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OMOT/#KMSTi\S Iffl
*, Invented the
118 Christmas tree?
J I I Whence does it
I I come? It Is a
curious fact
that most °* t * ie
V °* d chroniclers
have thrown a
jUnf vfjt * of rn y ster 7
,-ii - around the
Christmas tree
and make no at-
tempt to ex
plain its origin.
11 haH b<:en
Bta tcd that the
- ■ tree came to us
from Egypt.
This legend is well propagated in
old Irish and Welsh fairy tales.
The idea is that in ancient Egypt
they used a slip of the palm tree
with twelve shoots on it at certain
winter festivities. The tree sym
bolized the year with its twelve
months.
Consequently, any one who is
equal to the effort may believe that
the modern Christmas tree repre
sents that twelve-shooted slip of
palm. Minds of less stalwart cre
dulity may prefer to trace the
Christmas tree back to Germany
only, where they had Christmas
trees long before they were ever
heard of in this country or England
or France.
The Christmas tree was not In
troduced Into England from Ger
many until after the marriage of
Queen Victoria to her German con
sort, Prince Albert. Hut where did
the Germans get the Christmas tree
idea from? S. .1: Adair Fitz Gerald,
writing in T. P.’s Weekly, offers an
explanation of this by saying that
far away back In the ages you find
Teutons believing in a mystic ash
tree, Yggdrasll, which, with its
roots and branches, united the
world of the living and the world
of the dead. “At the foot of Ygg
drasil sit the three Norns, who de
termine the destinies of men, and
Yggdrasil's branches bear gifts for men to take.”
Is that our Christinas tree? Anyhow, the idea
that Prince Albert introduced it into Great Brit
ain is very prevalent. One of the prettiest and
most eagerly looked for events of the Christmas
tide —that of the setting up of the Christmas
tree —Is associated with the late Empress Fred
erick of Germany. Queen Victoria, after the
birth of the princess royal, had Christmas cele
brated at Windsor in 1840, and “on that occasion
Prince Albert introduced the pretty German cus
tom of decorating a Christmas tree. Since that
period it has become a welcome custom for both
rich and poor, anil nffords a graceful means of
distributing little presents. It was probably
first imported into Germany with the conquering
legions of Drusus, and Is alluded to by Virgil in
the "Georgies.”
It will bo seen by this that the generally ac
cepted notion Is that Prince Albert was respon
sible for the British adoption of the pleasing
tree and all that It means, symbolical and prac
tical, to the youngsters. But on the threshold
of this acceptation we are met with this state
ment from the “Greville Memoirs,” under date
Dec. 27, 3 829, when Queen Victoria was yet but
ten years old. “On Christmas day the Princess
Lieven got up a little fete, such as is customary
all over Germany. Three
trees in great pots were put
Pat SHjßKra >ui a long table covered with
ijSfljjpgß linen; eneli tree was illiunl
■RffinV JSfsjHsaaJ tinted with three circular
tiers of colored wax candles
' Before each was displayed a
''Vy handkerchiefs. workboxes,
. fj books and various articles,
■mbHOt \\ _ presents made to the owner
<*»«!> 0— °1 later days lived mostly in
Paris. Then again Prbf.
Ditchiicld, in his “Old English Customs/’.-/ stws
that the Christmas tree w£s first import*'d»-In\o
England by some German merchants wHb lived
at Manchester in the first years of the nineteenth
century. / -
In 1990 a writer on folklore said: “Although
we arc accustomed to consider Germany the
home of the Christmas tree, it hasiuot been gen
eral there for more ttmm a’couple of centuries.
Old people are. Still living whose parents never
saw one in Germany. The of houses
with olive leaves and green branches, as in Eng
land at Christmas, is a far more ancient custom,
and can he noticed in Botticelli's picture of “The
Adoration of the Shepherds,” in the National Gal
lery In London. It is, as Fritz Ortwein observes,
a distinct remnant of an ancient heathen custom,
as at the turn of the year during the twelve
days of the .Tul festi \yil in honor of Woden, green-
ery could be fetched by all from the woods
without punishment, and every hall was deco
rated with green leaves and branches.’
Again, in old works on English customs we
find many references to the decorating of the
interior of the dwellings, as well as the pious
adornment of the churches with greenery, and
the introduction of a fir tree as symbolical of
the palin. In the halls of the barons and tho
squires and in the gigantic kitchens of the
farmers a fir tree ever held prominent place,
but whether ordinarily decorated or not is not
specifically recorded. Here we are in doubt.
In all probability the remaining fruits of the
orchards of the year were hung upon the
branches as a propitiation to the gods of the
fruits of the earth to insure good harvests.
Going abroad we get fuller knowledge of these
thing c The custom of carrying away branches
and trees from the woods at Christmas time in
various parts of Austria became so extensive on
account of the superstitions of the peasantry
that nt Salzburg; in 1755, and at Nuremberg, In
1768 severe by-laws were issued against persons
purloining from the forests. In some regions of
Hunrrry a solemn procession with a decorated
tree takes place through each village before the
ehep’' 'ld play begins. “It is adorned with rib
bon? and fruit, and is supposed to symbolize
the tree of knowledge. Although most of the
Christian customs adhered to by the Austrian-
German peasant can be traced back to heathen
ish Germanen rites, some dispute the use of a
tree at the Jul festivities; nevertheless, it is cer
tain that in Sweden needle pines and firs were
set up at this time before the houses." Teutzel
of Saxony, an antiquarian authority on these
subjects, says: “The ancient heathen sat before
their houses between two crossed pine trees and
ate and drank at the turn of the year for nine
teen days.”
The Christmas tree was Introduced into Aus
tria some eighty years ago by a Duchess of
Wurtemberg and spread throughout Germany.
About 1840 it is supposed to have taken fresh
root in England, and became highly popular.
Both Thackeray and Dickens seized hold of the
idea of happiness begot of Christmas gatherings
and the Christmas tree, and Charles Dickens in
1850 used “The Christmas Tree" as a title for
one of his annual stories.
Although Christmas was not celebrated in the
first centuries of the Christian era. there are
indications in the records of early Roman his
tory of the setting up of a decorated tree at
Christmas time and the presentation of gifts of
fruit and toys. Th£ Romans are supposed to
have taken the idea from the early Egyptians.
Centuries old, the customs of Christmas ob
servance have taken myriad forms in the various
countries of the world. In many cases they per
petuate some ancient custom which long ante
dates the advent of Christianity. Such are the
customs which have grown up around the mis
tletoe, worshiped by the ancient Druids of Brit
ain as a sacred and magical plant. An old Eng
lish writer, speaking of the Druids’ celebration of
the winter solstice, our Christmas, says,;
“This was the most respectable festival of
our Druids, called Yuletide; when the mistletoe,
which they called all-heal, was carried in their
hands and laid on their altars as Van-emblem of
the snlutiferous advent of Messiah. This mistle
toe they cut off the trees with their upright
hatchets of brass, called celts, put upon ends of
their staffs, which they carried in their hands.
Innumerable are these instruments found all
over tho British isles. The custom is still pre
served, and lately at York on the eYe of Christ
mas day they carry mistletoe to the high altar
of the cathedral, and proclaim a public and uni
versal liberty, pardon and freedom to all sorts
of inferior and even wicked people, at the gates
of the city, towards their four quarters of
heaven.”
The lore of the strange plant is prominently
in evidence in the Voluspa and other Scandina
vian Sagas. It was with a mistletoe branch—or
an arrow prepared therefrom—that the blind
and heavy-headed deity Hoder aimer his deadly
blow at Balder, the god of light or benevolent
principle of northern mythology. The inspira
tion of the use of the mistletoe was, of course, due
V If )
Jil f
not given definite promise to Freya to prove
harmless if used against the person of her son
Balder. Thus Scandinavian mythical lore ac
counts for the death of the latter. And accord
ingly, a traditional idea of the poisonous proper
ties of the mistletoe Is found to persist In re
mote regions of the north and west of Europe,
even to the present day. In Great Britain (in
the Forest of Dean) it has been used down to
recent date as a popular remedy in the treatment
of cardiac troubles. Like the strophanthus of
African arrow poison fame, it proved a reliable
substitute for digitalis.
Kissing under the mistletoe Is all that now re-
to the oppos
ing principle
—of darkness
or evil. The
plant which
furnished the
deadly dart
grew on the
slope of As
gard, and was
the sole agent
known to
gods or men—
among poi
sonous plants
—which had
mains of a once horrible Druid rite.
The ceremonies which the mistle
toe figured in among the ancient
Druids always accorded it a place
of honor. The myths that clung
around it in their wondering,, puz
zling minds were many more than
the few that have come to us in
these later years. But, old as they
are, those hoary, heathen myths
lack the true flavor of antiquity
when it comes to measuring tradi
tions by the centuries.
Oh, we do not by any means owe
our mistletoe to the Druids. We
can go back so much further for the
first adventures of the mistletoe
that the Druids become merely
modern innovators. It was one of
the noblest of the trees in Paradise,
the lordly tree of good and evil;
and on Its t\ylg hung the apple
which Mother Eve plucked with
such disastrous consequences. Alas
for Mother Eve and Father Adam!
And alas for us, their punished
heirs-at-law divine! But alas, too.
for the wicked, handsome, tempting
tree of knowledge which put human
ity in such graceless plight! t*pon
its lofty crown, its massive trunk,
its delicious fruit, descended the
universal curse. It shriveled away
from the horrified earth; it dwin
dled to the meanest smallness; It
was cast out Into the bitter cold;
It became a parasite and beggar,
existing by the bounty of vulgar
neighbors. Only in the pearly
translucence of its shrunken fruit,
the most trivial of berries, did it
preserve some semblance of its
once radiant splendor.
And It has preserved some of its
pristine virtues, too, in traditional
Christian lore, as if it were still hedged about
with a vestige of the glory that arrayed it in
Paradise.
Time was, and time is now, when epilepsy is
one of the scourges of mankind; only now we
look for Its cure, as we look for Its cause, in
quite natural means and conditions. The notion
that some poor devil with the falling sickness
has been cursed from on high is held scarcely
compatible, in popular science, with the princi
ples of eternal justice or with cold observation
of cause and effect.
But in times that were, In Wales, when an
epileptic developed the symptoms characteristic
of the disorder, it was commonly believed that
he was being scourged with the “rod of Christ',”
and that was the name by which the disease
went, although it had another designation as
well—St. Valentine’s sickness. Tho cure for it
was believed to lie in the Rod of Jesse. The use
of the mistletoe as the Rod of Jesse in epilepsy
was general and, if faith can work wonders, per
haps the miracle of cure did sometimes attend
its employment.
Perhaps it didn’t, if hard-headed science
choose to take a shy at that gracious addition to
the list of miracle-working agents. But whether
it did or didn’t the mistletoe’s rare birth and
fruition still carry with them • ,
the tenderest of Christian , I s
faiths, as they carry, too, the
story of humanity’s most far- .
reaching disaster. It is one X,-, - tsWi
of the Christmas greens ~
which has the warrant of re- •"jgrraft.P
ligious associations dating jHfi&SSqak
back to the very beginnings
of man’s creation, even as it
is accorded the sublime
honor of typifying the ances- I . fc==> .
tral origins of the Redeemer aj|fc=j]—l
of Man himself. ,I| Y|
But what about the mistle- Lit. Ik
toe kiss”
Hm! To tell the truth, if we want to be con
sistently Christian in our Christmas greens and
the purposes to which they-should be put, there
isn’t anything about it, at least of any records
which such careful investigators as Alfred E. P.
Raymond Dowling have dug up while studying
the general subject. None will deny that the
most consistent Christians have taken to the
inistletoe kiss with abundant enthusiasm and a
faitli in its excellent results that has never been
surpassed. But that doesn’t make the mistletoe
kiss any more Christian than it ever was.
Isn’t the excellent story of foolish Mother Eve
and the original mistletoe apple enough for any
reasonable Christmas decorator who wants to
justify its employment? And if it isn’t, haven't
we the legend of the Rod of Jesse to make it
distinctly one of the Christmas greens? As for
the kisses that are supposed to go with it —well.
if you insist on knowing about them, you’U
simply have to take the consequences, same
as Eve did when she insisted on tasting of
that confounded tree of knowledge.
The mistletoe kiss seems not to be Chris
tian at all— Druidical, probably, and therefore
heathenish, and therefore very, very wrong.
So, all young men who encounter it, artfully
suspended where a pair of ripe, red lips must
pass, do you piously refrain or, more piously,
tear down the hoary old temptation and flee
the accursed roof, as if it were the house of
Arria Marcella and you were not Gautier’s
young Frenchman. And you, maidens, give
leave to no pagan rites; remember the fate of
your poor Grandmother Eve and beware lest
the fruit of the mistletoe, accursed tree of
knowledge, prove now more bitter in the mouth
than it did in Eden.
But if you have ivy, -wreathe it generously, for
the French know it as the herb of St. John, the
disciple whom the Savior loved, the emblem of
pure friendship, the vine that heeds not decay
and death of its beloved, but clings ever more
closely as the fall impends and bears up its fall
ing ally against all adversity. Learned students
of these legends have surmised, too, that it may
be the herb of SL John the Baptist, who Is usual
ly pictured as the boy in his camel’s-halr coat,
gazing at his cousin, the Infant Jesus.
FOR FRUIT OR SPICE CAKE
Young Housewife May Be Interested
in This Confection, Which Is
Really Delicious.
Materials—Brown sugar, lc.; mo
lasseß, %c.; pastry flour, 3%c.; sour
cream, lc.; seeded saisins, 1 lb.; melt
ed butter, 1 L; allspice, 1 tap.; cinna
mon, 1 tsp.; cloves, % tsp.; baking
powder, 1 tsp.
C, cup; t, teaspoon; tsp., table
spoon. All measurements level, flour
sifted before measuring.
Utensils—Paper bag, wire cake
cooler, mixing bowl slotted wooden
spoon, measuring cup, teaspoon, table
spoon, cake pan, chopping, bowl, egg
beater and flour shifter.
Chop the raisins or cut them into
small pieces. Beat the cream until
very light, then add the sugar and
beat very well again. Put all the dry
ingredients together into the sifter;
(using a little of the flour to mix with
the raisins). Add the molasses and
butter melted, and beat well. Mix the
raisins well through the dough. Line
the cake pan with greased paper, turn
in the dough, set into a paper bag
which is already on the wire mat
and bake in a slow oven one hour. Or
a small hole may be made in the
top, and the cake tried with a tooth
pick or clean straw. Remove from
the oven, tear the paper off the top
and allow the cake to cool on the cake
cooler.
Fruits —Oranges, grape fruit, grapes,
apples, lemons.
Vegetables—White and sweet pota
toes, Hubbard squash, turnips, white
and yellow carrots, white and red
cabbage, parsnips, onions, lettuce,
oyster plant
Extras —Tomatoes, fancy melons,
Brussels sprouts, string beans, rad
ishes, wax beans, egg plant.
CRANBERRY SAUCE AND JELLY
Best Way to Prepare Them for Those
Who Like This Condiment With
Their Birds.
Cranberries are in the market now,
and there are many who prefer their
tart sweetness to any other sauce
with birds, says a New York Sun
writer. They are best when jellied,
and should never be sent to the table
in any form without being strained
free of skins. An excellent way to
jelly these berries so that their deli
cacy and crisp flavor shall be pre
served is the following;
Pick over and wash two quarts of
cranberries; put them in a saucepan
with cold water. Stew the fruit over
a slow fire until it may be pressed
through a fine sieve. To each pint of
the pulp add a pound of fine white
sugar; then place over the fire to boil,
stirring briskly for about fifteen min
utes or until the jelly thickens on a
cool saucer. Then pour in molds and
let it stand till firm.
This jelly is also an ideal accom
paniment for the broiled or planked
spring turkey or guinea fowl. The
birds are at their very best now when
they are small and young. They
should be well buttered and bits of
bacon pinned over them for either
planking or broiling. Very hot plates
and plenty of best quality butter are
necessary for the perfect service of
birds.
Delicious Pan Stew.
Take pieces of cold roast meat,
either mutton or beef, cut into two
inch, or less, pieces, free from all bone
and gristle. Then put into kettle.
Just cover with cold water and let boil
up once. Set back and simmer until
the meat is almost ready to fall to
pieces. Then add white potatoes and
onions (quantity according to amount
of meat and size and taste of family)
peeled and cut into eighths. The pota
toes I into eighths. Boil slowly
until the onions and potatoes are done.
Thicken with flour browned in oven
mixed to a paste with cold water. Have
it quite thick. Have some bread al
ready toasted; arrange in triangles on
platter and serve the meat and vege
tables piping hot on the toast tri
angles,-with brown gravy poured over
all. If you have any corn or stewed
tomatoes left over it is very nice to
add them half an hour before stew is
done. This is cheap, hearty and good
tasting.
Good Hints.
Have you a wire frying basket?
Put your tomatoes in it the next time
they are to be skinned and plunged
into a deep kettle of boiling water.
There is no danger by this method
of getting them water-soaked.
Keep milk, butter and eggs all close
ly covered, on one side of the refrig
erator, and reserve the other for vege
tables. leftovers from the table and
other odorous provisions.
Don't throw away the paraffin from
jelly and marmalade. Wash each piece
and save it. Boil the accumulation
and there will be clean paraffin for next
jelly time.
Squash Pie Filling.
One cup of stewed squash, one-half
cup sugar, two eggs and milk enough
to fill a pie plate. First line a pie
plate with crust, then beat eggs and
sugar together, adding squash and
milk, seasoning with cinnamon, nut
meg and allspice to suit the taste.
Bake about 40 minutes in a moder
ate oven.
Fried Sweetbreads.
Soak sweetbreads in lukewarm wa
ter two hours, then pour hot water
over, soak 15 minutes and skin them ;
roll in flour, fry in butter very slowly
at the same time with two sliced
onions. Take ou, strain gravy, add
one-quarter cup sherry and a little
bouillon. This for two pair sweet
breads.
Omgoker
WILBUR D.NESBIT
The old-fashioned names Is like old-fash
ioned roses—
Like memories that sort o’ cheer a feller
when he dozes.
The new style names ain’t half so good
as them that's simply plain.
An’ got no fancy spellin’—just like Mary,
Ruth and Jane;
An’ the old-fashioned rose is a beauty
till it closes—
The old-fashioned names is like old-fash
ioned roses.
The old-fashioned rose—there is a beauty
In Its blushes—
As meller as the birdsong in the long
mid-summer hushes.
It has no airs—lt's just Itself—an’ there’3
the purty part—
An' every sighin’ breeze just comes an*
takes It to its heart,
An’ whispers till the flower puts on all Its
graceful poses—
The old-fashioned names is like old-fash
ioned roses.
The old-fashioned name brings a tender
recollection
Of the olden sort o’ grace and the olden
time affection.
When folks was as they acted an’ their
hearts was good an’ true
An* happy as the memories that comes to
me an' you—
The memories that sort o’ cheer a feller
when he dozes—
The old-fashioned names is like old-fash
ioned roses.
COLD WEATHER HINTS.
Do not wear your fur-lined overcoat
in the sun. Unless It is the best qual
ity of fur the rays of the sun will
fade the color.
Don’t get excited. Nothing so adds
to one’s calorification as being ex
cited. If you find yourself crossing
the street with the dust blowing in
your eyes, and an automobile running
60 miles an hour bearing down upon
you, for mercy's sake be calm. It Is
better to be hit than hot.
To cool your sleeping room, get the
plumber to run some heavy piping
about the walls and floor and ceiling.
In the basement install a cold storage
plant, connected with these pipes. On
retiring, turn on the frigidity.
Don't walk in the sun. If necessary
to walk the sunny side of the
street wait till a fat man comes along
and walk in his shadow.
Ice cream soda is said to be heat
producing. Should a young lady
casually say something about it, re
mind her of this fact. Y’ou will be
surprised, if not delighted, at the cool
ness that will result.
Don’t eat hot dishes. For that mat
ter, do not eat hot cups and saucers,
or hot sugar bowls, or hot tureens, or
hot platters. They are indigestible
and will only add to your discomfort.
»
Magnum Opus.
In the halls of the vast institution
of learning they warn us to tread
lightly as we pass the seat of the pal
lid youth who is moodily composing
something upon a sheet of pure white
paper.
We see his knitted brow; his air of
intense thought; his every evidence
of great mental struggle.
“Ah,” we whisper, ‘‘is he preparing
some weighty treatise on political
economy; or some thesis which shall
show the nations of the world the
proper system of government?"
“No,” whispers the guide in reply.
“He is getting up the new class yell.”
Appeal to Order.
“Gentlemen!” shouted the Texas
sheriff to the mob as it surges about
the jail. “Gentlemen, I beg you to
have proper respect for the officers
of the law. At least wait until the
judge and the coroner can be sum
moned. They felt pretty bad last
week because you went ahead and
had the lynching without letting them
in on the game.”
Appreciating the fact that the serv
ants of the people were entitled to a
few privileges, the mob courteously
sat down and waited for the absent
officers.