John Jay Johns

“ We are having a very marry time. So many of the children with us. We had a happy time over the Christmas gifts this morning. Everybody got presents. These family reunions on these occasions are very pleasant and these gifts, no matter how little, of affection very gratifying. As people get older their happiness is very much bound up in their children and grandchildren. Our children give us a great deal of comfort and the great desire of our hearts is that they be christians. Some of them are absent today, but they are fondly remembered by us. ”

“ Mercury nearly down to zero this morning. Glover went down to his school. The Presidential election is still undecided. The radical politicians have the control of Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, and are managing so as to throw out votes enough to give them to Hayes. It is a sad state of things in this country. The executive of the nation is using the military to control the elections in those unhappy states. Tilden is certainly elected by 300,000 as well as by the electoral vote. ”

“ What a blessed thing in this world of sin and sorrow is a Christian family, - where the influences of religion pervade and control the sympathies and affections of our nature. George is at Princeton College and Fred is at Boonville, Mo. ”