Newspaper Page Text
7-
JOYCE
KILMER
(Continued from Page 2)
Who wandered into stores
with furtive glances
And sniffed the scents of
olives, cheese and bread
To sing of those who lived
out gay romances
Mid pungent odors and the
Best Wishes I
•
Chord
iwell's
PHONE 1
HE. 2-6281
ALBANY, GA.
fooots o’er head?
And trees! It was for you
to catch them praying,
With outstretched arms you
made us see them pray,
Sure well we know for
whose soul they were
saying
Their orisons when you
went down that day.
After this I filled in a story
of about 300 words that were
merely words. McGrath look
ed ^t the copy. He read the
poem. He read the script. He
clipped the poem from the
rest of the copy. He handed
me the poem.
“Tell Nicholson to replate
and put this on page one,” he
said. “I guess no one could
write a story about Joyce Kil
mer anyhow.”
LAST CHRISTMAS
I was pretty well satisfied.
It seemed to make me a little
bit closer to the departed sol
dier.
So now at Christmas in h
book I have selected Christmas
letters and where are found
those of George Washington to
the son of the Marquis de La
fayette from Mt. Vernon De
cember 25, 1798 and the cor
respondence of Hans Christian
Anderson and Charles Dickens
at Christmastide 1847 and
Christmas thoughts of Eliza
beth Barrett Browning and
Johannes Brahms and Theo
dore Roosevelt.. I find that the
last one written by Joyce Kil
mer has a distinguished place.
It was dated Christmas Eve,
1917 and was addressed from
somewhere in France to his
wife, Aline.
“I last heard from you just
before my birthday and now
I have three letters from you
by way of Christmas presents.
There must be a lot of parcels
Parkway Pharmacy
ACCURATE, DEPENDABLE
PRESCRIPTION SERVICE
HE. 2-7441
326 N. Slappey Drive
FAST FREE DELIVERY —
ALBANY, GA.
REINFORCING STEEL METAL SASH
STEEL CONSTRUCTION SUPPLIES
JOE BRASHEARS
STEEL, INC
P. O. Box 3028 Phone H E. 5-4548
ALBANY, GEORGIA
ALBANY
SAVINGS BANK
225 BROAD AVENUE
ALBANY, GEORGIA
Original cut-out by Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P,
awaiting me, judging from in
formation in your letter and
those of my father and mother.
We may get the packages to
night, in which case I’ll have
some hours hard work, for all
the Adjutant’s office helps in
assorting mail.
“I suppose you and the chil
dren are in New Brunswick
now and will go to Mass at St.
Peter’s and pray for a vagrant
verse-maker who is trying to
be a soldier. We had midnight
Mass in the church here to
night. Father Duffy had had a
choir practicing for it and we
possess a tenor soloist. He is an
Italian, a barber when not
singing or soldiering.
“I have allotted half my pay
to you and the government’s
addition to that will bring it,
I believe, up to about $60.00—
enough to pay the rent. But
don’t worry if there is delay in
receiving it. It takes a long
time, usually, to get things like
that in motion. I recently read
that a veteran of the Civil
War had just received a check
for $12.00 from Washington
representing his pay for the
last month of service.
“I am glad you are sending
me some tobacco. I suppose it’s
in the five truck loads of
Christinas packages said to be
awaiting us at a town some
miles away. I have been able
to get American tobacco, I am
glad to say, but not my fav
orite brand. Also I’ll be glad
to get the cigars my father has
sent me. I have smoked all of
Father Duffy’s.
“But be sure that the tobac
co, or anything else you send
me, such as Michael or Deb
orah, is very securely wrapped
and tied, as the journey is hard
on packages and many of them
go to' pieces.
“I am hoping to get more
letters from you. Write as of
ten as you can. I’d rather get
a letter from you than any
thing else now possible. (I love
you more than ever before).”
It was the last Christmas
letter for that gay and gallant
spirit who was to die the fol
lowing July. Always will he be
remembered as he pictured
himself — carrying his sol
dier’s pack over the roads of
France, where, in cadenced
rhyme, he recalled that Christ,
too, carried a heavy load on
his shoulders.
By Florence Wedge
Kissing under the mistletoe
probably one of the oldest
u s t o m s associated with
Christmas. Actually, its origin
antedates the first Christmas
by a good many years.
From time immemorial the
mistletoe has been regarded as
very special plant; the
Druids, or priests among the
Celtic peoples, believed it
possessed mysterious power to
relieve almost any physical ill.
the Druidic religion of the
early Britons, the mistletoe
was considered especially sac-
ed when found growing on an
oak, the tree dedicated to their
sun god.
DRUID CEREMONY
In his honor the ancient
Britons held their most solemn
feast of the year at the time
of the winter solstice. Led by
their pagan priests, they went
forth with pomp and joy to
ather the mistletoe.
A Druid clothed in white
mounted the tree, cut the mis
tletoe down with a golden
knife, and let it fall into white
cloths held by Druid virgins to
prevent its touching the
ground. The sprigs were then
distributed to the people to
hang over their doors as a pro
pitiation and shelter for the
forest deities during the season
of cold and snow.
Similar rites in connection
with the mistletoe persisted
throughout the Roman occupa
tion, and under the sovereign
ty of the Jutes, Sanons, and
Angles. The mistletoe was
widely regarded as an emblem
of peace.
If enemies chanced to pass
under the mistletoe in the for
est, they would lay down their
arms and live like brothers un
til the following day. A man
pledged friendship by bring
ing mistletoe into another’s
house.
A European evergreen
shrub, with stems varying
from one to four feet in
length, the mistletoe has often
been called the “tree thief,”
since it lives entirely off such
trees as oaks, apples, poplars,
willows, maples, and mountain
Yule Salutation
From a very ancient work,
Ye Miracles of Ye Seasons, the
author of which will never be
known, comes this appropriate
quaint salutation to Yule:
“Whosoever on ye nighte of ye
nativity of ye young Lord Jes
us, in ye great snows, shall
fare forth bearing a succulent
bone for ye loste and lament
ing hounde, a wisp of hay for
ye shivering horse, a cloak of
warm raiment for ye stranded
wayfarer, a bundle of foggots
for ye twittering crone, a fla
gon of red wine for him whose
narrow withers, a garland of
bright berries for one who has
worn chains, gay arias of lute
and harp for all huddled birds
who thought that song was
dead, and divers lush sweet
meats for such babes’ faces as
peer from lonely windows —
To him shall be proffered and
returned gifts of such an
astonishment as will rival the
hues of the peacock and the
harmonies of heaven, so that
though he live to ye greate
age when man goes stooping
and querulous because of the
nothing that is left in him, yet
shall be walk upright and re
membering, as one whose
heart shines like a great star
in his breaste.”
VICTORY CLUB
FAMOUS FOR
FINE FOODS
SOUTH SLAPPEY DRIVE
ALBANY, GEORGIA
Mistletoe
Fact
And Legend
THE BULLETIN, December 24, 1960—PAGE 3-B
A
ash. The American mistletoe,
the State flower of Oklahoma,
grows on deciduous trees,
mainly the red maple and the
tupelo. It is found from New
Jersey to Indiana, and south
ward to Texas and Florida.
The mistletoe has shared the
fate of several other trees by
being linked with the Cruci
fixion. Legend says that the
mistletoe was once a towering
forest tree, but was changed
into the parasitical plant it
now is because its wood was
used for the Cross of Christ.
While discarding the legend
as improbable, we have to ad
mit that the mistletoe has
made itself useful down the
years. Time was when a brew
of mistletoe was said to pro
mote fertility; mistletoe tea
was drunk for ulcers and as an
antidote to poisoning; and a
mistletoe poultice was applied
to wounds.
Old formularies show up un
til the 18th century some doc
tors in England and Holland
believed in mistletoe as an ef
fective treatment in cases of
epilepsy. The first visitors
from Old World found the
North American Indians chew
ing mistletoe to help relieve
toothache.
As the mistletoe with its
leathery leaves and yellow-
green flowers had been an im
portant item in Druidism, the
Christians were not permitted
to use it in their churches
when Britain was won to
Christianity. So they adopted
it as a decoration for their
dwellings at Christmas time.
Its old pagan meaning was
soon forgotten; but it remain
ed a symbol of good will and
friendship. The custom of kiss
ing under the mistletoe, which
seems to have originated as a
Druid marriage rite, survived
and became increasingly pop
ular with the years.
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SANS - S0UCI
HEMLOCK 2-0584
610 NORTH WASHINGTON
ALBANY, GEORGIA
JOHN H. BROSNAN
DAN J. BROSNAN