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PREPARING THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING.
fi"
A Christmas Experience.
An Accident In the Life of an Observing Traveler
Several winters ago I had arrived at
Odessa from Asiatic Turkey. The un-
lucky yellow flag, hoisted by command
of the visiting surgeon of the port, com-
pelled the brig I was in to toss about in
the roadstead for a week before it was
admitted to the quarantine harbor
Then I was required to send my clothes
for fumigation, and at the end of an-
other week the authorities permitted
me to land and take up my quarters in
the lazaretto for 14 days more, ‘on sus-
picion of plague.”
The Odessa lazaretto is built in the
form of a quadrangle. Each room is
separated from its neighbor by a double
wall, between which a sentinel takes
his station to see that neighbors hold
no communication with each other.
There is a small courtyard in front of
each room, and a double iron grating—
GUARDED BY TWO SOLDIERS.
one row of grating a few feet before the
other—keeps the prisoners from any
personal contact with the outer world,
represented by the restaurateur and
his aids, the surgeon and the chaplain.
In the room adjoining mine were con-
fined a Greek and a young woman, whe
passed a portion of their time in sing-
ing to the music of a guitar and occa-
sionally a tambourine. Much of the rest
was spent in eating, drinking and sleep-
ing, to judge from the long intervals of
silence. But there were noisy episodes
which conveyed strong proofs that the
lady could scold as well as sing, and
sometimes the quarrels rose to a terri-
ble pitch, a thump, followed by a
scream, furnishing the climax. It was
Christmas day. The snow fell heavily,
deadening the sound of the church bells,
which, through a broken pane, remind-
ed me of the holy festival. I expected
to hear my neighbors sing hymns. My
own time was devoted to my books—
the only relief to an enforced solitude.
Toward evening, while the guard
slept, I distinctly heard the voice of the
man Greek. He seemed to be growling
rather than speaking, and in the inter-
vals of his silence I heard the female
sob. Not a very ‘‘merry Christmas,”
thought I. Sometimes one voice rose
above the other. The one was shrill, the
other loud and angry. Then there was
a scuffle; then all was tranquil. Night
had fallen, and I had hoped the parties
had gone to sleep. But again the mur-
murs, the expostulations, the outbursts,
disturbed my quiet. And now the wom-
an became voluble, and spasmodic bursts
of grief alone interrupted the torrent of
her eloquence. Often the man called out
what appeared to be *‘Silence!’’ adding
a few words, none of which was dis-
tinct enough to be caught, in a minatory |
tone. Then came another struggle,
words, bitter words, stifled cries, a heavy
fall, a scream, silence again.
I could not sleep. What had been the
issue of the last quarrel? Had the
‘‘peace and good will’’ taught by the
Redeemer, whose natal day the outer
Christian world was celebrating, ulti-
mately prevailed, and were the recent
antagonists illustrating the Horatian
maxim that the falling out of lovers is
the renewal of love? Or had the last
fall so stunned the feebler of the two
individuals as to render the revival of
either love or anger temporarily impos-
sible?
I was uot long in doubt. It was past
midnight when I was awakened by dol-
orous cries and heavy sobs, vehement
protestations and earnest apostrophes in
the voice of the man. I knocked loudly
at the wall to suggest silence. He evi-
dently did not heed the knocking 1
called out in good Italian, *‘Be quiet!”
It was of no avail. I roused up the
guard and asked him what was the mat-
ter with the gentleman. My custodian
suggested he was drunk. I could not,
however, divest my mind of the idea
that a deed of darkness had been perpe-
trated.
The night wore away. I could not
sleep. I no longer heard the voice of
the woman. Even the man’s voice was
hushed. But instead of the usual sounds
my ear was assailed with knockings on
the floor and a noise as of a saw or file
at work. When the restaurateur came
round in the morning to take orders for
breakfast, I told him what I had heard
and suggested that the lady might be
ill and need medical aid. He went next
.door, but was sent away with the inti-
mation that nothing was wanted. Two
or three more days elapsed. The time
had arrived for my release. On the very
day indeed when I was to be emanci-
pated my neighbors were also to be
freed. I heard the officers arrive next
door. Some words were uttered, follow-
ed by an altercation. Then the man cried
bitterly. What could be the matter?
More officers came. The man was fetter-
ed and taken away. Where was the wo-
man? He had stabbed her in his anger,
and under some absurd notion that her
existence would be forgotten by the au-
thorities he had taken up two planks
and deposited the dead body of the poor
girl beneath them. This explained the
operations which followed upon the si-
lence. When I was released, 1 saw my
quondam neighbor sitting in a veranda
of the place where I went to reclaim my
fumigated apparel, guarded by two sol-
diers. He was a little old man of ma-
lignant aspect. 1 remembered having
seen him at the harbor with a handsome
young Greek whom I supposed to be
his child, No one knew exactly what
their relative position was. It was
enough that he had shed her blood on
Christmas night.
! W. A. GILCRIST.
The Treating Habit.
It was Pope Telesphorus, who died
before the year 160 A. D., who insti-
tuted Christmas as a festival, though
for some time it was irregularly held in
December, April and May. But for cen-
turies before there had been a feast of
Yule among the northern nations whose
great enjoyment was in drinking the
wassail bowl or cup. Nothing gave
them so much delight as indulgence in
‘‘carousing ale,’’ especially at the sea-
son of short days when fighting was
ended. It was likewise their custom at
all their feasts ‘‘for the master of the
house to fill a large bowl or pitcher, to
drink out of it first himself, and then
give to him that sat next, and so it
went around. >’ This may have been the
origin of that popular American custom
known as ‘“‘treating. *’ It is certain that
upon our Christian observance of this
glorious day have been ingrafted habits
taken from rude and barbarous people.
The Difference.
First Goose—What’s the difference
between a Christmas turkey and a
Christmas girl?
i Second (oose—I dunno.
| First Goose— Why, one is dressed to
kill, and the other is killed to dress.
‘ Reminder of an Old Custom.
Hundreds of old country people, espe-
cially of Irish birth, will remember the
Christmas candle which is lighted and
placed in the window at midnight of
Christmaseve and allowed to burn there
on the successive nights until it is all
consumed. It is one of the most inter-
esting of all the customs associated with
the religious celebration of the Christian
festival. It issymbolic, of course, of the
*‘Light of the World, ’’ but some hold
that with the mistletoe, the holly and
the festive practices of the season it goes
back to Druid or pagan origin and is
derived from some olden symbolism of
the returning warmth of the sun. How-
ever this may be, it is not generally
known that the custom has been pre-
served in Canada to this day by a few
old country people, comparatively speak-
ing, to whom Christmas would not bear
its holy message without the tall wax
candle shining in their window.
Christ Child Legends.
Beasts and Birds Have a Prominent Place In Christ-
mas Lore.
‘rne story of the hunting of the wren
in the isle of Man every Christmas is
well known. She is known as Our La-
dy’s nen, God’s chicken, Christ’s bird,
because she was present at Christ's
birth, brought moss and feathers to
cover the Holy Babe and made a nest in
his cradle.
Ta France the cuckoo was believed to
have flown from a Christmas log.
A Latin poem of the middle ages tells
that the crossbill hatches her eggs at
Christmas and her young birds fly off in
their full plumage at Easter.
The Mohammedans have many leg-
ends of Isa, or Jesus. One tells that
when he was 7 years old he and his
companions made birds and beasts of
clay, and Isa proved his superiority by
making his fly and walk as he com-
manded.
In the Tyrol they say the ravens used
to have snow white plumage, but one
day Jesus wanted to drink at a stream,
.and they splashed and so befouled the
water that he could not, so he said,
‘‘Ungrateful birds, you are proud of
your snow white feathers, but they
shall become black and remain so until
the judgment day.’
A Russian legend tells that the horse
flesh is considered unclean because when
Christ lay in his manger the horse ate
the hay from under his bed, but the ox
would not and brought back on his
horns to replace what the h ,rse ate.
The Britons believe that the ox and
the ass talk together between 11 and 12
o’clock every Christmas eve.
In Germany the cattle kneel in their
stalls at that hour. Another version
says they stand up.
The ass and the cow are sacred be-
cause they breathed upon the Holy Babe
in his stall.
The ass is the most sure footed of ani-
mals because he carried the holy fami-
ly to Egypt by night. He has had a
cross on his back ever since.
Old women used to sprinkle holy wa-
ter on the ass and the cow to drive away
disease.
Bees are said to buzz in their hives
at the exact hour of our Saviour’s birth.
In north Germany the version of the
man in the moon is thus told: One
Christmas eve a peasant greatly desired
cabbage, but as he had none in his own
garden he stole from his neighbor.
Just as he filled his basket the Christ
Child rode by on his white horse and
said, ‘‘Because thou has stolen on
Christmas eve thou shalt sit in the
moon with thy cabbage basket.’’ And
there he still sits.—Philadelphia Ledg-
er.
Christmas Giving.
A Custom That Comes From the Three Wise Men
Who Followed the Star.
Ot course you need not be told of the
origin of presenting gifts at this season
of the year. The three wise men who
followed the star until it remained sta-
tionary over the stable in Bethlehem,
and who, entering the hovel wherein
were the cow and the ass, knelt down
before the beautiful Babe insthe manger,
placed before him presents of myrrh,
frankincense and. gold. Their example
is the example that you follow today,
1,895 years after the Magi made obei- | m=
sance to the Child Jesus, and when you
place presents before the little ones who
are made in the image of the Divine
Babe you are doing what was done by
the eastern kings, but remember that to
carry out their example to the full the
babes in the mangers, the little ones in
hovels, must not be forgotten.
Most of our Christmas customs come
from the German. Kris Kringle is a
legendary myth whose origin is involv-
ed in much doubt. Formerly in the
small villages of Germany the presents
made by all the parents were sent to some
one person, who, in high buskins, a
white robe, a mask and an enormous
flax wig, and known as Knecht Rupert,
went from house to house. He was re-
ceived by the parents with great rever-
ence, and, calling for the children, pre-
sented the gifts to them according to
the accounts of their conduct received
from the parents. It appears as highly
probable that this custom gave rise to
our present innumerable legends about
Santa Claus.—Philadelphia Times.
Christmas Weather.
In a note following some quotations
regarding Christmas and winter weather
the author of an old London publication
says, ‘‘These prognostics of weather,
etc., I look upon as altogether uncer-
tain, and were they narrowly observed
would as often miss as hit.’’ Besides
being quoted as above the proverb is
varied asfollows: ‘‘A hot May makes a
fat churchyard’’ and ‘‘A green winter
makes a fat churchyard.’’ To the latter
proverb is added this note, ‘“This prov-
erb was sufficiently confuted in the
year 1667, when the winter was very
mild, and yet no mortality or epidem-
ical disease ensued the summer or au-
tumn following. ’’—Philadelphia Ledg-
er.
Christmas.
Heap on more wood.
The wind is chill,
But, let it whistle as it will,
We'll keep our merry Christmas still.
—Walter Scott.
Lo!, now is come our joyful’st feast!
Let every man be jolly.
Each room with ivy leaves is drest
And every post with holly.
—Withers.
For little children everywhere
A joyous season still we make.
We bring our precious gifts to them,
Even for the dear child Jesus’ sake.
—Pheebe Cary.
Blow, bugles of battle, the marches of peace!
East, west, north and south let the long quar-
rel cease.
Bing the song of great joy that the angels be-
gan.
Bing of glory tc God and of good will to man.
| —Whittier.
. Again at Christmas did we weave
The holly round tho Christmas hearth.
The silent snow posseased the earth.
~Tennyson.
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