Grand Haven Daily Tribune  December 27. 1901

Christmas Bells.
—
BY DAVID FLETCHER HUNTON.
—
O how the bells of Christmas rung!
How much of merriment they flung
Out from the steeples where they hung!
How many millions sweetly sung
“Peace on the earth, good will to men.”

How Father time, on tireless wings,
These happy Christmas mornings bring!
How Santa Claus, with all these things,
Makes all the hearts of children sing
“Peace on earth, good will to men.”

What joy there is in Christendom,
When all the absent loved ones come
Back into the dear old home!
How rings the welkin to its dome,
With “Peace on earth, good will to men.”

How early do the children wake―
Too eager their first meal to take,
And for their stockings “made a break”
Then how the house begins to shake,
With “Peace on earth, good will to men.”

And how the older people throng
To church, to hear a sermon long:
And how with voices loud and strong,
They sing again the angel’s song,
“Peace on the earth, good will to men.”

Long before the daylight dies,
They all sit sown to a surprise
Of spare ribs, turkey, puddings, pies,
And each heart sings before they rise,
“Peace on the earth, good will to men.”

And yet, the fools are not all dead!
One of them claims—and he has said,
“Peace from the earth long since has fled”
“There is no peace—and war, instead,
Mocks ‘Peace on earth, good will to men.’”

Soon rings again the Christmas bells,
On all the hills, in all the dells!
God is not dead!  His message tells
That Right shall ring wrong’s funeral knell,
With “peace on earth, good will to men.”

Grand Haven, Mich., Christmas Day, 1901.