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T. L. MITCHELL, Proprietor.
Vol. 3.—No. 12.]
Old Winter is in his ermine drest;
The flakes fall fast from the cold Northwest;
But ere his loud blast will begin,
Cozy we’ll make our home within.
Let Winter roar—he’U do no harm,
When Christmas cheer is on the farm.
n.
The Yule log burns, the sparks fly high:
Like brilliant stars in midnight sky.
The children’s hearts are full of joy,
A shout resounds for each near toy.
The sweet, sweet story of Christ is told
To the listening babes—that story old;
There’s joy and peace, and a wonderful
charm,
That broods to-night o’er the dear old farm.
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For Woman’s Work.
CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS AND
1_ CAROLS.
CIVILIZING and spirit
ualizing influences of Chris
tianity may be clearly traced
® in the progressive* celebra
tions of the nativity of Christ.
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The early Christian’era was doubtless
marked by tranquil ceremonials of grati
tude and adoration, in which 'material de
lights had little or no part. Good will to
men, however, was always the sentiment
of the occasion, no matter how wild or
absurd the rejoicing.
The earliest carol that the antiquarian
is able to discover is in the Anglo-Norman
dialect, and its date is certainly as early as
the thirteenth century. It was found
written on a blank leaf in the middle of a
manuscript volume of Richard Coeur de
Lion that is in the British museum.
Songs in those days were seldom other
than verbal, and the composition was by
vagrant troubadours and minstrels who
received personal benefits for amusing the
nobility during the festival. They called
their performances “discoursing sweet
sounds,” although, judging from the scores
that have been preserved, they could not
have been exceedingly melodious. With
modernized spelling the first known carol
would read—
Lordlings listen to our lay,
We have come from far away
To seek Noel. (Christmas.)
In this mansion we are told,
He, his yearly feasts doth hold.
’Tie to-day I
May Joy come from God above
To all those who Noel love.
There are five other verses which are but
slightly varied. Yule-tide feastings were
made merrier by these professional ni’.n
strels. There is also another carol sup-
CHRISTMAS ON THE FARM.
CARRIE BELLE GABLE.
NEXT TO YOUR GOD, LOVE TRUTH AND JUSTICE IN ALL THINGS.
ATHENS, GEORGIA, DECEMBER, 1890.
Woodlands are leafless, lone and sad;
No song of wild bird makes them glad.
The clouds lie low—a sombre gray—
On this all hallow’d Christmas day.
But cold and snow bring no alarm,
For cheer reigns on the dear old farm.
IV.
Our hearts are light, round the Christmas
fire
As the sparks fly upward, high and higher.
Do you hear sweet voices on the air 1
They come from angels, holy, fair—
“ Peace on earth, good will to men”—
Tidings of joy from Bethlehem!
’Tis Christmas night— God kept from harm,
These loved ones on the dear old farm.
posed to belong to the times of Henry VI.
It was arranged with more devotion and
care than the previous verse. I give two
verses with refrain.
“Welcome be thou heavenly King,
Welcome born on this morning;
Welcome for whom we shall sing
Welcome Yule.
Welcome be ye that are here,
Welcome all, and make good cheer;
Welcome all, another year,
Welcome Yule.”
It was thought that to pour a cup of
whatever drinks made the cheer of the
revelers, about the roots of fruit trees in
vited them to bud and bloom abundantly
the following Spring. They danced in the
snow and sang:
Here’s to thee old apple tree,
When thou may’st bud and thou may’st blow!
And whence thou may’st bear apples enow!
Hats full! caps full!
And my pockets full, too! Huzza!
As the years rolled round, a fine senti
ment of generosity and hospitality began
to pervade the spirit of man, and he be
came more reverent to his Maker. Chau
cer, that “morning star of song” tried to
key his own notes of Christmas time to a
higher melody than was known to his
kind in that epoch, but he failed to reach
its sweetness, so difficult and sad and com
fortless were the times among the poor.
It was about the times of Charles the
First that old John Taylor said: “The
Puritans tried to keep Christmas day out
of England and they succeeded partially,
but only in certain cities.” It was a short
while after this, that George Withers
wrote a carol which became popular among
Christmas-keeping Englishmen.
“So now is come our joyful feast,
Let every man be jolly;
Each room with ivy leaves isdrest
And every poet with holly.
Tho’ churls may at our mirth repine,
Round your foreheads garlands twine.”
There are more verses of good-will and
generosity, but not devotional. It was in
seventeen hundred, or in its cycle, that
John Milton flew, meteor-like, across the
intellectual skies of England and wrote
his “Hymn to the Nativity.” It is a long
poem and is beautiful throughout. We
give the fifth and sixth stanzas:
“But peaceful was the night,
Wherein the Prince of light,
His reign of peace upon the eath began.
The winds with wonder whist,
' Smoothly the waters kissed;
Whispering new joys to the wild ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave.
While birds of calm sit brooding on the
charmed wave.
Richard CraShaw was another poet who
elevated the souls and lives of men and key
ed their daily songs to a sweeter and purer
melody. He, too, wrote a “Hymn to the
Nativity,” beginning—
“ Come ye shepherds whose bless’d light.”
The eighteenth century did not furnish
very much poetry that belongs here. In
the nineteenth century, Sir Walter Scott
wrote descriptive poems of Christmas-times,
and there were light-hearted and light
minded men who also composed verses
about the festal times, mostly drinking
songs, so that their wit and metrical at
tractions are not rich enough to be pre
sentable here. Wordsworth, that sweet,
strong and tranquilizing wizard of rhythm,
did not compose songs that could be sung
by the common people. Coleridge created
a Christmas carol; it is too long to give in
full, but its first verse is very beautiful:
“The shepherds went their hasty way,
And found the lowly stable shed
Wherein the Virgin mother lay:
And now they check their eager tread,
For, to the babe that at her bosom clung,
A mother’s song the Virgin mother sung.
John Clare wrote pretty conceits, but
no writer is quoted oftener than T. Miller:
for instance—
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KATE GARLAND, Editress.
[SO Cts. per Year.
“Those Christmas bells as sweetly chime,
As on the day when first they rung
So merrily in the olden time,
And far and wide their music rung.
Shaking the talLgray ivied tower
With all their deep melodious power;
They still proclaim to every ear,
Old Christmas comes but once a year I”
The poet Bridgeman also sings most
cheerily of “Old Christmas.”
Church decorating at this time is not only
a beautiful custom but is generous in
significance to a people who have long
since passed away. It is a pagan rite,
having been most scrupulously performed
each Winter by the Druids, who believed
that their weal or woe depended upon
fairies which lived hidden in the green
trees. They hung holly boughs and
branches of mistletoe, about their altars
and really believed these little creatures
came to dwell in comfort during the tem
pests of the season.
The hclly bough has always been an
emblem of peace and good will. To place
it over the heads of the family and guests
and clasp hands beneath it, is an old and
beautiful custom and signifies a compact
of friendship. Charles Mackay wrote
“Under the old Holly Bough.”
“Ye who have scorned each other,
Or injured friend or brother,
In this fast fading year;
Ye who by word or deed
Have made a kind heart bleed,
Come gather here.
Be links no longer broken,
Be sweet forgiveness spoken,
Under the holly bough.”
The foregoing verses are all gleanings
from an old book. Looking backward
over the years, to that far-off time when
ignorance saw but dimly into the signifi
cation of Christmas day, and when its
occasion was made only one of material
gratification, we are profoundly thankful
that we are the happy children of the pres
ent generation. Cabbie Belle Gable.