie, for the rest of her life. 

This is Margie and Norma's Christmas Cat Scrapbook. It's huge. And you probably are not going to be able to choose a favorite holiday feline, because there are so many! 

White Christmas kittens on pink backgrounds. 

Kittens and hats.

Kittens and stripes.

Kittens and stockings.

Kittens, ice, and snow.

Some mid-century modern Christmas cat designs. 

Kittens and Santa Claus.

White kittens on a blue background.

Kittens with angels.

Kittens with ornaments.

1960s Christmas kitten postcards.

Some real treasures: early twentieth century Christmas cat postcards.

Black kittens.

Kittens on piano keys.

The End.

And in the words of the old carol:

Love and joy come to you,
And a Merry Christmas too,
And God bless you, and send you a happy new year,
And God send you a happy new year.