HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Clinton News Record, 1937-12-09, Page 3SYMBOLS OF CHRISTMAS
The Tree is Ancient But Not So Reindeer
Pious legend has it that St. Boniface,
heroic early missionary to the hard-boiled
North Germans, chopped down a sacred
giant oak to show his challengers how
little power their lightning -god had. He
was not blasted down in his tracks, as
they all expected him to be; and presently
a littleevergreensprang up alongside the
stump of the overthrown god -tree. That,
the legend says, was the beginning of
Christmas trees.
It is a very pretty tale, but probably
only a tale. For the same Germans who
worshipped the oak also reverenced the
evergreen trees, and cut down their branch-
es to add tomistletoe and holly in decorat-
ing their halls of feasting. There were
Christmas trees before ever there was a
Christmas.
Favorites throughout the northern
hemisphere, in lands where Christmas
trees are used at all, are the short -needled
spruces and firs. The "Tannenbaum"
Of the famous German song is a fir, or
balsam. The two trees look much alike,
but are easily told apart. Firs have
rather soft, flattish, curved needles, and
their cones stand up. Spruces have stiff,
prickly needles, and their cones hang
down. Besides these two, all kinds of
other trees are used, though to a smaller
extent; pines, junipers or "cedars," abor-
vitae, and so on.
In the early days of forest conservation,
the Christmas tree practice was rather
frowned upon; but now forestry experts
approve their use, partly as an outlet for
little trees that have to be thinned out of
When The Stork
Arrives At
Christmas
Why is Christmas Day so little in favour
as a birthday? A child born on December
25th soon finds that the two present -
receiving occasions of the year are com-
bined in one, and in later life there is a
sense of deprivation, not to say of rank
injustice, when birthday and Christmas
presents are received in one parcel.
Visits from the stork are comparatively
rare on December 25th. A wealthy
North Countryman publicly invited to
dinner on Boxing Day all who, Tike him-
self, were born on Christmas Day. Only
two persons accepted.
Similar was the result of a quest by the
Society of Noelites, membership of which
is confined to those born on Christmas
Day. Some years ago it offered to adopt
every child in Dr. Barnardo's Homes
whose birthday was December 25th. At
the time there were 0,000 youngsters on
the books, and it seemed, therefore, that
the society was about to enter upon a big
undertaking; but out of that number
only one was found eligible.
When the stork does visit a household
on Christmas Day, its other comings also
are sometimes peculiar. In a London,
(Eng.) family there are four persons whose
birthdays are respectively December 25th,
February 29th, April 1st, and November
5th. Thus one actually has a birthday
only every fourth year. The birthday,
however, is always celebrated on February
28th.
In the sante district there is a family
which has a birthday for all the English
quarter days (March 25th, June 24th,
September 29th, and December 25th), as
well as the Scottish quarter day, August
1st. One of its members, who died in
childhood, was born on St. Patrick's Day,
March 17th.
In some hospitals all babies born on
Christmas Day are given Noel as a second
name, and it is customary in others for
girls to be named Christine, Mothers in
a provincial hospital are advised to call
baby girls Mary.
A child born to a couple named Day
was registered Pudding Day, as Mr. and
Mrs, Duck named a daughter Yuletide
Duck, In after years she became plain
Sarah. Holly, Merry, HaPPy, Carol,
Valencia -these Almond
and other names
have also been used, and at least one per-
son appears in the registers of Somerset
House as Merry Christmas.
A few years back the father of a Noelite
wished to have, him christened King
Wenceslaus, under the impression that
that monarch, if not a saint, was little
short of one; but in the end he was per-
suaded to substitute Joseph.
Despite the comparative fewness of the
stork's gifts at Christmas, there have been
some eminent Noelites. Among those
born on December 25th were Sir Isaac
Newton, Dorothy Wordsworth, Samuel
Smiles, and Henry Russell, author of
"Cheer, Boys, Cheer."
too -thick young growing stands of timber.
Thus our holiday sentiment may serve a
practical end as well, in_ the national
economy. •
Reindeer Modern
Reindeer are comparatively recent fea-
tures of the Yuletide fauna and flora;
they do not figure in the Christmas art,
literature or legend of ancient and medie-
val times. They would appear to have
got into our notions of equipment for St.
Nicholas by way of Lapland, the "farthest
north" in early modern European times,
The Madonna
On The Rock
Remains Serene
Towering above the surrounding seas
a constant reminder to the people of Pros
pect of their religion is Virgin Island, one
of the most remarkable natural rock for
nations in the world. On the side o
this island is a remarkable likeness of the
Madonna with the Christ -Child in her
arms.
Away from the noisy, h,irrying world,
the rocky lands of the island have never
been disturbed by human beings and only
on a calm day do men dare approach this
high hill set in the Atlantic Ocean -
feared by mariners.
Engraved in the side of the island, 40
feet above the surging seas, the picture of
the Virgin Mary has withstood the wind
and rain and storms for centuries and will
remain. as a guide to the residents of
Prospect and the neighboring villages in
their worship.
On a clear, calm day, visitors can
approach the island and view the Biblical
spectacle at close range, but no fisherman
would venture near the rock in a storm.
It is a strange fact, too, that close by,
in Prospect Bay, the Norsemen are be-
lieved to have landed for the first time in
North America, more than 1,000 years ago.
But the picture of the Virgin Mary and
the Christ -Child still remains undis-
turbed, while the signs of the Viking
settlement have practically all disap-
peared.
The Man. Who Made Christmas
CHARLES DICKENS SET FESTIVE STYLES
There was never a greater apostle of
good cheer and kindliness than Charles
Dickens, whose neglected boyhood of
debtors' prisons, of hard degrading work
in a blacking factory, taught him what
the Christmas spirit ought to be, by the
bitter contrast of what it never was for.
him. He was born in 1812 at Portsmouth;
of lower middle class parents. His father
was a good-natured neer-do'well, always
in debt, like the famous character, Micaw-
ber, in "David Copperfield " His mother
was a real life version of the silly, flighty
Mrs. Nickleby who appears in another
of Dickens' great: books; "Nicholas Nickle-
by." Poverty was their inevitable lot
until "Pickwick Papers" brought the
jollity, their spirit of kindliness, the r
appeal to the British character, took a
lasting hold on popular imagination.
It was the immense popularity of.
Dickens' book which did this, and they
were popular because of those very char-
acteristics, the essence of which is found
in his accounts of Christmas joviality,
kindliness, pathos and humor inextricably
mixed, love of the poor, and indignation
at their oppressions:
Within eighteen months Dickens was
the most widely read author of his clay-
or of any other day, for most great authors
of the past either appealed d less to the
masses or had lived when few could read
books, and fewer afford thein. Only Sir
twenty -four-year-old Charles Dickens
fame, and the beginning of wealth.
Standards for Christmas
And it is to "Pickwick Papers" and his
later books, particularly "The Christmas
Carol," that we owe much of what is most
typical of our Christmas festivities. Be-
fore Dickens there were no universally
accepted "standards" for the English
Christmas. Dickens in his books chooses
from many old English customs, and
invents others, and describes Christmas
festivities time after time, which by their
THE CHRISTMAS TRAVELLERS
where these animals are both horses and
cows to the people.
Excellently adapted to useful life in a
hard country are the reindeer. They can
stand any amount of cold, they can feed
on the toughest kind of fare. Favorite
fodder is the finely -branched lichen that
grows in great mats alt round the northern
end of the earth, known from that very
fact as reindeer moss. Tireless and fleet
of foot, they well merit the name the Ger-
mans call them, "Renntier," which means
"running animal."
Reindeer of the old world have a bigger,
huskier relative on our own continent, the
caribou. But our caribou has never been
systematically tamed; it is still a standby
for the hunting tribes of Indians and the
Eskimos of the Far North.
Reindeer introduced into Alaska from
Siberia have revolutionized the lives of
the Indians and Eskimos of that region,
turning them from hunters to herdsmen,
Colors of Christmas
Green and red are the colors of Christ-
mas, cheerful against the white snow and
the gray skies. Long before there was any
Christmas, our Celtic and Teutonic ances-
tors of northern Europe celebrated a pagan
Yule -feast, bringing into their houses
green branches as though to assure them-
selves that winter must end and spring
return at last.
Mistletoe, sacred plant to the old Celtic
Druids, whose religion was borrowed, in
part, by their Germanic neighbors, was a
plant of mystery, for its seeds are so tiny
that they may have escaped notice.; and
above all its habit of growing straight
out of the branch of a tree of another
species must have puzzled men ignorant
of the nature of parasitism, to the point
of believing it to be supernatural,
THE TOYS OF YESTERYEAR
THEY DIFFERED GREATLY FROM MODERN PLAYTHINGS
The toys of the children of today differ
vastly from those of their ancestors. But
crude as they were, a considerable amount
of ingenuity and fine workmanship was
put into them. Their dolls, for instance,
were probably everlasting; a Coptic
specimen made in the year A.D. 500
actually exists in excellent condition to
this day
Wood, china, wax, papier mache, and
gutta-percha were used in the manufacture
of their heads, while their bodies were
stiffed so tightly as to be almost unbreak-
able. Soft, cuddly toys were regarded as
too easily destroyed.
A cavalcade of toys would tell a fairly
Christmas Kindness
Because this old world is hungry for
love, "the simple art of being kind" is
needed to carry Christmas through the
year. We may get along comfortably
without further wisdom or guile or sophis-
tication; but, as sorely as we need the
gentle offices of love as we meet one
another by the way.
accurate story of the world's history.
Children had toys even before the first
Christmas. In. A.D. 1100 there was a tiny
stuffed lion on wheels in Susa (Africa), and
a wooden crocodile, snapping its toothed
jointed jaws at an Egyptian baby, was the
forerunner of a similar mechanical marvel
of the present age.
The ancients slid not possess our facil-
ities, but they produced wonderful effects
with the materials at their disposal. About
the time of the French Revolution dolls
'were made hollow so that tiny sparrows
could be inserted to give them movement
and emit a tiny, life -like chirp. Of course,
no toy was worthy of contemplation
unless it walked with the times, and little
French girls were given tiny models of
the guillotine wherewith to decapitate
their doll -aristocrats.
Every period has had its hobby -horse;
a blood -stirring ride has always been wel-
Comed.
Lacking our mass -production methods,
old-time toys were stronger and made
with greater attention to detail. The
Dutch, Germans, Danes, and Italians
specialized in dolls' houses of surpassing
beauty; but even the wealthiest children
have always loyally loved their rag dolls
best of all.
Kindly Season
It is the most human and kindly of
seasons, as fully penetrated and irradiated
with the feeling of human brotherhood,
which is the essential spirit of Christian-
ity, as the month of June with sunshine
and the balmy breath of roses. -George
W. Curtis.
Walter Scott had approached. Dickens'
popularity, and his work, utterly different
though it was, had paved the way for
Dickens by educating a huge public to
find pleasure in good novels.
Dickens and America
In 1830, at the peak of his fame,
Dickens made a triumphant tour of Amer-
ica, offending the Americans on his return
by some of the descriptions of their life in
his book "American Notes." But the
squalid life he had led as a boy not only
gave him the qualities which made him
famous, they gave hint another quality
which killed him. 1 -Jaunted by the fear of
poverty, Dickens' life became a furious
drive to put hint and his children beyond
the reach of want forever. Book after
book came from his ceaseless pen, but
they were not enough. In 1850 he started
a magazine, "Household Words," He
found that his genius as an amateur actor
could be turned into huge sums of money
when he toured the country giving read-
ings from his own works. Those readings
drained his vitality, and when in 1807-88
he toured America, he was in a semi -
fainting condition after every reading.
He earned 8100,000 but was a broken
man. Yet after a brief rest on his return
to England, he started them again, and
on June 9, 1870, he was struck down for
the last time, at his desk, by an effusion
of blood to the brain. And the desk was
at a fine house, "Gadshill Place,' which
he had often gazed at forty-five years
before -a sad little dreaming boy. and
determined that sometime, somehow,
that fine, big house should'be his own.
Old -Time
Feasting
Customs
Christmas in England has always been
a great occasion for drinking acid feasting,
In fact, an Italian proverb says of a busy
man, that "He has more to do than the
ovens in England at Christmas."
In old England they had many dishes
which we seldom hear of now. There
was frumenty, a dish made of wheat
which is still sometimes served in York-
shire, ale posset, Shropshire "wigs," and
carroway buns dipped in ale, Yule doughs
or dows were eaten everywhere, and in
Coventry they made their famous God.
cake, Tansy, too, was a favorite dish.
'!'his was made with eggs and cream,
flavored with the juice of tansy, art ex-
tremely bitter, aromatic herb. • In addi-
tion there was Christmas brawn, con-
nynges 18 gravy, and a host of dishes that
have since died out.
Christmas was never a national festi-
val in Scotland, but at this period of the
year new sowens were always eaten.
These were made from the husks and
siftings of oatmeal nixed with molasses,
and. to all accounts, were delicious.
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1 MERRY RISTMAS
CHRISTMAS GIFTS FOR MEN
Only. A Short Time to do Your Christmas Shopping.
Do It Now While Our Line Is Complete.
Biltmore Hats $1.95 Up
House Coats
Pyjamas
Socks
$6.50 Up
$1.50 Up
25cto1.
$ 00
Ties, boxed 25c to $1.25
Windbreakers... $3.75 Up
Scarfs... $1.00 to $5.00
Wool or Silk
Linen Handkerchiefs
..... ...., 15c to SOc
Belts - .... _........ 5Oc to $1.50
Braces
!(V
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50c Up Dressing Gowns $3.95
and Up,
'1.50 to $2.50
25c to $1.00
1.2
$ 5 CO
$4.50
do
$15.75 up
Forsyth Shirts, Boxed
Garters
Gloves, lined or unlined
Overcoats
Ready -To -Wean' Suits, 2 pair trousers
From
Spats .._
Brush Wool Sweaters
Boys' Windbreakers, Blue
Boys' Wool Sweaters
BOY?' AIT Wool !Blue Fox. Serge Suits7 A
(Two Pair Tro s - $ ®•�0
$17.50 to $23.50
$1.00
$1.95 to $4.25
$2.55 Up
$1.00 to $2.50
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Boys' All -Wool Breeches, Humphrey Cloth $2.95 g
Sizes 28 to 34, drfl
DAVIS & HERMAN
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Gift Suggestions
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\'0111.EN'S, MISSES AND CHILDREN'S MOTOR ROOTS, RUB-
BER (.0)LOSIlltS AND RUBBERS, SWEATERS, PYJAMAS
WOOL AND SILK HOSE, GLOVES AND BEDROOM SLIPPERS.
MEN'S WINIlBaEAKERS, SWEATERS, AND ALL KINDS OF
FOOTWEAR, WINTER HATS, CAPS, GLOVES, MITTS, DRESS
SHIRTS, TIES, FANCY BRACES, HOSE, NIGHT SHIRTS AND
PYJAMAS, SUITS AND OVERCOATS.
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Clifford Lobb 1
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Make This A Christmas 11
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