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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1937-12-23, Page 3CSI I S TM�"SSTOR' '�4 11✓ ofLINIOREJCOWAN \ss, • STONE The voices of the boy choir rose above the rich roll of the organ as John opened the door and slipped in- to the warm, shadowy depths of the church—piercing high and sweet: 0 Holy night! The stars are brightly shining- What was it the music made. him think of? Of course—the buoyant flight of a breath -takingly beautiful silver plane, lifting, dipping, soaring. And nothing could be more beauti- ful than that. It was cozy and pleasant to sit here making pictures in your mind. But that wasn't the only reason John liked to come. He likedthe music. What was more, he thought a little guiltily, he liked it because it was Christmas music. Of course he knew now that it was nothing but a bourgeois fairy story.— about the little Lord Jesus and the Star and the strange magnificent kings with their rich gifts of gems and myrrh and frankincense. Anton had explained all that to him. If Anton knew he came here he would be hurt and angry, even though She only slipped in after delivering his papers for a warm place to stay till Anton came fromthe lunch room where he waited table from early morning till five. Anton disliked all churches with a bitterness that John only vaguely understood, but which, out of his adoration for this moody, tempestuous, but to him always gen- tle big brother, he loyally tried to emulate. For this particular church, pily and jingling ,his money in his Anton had a specially contemptuous name. He called it "old Spencer • meg pocket, as he left the church and turned through the park, when he saw the. old man again. Park Bench..Sitters huddled The old man was sitting on one of the iron benches in the park. His hat had slid off, the book hinevitablyo the carried dead leaves datrom h s his s grasp feet, and his head drooped on his , breast, its silky white hair fluttering in the faint breeze. John saw that he was asleep again. It was the old man's deplorable habit.. of dropping to sleep at the most ine opportune times that had first caught John's attention. Park benches, John knew from Shrewd observation, were not spots ,. to sleep on with impunity • Yet the first time he had come upon the old man he had been serenely nodding , while a ratlike youth expertly rifled his pockets. At the sound of John's feet on the gravel, the old man had awakened with startling suddenness, and the pickpocket had fled. John was just about to lift a shrill cry for Larry, the park cop, when the old man caught his arm with a swift dart of a thin old hand and said. "Hey, son, let him go! He's welcome to anything he found in my pockets. Don't bring that confounded officer over here asking questions. Can't a man shut his eyes in peace for a minute with- out getting mixed up with the law?" John considered this wisely. Child of the street as he had been these two years, it was not strange to his philosophy that park _ bench sitters often shrank modestly from n the o littleat at- tention of Larry. It strange that such a clean, guileless looking old gentleman should be at odds -with the law, but you never coed tell. A Situation Grasped Itis • suspicions were still further confirmed by an incident that oc- cuered while he was talking with . the old man several days later. They were sitting together when, in the midst of a sentence, the old man glanced over his shoulder, stat- ed, scrambled to his feet, and with a finger warningly at his lips, scur- ried into the bushes that flanked the bench. down the A lean was hurrying / ®. walk from the avenue, looking sharp-;. ly from left to right, John made hid', eyes vera blank as the man ap proached. "Have you," asked the man, "geed an olcl gentleman &bout here? He'.. been Wearing a gray overcoat an carrying a book." "Sure, Mack. 'Bout 20 minutes:' ago, He took the Seventy -Three cart going south," John lied hardily. "Have you—does he come here of- ten?" "Naw," said Jahn. ",And I'm around here every day Bernie' my papers. He was—was . just welkin' by." When the man had disappeared, d, •the�,eid g®ntleman emerggd1Ca,u i ly tholethe lushee "Well," he said: ' and there was friendly twinkle in his old blue •eyes, "I _guess. ;we disposed of that busy- body. ` Son; you show' an aptness" a grasping a .situation and a finesse i. action that should take you ;far. "Don't Relieve In Christmas" Now, when John saw the nodding old figure on the bench, he felt e he sense of responsibility; ns h so often did in the ease of Anton. "Say, listen, Gramps,"' he began as the old man, started 'awake at his touch, blinked, andmiledu told at yhim a little vaguely, ain't safe to go to sleep here ? ' Lolrk what happenedthe first time. Any- how, it's too cold." It was indeed cold. The first frost of a late season was in the's'dr and a few feathery flakes of IV were drifting down. "Say," offered John,. movie a step nearer, "I know a good place., if you want one. It's warm in that church over there. I'll bet you could slip in and stay, and nobody we ld ever know. There are cushions ho, and sometimes there's music." ' - "Ah!" said Gramps, and turned to view the church with sudden interest. "Now that's an idea! Put old ;'!dor row's fire escape to a practical par - pose, eh? Good joke on him!" the For by this time, of course, old man knew all. about Anton and the international brotherhoodran f Ihas- tily John turned away, added, asif he could not Tebear to be left alone, Hey! not going, are you?" • John hesitated, jingling his money. "You sound like a bloated, capital- ist," observed Gramps. "'Most five dollars,"- admitted`, John with a glow of pride. "And it will be five by to -morrow night." "Imagine having that much molney in one ,pocket, Gramps sighed. VI wonder if I'll ever feel that rich again. And I suppose you're planing to spend it all for Christmas Pre- sents." re- s e t ' " mss ` Sohn tried to speak with a,, calm surprise with some of'his paper mon- ey—a truly splendid scarf pin in the shape of a tiny violin. That was When Anton had explained to him for the first time about the prole- tariat, and had talked about the nec- essity for "class loyalty," and the. gross absurdity of "bourgeois senti- mentality" about religion and Christ- mas. No, John did not think he would try surprising Anton again this year. And he knew this _time that there would be no surprise for him, either. So he had made his own plan. It would not be quite the same as be- ing surprised, of course. It would lack that breath -taking moment of almost unendurable happiness and' suspense that came just befoore the he gift was actually unwrapped. plan had its points. The money he had managed to save from his paper route would buy the tools he needed to finish the model airplane he had been working on since last summer. It would be the most beautiful model H a iibuilt, en.s and nd it would really fly. g ' — less magically supple and sensitive in their awn way than Anton's, though John did not know this—itched to be at it. before He would wait till the day Christmas, carry his parcel home, and put it away unopened until Christmas Eve. Then, when Anton had gone, he would get it out and ! open it just as if it had been a real urprise. He was still planning hap - row's fir; escape. When John asked him whhy,-•Aston's mouth twisted in that bitter, angry way it had lately as he replied, "Be- cause the old pirate is fool enough to imagine the fortune he put into building that monument to supersti- tion upprst tion will save the mean, grasping little thing he calls his soul from the • mythical place he calls hell." 'When Ile Played The Violin John hadn't asked any more ques- tions, because if Anton got too much excited he would go on talking for hours instead of taking out his vio- lin, . tucking it tenderly under his - chin, and playing there in their little room as only Anton could play. And Anton must keep up his prac- tice, because any day someone might send for him again to come and play, as they used to do before hard times. Then Anton would get out the black suit with tails he kept .so carefully packed away, and his white shirt, and go off down the street, his slim, beautiful fingers caressing the in- strument under his arm. Sometimes he took John with him. On such occasions, -John would have toi hold his brekeep at from busting grip the seat tightly with excitement when Anton came forward—lithe and dark and hand- some—lifted his head, and began to play, his face a little pale, his dark eyes alight, as if above the heads of the audience he were seeing things strange and beautiful beyond the or- dinary ken . When Anton played his vie - In, he seemed to forget all about "monuments to superstition" and even "the totalitarian state." It was only since Anton had had to work in the hunch room instead of playing that he bad been so rest- less and bitter. It had all been very different two years ago, while Mother was still alive. Then, on Christmas Eve, there would be wreaths in the windows, and candles everywhere, and when Anton came in from playing some- where --a little pale, and with that wide. shining look his dark eyes al- ways wore when he had ',leered and played well, of having come slowly back from far places of enchantment —there would be - cries of "Merry Christmas," and surprises for every- one. Afterward, Anton would play Christmas music—ending always with "0 Holy Night!" For a moment John remembered it all—the brightness, the warmth, the spicy evergreen smells, the music— .and the surprises—with a wistful nostalgia which brought to his eyes tears he angrily wiped away on his wain coat sleeves. No Surprise Expected, Well, there -wouldn't be any prises this year. Last year he had bought .AsitOii a 1 was going out to play his violin again. A note had- conte to the res- taurant: that day. It was to be at someone's house, on Christmas Eve, AMI he was to have $50 for it. Anton was so happy that he was almost in- coherent, The next day was clean .and bright; but .a heavy snow mantled the ground and the trees born nodding .white Plumes, It was too cold to linger in the park, but when John slipped into the ehuroh, he saw the old man, sit- ting therein a back pew, listening to the music. John was glad they hadn't thrown him out, He looked so sad, however,. as if he were thinking unhappy thoughts deep within himself, that John did not appr'Loaroh him, bu,t 'slip- - ped out again into the snow. And as he went, his hand involuntarily clutched at the.:precioUe money in his pocket as if he felt it slipping away from him. For somehow, as he remembered that quiet old figure in the church, disturbing echoes of words crowded in upon beim: "Christmas can't be happy unless it's shared." And the old man had no one who cared, to share Christmas with him. That meant that there would be no sur- prise for Gramps, either. And prob- . ,ably Gramps still liked surprises as well as anyone. sur - "Heck! We don't believe in Christ- at our house" as . •a good de, esu erionty,• ,-...,:.. _ •i .�e - okedu.'a1t�. shou�ct,' but lhr a -h p the words. Christmas turas . ads During Shakespeare's "ince Pesti* vities Lasted for •Twelve ,pays Christmas has not always beau n sensor► for festivity, and when. Oliver Cromwell was Protector all fun and feasting was forbidden .at• this time of the year. There are a great many other things about Christmas which people do not know; the fact, for instance, that Norwegian farmers give their cattle tubs of home -brewed ale on Christmas Eve, or that at 1'Z mid- night on the same day people in Madrid eat 12 grapes for good luck in the coming year. In Hungary they consider the needy, and all the richer citteens are levied so that the poor may havesufficient to eat and drink. ?''ow many know that there are 175 different kinds of holly, that during Shakespeare's time Christmas festivities lasted for -12 days, or that Christmas has been celebrat, d on more than 100 different days in vari- ous parts of the world? Our pres- ent holiday on December 25th we owe to Pope Julius I, who fixed the date in the year 351. Gay Parcel John fingered the money in his pocket and swallowed a monumental lump, in his throat. Well, suppose he did buy the old man a surprise, what should he choose? How could he possibly guess what Gramps really wanted, unless— but of course! A new book, a beau- tiful new book, so that he needn't carry around those shabby old ones any more. John didn't know much about books, but after he had wandered about the book store, looking at cov- ers until he was dizzy, he saw just the thing—a fine big book, richly bound .in soft reddish leather with gold letters. "That one," he said, pointing. It was expensive—$5, the salesgirl pointed out. He could get the same book in a different blinding, much cheaper. "That` one," said John firmly, and hurried out with the wrapped book under his arm before he should ' change his mind. He went a':irectly back to the church because he was afraid he might miss Gramps if he waited till tomorrow. rortmiately the old man was still there', his white head drop- ped on his chest. He woke instantly when John touched his shoulder. • "This is for you," said John, hold- ing out his parcel, a little breathless with hurry and embarrassment. "But it's .a 'anywise, a4d you musn't open it thIl 'Glitietmas 'be." .. . For a moment Gramps looked .up •at him as if hardly believing his ears. Then he took the parcel with the gay red and green ribbon the lady had wrapped it in, and looked at it. "Thank you," he said at last. "Thank you. I—this is a surprise. You have made me very happy. I—I wonder 'if you will do something to make an old man even happier — spend a part of tomorow evening with me, We -- we might have a snack to eat and manage a very plea- sant time of it together." "It's Christmas Eve" Anton had already gone when John went out next evening. John was Sur- prised when he found that the house at the address Gramps had given was so large and imposing. Gramps couldn't really live here • But perhaps he was a janitor or something and lived behind. John rang the bell. It was some time before anyone answered. John was about to go away tivhen the door opened `and a mean turned•en an oyerhead light and said, "Oh, yes. You are to come right in."' John, who had a street Arab's trained memory for faces, stared. But this was the man Gramps had run away from in the park. Then, right behind •the man, was Gramps himself, smiling and holding out his hand. "Oh, but, sir," cried the mean, turn- ing reproachingly, "you shouldn't be out here exposing yourself to the night air." "Don'tbe an old maid, Hodges. It's Christmas Eye.." Gramps didn't seem to be at all afraid nee.. "Aren't you: satisfied with hounding nee all the year long? Come in, comrade." They went through a warm ball. way .into a great bright room where man were sitting and standing about. At once John felt at home, for they were all shabby men such as he had often 'seen lined up outside soup kit- chens or employment agencies—men of all nationalities and complexions, but all strangely alike he their sullen. beaten -look. Now they didn't look sullen or beaten, only expectant, and a little watchful perhaps. Ina few minutes there was dinner for everyone—an amazing dinner— with Gramps, in a rather rumpled suit, at the head of the long table, and to Johns complete undoing, An- ton, of all people, sitting at his right. After everyone had' .eaten enorm- ously, they went into another great room, and there were surprises for everyone from a tall, softly 1'ghted tree. John had to pinch himself to believe that his own surprise was a Set of delicate tools such as he had wanted 'With a lm:;•ng that hurt, bet finer than he had ever hoped to have. ,Netbierlands "Early C rist ae Night of Dec. 5th observeil P►s 5t. Nicholas Festival rig Uollawi AMSTERDAM—.St. Nicholas paid a visit to good little children of The Netherlands on St. Nicholas' Eve. With his Negro` servant, Black Pete, the saint appeared astride his white horse, as is the Custom of every Dee. 5. At twilight, all the family are at home. The doorbell rings, and there are St. Nicholas and Black Pete. The marvelously informed saint ques- tions each child on his behavior, and presents are given to the whole fam- ily, Goes Back To A.D. 345 There follow servings of "Bishop wine" for adults, chocolate milk for children. St. Nicholas songs are sung •until late. This "Early Christmas" goes back to December 6th, the year 345, when the Archbishop of Myra (St. Nich- olas) died after being imprisoned by Diocletian and freed by Constan- tine. The prelate's surreptitious be- stowal of dowries on three daugh- ters of an impoverished citizen sup- posedly started the custom of pres- ents on St. Nicholas' Eve—a custom later transferred to Christmas Day in many countries. Once the Hollanders tried to abol- ish St. Nicholas' Day in favor of Christmas, but St Nick and Black Pete were easy winners. Smallest Chvtrches Accommodate Six A church in Guernsey, Channel Islands, has accommodation for six people, and is claimed to be the smallest in the world. „ It was built by a monk from stones, sea -shells, and home-made cement. But it has some strong rivals. Hedge End Church, in Hampshire, Eng., holds only eight people and was built as a form of memorial to those who fell in the Great War. Hackney, London, has a church, attached to some almhouses, which can only accommodate a congrega- tion of 14; while the village of Grove in Buckinghamshire, has a church built for the benefit of the 16 in- habitants. At Eldon, Hants, which has only nine inhabitants, the church has but one door, and, it is claimed, the smallest font in England. Has To Be Shared ' "No Christmas — but of coursel The observation of the Christmas, myth is the lowest form of bour- geois sentimentality, isn't it? And yet, unless my memory fails me, Christ was a carpenter, and He also believed in the brotherhood of man." John considered this in startled silence. He wondered if Anton knew that. "Then what, if you'll forgive my curiosity," asked Gramps, "are you going to do with all that wealth?" So John told him, a little reluctant- ly, about the tools. The old man list- ened attentively. They had often talk- ed of the model before. Gramps knew a lot about planes, for an old man. "No doubt your decision is a sen- sible one," Gramps said slowly when he had finished. His voice sounded. suddenly tired and flat. "Certainly there's no bourgeois sentimentality about it. Your brother should be proud of you—and after all, not be- lieving in Christmas can't be a more forlorn business than not having anyone who really cares for you 'to share it with, '.Io be reall: Christmas has to be shared. . . . Well, I, must be getting along, and _" he smiled a wry little smile—"I think I shall take your very practical. advice." John watched him as he made his way a little stiffly across the patk to the church, one of his shabby old books clutched under his arm, look- ing very old and tired and lonely.. In A Back Pew John found Anton already at home, anxiously inspecting the fine black suit with tails that had hung so long unused. At last, it seemed, Anton Glove Pledges You may be unaware of it, but if this Christmas you send a pair of gloves as a present, you are making a symbolic gesture. In ancient times gloves were sent to mend broken ties, patch quarrels and cement friend- ships. They were supposed to repre- sent the handshake of friendship; in the Middle Ages they were used as -pledges of faith, and a king's glove was a guarantee of safe conduct in his territory. Queer though it may seem, gloves were not first worn in cold countries, but in Egypt, where many fashions originated. The olden: pair in exist- ence was found in the box of royal robes in King Tutankhamen's tomb. It was not until the eleventh century that Europe adopted the fashion, and in the thirteenth century the glovers cf Perth founded their famous com- pany. The Great. Surprise '`Finallly.•-GGrareps".w'hom- . everyone was calling "Mr. Morrow," took down the last parcel -square and bulky— and said, "Now this is my great sur- prise." John recognized it by the ribbon. It was the book. His heart sank, for there were rows and rows of boo'-cs about the room—some even more shabby than the one Gramps had carried, in a special case, carefully locked up. •And he had given the old man a book. But Gramps' hand was on John's shoulder, and - Gramps •- was saying heartily, "Why, I never in my life had one as fine as this!" For the first time John remember- ed that in his haste yesterday he hadn't even looked at the title. Now he craned his ick to read it. The book was called "The Holy Bible." Then everyone sat down, and Anton tacked his violin under his chin and played—German music, Italian music, Russian, Polish, and Hungarian music, and an Irish love song— something for everybody. And as he played, the faces -Polish, Irish. Ital- ian. German, and Hungarian — were no longer even watchful, but soft and kind of shining. When Anton had played a long time, he stopped and said to the old man, "Now I think we'll have a little real Christmas music." He looked at John for a moment, and Ant::n's face, too, was vert ceu:i all shining as he began to i'ay "0 Holy Night!" Santa Claus Loses Pau- ©f Reindeer Santa CIaus was anything but jolly — and all because of his rein- deer. Just before what was to have been Santa's triumphal entry into- Bluff- ton, Indiana, one of his four reindeer broke a leg in trying to escape from a barn to the snow-covered country- side. Then a second deer broke away. Santa finally got the other two harnessed to his sleigh, the smile back on his face and was off down Main St. in a cloud of snow to cheers • and surprise of some 1,000 children, who thought he always drove four reindeer. Peasants'orecast Christmas Weather In some country districts of France a custom is observed which is sup. posed to enable people to forecast the weather on Christmas Day and throughout the coining year. Twelve onions are pineed in a row and on each is placed a dab of salt. If by Epiphany the salt on any onion has melted, then the month represented ley that r.articu:r:r onion will be wet. If .he salt on the twelfth onion is dry, then Christmas Day, also, will be fine. At Baux, in Provence, shepherds hold a watch -night service at which they pray for good weather. Each arrives carrying a lighted taper and a iamb and prays before a crib, as the, chephcrds did 2,000 e nrs ago.