1 HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher. NIL DESPERANDTJM. Two Dollars per Annum. VOL. VIII. s MDGWAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., THUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1878. NO. 44. k i Taming OTer Hie New Leaf. The year begin. I turn a leaf, All over writ with good resolvei Eaoh to f oiail will bo in chief My aim while earth its round revolves. How many a leaf I've turned before, And tried to make the record true ; Each year a wreck on time's dnll shore Froved muoh I dared, but little knew. Ah, bright revolve t How high yon bear The future's hopeful standard on t How brave you start i how poor you wear How eoon are hope and eourage gone I You point to deeds of sacrifice, You shun the path of careless ease ; Lentils and wooden shoes ? Is this The fare a human soul to please. What wonder, then, if men do fall, Where good is ever all austere t While vice is fair and pleasant all, And turns the leaf to lead the year? Yet still once more I turn the leaf, And mean to walk the better way ; I struggle on with old unbelief, And strive to reach the perfect day. Why shonld the rend that leads to heaven Be all one reach or t-lmle sand t Why not, just here and there, be given A rose to deck the weary land ? But why repine ? Others have trod, With sorer feet and heavier sins, Their painful pathway toward tbek Ood My pilgrimage anew bogins. Failure and failure, Mlhorto, Has time inscribed upon my leaves ; I've wandered many a harvest through, And never yet have gathered sheave-. Yet once again the leaf I turn, Hope against hope for one sua. ). s ; One merit mark at least to earn, One sunbeam in the wilderness. SILVER-LINED. A CHRISTMAS STORY. It was a lovely, bright December morning. The shops were overflowing , with pretty and elegant things sugges tive of Christmas presents, and the usual gay crowds thronged the New York streets and stores. Master James Desmond, familiarly known as "Jim," lound mtxisulf walking, be could hardly have told why, up Broadway and toward l?;.i, 4. J1UI1 DVUJJLICl. Why he was sauntering in this direc tion, when all bis little interest lay in another, will always remain a mastery. Perhaps the luxuries, the famous grapes, attracted Lim to take a nearer inspection of their lauty. He was certainly out of place in the neighborhood, and when he flattened bis poor, little, starved fea tures agaiust a pane of plate glabs, and viewed tbe temptntions beyond, there was something pitiful in the contrast thus unconsciously shown. For Jim was ragged, bare-footed and dirty; a jacket peverai times too Jarpre for bim gave a curious d wart-like effect to his - figure, and bis matted, unkempt hair hung wildly over bis hungry brown eyes. He kept lii cold, dirty hands in the pockets of Mis rusty trousers, but there . was nothing to feel in them nothing. He had no money to invest in papers ; behind him were the back streets, their squalid population, and the garret where his mother was lying sick and penniless. Before him lay the beauties of wealth and taste ; so Jim kept on. From the various restaurants in the neighborhood of the Fifth Avenue hotel came appetizing odors, and Jim walked more slowly and glanced in at the envi able beings rented at the bright, little tables. Despair cannot always be read on the features, or certainly this child's face would have won the pity of one ol the elegant persons rustling by. No one saw in him a chanoe to keep Christmas in a deed cf love and charity. Christ presented in the form of a ragged, starv ing child is to most people unattrao'ive. So Jim walked on unheeded. Near Thirtieth street his attention became fixed cn the handsome equipages dash ing down the avenue. Even hunger gave way to admiration, and on the cor ner he stood still in amazed delight. At this minute a faint cry of terror reached him, and he looked behind him. A nurse, frightened by an approaching carriage, had started for the pavement, leaving the wagon, in which was a lovely smiling child, standing in the middle of the street. Jim dashed forward as he took in the situation, caught tbe back of the wagon and pushed it from him out of harm's way, the plunging, rearing horses just grazing his back and ankles as he fol lowed it. It was done in a second. The child was safe, the carriage had passed by, and Jim stood alone on the sidewalk looking after the departing nurse, whose "merci, merci," was puzzling his re turning senses. - Poor Jim ! , He did not realize the grandeur of his act; but not even to re ceive thanks seemed strange to his con fused notions of politeness. The door of the house behind him was now opened, and a lady called to him in a very light voice: Como here, little boy I" ' Jim entered the frescoed vestibule, and was asked a perfect catechism of questions, all of which he answered simply enough. There was not much to tell. " I cannot go to see your mother this week, because I have all my time en gaged, but next week I will try and find your room. Now, as I know who owns the child you saved, I want you to come back here to-morrow and see its father and mother. They will help you. But I will give you some money now, so that you can get your poor mother what she needs." Tbe lady gave Jim a little carl with her name and address on it, and rolled a five dollar bill in a paper and put it in an old purse which she gave him, Jim felt dazed. He walked off retrac ing his steps, from time to time feeling the purse in his breast-pocket, afraid to look at it lest it might take wings or some one might steal it. After a while hunger again assailed him; and Jim thought of Fulton market and its stores of good things. If he could go there first and buy some food, how surprised bis mother would be I The dootor at the dispensary had recom mended good beef soup and steak. At the time, diamonds would have been as possible. Now, Jim had visions of a steak, broiled over a little coal fire in the stove he had left empty in the morning, and in imagination he tasted the soup, thickened with flour and adorned with floating vegetables. The long, weary walk was mysteriously shortened by the play of imagination, and Jim reached the market, and boldly approached a colossal butcher who eyed Jim sideways as if expecting to see him run on witn one or his tempting cuts. How much is porter-house steaks? asked Jim; staring at the meat on the block. "Thirty-five cents a pound. Who sent you hero ?" " No one; I want a steak and a piece lor soup; ana nurry up, will you T "Come, get out, I'm ioo busy for fun." " Won't yon give me them ? I've got the money here;" and Jim touched his pocket. "Let me see it." Jim took took out his purse and ex hibitcd his prize. "I guess you can have the beef, "said the butcher, proceeding to cut the steak. while Jim watched admiringly. The knife went straight through the firm, red flesh and solid, yellow fat, then a piece was chopped small for soup, the whole was wrapped in coarse brown paper, and Jim put it carefully under his arm, while the butcher changed the bill, He gave Jim several half dollars nnd quarters in silver, whioh bulged out the sides of tbe worn pocketbook, and threatened to burst it in pieces. Jim started out of the building, passing quickly along the narrow, dirty streets which led to his home. He was quite unconscious of having been watched while in the market by several boys as ragged as himself but mucii older. While thinking of the price of coal by the pail, and the capa city of the old one that had gone many times too often to the corner grocery, Jim's hat was knocked forward over his eyes, and his arms were held to his sides. while a hand sought to reach his inner pocket, where safe and warm reposed his little mine. Jim kicked and screamed, and freeing himself by a desperate effort, dropped his beef, and fought to defend his more valuable treasure. The struggle was too unequal to last long, and by the time Jim's strength gave out, and he stood panting, bleed ing and more ragged than ever, trying to keep the tears from running down his pale cheeks, a policeman had seen the crowd BDd was bearing down upon it. Jim hardly felt the rough grasp on bis poor, old jacket, or the jerk that ao oompanied it. The boy whom he bad fought was much worse off than him self, for Jim had the most to lose, and a isubol of voices was telling some remark able stories to the policeman. What Jim realized was that his money had disappeared, and that he and his antag onist, followed by a crowd of boys, wore being led off to the station-house. There, invention renohed a climax. One boy had seen him steal a pocket book from an old gentleman's pocket, and get a bill changed in the market, nud with virtuous indignation had fol lowed and stopped him. He had been roughly handled for his pains, and worse than all, he eonld not prove his Btory; for the pocket-book had disappeared : perhaps Jim had passed it to a confed erate in the crowd, who had made off during the fight. This sounded very plausible, and Jim's story, rendered incoherent by grief and fear, was laughed at as an absurdity. The butcher testified to receiving from Jim a five-dollar bill, and went back to his stall qnite satisfied with having done a good thing for society in helping to KPnd a young thief to the island. Jim ate and drank what was brought him in the cold cell at the station-house. and then cried himself to sleep. The next morning he made one of a sorry procession of people, who, guard ed by the police, were marched into a dreary room in the "Tombs." called a court, and having neither friends, lawyer nor defenso, were sentenced to serve various lengths iu different prisons. Jim's enemy, the tall polioeman, made n crashing charge against the little pbrinking figure, that was hardly visibl to the judge on the bench. However6 the charge was direot, and the judge used his own discretion, asking no ques tions of the prisoner, who was quite too overwhelmed to have answered them had they been put to him. Jim went mechanically where he was told to go, a spiritless, helpless creatnre at the mercy of superior strength. It did occur to him on his way to the prison-van to make a dash through the crowd and get home, but a side glance at the clubs and their owners dis couraged him. So the stifling van was finally ex changed for the crowded boat, and Jim's spirits rallied a little in the pure air; and the view of the buildings on the island exoited his curiosity. Their exterior immensity was to him wonder ful, but far more so were the narrow limits of the interior. Perhaps, had Jim been the guilty little fellow described in the papers that committed him, the monotony of life in a reformatory would have seemed to him a just punishment But. feeling outraged by the indignity pHt upon him, Jim was like a caged animal. The forced habits of order and clean liness were like shackles on his limbs; even the food was tasteless. When he thought of his mother and his utter powerlessness to get to her, he burned and shook with rage; and then, to comfort him, would come the memories of his last free day. The walk u p bright Broadway, the gay throngs of har py free people, the horses, the wagon he had pushed out of danger, the kind voice, questioning him about his mother the lovely money given him for her, the moo beef but here Jim's pleasant thought would reach a point beyond whioh all was despair and passionate deBires of revenge. He wearied his small brain over the problem, " Had he done wrong in coin first to the market?" K K Surely the idea was a good one. His mother would have had to send him out to change the bill, even had he first carried it to her, and the same results might have happened. Jim was no philosopher, neither did he know enough to look for the silver lining in his heavy cloud. He hated his little dormitory the great workshops, the long dining- room, the humanity around him; but he fell in love with nature, the blue sky he had never seen such an extent of it until now the river waters flowing past the island, the curves and rocks of the near shores, and the ever-varying clouds. He developed an aptitude for labor, his growing skill attracting general at tention. Had he been free, he would have taken kindly to his task and looked with pleasure at his handiwork, but nothing that he did or said had the least particle of his heart in it. His natural disposition, kind and cheerful, was hardening under injustice; he was thin and white in his uniform, and cutting his hair close to his head had deprived him of his chief charm his wild, elfish expression. His brown eyes were larger than ever, but they were full of un spoken griefs and suppressed tears. It was during working hours on the twenty-third of December, and a num ber of benevolent people who had brought little gifts for the children's Christmas festival entered the long fac tory to see the work in progress. The boys sat before the stocking-looms, a double row on eaoh side of the room. Jim, unconscious of observation, rapidly moved his shuttle, and having finished a stocking, quickly passed it to the boy on his right. "That little fellow is helping his neighbor," said the warden to one of the visitors. " He can do more than is required of him in the day, and the other cannot do as much. So you see he isn't altogether hopeless, although put up for stealing." "The visitor approached Jim for a nearer inspection of the child, "not altogether hopeless," and having watch ed him for some minutes, said aloud : " I cannot see how he works so rapid ly. I know I never could do it I" It was a woman's sweet voice. Jim's hands stopped as if suddenly petrified; for a minute his heart seemed to cease beating; then, with all the blood in his body rushing to his cheeks, every nerve thrilling, Jim sprang from his bench and stood before his kind friend of the Fifth avenue adventure. "Oh, don't you know me? That bill you gave me, they said I stole it, and they put me here I Oh please take me away. I want to see my mother. The words came with the force of a pent-up torrent, dashing away all ob structions. "My poor little boy 1" and Jim felt human arms around his neck as the lady recognized him. " What have they done to you ? We have hunted all New York for you, my poor child. Your mother is nearly well. I found her as J. told you I would, and she is only worried now about you. We wonld not give yon up, but I never thought of finding you here. So many people are i-earching for you ; the boy's father wants to see you ; and, Jim, we will go home as quickly as possible. Just think," for Jim was orying now as if his happiness would kill him, " in two days Christmas will be here, and such lots of t hings as will be on the tree for you." ' ' But they had no right to send me here!" sobbed Jim, feeling somehow that the wrong done to him could never be entirely righted. "I know it; but my little man will livn perbaps to see some good come out of his sorrow; for you were brave, and you have been generous even here. So, Jim, as you were innocent of wrong, you can forgive those who injured you, nnd then all will be so pleasRnt after this, for we are always going to keep Christmas together." Graphic. A Man With a .Movable Heart Dr. Elias Thomas, the man who pos sesses the faculty a transferring his heart fiom place to place in his body at will, Rive an exhibition before the students at the medical college. Dr. Thomas says that he was born in Calcutta, India, and is thirty-nine years of age. He has re cently been studying medicine at the College of Edinburg, where he took bis degree. Beginning his experiment, he made a peculiar wave action of the ab dominal muscles fifteen or twentv times. The abdomen was examined and found to be perfectly soft and natural. Then. after a momentary contraction, there was made to appear a complete shield of ribs, covering two-thirds of the front of the abdomen. Previous to this tbe heart was felt and found to be in its proper place, beating naturally. Imme diately afterward Dr. Campbell, Col. Rains and Dr. Black placed their hands over the left lumbar region, whereupon, low down on that side, a large tumor, larger than a man's fist, appeared under the hand, pulsated like the beating of a heart and synchronously with the beat of the pulse at the wriut. After this the umor was taken over to the right side of the abdomen and there folt as before. Then the wonderful man carried the heart back into the chest, transferring it from the left to the right side and back again to the left Dr. Thomas also gave an. exhibition of voluntary heart-stoppage. The heart's aotion and pu'so at the wrist disappeared. He was in ch fatigued when the exhibition was over. He says that his heart is without a peri cardium and his chest without a dia phragm. Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle. A Small Boy on Christmas. Ryder's boy has written the following composition on the subject of Christmas: " Christmas comes every year and it is the best day in the year exoeptin' fourth of July which is a better day to fire off guns and pistols Hookey fired off an old gun one fourth of july and it kicked him agin a hidrant and an awful bunch growed on his head and he didn't know much for two hours Christmas is the best time to get presents my sister Lacy hung up her stockin and I put a mud turtle in it and she was fearful mad you bet if my aunt Rachel should hang up her stockin it would hold a dump cart full of things William Bradshaw eat so muoh Candy and puddin one Christmas that his folks had to put him in a grave after ha died I should like to see old Dudley the truent offiser in a grave and so would all the boys I should like to have it Christmas and fourth of july all the time. Mr. Bowman, of Owasso, Mioh., went into the woods and abode in a hut be neath the roots of a fallen tree, living on nuts and roots till his wife promised to henpeok him no more. TIMELY TOPICS. The mustache is again the subject of legislation in France. Clerks in the national bank are not permitted to wear itl A Glasgow paper gives a list of up ward of 150 failures in Glasgow and the west of Scotland directly and in direotly traceable to the stoppage of the City of Glasgow bank. The total lia bilities of the Scotch firms who have been dragged down are $125,000,000. Mr. E. Kingsley, the engraver who has achieved much snooess, some of his best work appearing in Scribner's Monthly, was formerly a compositor in a news paper office in Massachusetts. At one time he gained a precarious living by designing fantastio oigar-box labels and engraving illustrations of local manu factories. When Professor Champney, the artist, went to Northampton, Mass., Mr. Kingsley took drawing lessons of him, and then visited New York to study anatomy. His snooess in a short time became so marked that he returned to his work as an engraver. A woman's hair has suddenly turned white in Milan. She was a mother, and was going from church with two chil dren, one of whom could walk, while the other was held in her arms. The one who could walk ran down the church steps into the street where a carriage was passing. As the child disappeared between the wheels, tbe woman uttered a load cry and fell insensible, with the other child in her arms, on the ground. The child under the carriage was picked np unhurt The mother, when she was restored to her senses, found her hair had turned perfectly white. In sugar refineries large iron cylinders called boneblack filters are used. They are usually, about twenty feet high and five feet in diameter. Two men went into one of these vessels in a St Louis refinery to coat the surface with tar, as a preventive of rust during a season of disuse. They sat on a suspended board and put the tar on with brushes by the light of a lantern. The lantern fell to the bottom aud broke. Instantly the cylinder was converted into afleiy fur nace, the tar on its sides blazing furious ly and a hole at the bottom providing a draft The men were completely charred. A writer in the Atlanta (Ga.) Consti tution says that Senator Gordon was wounded five times while fighting as a colonel in the battle of Sharpsbnrg. The fifth ball entered his cheek and brought him to the ground. As he be gan to recover his senses he says his thoughts ran as follows : "I have been struck in the head with a six-pound solid shot. - It has carried aw.ay my head. On the left side there is a little piece of sks'l left But the brain is gone entirely. Therefore, I am dead. And yet I am thinking. How can a man think with his head shot off ? And if I am thinking I cannot be dead. And yet no man can live after his head is shot off. I may have consciousness while dead, but not motion. If I can lift my leg, then I am alive. I will try that. Can I? Yes, there it is, lifted up. I'm all right I " The Senator says that every stage of this soliloquy is indelibly stamped on his mind, and that in his ex hausted state the reasoning was carried on as logically as ever a man reasoned at his desk. Miss Fanelitr's Case. Doctors not only of medicine, but of divinity and the laws are prone to dis agreement, and it is not surprising that they should disagree in respect to so curious a case as that whioh Miss Fan oher, of Brooklyn, is reported to be. That unfortunate young lady has been an invalid for many years, and out of that condition has grown a variety of endowments to which a mystical and supernatural origin is ascribed. She is said to subsist without any food worth speaking of, andto be able to read letters without opening them. She sees things afar offwhich are hidden from the gross er vision, nnd is sometimes uplifted with the spirit of prophecy. Incredulous persons, of course, bluntly assume that these manifestations are illusions, the fruit of deception or hallucination, but there are a great many who believe in them, and a few who are courageous enough to assert their belief. It would, of coarse, be easy to apply scientific tests to the supposed supernatural pow ers of the young lady if it were worth while, and herself and her friends de sired it ; but it is not worth while, and they are said not to desire it, so the case will doubtless have to take its place amon gather pathological and psycholog ical puzzles which have from time to time bewildered the faculty and over whelmed the lay mind with confusion. New York Tribune. Circumstantial Evidence. In the year 1600 two men named Perry and their mother were hanged for the murder of a man who had never been murdered at all. Mr. Harrison, Lady Campden's steward, having been collect ing his rents, suddenly disappeared. John Perry aooased his mother, himself, and his brother of having robbed Mr. Harrison in the previous year, and of having again robbed him and murdered him on the night when he was missed. The mother and Richard Perry denied all knowledge of the matter ; but at length pleaded guilty to the first indict ment under some pressure of policy. The other indictment was not then pro ceeded with, on the ground that the body was not found. Bat John persist ed in his story, and at the next assize they were all tried for murder. John then retracted his confession, and said he must have been mad. Nevertheless, they were all condemned. Some years after Mr. Harrison appeared alive, and thus accounted for his mysterious ab senoe; After receiving his ren's he had been set upon by a gang of ruffians, car ried to the sea-side, put on ship-board, and sold an a bIkva to tliA m.l,. l . - uiuo, - aiici his master's death he escaped, and with urea uunouiiy warning nis way, first to uiouuu, aim ucuto mi Aover, ne arrived in Eogland, as our law-book coolly says, ou mo nurpriDo mi me country Good Words. - J' THE CHRISTMAS TREE. Orldln nnd Hlntory ol a Beautiful Custom. The beautiful custom of giving pres ents to children by means of the Christmas-tree originated in the Protestant districts of Germany and the north of Europe, where the anniversary of the birth of Christ was celebrated with all sorts of sweet observances. For a long time it was customary for Enecht Ru pert, a character who still flourishes in some villages of North Germany, to bring the Christmas-tree and its accom panying gifts to the dwellings of the children. Knecht Rupert, in his attire, was the very embodiment of winter a fantastio figure enough. He wore a white robe, high buskins, a mask with venerable white beard and eyebrows, and an enormous flax wig. Usually he had two attendants, also masked and disguised, and helping him to carry the numerous toys whioh were sent to him by the several parents for distribution. His visits were made between early can dle light and bedtime, and when he threw open the front door of a German cottage on a snowy and frosty night and entered with the Christmas tree rising above his shoulders and hung with lan terns and ornaments, he was a great and overpowering personage indeed. The children were at first frightened by his appearance and the wild attire of his servitors ; then transported with admi ration of the lovely things with which Knecht Rupert was necklaced, girdled and overhung ; then thrown into anxiety by the qaestions he put to the parents n their presence concerning their be havior during the year, and at last moved to joy or disappointment by the rewards they received for their good deeds or their faulty ones. A picture in one of the German toy books of the time represents the scene at the moment when Knecht Rupert ap pears on the threshold. White, freez ing winter is without; branches of trees bent by the wind, muffled travelers, twisted lights in the street lanterns, dogs with their ears down and their tails thrust between their legs, and sknrrying snow. Within the cottage there is re presented all the warmth and comfort of a village home. The mother holds the door-latch, the father bows to Knecht Rupert, who, having satisfied himself that he has got into the midst of a high ly deserving family, concerning the worth of whose inmates there is on question whatever, is bestowing gifts right and left with captivating gener osity. To one boy he has given a pair of tkates, which the little fellow is fasten ing on immediately to see how they fit him; to another he has presented a jack knife; to another a kite; to still another a box of tools. The smallest children, half dismayed, receive their presents of playing balls, jumping figures and tiny carts and wagons with mingled amaze ment and delight The blooming daughter of the place holds up to the lamp with admiration a dainty envelope inclosing a valentine. "Herr Winter nnd die kinder" ("Mr. Winter and the children") is the title of the verses accompanying this picture, and freely translated they read as follows: A long, long while Mr. Winter is standing, Dressed in white furs, in front of the door. CHILDREN. Ho, ho ! good day, Mr. Winter, This is not very handsome of you; W thought you were far away over the eea, Till it suddenly snowed so and blew. We'l, since you are he.e, you are welcome, But what have you brought ns that's new ? WINTER. Hi, I'll soon let you know what I'm bringing First, apples and chestnuts and cake; The carnival figures, with dancing and singing, And toys take great care and don't break I And wai m coats aud gloves; and, if you are nioe, Home sleds and tome skateB for somo fun on the ice. Tlenty of ice To skate on so nice; Tlenty of snow And snowballs to throw; And, in January, then, Yon can build the snow men ! CHILDREN. Hurrah ! hurrah ! let Winter in ! Welcome, kind Winter, bold up yonr chin. So Knecht Rupert went from door to door, always with the lighted Christmas tree behind him, always followed with gay good-byes and laughter. But by and by in some quarters of Germany he went out of fashion, just as dear old Santa Claus is going out of fashion now in the United States in some families who do not believe in letting children have any such sweet illusions. Instead of intrusting the Christmas-tree and the presents to the care of Knecht Rupert parents began to set np the tree formally in their own homes on Christ mas eve, and spread a table in front of it with gifts for the members of their own household. The toy makers of Nuremberg were then in the full blaze of '-.heir skill nnd popularity, and used to contribute to the pleasures of chil dren some most ingenious playthings. Gradually the Christmas tree was in troduced throughout Germany, Sweden and Denmark, then into England, then partially into France. At length it made its appearance in the United States, where many parents adopted it as the tree of Sauta Clans, allowing it to be understood by the children that Santa Clans hang the tree with his gifts on Christmas eve, instead of waiting until they were asleep and ooming down the chimney to deposit the gifts in tl e stockings and elsewhere, where they would find them in the morning. Ger man families in America still, for the most part, preserve the notion in the minds of children that the tree is deok ed by Santa Claus, and in these fami lies it is Christmas eve and not Christ mas morning which is the children's most joyous time of all the year. The German picture books give us some pretty ideas of the intense interest of children in the bourgeoning of the Christmas-tree. A colored picture represents the anxious little ones in cluding the oldest sister with the baby in her arms waiting and listening out side the door. The flaps of the picture then open and reveal on the reverse side a table crowded with presents and overshadowed by the Christmas tree, with father and mother standing (the former with a pipe in his mouth) on eaoh side of the tree and inviting the children to come forward and look at the beautiful things they are about to have given to them. Bat in most American homes to-day, where the Christmas tree is bung, it is not hang altogether with gifts from Santa Glaus, whose midnight visit is left to be awaited with all the old delicious ecstasy. The tree in made rather a means of exchange of gifts and tokens between members of the household and their friends who are invited in to share in the Christmas eve festivity. Children make gifts to their parents and play mates by means of the Christmas tree, and receive by it gifts from their parents likewise. The evergreen tree, lighted up with a hundred colored can dles and hung and garlanded with bril liant balls and toys, usually occupies the oenter of a large table (or stands at the back of it), on which the larger and handsomer presents are displayed. Sometimes a plate is provided for each guest and child, which is in the first place filled with nuts and confectionery. Then the presents are laid on top of those,- with a card over all insoribed with the name of the intended recipient. Sometimes a number only is written on the card, which corresponds with the number attached to a card on tbe Christ mas tree which bears the names both of the giver and the taker of the gift Christmas Customs. No two nations, two families, or two persons have the same way of celebrat ing Christmas, or any other holiday. The Chinese have a feast which corres ponds to oar Christmas. It is a popular festival devoted almost entirely to the amusement of children, and in offering sacrifices and paying homage to certain deities, male and female, who are sup posed to take interest in the welfare of the young. Special honors are paid to the " Seven Star Mother," or Mother of the Measure," who is supposed to dwell among the seven stars whioh form the dipper in the Great Bear constella tion. This goddess is believed to have power to give children long years of life, and her favor is specially sought. The cakes they eat at this time must be round, like the moon ; and the can dies, of which they devour great quan tities, are made in all sorts of queer shapes. This Chinese festival takes place early in October. The Christian idea of Christmas, with its love, charity and forbearance, is most fully realized in Sweden, where some of the pagan ceremonials are still indulged in. The courts are closed ; old quarrels settled ; old fends forgotton ; while on the Yule evening the shoes, great and small, of the entire household are set close together in a row, that during the coming year the family may live togeth er in peace and harmony. Isn't there something particularly pretty and ap propriate in that custom? In ancient Rome all walls of separation were broken down during the Saturnalia, or feast of Saturn, which corresponds with our Christmas holidays ; and in Italy, at the present day, masters and servants not nnfrequently meet, and are seated at a common Christmas-table. In the time of Queen Elizabeth the Christmas holidays lasted over a month; everybody made merry under the mistle toe bough, and fun and frolic raged furiously. The Germans have grafted many of their ancient religious observances upon their present mode of celebrating Christmas, and all their ceremonies are symbolical. They beat the fruit-trees, or shake crumbs about their roots, that the year may be fruitful, aud are much given to processions in which the Christ-child figures conspicuously. St. Nicholas is the Santa Cians of Holland ; in a certain part of Switzer land he has a wife, who is known as St. Lucy. She distributes gifts to tbe girls, and he looks after the welfare of the boys. In many parts of Switzerland, Germany and theNetherlands, St Nich olas still distributes his gifts on St Nicholas eve the fifth of December instead of on Christmas eve. In Belgium, on the eve of the gdoo bishop's voyage among the chimney' tops, the children polish their shoeu, and filling them with hay, or cats, or carrots, for the saint's white horse, then put them on the table, or sot them in the fire-places. The room is then carefully locked. Next morning it is opened in the pres ence of the assembled household, when, fonderful to relate I the furniture is found to be topsy- turvy ; while the little shoes, instead of horse's fare, are filled with sweetmeats and toys for the good children, and with rods for the bad ones. In France, though New Year is gen erally observed rather than Christmas for the distribution of presents, it is the Christ-child who comes with an escort of a u gels loaded with books and toys with which to fill the little shoes so carefully arranged by the fire-place. In Poland, and elsewhere, it is be lieved that on Christmas nielit the heavens are opened, and the scene of Jacob's ladder re-enacted; but it is only : i A .1 1 11. -. I'ciuiiLttru iu iiio Buiuits to gee li. Throughout northern Germany the tables are spread, and lights left burn 'rig during the entire night, that the Virgin Mary, and the angel who i asses when everybody sleeps, may find some thing to eat The Chi lstmas-tree is of German origin and is the principal feature of the majority of the Christmas festivities in some parts of our own country. All cur customs have been transplanted from the old world. The iambino is the Santa Glaus of Italy, and is a representation of the in fant Savior, being nothing more nor less than a large doll very richly dressed and oherished with exceeding care. The singing of Christmas carols is a very pretty custom still practiced, to some extent, in parts of England, Ger many and Scotland ; and Americans visiting those countries during the holi day season are particularly impressed witn tne sweetness ol the songs that break the stillness of the wintry nieht. and regret that the custom is not more generally observed. uar own uhristmas-tree comes from Germany : our Santa Claus from Hoi. land ; the Christmas stocking from Bel gium or trance; while the "Merry Christmas " and "Happy New Year " were the oldEnglish greetings, shouted through the streets in the long, long ago. . They shake their carpets automata oally" out West, by hacirinff them nr. out of doors until they contract the fever ana ague, ana snake themselves. Sew Year's Hells. Ring, bells, ring, with your mellow din I Ring the old year out and the new year in I Like the voloes of birds from the old gray spire Let yonr silvery musio rise higher and higher Floating abroa 1 o'er the hillside bare In billows of sound on the tremulous air, Let it rise and fall with the fitful gale ; Tell over eity and wood the tale t Bay that to-night the old year dies I But the watchers look to the eastern skies For tbe beautiful halo that tells afar Of the weloome rise of the new year's star I Ring the old year out, with its sighs and ttars, Its withering heart-aches and tiresome feara Away with its memories of donbt and wrong; Its cold deceits and its envying strong, Ail its pitiful shams and cold pretense. We will heap them together and bind them fast To the old man's load as he totters past. The ills that he brought he may take again ( Keep we the joys, let him bury the pain I Ring soft, oh, bells, as he goes to rest Far in the shades of the darkening west 1 Ring, bells, ring, with a merry din 1 The old year has gone with its care and sin 1 Smiling and fair, at the eastern gates, Clad in tinted light, the new year waits t Weloome him in with the rosy band, Who wait the wave of his beckoning hand ; Hope, with her wreaths of sweet spring flowers Joy for the summer's glowing hours, Plenty and peace for the fruitful fall, And love for all seasons beet of all. Ring merrily, bellB 1 O'er the blushing skies See the beautiful star of the new year rise I Items of Interest. Some canary birds never sing stuffed ones, for instance. Man finds his first "rock ahead in life " in the cradle. A great deal of useless gas is often . created by a sharp retort. There has not been a person hanged in Rhode Island since 1819. Drive your cattle on the ice if yon want cowslips in the whiter. Five hundred thousand kegs of Dutch herring are imported yearly. Slavery commenced in this country with the advent of the Spaniards. Straining a point does not by any manner of means always make it clear. When is a ship like a scarf-pin? -When it's on the breast of a heavy swell. Ah, yes, Edison's light to the eyes is the light of future daze. New York Express. " I don't like winter," said one pick pocket to another. "Everybody has his hands in his pockets." Extract from a romance: "With one band be held her beautiful golden head above the chilling waves, and with the other called loudly for assistance." She "Do you suppose that I have five or six hands, that I can do every thing at once, say ?" He' I realize that you have not, my dear, and I realize that you have five or six tongues." A yonog officer thought to puzzle the editor of La Figaro by asking him when two men of equal age and rank met which should be the first to bow. The editor calmly replied, " The more polite of the two." Paper collars were first patented in 1854, but till 1859 met with little favor. In that year 1,500,000 were manufac tured. In 1877 300,000,000 were made an average of more than one box for every man, woman and child in the country. A woven book has been manufactured at Lyons, the whole of the letter press being executed in silken thread. Por traits, verses and brief addresses have often been reproduced by the loom, but an entire volume from the weaver s hand is a novelty. A justice of the peace married a couple the other day, and the groom asked him his terms alter the knot was tied. "Well," said the justice, "the code allows me two dollars." "Then," the groom said, " here's a dollar; that will make you three." The entire amount of gold in the world at present is estimated at $7,000,000,000 in value in United States coinage. This immense sum is hardly comprehensible to the mind, but if it were put in a solid mass it would measure only seventeen feet high, twenty-eight feet wide and fifty-six feet long. BEB RETORT. " 'Tie happiiiess," he said, " to let My heart its bounty tell, To breathe the dulcet ut'rances That speak my love so well ; 'Tis happiness to freight the tongue With passion's every need " And then she softly interposed, "Tis happiness indeed I" An Original Letter of Daulel Boone. An original letter of Daniel Boone is " on exhibition in Cincinnati. The letter is the property of Colonel John Taylor, of Newport, Ky., and was addressed: " lo John Overton, of Lincoln county; to be left at Elijah Smith's, Lexington." The letter reads: July the 20th, 1786. Sik The Land has Been Lone Bar- vayd and Not Knowing When the Money would be Radey Was the Reason of my not Returning the works however the may be Returned wlu n yon pleas. Bat I must first have a Nother Copy of the Entry as I have Lost that I had when lost my plating Instruments and only have the Short field Notes Just the Corse Distano and Corner trees pray send me Nother Copy that I may Know bow to give it the proper Bonndorry a greeable to the Location and I Will send the plat to the ofis a medetly if you Ohuse it the Expenses is as follows, viz. ; Burvayers fees. i'9 3 8 Ragesters fees 7 n o Chanmen and Marker 11 Days 8 0 0 purvistions for the tower 2 0 0 (provisions for the tour), 23 17 0 Yon Will also Send a Copy of the agreement betwixt Mr. Wales Overton and my Self Where I red the warrants. I am sir your omble servant, - Daniel Boone. The above is a literal oopy. The letter is written on unruled paper, in a clear, round hand, very legible and characteristic. The profuse employment of capital letters and the total absence of punctuation marks are notable in the manuscript
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers