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*SPAWS H MWTISTER AHD SECRETARY JTART//VG "' "
ON ROU/ID OR CALLS m/js Myo TAKAHIRA , DAUGHTER OR
THE DAPAHEJE AMBASSADOR
ASHING TON not only has a United States
Christmas celebration but it has the fes
tivities that mark the Christmas season in
all the civilized nations of the world. At
the Russian embassy there is a Christmas
fete after the manner of the people in the
land of the czar; there are French doings
at the great European republic's official
residence, and there is the genuine old
English Christmas at the home of the Brit
ish ambassador, and so one may goon
through the entire list of foreign repre
sentatives, not even barring the embassies
of China and Japari, where in honor of
the day, as Christian nations view it, the
oriental officials have holiday dinners
The South American people make much of Christmas.
It. is the great feast day in all Latin-American countries
and the ambassadors and attaches and their families do
not forget the customs of their native lauds simply be
cause for a few seasons they have been transplanted to
new scenes. The "open house" is the order of the day in
nearly every official residence in Washington after the
family has had its own intimate celebration of the holi
day Large families are the rule rather than the excep
tion among the ambassadors and ministers from the
southern European and from the Central and South Amer
ican countries. The children have a gala time of it at
home and then the visiting begins. The presents that
are purchased and stored temporarily in the embassies
are not all tor the adults and children of the household.
The probable visitors of the day are borne in mind and
as a little Brazilian boy in Washington put it once: "I
have had ten Christmases in ten hours."
Church going on Christinas day is the rule in Wash
ington. Some persons have been unkind enough to say
that all the American ofllcials go to church on Christ
mas because the fact is very apt to get into the news
papers and"it reads well at home." The majority of the
Central American and South American diplomats tem
porarily resident in Washington, are nominally at least
good churchmen, and they attend service as a matter of
training and as a matter of course. Practically all the
women from the Latin-American countries are religiously
devout, and with them church going on Christmas is a
matter of duty that is not to be neglected under any cir
cumstances. No child is allowed to miss church and the
result is that all the capital city temples of worship are
well filled on the feast day.
President Taft always has been a regular attendant at
church and his service going since he became president
establishes no precedent. Mrs. Taft and the children are
Episcopalians, while the president is a Unitarian, and so
it. is that Sundays and other church days are the only
days in the year that the family becomes in a sense di
vided. The president attends service at the Unitarian
church of All Souls, of which the Uev. U. G. B. Pierce is
the pastor. Mrs. Taft and the children are regular at
tendants at St. John's Episcopal Church which in years
past was attended by so many presidents of the United
States that it came to be known semi-jocosely as "the
Church of State." Mrs. Roosevelt and her children also
attended St. John's on Sundays and Christmas days,
while Mr. Roosevelt went to the little German Reformed
church on Fifteenth street, and rarely missed a service.
This Christinas season the majority of the members of
both houses of congress are in the capital city. Time
was, and not eo long ago, that senators and represent
atives took their families and went home to spend the
holiday season, but now, for financial reasons, the na
tional legislators in the main elect to stay in Washing
ton for their holiday making. Prior to the passage of
the last railroad rate bill most of the members of con
gress had passes on the railroads. Now they have to pay
their way when they travel and for those who live at a
distance from Washington this means a considerable ex
penditure of money in case they desire togo home at
Christmas.
Every employe of the White House is given a Christ
mas turkey by the president. This is a custom of many
years standing, and only once or twice has it been bro
ken. The clerks in the departments, and there are many
thousands of them, not only get a Christmas holiday, but
are allowed to leave their work at noon on the day previ
ous in order that they may do their Christmas shopping.
The lot of the department clerk in Washington is not a
hard one, as far as the matter of holidays is concerned.
Every employe is given a month's leave on full pay in
each year, and is allowed another month "to be sick in."
This iast statement means, of course, only that if an em
ploye is ill he or she receives full pay for one month on
receipt of the physician's certificate that the illness has
been real. The clerks get seven or eight holidays each
yiar, and taken in connection with the month's
leave, and with the fact that the hours of work number
only seven and a half each day, make the laboring condi
tion of the department clerk fairly comfortable.
Washington's Christmas is always a green Christmas,
even if there is snow on the ground, for in this latitude
there are many trees and shrubs that hold their leaves
and their color all through the year. As a matter of fact
there is rarely any snow in the capital city that is worthy
of the name. All last winter, save far a few hours, the
streets were bare of snow. Then cam® March 4th, Inau
guration day, and a record-making blizaprd with a down
fall of snow, hall and rain mixed. The holly is always
CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1909.
green and so are
the wild honey
suckle and the lau
rel, trees and
plants that are
abundant along the
Potomac.
President Roose
velt was, as every
one knows, a nat
ure lover. He took
every opportunity
that offered to get
away from th 3
city. His daily
walks and rides
took him far into
the country, and on
Christmas day dur
ing the last four
years of his term
of office he went
to Pine Knot, a
wooded, mountain
country place that
belonged to his
wife. Mr. Roose
velt stayed in
Washington until
the festivities of
the day were ov
er anil the chil
dren had a chance
to take account
of their presents,
and then he left
for the log cabin
in Virginia where
he could sit in
front of a huge
open fire with a
genuine "old
Christinas" back
log. On these
Christmas out
ings Mr. Roose
velt did a little
rabbit shooting
and tried to do
some turkey
shooting, but the
major part of the
Hi.,
oay time he spent in the fields armed only with an opera
glass, with which he studied the winter birds, always
with an eye sharpened to the possibility of finding some
species that was rare.
President Taft loves nature, too, in a way, but he is
not much of a tramper excepting where the walk leads
over the golf links on which he spends his holiday after
noons, Christmas included, for in Washington because of
the comparative mildness of the climate, the game of
golf is possible nearly every day in the year.
There are several hundred officers of the army and na
vy stationed in Washington, most of them being detailed
for office work in the departments for a term of four
years. The naval officers perhaps enjoy their holiday
making in the capital more than do their brothers of
the army, for the sailors have been compelled to spend
many Christmases at sea away from their wives and
families, while here they may gather their families about
them and not break any sea regulations in so doing. The
army officer, whether he goes to the Philippines or to
some distant frontier post, ordinarily takes his family
with him and so Christmas day does not to him neces
sarily bring with it the sense of loneliness and homesick
ness that it brings to the man at sea.
In the biological survey, which is a bureau of the de
partment of agriculture, there are many scientists at
work. Most of these men have spent a large part of
their lives in the wilds studying birds and mammals, and
shells, plants and fishes, to say nothing of reptiles. The
office lift is irksome to these scientists. They belong to
the free air, the barren plains, and the pine forests. So
it is that on every holidy that brings with it a release
from office cares, they take to the open fields. About the
hills in many places about Washington on Christmas day
there are to be seen the little camp fires of the scientists
who are cooking their mid-day Christmas dinners under
the open sky.
Some time ago all the bird students in the United
States were asked, it" they could, to make a trip afield on
Christmas day and to make a list of the birds that they
found. Thousands of bird lovers followed the suggestion
and jire still following it. Each one of the students turns
in a report to a central headquarters giving the names of
the birds that 011 Christmas day fell under his observa
tion. As a result of this practice the Washington sci
entists have many valuable notes concerning "out of sea
son" birds. For instance, the report came to Washington
on a Christmas or two ago, that on the holiday four
mocking birds were seen and positively identified in the
fields near Boston, Mass. Other birds were reported
from other northern localities, birds that in the ordinary
course of things ought to have been far south of the Ma
a study of them In order that their merits and demerits
may be determined. In some cases this means long and
continued study and it is not at all an unusual thing to
firtd a committee chairman giving over the joys of the
home life on Christmas day to consult precedents and to
formulate arguments to be used for or against some pro
posed legislation, and to find him doing this in the se
clusion of a stuffy office room on Christmas day.
A good many Washington people, especially those who
came here from the south, go over into Virginia to hunt
on Christmas day. In parts of the Old Dominion fox
hunting is still the order of the winter day, and if the
fox is not in evidence there are always rabbits and quail,
while on the lower Potomac and in the marshes along
Chesapeake bay in open winters, the ducks and the geese
are fairly abundant. The outdoor life appeals strongly
to the southerner, and in many cases the northerners
who have .come to the Potomac country have formed the
hunting habit and join the Christmas day outing parties
of their southern cousins.
Christmas is the great holiday of Washington. Prom
high to low the people make the most of it. There is good
cheer everywhere evident and charity is not forgotten.
AMERICA'S CHRISTMAS
THE BEST OF ALL
An occasional Jersey commuter, familiar with the re
ligious section of Barclay street, is commonly the only
sort of American in New York who knows a presepio by
sight. Yet the presepio is the sign of the Latin Christ
mas, as the fir tree is of the northern. The manger of
the Barclay street windows shows only the inside of the
stable, with the figures and the cattle done in Italian ter
ra cotta. But the real presepio in its native land may
show the whole countryside as well, and if the pilgrims
wending their way to the manger are good Sicilian peas
ants, bearing good Sicilian wine and cheese on their
donkeys, they are only the more interesting.
St. Francis, born in the quaint little town of Assisi
among the brown Umbrian hills, in 1182, invented the
presepio to make the Christmas story plain to the simple,
illiterate common people. During the 800 years since it
has remained a favorite devotion in Latin Europe. The
Italian and Spanish call it the presepio, the manger; the
French the creche, the cradle; and the Hungarians and
Belgians, Betleim, or Bethlehem.
Only a few years since not a carpenter could be hired
in Rome or Naples for weeks before Christmas. They
son and Dix
on line. So it
. is that a
Washington Christ
mas day idea has
been made to serve
the ends of science.
It has been said
that in years past a
great many of the
senators and repre
sentatives in congress
went home to spend
the holidays, but that
now the practice
largely has passed.
An exception should
be made for the past,
and the present, as
well, in the cases of
those senators and
members who have in
charge 1e g i s1 a t ion
which has been pro
posed in bill form at
the opening of the
session of congress.
When bills are intro
duced they are at
once referred to com
mittees and if the
measures are of im
portance the chair
men of the commit
tees to which they
have been sent, make
were all busy erecting presepios in the homes of the
quality, while the poorer folk were constructing their
own. As the mainland grows more sophisticated the
quaint old devotion is fading away; but in conservative
Sicily people still make the presepio every year as they
dress Christmas trees in New York. All over the island
families are busy from December 1 to 15 putting their
old presepios in order, or making new ones; and there is
much calling to and fro to compare results and admire
new and elaborate specimens of the art. The presepio
may be a little thing on a stand in one corner, or it may
occupy the whole side of a room.
It may represent a whole mountain side, made of the
rough, flexible bark or the cork tree. Peaks, crags and
precipices abound, with winding trails, houses and castles
of colored cardboard, forests of twigs and sometimes tiny
pipes to furnish brooks and lakes. In the center is the
grotto, with the holy family within. A sky of blue pa
per is stretched above, with the Star of Bethlehem con
spicuous, and over the hills come the shepherds bearing
the gifts to the babe.
Spain, like Sicily, has never lost the presepio, and in
both Spanish and Sicilian cities there are booths for the
sale of miniature shepherds, magi and all the accessories
of the art. In France the creche is not made at home, as
in the southern countries, but it used to be a part of the
Christmas decorations of every French church, and is still
so in the rural districts. Many a polished cosmopolite of
Paris can remember working busily for days before
Christmas in his childhood to help freshen up and reju
venate the creche of his parish church in some little vil
lage of France. In the villages close by Paris to-day chil
dren who go about the streets singing Christmas carols
carry a little creche in a box upon their shoulders.
The manger typifies the difference between the Latin
and the Teuton Christmas. The Latin Christmas is a
purely religious festival, as much so
as any other feast of the church. It
has no particularly domestic or so
cial quality. Italian children never
get presents on Christmas day. That
is done on All Souls' day, in October,
when they believe—if they are very
small —that the spirits of their de
parted relatives have come back in
the night and left presents for them;
undoubtedly a very ancient relic of
ancestor worship. It is the great
Teuton family of nations that give
presents to children on Christmas
day. And the Christmas tree came
out of the vast forests where dwelt
the heathen German and Scandina
vian tribes. It is, in fact, a pagan
relic, passed down from primitive
forest dwellers and worshippers.
Where Celt, Slav or Latin use it,
they have borrowed it.
France, half Latin and half Celt,
dashed with Gaul and Viking, is a
family by herself in this, as in every
thing. She builds the manger in the
churches, but at home, though she
seldom dresses a Christmas tree, lit
tle Babette and Pierre set their
shoes by the fireplace instead of
hanging up their stockings. Pierre and Babeteiftliey
are very small indeed, believe that "le petit Jesus or• le
petit Noel"—"the little Jesus" or the little Christmas
have brought the gifts. But the average French child
is as sophisticated as young America, and Pierre has to
be a very little boy indeed, to believe in le petit Jesus.
No French or Italian child ever hears of Santa Claus ti
he comes to America; by which it may be gathered that
that good saint was strictly German and when he emi
grated, came to America like all the rest of the Ger
mans. . , A ... ..
The growth of the typical American Christmas, with its
universal Christmas greens and present-giving, is a curi
ous phenomenon. It has no roots in American histonr.
The original settlers of New England never observed it.
The Dutch of New Amsterdam scarcely noticed it, but
made New Year's the great, joyous, popular festival.
Within the memory of old people still living Christmas
passed unobserved in New York, while all holiday mer
rymaking centered in New Year's day. Modern America
has built up a Christmas festival of its own, and has
rejected definitely the religious feast in favor of the so
cial and domestic one. In one way, however, the Ameri
can Christmas is more religious than any and all the Lat
in church feasts put together. One who has lived through
a year'g changing round of saints' days in Italy, in all of
•which no work is done and the people take holiday, will
observe that the thought of the people never goes out to
those in need. The abounding giving of an American
Christmas; the uneasy, uncomfortable feeling that every
child, at least, must have, if possible, a good dinner and
a present on Christmas day, is quite unknown in the Lat
in countries.
The feeling that poor old bums and hoboes, even the
criminals in their prisons, the paupers in their alms
houses, the beggars, the unworthy—all ought to have
something good to eat 011 that day, and a little Christ
mas cheer in some form —is part of the American Christ
mas.
The races that come to the melting pot of America
keep their home Christmas for only a few years after
they arrive. Then they drift off into a more or leas
Americanized Christmas.
For a few years after they come, also, they try to
eat their traditional dishes at Christmas time. The Hun
garian housemother makes the Christmas cakes which a
long line of ancestral cooks made before her across seas.
They are round balls of dough, covered with honey and
poppy seed, and then baked. The Bohemians and Poles
also make poppy seed cakes, each in a different style.
The Sicilian housewife, too, has a traditional Christmas
cake. It is a ring of dough with a hole in the middle —■
tho Italian doughnut, in fact —which is fried, sprinkle!
with sugar and eaten hot.
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