— LL around the seascn of
J the Coming of Love as
a little Child there have
sprung legends and De-
liefs, like blossoms
a gracious clime, which testify with
subtlety to the depth of the apneal of
the birth of Christ Here divinely
spiritual symbolism and there sweet
human tenderness and pathos appear,
and, blended. they evidence the world’s
belief that this was both Son of Maa
and Son of God.
An Irish legend tells that, on Christ.
mas eve, the Christ-Child wanders out
in the darkness and cold, and the
peasants still put lighted candles in
their windows to guide the sacred lit.
tle feet, that they may not stumiie on
their way to their homes. And in
Hungary the people go vet {urther in
their tenderness for the Child, they
spread feasts and leave their doors
open that He may enter at His will
while throughout Christendom there is
a belief that no evil can touch any
child who is born on Christmas eve.
The legend which tells how the very |
hay which lined the manger in which
the Holy Babe was laid put forth liv-
ing red blossoms at midwinter at the
touch of the Babe's body could only
have arisen from belief in the renewal
of life through the Lord of Life.
oly Thorn.
T is not so many centuries
ago since there was that holy
thorn at Glastonbury which '
blossomed every Christmas, and. so '
ran the legend, had done ever since
St. Joseph of Arimathea, having come '
as apostle to Britain, and, landing at |
Glastonbury, had stuck his staff of dry
hawthorn into the soil, commanding it |
to put forth leaves and blossoms. This
the staff straightway did, and thereby
was the king converted to the Chris-
tian faith, the faith which preached
the city of sin, was buried deep. clean
out of sight, beneath the waves. But |
ever at Christmas up from beneath the '
covering waters comes the sweet call
fug of church bells buried in Been. It
is a legend which appears to teli in
parable that nothing which ever be
longed to the Christ, and was dedi
cated to Dis service, is ever who'ly lon
from him and alienated from service;
that ever and again something of their
inherent beauty and compelling sweet-
ness rises from the depths through all
seoming ruin.
#0 = she Manger.
Rg 7 RADITION declares that
V within the stone manger
'
there was another one
of wood, and that the stone cradle in |
the Chapel of the Nativity is, indeed. !
the outer manger. Splendid is that
humble stone trough now with white |
marble, softly rich with: costly dra- |
peries, and radiant with a silver star, |
which is surrounded by 16 lamps, ever |
ait. But yet more glorious is the |
wooden manger at Rome, held to be
the veritable manger in which the
Christ-child lay. It was removed to
Rome in the seventh century, during |
the Mohammedan invasion of the Holy |
Land, and there it is preserved in a |
strong brazen chest, from which it is |
brought forth on Christmas days.
when it is placed on the Grand Altar. |
It is mounted upon a stand of silver, |
which is inlaid with gold and gems, ;
and the shrine in which it rests is of
purest rock crystal. In the days in
. which this was accomplished men, .
; whatsoever may have been
their |
shortcomings in other directions, gave
magnificently to the Church Visible.
stmas Bells.
RADITION says that the
hour of the Babe's birth |
was the hour of midnight, '
and legend adds that from then until |
| dawn cocks crow. In Ireland it is |
! held that whoso looks into a mirror on
| this eve will see the devil or Judas
| Iscariot looking over his shoulder,
| surely thought sufficient to drive the
# (larence
ee
Zr
a
i , In England and America the accused
i need not testify unless he chooses. In
! Italy he is the first and most impor-
. scope In defending himself.
i
Criminal Court Methods There Utterly |
Different From OQurs. |
Criminal court trials in Italy ara con- |
ducted under a very simple system, |
though utterly different from the sys- |
tem which governs procedure in Amer-
ienn or English courts, says an ex-|
nae.
+ trial takes place before three
judges and a jury, to which are added |
a certain number of extra jurors, who |
. are sworn and are present in court to |
hear the testimony and are held ready |
to take the place in the jury box of
, any juror who may in the course of |
the trial be incapacitated from further |
service. The depositions of all the |
witnesses have been taken in writing |
and signed before the trial begins. |
Each of th2 judges has a copy of these |
before him. The prosecutor and the |
counsel for the accused furnish to the!
court a list of the witnesses they de-
sire called, and these are all summon-
ed by the court. which has power to |
punish nonattendance.
The first thing that bappens when
the trial begins is the questioning of
the accused by the presiding justice.
In Italy. as in most of continental Eu-
rope, a man accused of a crime is con-
sidered by the law to be the very best
witness to Lis own guilt or innocence.
tant witness.
The accused is allowed the widest
He bas
a right to tell his own story in his
life from death.
The holy thorn of Glaston! ury flour-
ished during the centuries until the
civil wars. During those it was up- mas eve, Judas Iscariot
rooted: but several persons had bad ; from that hell—“his own place”—and
| hardiest soul to a thought of the inno-
cent Babe.
Another legend tells that, on Christ- |
is released
trees growing from cuttings from the is allowed to return to earth that he |
original tree, and those continued to ' may cool himself in icy waters.
bloom at the Christ-season, just as |
‘their parent, which had grown from |
St. Joseph's staff, had bloomed. And | and such legends appear on their
about the middle of the 18th century | faces, they bear study and repay fit,
it was recorded in the Gentleman's | for we then see that they are full of |
Wild and improbable although such |
Magazine how the famous holy thorn subtle spiritual expression, as it were; |
KLINE WOODRING—, -at- ,
S fonte, Pa. Tala
e
Room 18 Crider’s Exchange. 51-1-1y.
B. SPANGLER—Attorney-at-Law. Practice
in all the Courts. Consultation in English
or German. Office in Crider's Exchabge
Bellefonte, Pa.
S. TAYLOR—Attorney and Counsellor at
Law. Office, Garman House block, Belle-
fonte, Pa.
All kinds of legal business at-
10-49
tended to promatiy,
J Counsellor at Law,
xchange, second
floor. All kinds of legal business. attended
to promptly. Consultation in English or German.
H. WETZEL—Attorney and
Office No. 11, Criders,
ETTIG, BOWER & ZERBY—Attorneys-at-
Law, Eagle Block, Bellefonte, Pa Suctear
ors to Orvis, Bower & Orvis. Practice inall
the courts, Consultation in English or German. 50-7
M. KEICHLINE—Attorney-at-Law. Practices
in all the courts. rey Law in" Basie
German. Office south of court house
Jrofessional business will receive be
All
ent
|W Ee niin ue
Dentists.
R. J. E. WARD, D. D. S., office door
D KX cy way i street, Bellefonte.
or painless
ing teeth, Superior Crown and Bridge work.
D*
Car de Beletonte, Fa. All mod:
used. Has
| work of Siperior quality
es
| own way, to offer anything he can in|. Restaurant, =
| the way of justification or palliation.
| Even hearsay evidence is admissible. ESTAURANT
: : The judge has absolute discretion as RANT. . na
Nz | to what testimony may be received | Bellefonte now has a FirstClass Res.
vakeds=t | and what excluded, and any judge
as hells / END . | who exercised this discretion unfairly Meals are Served at All Hours
TN . | would be an object of execration. Bias
oft, soft,/m Ne yr es!) on the part of one judge is possible, | pigs <hioP pag OL ng Bd
the snow. « MN Ae ¥ but there are always the other two {yiches, S and Satable, can
w pA RR judges on the bench with him, and dition I hav a A to
Z “4 p: Z RN the; are a perfect check against un-! furnish Drinks in bottles such as
~ WA Noel? Noel?\. SR i ; | fairness. POPS,
/ Carol 1she | == ) When the accused has given bis tes. SODAS,
fl s each Ch bel pl 7 INE timony he is confronted personally | SARSAPARILLA,
/ What are ie ¥ jen A ist DE with his accuser. ‘The accuser is nec- | SELTZER SYPHONS, ETC..
That gather anear the )wirffow-pane 7 h essarily the principal witness against | {or pic-nics, families and the public gener.
3 : y : A : ally all of which are manufactured out of
Where the winter frost all i y has lain? / An Bin ar wTraking, rhe hrisoner | the purest syrups and properly carbonated.
They are soulless elves, wh\fain would pé: while the latter is telling bis story, | C. MOERSCHBACHER,
Within, and laugh at our Christmas ¢
Ring fleetly, chimes! Swit, swift,’ ymes
They are made of the mocking mist
\
L
but in practice the judges permit it, |
and tbe confrontation sometimes be-'
comes a three cornered debate between |
accuser, accused and judge. the latter |
giving the accused the widest leeway |
to demonstrate his innocence.—Case
and Comment.
+28%1y.
High St.
Bellefonte, Pa.
would not deign to recognize the new
style calendar, which had then come
into force but would persist in blos-
‘soming as of old on old Christmas
day!
In those days the anniversary of the
advent of the Babe had certainly
meani more to the common people
than merely a time for feasting and
revelry, for giving and receiving; it
had been also a season for holy ob-
servances, for they refused to go to
church on New Christmas day. the
holy thorn not being ten in blog:om, |
So serious became the irouble that the |
clergy found it prudent to announce
that Old Christmas day should also
be kept sacred as before. Only an-
other story of men’s weak, supersti-
tious minds? True, perhaps; but they
are better who evidence some spiritual
weakness than those who wallow in
the wholly material, and when we
cease to be careful of the cup and the
platter, we become not over careful of
their contents.
hristmas Rose.
~ NOTHER of those spiritual
parables is the legend of
the Christmas rose, and it,
tells how good things, fit for giving.
spring up ready to the hand which |
earnestly desirss to give to the Child, |
It is =aid that a certain maiden of |
Bethlehem was so poor that she had |
nothing to give to the Babe to whom
kings brought wealth from afar, and,
as she stood, longing and mourning. |
and angel appeared to her, saying: |
“Look at thy feet, beneath the snow,” |
and lo! on obeying the maiden found
that a new flower had miraculously
sprung up and blogsomed at her needs.
Every since then, runs this story, this
exquisite flower, with its snowy petals
just touched by suggestions of pinkish
bloom, is to be found at this season;
and, indeed, its half-opened cups are
like chalices of love, and its fully-
spread petals are like a happy dnno-
-cenee, fit symbols for the gifts for the
Babe of spotless innocence, whose
heart was the vessel of love,
as Eve Legends.
HERE are several exceeding-
ly touching legends concern-
‘ ing bells, which are heard
ringing from buried cities and villages
at this season. One belongs to a vil-
lage near Raleigh, in Nottingham-
shire, and the story runs that once,
where there is now but a valley, there
was a village which, with every trace
of life and habitation, had been swal.
lowed by an earthquake; but ever
since, at Christmas, the bells of the
buried church are heard to ring as of
old.
A similar legend is told of Preston,
in Laneashire, and yei another and
more moving one comes from the
Netherlands. It is sald that the city
of Been was notori for its black
and shameless sins, as well as re-
nowned for its beauty and magnifi-
cence. To the Sodom of the middle
ages came our Savior on ome anni-
versary of his birth, and went as a
beggar from door to door, but not one
in all that Christmas keeping city
gave the Master of the abundance. Sin
: the dead roots of superstition.
be saw rampant on every side, but not
that they are parables of certain spir- |
ftual facts, and it will be ill for us |
should the Christmas day ever dawn
on which such flowers of tender faith
, and wonder shall appear to us no |
more than dry curious specimens from |
i
What Christmas Means,
|
Christmas means hope and |
its realization.
grows eagerly expectant as
the time approaches for the | |
visit of Santa Claus. While
this fiction remains unques- |
tioned, the imagination |
opens new and wider worlds, |
and ideals become so much |
a part of the mind that the prosaic .
and commonplace can never crush |
them. Until the youth reaches man- |
hood and independence, Christmas is
the happiest day of the year. Its gifts |
and hearty good cheer impress family
affection, parental thoughtfulness and |
brotherly love. The dullest and most |
irresponsive of fathers and mothers
are uplifted to a vision of higher life ;
by the interchanges of souvenirs and |
the merry meeting with children and |
grandchildren at the table and fire
side. Few can escape and all enjoy '
the meaning of the festival, the les- |
sons it conveys and the inspiration
it gives, and we enter upon a brighter
future and a fuller appreciation of the
beneficence of the practice of faith,
hope and charity. The loved ones
who have crossed to the other side, |
the loved near and far who are still
with us, the old homestead with its
precious memories, the old church
whose sacred associations tie togeth-
er childhood, maturity and age, love,
marriage and death; the schoolhouse
where the beginnings of education
were so painful, and the ever-increas-
ing pleasures of the pursuit of learn-
ing through the high school, academy
and college are recalled and recited,
and there is exquisite delight in these
oft-told tales, and new experiences en-
liven this blessed anniversary.—Les-
lie's Weekly.
First Christmas Observance,
Christmas gets its name
from the mass celebrated
known as a movable feast, just as
ter is now, and owing to misunder-
standings was celebrated as late as
April or May. In the fourth century
an ecclesiastical investigation was
at about midnight, and this led
celebration of a midnight mass
the churches, a second at dawn
The child |
third in the later morning.
Noel? Nol? NES Hp
Cease, cease, cach Christmas bell ¥
Under the holly bough, 1. :
there the happy children throng and shout,
Che Spirit of Christmas,
There is hardly a:
festival in the calen- |
dar which has such a |
hold on the hearts of |
old and young alike as |
Christmas Day. The
ring of the car bells |
and the voices upon
the streets seem to
take on a more cheery tone, and the
spirit of the time seems to throw a
glamour over places and things which
ordinarily are devoid of all beauty.
As it is with places, so it is with
people. They, too, not only seem to
change, but the transformation does |
take place in millions of hearts to a |
greater or less degree. The spirit of |
Christmas even affects people who for
the rest of the year are devoid of |
sentiment and of feeling for their fel-
lows. The most interesting stories
of Christmastide are those which will
never appear in print—true stories of
men and women whose thoughts have
been only of their own selfish aims
and pleasures, but have been awak-
ened, if only for a day or iwo, from
their usual self-complacency, moved
by some force of which they are only
half-conscious to do some act of kind-
ness to make the day happier for
someone less fortunate than them-
selves in a worldly way.—The Chris.
tian Herald.
: suspended, to be resumed after the
The Christmas Spirit.
But don't you see that there is a
Santa Claus! He isn't a man in a fur
coat, and a reindeer sleigh and all
that, but he is the Spirit of Christmas,
isn’t he? They've that
and made a saint of him and invented
legends about him-—for the children,
but when we're no longer children and
don’t believe in him, we still have
that Christmas spirit—and it's that
that gives presents and makes us feel
toward one another, and makes Christ.
mas what it Is—Harvey J. O'Higgins.
me ea —
Christmas Customs,
It is interesting to
trace the origin of
festival customs to!
those connected with
Druidical superstitions
of classic observances.
and it will surprise
many to learn that
present-day sports very |
closely resemble the celebrations ob-
served of old in honor of Saturn or
Bacchus.
The Roman Saturnalia, which oc-
curred in the winter solstice, were a
season of great festivity and rejoicing,
honored by many privileges and ex-
emptions. The spirit of gaiety had
free charter, and even quarrels were
holidays.
As a manifestation of the gratitude
felt at the renewed prospects of the
returning march of the sun, gifts were
exchanged and special hymns were
sung. These latter were really the
Roman representatives of the modern
carol.
At the Saturnalia the Roman feast-
ed, sang and danced, as we do at
Christmas. A ruler or king was ap-
pointed, who enjoyed certain preroga-
tives. He presided over the sports of
the season. Probably he is ‘he an-
cestor of the lord of misrule, who ex-
ercised a similar power in more re-
cent times.
Merriment was a matter of general
concern, and the joyous spirit of en-
tire districts is now narrowed to fam-
fly parties.
It is the touch that makes the’
whole world kin, and it is a pleasant.
reminder that, after all, history re-
Not Blessed. :
The presents you forget to give to,
others who don't forget to give to Jou! |
are not so blessed. |
| tlon.—-New York Press.
! be done at the point where Washing-
' ton street intersects the street which
is “Winter” on one side and “Sminmer”
. Winter and Summer joke usually calls
How Watches Vary. |
Theoretically, says a jeweler, the |
best watches of today ave perfect, but |
actually they both gain and lose time |
every day. Fven if the zood watch |
does not vary one second at the end |
of the twenty-four hours. the expert
insists, it has both gained and lost in
that time. If it is wound in the morn- |
ing it rnus fast and toward the next
morning runs slow, thus equalizing |
the time. He says the best watches |
should be wound twice a day and then |
at only two-thirds of the capacity of |
: the mainspring. thus preventing either !
binding or extremes of strong or weak- |
: ened spring. The balance wheel was
| expected to equalize differences ot
| mainspring tension, but really this is |
not the case to what is called perfec-
Boston's Winter and Summer. ;
Nearly all visitors to Boston, if they |
"do not see it. are told of the place
where one may “step from Winter into
. Summer or from Summer into Winter |
at any time of the year without giving |
a thought to his clothing.” This may |
on the other. A guide wus cninrging
on this bit of humor to a visitor from
New York a few days ago. but was
oot rewarded by the smile which the
forth, “That's nothing.” said the New
Yorker, “but what is really funny here
is to see the entrance to the under-
ground railway marked “The Eleva.
tor.' "—New York Tribune
The Church Cough.
Of all coughs the church cough is
the most difficult to check. and it is
almost as contagious us yawning. The
late Mr. Haweis practically cured his
Marylebone congregation of coughing
during the service He used to an-
nounce an interval for conghing with
a polite request to those who found
this insufficient 10 go outside There |
is a somewhat similar practice in the |
Russian army-—the nose blowing drill |
—which is performed by the whole
regiment at n signal from the colonel.
And no soldier dares sneeze at any
other time London Spectator
Pulling Power of Men and Animals.
Interesting tests were recently made
to determine the respective pulling
power of horses, men and elephants.
Two horses weighing 1,600 pounds
each together pulled 3,750 pounds, or
5650 pounds move than their combined
weight. One clephant weighing 12,000
pounds pulled 8.750 pounds. or 3.200
pounds less than its weight. Fifty
men, aggregating 7.500 pounds fin
weight, pulled 8,750 pounds, or just as
much as the single elephant; but, like
the horses, they pulled more than their
own weight. One hundred men pulled
12.000 pounds.
An Exception.
“Take my advice and mind your own
affairs. No man ever got rich fighting
other people's battles.”
“I don’t know. How about a law-
yer?’—Boston Transcript.
EDWARD K. RHOADS
Shi; and Comission
Merchant. and ae in
ANTHRACITE axp BITUMINOUS
COALS
CORN EARS, SHELLED CORN, OATS
and other grains,
— BALED HAY AND STRAW —
Builders’ and Plasterers’ Sand.
KINDLING WOOD
by the bunch or cord as mav suit purchasers,
respectfully solicits the patronage of his
friends and the public, at his Coal Yard,
near the Pennsylvania Passenger Station.
. § Central 1312,
161s Telephone Calls: {EET lhe
: Money to Loan.
ONEY TO LOAN on good security and
5i-14-1y.
Meat Market.
Get the Best Meats.
or 28 save nothing by buying poor, this
LARGEST AND FATTEST CATTLE
and Swsiomers WAR the fresh-
[iS Svealks and Rowe JL. ng
I always have
~— DRESSED POULTRY —
Game in season, and any kinds of good
meats you want,
TRY MY SHOP.
When you are ready for it,
- you will get it here. On
ROOFING,
AND GLASS.
a
AN ESTIMATE?
BELLEFONTE LUMBER CO.
Bellefonte, Pa.
525-1y.