FCl^ildrenX^^i^rf IK CHRISTMAS eHRISTMAS is not only a mile mark of another year, moving us to thoughts of self-examination; it is a season, from all Its associations, whether domestic or teligious, •uggesting thoughts of joy. A man dissatisfied with his endeavors is a man tempted to sadness. And in the midst of winter, when his life runs lowest and he is reminded of the empty chairs of his beloved, it is well he should be condemned *o the fashion of the smiling face.—Robert Louis Stevenson. * * * MOW many old recollections and how many dormant sympathies does the Christmas time awaken! Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can trans port the sailor and the traveler thousands of miles ■ way, back to his own fireside and his quiet home. Fili your glass again, with a merry face and contented heart. Our life on it, but your Christmas shall be merry and your New Year • happy one.—Charles Dickens. * + + that as surely as in that I lYv L?l, y lite at Bethlehem there lay the power which has run through all the world; the power which makes Judea burn like a star forever; the power which has transfigured history;.*;the power which has made millions of men its joyous servants; the power of the millenniums yet to be, so surely in the humblest •oul's humble certainty that it does love Christ, there lies enfolded all the possibility of the most perfect sainthood.—Phillips Brooks. + * * DT IS a good thing to observe Christmas Dr.y. The mere marking of times and seasons, when men agree to stop work and make merry together, is a wise and wholesome custom. It helps one to feel the supremacy of the common life over the individual life. It reminds a man to set his own luile watch, now and then, by the great clock of humanity, which runs on sun time.—Henry Van Dyke. + + * SUPPOSE a note came on Christmas Day saying not, "I send my love and Lest wishes with thisspool-box," but, "I want you to know that your patience, or courage, or tenderness, during this last year, will help me to live more bravely and courageously this year." What a Christmas present the receipt of such a letter would be to any one of us. What a gift for any one of us to send to the human heart that has given us courage for the burden and heat of the day.—Margaret Deland. * * * THE season of regenerated feeling—the season of kindling, not merely the fire of .bov itality in the hall, but the genial flarae o£'charity in the heart. He who can turn ■churbshfy away from contemplating the felicity «112 hfe Id low beings, and can sit down darkling and repining in his loneliness when all around is joyful, may have his moments of selfish grati fication, but h? wants the genial and social sympathies which constitute the charm of a ■Merry Christmas.—Washington Irving. ¥ M ¥ MY CHRISTMAS wish for all is thai they may tasle the sweetness of love, enter into the joys of friendship, and «"ow the div:ns beneficence of helping someone at present less forPunaie than themselves. In these words are we to find the living spirit of the human and eternal Christmas. The uni versal gladness of Christmas is proportioned to til- extent of i'.s unselfishness. People are happy, Oot in what tli:ry get so much as in what they give.—Minot J. Savage. * * + HND there were in the same country shep herds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And 10, the angel of the I-ord came upon thorn, and the glory of the Lord shone around about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto therii: "Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord."—From the Gospel of St. Luke, * ¥ + SANTA CLAUS remains, by virtue of a common understanding that childhood shall not be despoiled of one of its most cherished beliefs, either by the mythologist, with his sun myth theory, or the scientist, with his heartless diatribe against superstitions. He who docs not see in the legend of Santa Claus a beautiful faith on the one side, and the native embodiment of a divine fact on the other, is not fit to have a place at the Christmas board. — Hamilton Wright Mabie. The Christmas Tree. Every time I see a Christmas tree studded with electric lights, garlands of tinsel gold festooning every branch, and hung with the hundred costly knicknacks the storekeepers invent year by year "to make trade," until the tree Itself disappears entirely un der its burden, I have a feeling that fraud has been practiced on the kind ly spirit of Yale. Wax candles are the only real thing for a Christmas tree, candles of wax that mingle their perfume with that of the burning fir, not the by-product of some coal-oil or other abomination. What if the boughs do catch fire? They can be watched, and too many candles are tawdry, anyhow. Also, red apples, oranges and old-fashioned cornucopias made of colored paper, and made at home, look a hundred times better and fitter in the green; and so do drums and toy trumpets and wald-horns, and a rocking horse reined up in front that need not have cost $10; or anything like it.—Jacob Iliis in Century. : A Cure for All Evils. In certain parts of Worcestershire and Staffordshire; in England, the idaa prevails that a silver coin from the Christmas morning offertory is a sov ereign remedy for any ill that human flesh is heir to. Accordingly, any householder who happens to have an ailing child or other person in the house hies him to the clergyman of the parish on Christmas morning, and asks as a favor a sacrament shilling. The coin given in exchange has to be obtained by collecting a dozen pennies from as many different maidens, and then changing the coppers fo- a silver shilling. For this coin the applicant receives the coveted sacrament shil ling, which, on being taken home, is hung round the ailing one's neck, and is fjopularly supposed to effect a rapid and complete cure of the complaint, no matter what it may be. Where the Toys Are Made. In Germany whole villages are de voted to the production of Christmas toys, and their busiest time is just about midsummer. By the end of Au gust the receiving depots are crammed with Christmas clowns and Christmas mechanical puppets, Christmas drums and wooden horses —children's Christ mas presents, in fact, of all sorts and kinds. And the travelers start out east, west, north and south with their Christmas samples about the time the corn is ready for the sickles of the reapers. In Holland; too, where more than one town is devoted, more or less, t*> the making of Christmas dolls, the same rule holds good. During May, June, July and August every m-an, woman and child in these places seem in somp way to be occupied with the manufacture'of miniature babies. Even at school during these particular months the sewing lessons are taken with dolls' clothes for models. CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1909. GETTING^^ >■*/'■' c_j£3^ * TTiEODO&E JSOO<SEVJSI7 ©NE DECEMBER, while I was out on my ranch, so much work had to be done that it was within a week of Christmas before we were able to take any thought for the Christmas dinner. The winter set in late that year, and there ha*l been comparatively little cold weather, but one day the Ice on the river had been sufficiently strong to enable us to haul up a wagonload of flour, with enough salt pork to last through the winter, and a very few tins of canned goods, to be used at special feasts. We had some bushels of potatoes, the heroic victors of a struggle for existence in which the reet of our garden vegetables had suc cumbed to drought, frost and grass hoppers; and we also had some wild plums and dried elk venison. But we had no fresh meat, and so one day my foreman and I agreed to make a hunt on the morrow. Accordingly one of the cowboys rode out in the frosty afternoon to fetch in the saddleband from the pla teau three miles off, where they were grazing. It was after sunset when he returned. It was necessary to got to the hunt ing grounds by sunrise, and it still lacked a couple of hours of dawn when the foreman wakened me as I lay asleep beneath the buffalo robes. Dressing hurriedly and breakfasting on a cup of coffee and some mouth fuls of bread and jerked elk meat, we slipped out to the barn, threw the saddles on the horses, and were off. The air was bitterly chill; the cold had been severe for two days, so that the river ice would again bear horses. Beneath the light covering of pow dery snow we could feel the rough ground like wrinkled iron under the horses' hoofs. There was no moon, but the stars shone beautifully down through the cold, clear air, and our willing horses galloped swiftly across the long bottom on which the ranch house stood, threading their way deft ly among the clumps of sagebrush. A mHe off we crossed the river, the ice cracking with noises like pistol shots as our horses picked their way gingerly over it. On the opposite side was a dense jungle of bull-berry bushes, and on breaking through this we found ourselves galloping up a long, winding valley, which led back many miles into the hills. The cran nies and little side ravines were filled with brushwood and groves of stunt ed ash. By this time there was a faint flush of gray in the east, and as we rode silently along we could make out dimly the tracks made by the wild animals as they had passed and re passed in the snow. Several times we dismounted to examine them. A We Dismounted to Examine Them. couple of coyotes, possibly frightened by our approach, had trotted and loped up the valley ahead of us, leav ing a trail like that of two dogs; the sharper, more delicate footprints of a fox crossed our path; and outside one long patch of brushwood a series of round imprints in the snow betrayed where a bob-cat —as plainsmen term tlfe small lynx—had been lurking around to try to pick up a rabbit or a prairie fowl; As the dawn reddened, and it be came light ebougl) to objects some little way off. we began to sit erect in our saddles and to scan the hill sides sharply for sight of feeding deer. Hitherto we had seen no deer tracks sav# inside the bullberry bushes by the river, and we knew that the deer that lived in that impenetrable jun gle were cunning whiteta;ils which in such a place could be hunted only by aid of a hound. But just before sun rise we came on three lines of heart shaped footmarks In the snow, which showed where as many deer had just crossed a little plain ahead of us. They were walking leisurely, and from the lay of the land we believed that we should find them over the ridge, where there was a brush coulee. Riding to one side of the trail, we topped the little ridge Just as the sun flamed up, a burning ball of crimson, beyond the snowy waste at our backs. Almost immediately afterwards my companion leaped from his horse and Turning to Go Into the Log House. raised his rifle, and as he pulled the trigger I saw through the twigs of a brush patch on our left the erect, startled head of a young black-tailed doe as she turned to look at us, her great mule-like ears thrown forward. The ball broke her neck, and she turned a complete somersault down hill, while a sudden smashing of un derbrush told of the Sight of her ter rified companions. We both laughed and called out "dinner" as we sprang down toward s.her, and in a few minutes she was dressed and hung up by the hind legs on a small ash tree. The entrails and viscera we threw off to one side, nfter carefully poisoning them from a little bottle of strychnine which I had In my pocket. Almost every cat tleman carries iicison and neglects no chance of leaving out wolf bait, for the"wolves are sources of serious loss to the unfenced and unhoused flocks and herds. In this instance we felt particularly revengeful because it was but a few days since we had lost a fine yearling heifer. The tracks on the hillside where the carcass lay when we found it told the story plainly. The wolves, two in number, had crept up close before being dis covered, and had then raced down on the astounded heifer almost before she could get fairly started. One brute had hamstrung her with a snap of his vise-like jaws, and once down, she was torn open in a twinkling. No sooner was the sun up than a warm west wind began to blow In our faces. The weather had suddenly changed, and within an hour the snow was beginning to thaw and to leave patches of bare ground on the hill sides. We left our coats with our horses and struck off on foot for a group of high buttes cut up by the cedar canyons and gorges, in which we knew the old bucks loved to lie. It was noon before we saw anything more. We lunched at a clear spring —not needing much time, for all we had to do was to drink a draught of icy water and munch a strip of dried venison. Shortly afterward, as we were moving along a hillside with si lent caution, we came to a sheer can yon of which the opposite face was broken by little ledges grown up with wind-beaten cedars. As we peeped over the edge, my companion touched my arm and pointed silently to one of the ledges, and instantly I caught the glint of a buck's horns as he lay half behind an old tree trunk. A slight shift of position gave me a fair shot slanting down between his shoulders, and though he struggled to his feet he did not go GO yards after receiving the bullet. This was all we could carry. Lead ing the horses around we packed the buck behind my companion's saddle, and then rode back for the doe, which I put behind mine. But we were not destined to reach home without a slight adventure. When we got to the river we rode boldly on the ice, heedless of the thaw; and about mid way there was a sudden, tremendous crash, and men, horses and deer were scrambling together in the water amid slabs of floating ice. However, it was shallow and no worse results followed than some hard work and a chilly bath. But what cared we? We were returning triumphant with our Christ mas dinner. • - Death-and A Vision at Christmas By CLINTON DANGERFIELD BN THE early days of men the Lord sent two powers on earth to have dominion over them. One of these was Death —the other Life. The stern front of Life showed what he really was: unmerciful, exacting, swift to demand obedience to a thousand laws, swift to punish with the keen sword of pain when those laws were broken. His eyes were the eyes of a war lord; his hand as cold as iron—and as strong. The tasks he set were many. Few of these were to the liking of the chil dren of men, though some thinkers perceived that out of these heavy tasks came strength, also that if one wrestled with them stoutly one might even master Life himself and compel him to graciousness. Now the other power—Death—was a woman. Tall she was, but so perfectly formed that her height was no blem ish.'- Sleepy-eyed she was, but her slow, sweet smile was so infinitely tender and lovely that in the midst of their tasks men stopped to gaze on her as she passed. At last one of the young men fol lowed her. She spoke to him—her voice being that unspeakable music which not even a violin can outsing— and the young man returned into the fields of Life no more. Then a little child, weary of flower gathering, pulled at her garment's hem, and all the workers held their breath, waiting to see what Death would do; for Life had painted her In very evil colors. Dut Death lifted the child and laid her on her own deep bosom and sang to her. As she sang the child slept, and an exquisite smile lingered on its lips, as though its visions were very fair. Then Death held out the child that the workers might see, and cried; "Oh, ye who labor, beset with un ending toil, see ye how I have blessed the child? Never more shall the heat of summer vex her, nor the cold of winter! I have made her deaf to sor row and unmoved by the vibrations ye call joy. Forever shall her brow go unwrinkled, and because she hath chosen me I will give her the key to Heaven's Immortal gates." And a workef cried: "Ye have blessed the child because she was your chosen one?" The cry was a question. Said Death dreamily: "As I gave the child peace, so would I give it to all who come to me— trusting me wholly!" Looking out across the blazing fields she stretched her rounded arms and cried: "Ye are all mlna! Lover of souls ara I!" And with one accord they threw down their tools and followed her Into a far land, beyond the domain of Life. Now Life was vexed exceedingly by the unfinished task. He went straight at/a ar^ And swings* But Just as A stranger |a Xri^ And ere goople>KD The stranger lifts up "These ar<^bri\^p'g : ~m?bN^r S fe^land^^ =^^r , '"Are wholly illegal. lJoTy^iuMn- ** The laws alVjoe ob§y»cC\'^ And you go QjV/liil is jbaid. YJJ, - )/; Don't try to evade it, truVhyto 'J A smuggler you'll be gloomy Poor Santa was tahen abacK by this-news \§T And trembled with wrath from his cap to his snq^s— .'What's this?" he exclaimed. "Can Ktrust my own ears 7 I've been doing this for these hundreds of years. •«.«•<" • I've been bringing gladness to girls and to bbys— Stand bacft. I mustWelKa thrimltAair dolls and their toys." \ Alas! In a Seized could cease They PjaPl tik>h him away— And he Because tariff had never _ ||^| way to the Lord and complained how Death had led away part of his work ers. And the Lord sent a ftreat white angel unto the remainder and forbade them, through the angel, to hearken unto Death until they could serve Life no longer. For the Lord knew that the stern dominion of Life must be, for the sake of the men he hoped to complete. But only a few, a very few, of the children of men obeyed the angel. Let ' Death but pass the toilers, and her beauty was so great they continued to desert their posts and follow after her. Then Life cried unto the Lord witb : a great voice: "Death seduces my servants!" And the Lord said: "Deal with Death as thou wilt." ; Therefore Life seized on Deatfc an 4 ( cut away her perfumed locks, and put '• on her a painted mask, most hideoue to behold. And he sealed the lips of , Death, saying, "Be thou dumb, and b* thou no longer known as a woman." With this he cast over Death's won derful form a black mantle, like a pa«, and on it Life painted: "This is the King of Terrors." Then he sent Death forth, and there- . after whenever she came near the workers they fled from her and cried aloud unto Life: • "Matters not how hard thy taska, oil dear Life, if thou wilt but save ue from this frightful Death!" And Life said unto the Lord: "Have I not done well?" And he answered in exceeding soit row: "Needs must thy work on Death stand. And this because of the weak ness of men who were seduced by her beauty and who heeded not my an gel's voice. Yet very differently had I planned for my people. For in the beginning I set the loveliness of Death plainly before them, that they might endure their tasks happily, knowing how sweet the end would be. But they have defeated my wisdom. On their own heads be it!" And Life went his way, satisfied. Thereafter, when a child or man be came useless to him he cast it into the arms of Death, because its task was finished. And the soul of Death sang to the soul of the mortal given her, thougb her lips were dumb, and she blessed it with an infinite blessing and bore it away. But the tollers mourned greatly that Death should have dominion over one of their number, and they turned the more desperately to Life, who smiled sternly and was content. (Copyrighted.) A Christmas Hymn. O Christ, upon whose natal morn Rejoicing angels sar.g, When o'er the blue Judean hills Their heavenly anthems rang! O Christ, to whom with gifts from (aw Came shepherd, sage and king, Our choicest gifts on this glad morn, Our hearts, we humbly bring! Grant us to follow Thee In love, Nor from Thy path to stray. Thy blessed feet have gone befor* And glorified the way. We Join the angel choirs that sing This happy morn again. "Glory to God. the Lord Most High, Good-will and peace to men!" —Martha C. Hows. 17
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers