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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. enc ibl: arr th tl tl nd: tl th< a tt :iVI nd tl ab (Bed Wish ie3 3 rom BOBS CANDIES, INC Albany, Georgia r ioi id ‘te ri: 301 th □ 1 isi d3est Wish e3 3, rom SANS - S0UCI HEMLOCK 2-0584 610 NORTH WASHINGTON ALBANY, GEORGIA JOHN H. BROSNAN DAN J. BROSNAN