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? A MEXICAN CHKISTMAS. . ' How the People of Mexico Celebrate the Yuletide. \>u _____ '"The people of Mexico have a grand celebration every year, beginning December 16," says a writer in the December Woman's Home Companion, "and continuing until after New Year's. Every night they have 'i jolly family parties and feasts; a few o-ivon Ant qq0V1 ovoninp* Rut glllO ai c ? t.11 UUl vuuu v I -U'VV they have no stocking hanging, no mythical Santa Claus and no Christmas tree. Their substitute for the latter is the pinata?which would be a popular novelty if introduced to American homes. v - ' "These pinatas are queer figures about four feet tall, which dangle by the neck or head from a rod six feet -long. They are made of paper over a fragile oblong jar, which forms their body and holds the Christmas s gifts. Some look like huge paper . dolls in holiday array; there are queer animals, crazy clowns, gorgeous dapcing girls, etc., all decidedly fat in body and decidedly flat in the extremities. "Early in December, street corners and squares are crowded with : venders who offer these grotesque Ml-: tinseled creations at whatever price they can get from passersby. People of all classes haggle over the amount, and then carry them jauntily?and very carefully?home on their shoul ders." The Story of Fire. -Today the world in which we live is a veritable paradise, to which each | E. day's advance brings a new develop-; l:\ \ : ment for our betterment, education 1 and comfort; it might s^em we were jfe. '{ becoming too civilized as compared to our rugged and uncultured for-! ||fe'; v bears, who lived and prospered withfe":. j out the luxuries we have come to need. One of man's earliest and most feV. important discoveries was fire, the Ipfc ~r- story o fthe finding, the gaining of knowledge and the preservation of which is uniquely shown by a collecHgP'y tion of objects and implements assemBp? bled and arranged by the National jp.': Museum, and now on display in the P&-' Smithsonian exhibit at the PanamaPacific International exposition, in San Francisco. j To appreciate the true value of fire fPfjv to the world it is necessary to imagine an existence without fire, and r light and heat, its accompanying feaggl^. tures, as well as the industries, arts ||g V! and sciences dependent thereon. We Gflfe would at once drop back to the stone age in our daily occupations and social life: our houses would be unlit I at night, our food uncooked, our ? communication with the rest of the world would be broken, and only by foot or on the back of domesticated . animals cpuld we journey abroad, t- v" Not only this, but we would be unable to renew our existing stock of tools, apparatus, supplies and everything made or fashioned by the assistance of heat, and thus we would be carried back to the early days of the world by the loss of fire alone. 1 *. ?he really knows just how primitive man came to discover fire and i'.' y utilize it; but at. some far distant \ period he certainly found that fire existed in nature, derived from the vol-' cano, lightning or friction, though! t - he seems to have made no use of it i " for a long time. He may have come to know that it could be transported ; - or transferred through having seen red-hot volcanic rock ignite dry - ; grass, leaves or wood, or possibly by Vn?vin<r coon tho li orh tnirrPr strikf* and |v \ set fire to a tree. He may even have secured a light, as it were from one gi'" of these sources anti carefully prefix?-* , s - served it for years by keeping some. i v thing constantly burning. It became, |||r: invaluable to him, since it cooked his food and kept him warm, as well as, gave him light at night. But it was; .. ^ at least a long time before he realiz-j ' e(* ^at he could himself create or j make fire by rubbing two dry sticks j together. Once discovered, this pro-; ?~: cess alone was used for centuries be-j fore it was found that by knocking: flint and pyrites together sparks capa-j b!e of igniting tinder might be struck, j Somewhat later, in the iron! age, flint - A ' and steel were substituted, a common f,4 i < - _ _ _ _ ? " method employed in nre-maKing until late in the seventeenth century. A little later there came chemical inventions which eventuallv gave way to matches. V* " ' The use of fire also marks the be7. ^ ginning of artificial illumination, developed successively through the bonfire, torch, lamps 'and candles, to the gas and electric lights of today. To V- fire as well the beginnings of metallurgy, ceramics and other arts which have attained a high degree of perl; . fection in this century owe their origin. The specimens exhibited by the United States National Museum show the implements used in making fire by the friction of wood, percussion of ^7 . minerals, compression of air, focusing the sun's rays, and through chemistry, and terminate with the electric licrViTho corioc it.solf is r>receded A *4V c by three drawings; the first illustratc n ing volcanic action, the hot lava setting fire to a forest, the second shows * f? Sfe > , . k * ROBBERY AT VVILLISTOX. $800 in Jewelry Taken, Most of Which is Recovered. Williston, Dec. 5.?Dr. J. L. Smith's drug store was broken into and robbed some time Friday night. It was found when the store was opened Saturday that 'the thief had forced an entrance through the rear door an (J made off with about $800 worth of jewelry. The police were immediately notified and they looked carefully over the ground for a possible clue. While they were still busy trying to Jocate the thief some one no m n in fpnm fVm nonnfrir ovi/i ra_ Lame in ii uin lii^ v^uuiin j . ci? 11 \jl i-1/ ported seeing a man about half-waV between Williston and Windsor, walking o'n the railroad; also reported that he had a grip. Dr. Smith got a constable to go with him and they soon overtook the suspect and brough to light all the missing jew-1 elrv but two diamond rings, which have not yet been recovered. The suspect proved to be a hangeron with a^carnival company, which was in town last week. a forest fire ignited by the lightning; while the third illustrates the primitive campfire, and the method of conveying fire from one camp to another. The first two being presumptive natural sources from which man may have obtained fire before he knew a manner for kindling it himself. The progressive steps of man's acquaintance with fire are three: The knowledge of fire, the means of utilizing it, and the means of preserving it. The last step, which is one of the most important in the history of man's development, is fully illustrated by the series of different appara tus and materials. Many improvements have followed the 'first steps in man's progress, ^nd each method hsa been subject to various modificai tions by different peoples. What wras probably the first method, that of rubbing two sticks together with the hands, was improved by reciprocating motion effects; the twirling of one stick held vertically between the palms and resting on a second lying horizontally on the ground, then by the addition of a bow and socket, followed by the weighted stick a's in the pump drill, and finally the machine with cog wheels and crank as employed in Soudan^ The Indians of the two Americas, Somalis, Kaffirs, Veddahs, and Australians, were generally exponents of the simple twostick method. The four-piece apparatus was used by the Eskimo, Hindoos, Dyaks, and some Athapascan tribes, and the weighted drill was employed by the Iroquois and the Chukchis. The second method is that of sawing, and the apparatus comprised a thin strip of bamboo which was drawn edgewise across a section of the same wood, in which a corresponding' groove had been cut across the grain,j the sparks created falling through I the groove" upon some inflammable' substance lying beneath^the large section. This was also accomplished by i. drawing a thong of rattan across a stick in which a longitudinal slot had been cut partway through, the sparks lighting some tinder placed in the: slot. These methods were used by j the Malays and Burmese, as well as: some other races. j Fire was, also made byN plowing,; that is, avthin piece of wood was fore-, ed along a narrow slot , cut lengthwise in a large piece until the frictionj ignited the tinder. - This system was! evolved by the Polynesians, the Aus-., t.ralians and the Panuans. Another and more advanced sys- j tern, of stricking fire was by percus sion, first employed through the use; of flint and iron pyrites, or stone con-; taining iron, by the Eskimo and j Northern Indians, and later supersed-j ed by flint and steel, a custom which j became quite general, and remained popular for many years. The collections of the museum, which include several examples of | different forms of apparatus under' the above subdivisions, are supple-. men ted by examples of more recent i devices. One is a tinder pistol, an English adaption of the flint and steel in a gunlock, which threw sparks on some tinder. What was known as a fire piston was made by the Siamese and Malays. This comprised a cylinder of wood with a closely fitting wooden piston, a smart thrust of which kindled tinder within the cylinder. A lens for focusing the sunlight on tinder is shown as an ex-; ample of a method first employed by j the early Greeks .for kindling a fire, j Other apparatus includes what was I known in Germany in 1824 as a hy-, drogen lamp, the hydrogen being de-! rived from the action of acid on zinc, | was made to play on spongy- platinum, thus causing it to glow; a match light box of about 1809, from Vienna, consisting of a bottle of sulphuric acid into which splints tipped with chlorate of potash and sugar were riv. J mnfoViftr r\f Clllnlllir O r? r? I uipycu, aim uiaiunco ui omj/uui auu | phosphorous, as well as an electric i gas lighter. The latter exhibits bring j the series up-to-date and cover in a' general way the development of fire; making from the earliest days to. modern times. EVERYTHING FOR THE HOU5EHOED. j7j|E can furnish your new home or make an old one loo jfj like new with complete parlor, dining room and bed room sets; also carpets, rugs and crockery. 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