University of South Carolina Libraries
B? ?MP?? BOW??? 6 Invented the V7 ll,?* ?1 d chroniclers ?jPll?P?|P% have thrown a vei* of mystery grafiflRR around the Sj|liyB^p TLr-ivV Christmas tree and make no at\A f nT Kl ^emPt t0 ex" BfflBBll? pIain ,ts or,glnstated that the . tree came to us This legend is well propagated In jjlllP^ old Irish and Welsh fairy tales. The idea is that in ^nclent Egypt they used a slip of the palm tree Bpfe? with twelve shoots on it at certain winter festivities. The tree sym- flPtP bollzed the year with its twelve f|ffe ~ Consequently, any one who is ' ' IjjjijJ equal to the effort may believe that the modern Christmas tree reDre sents that twelve-shooted slip of palm. Minds of less stalwart ere- i dulity may prefer to trace the * uvjyjLj?; Christmas tree back to Germany jpSgaPra only, where they had Christmas trees long before they were ever \ heard of in tWs country or England f 4jjjj^ _ or France. y^Bjj The Christmas tree was not introduced into England from Germany until after the narriage of ,'f Queen Victoria to her German con- . ' sort. Prince Albert. Put where did ^-r~ the Germans get the Christmas tree ^ ''tfLygj idea from? S. J. Adair Fitz Gerald. ; writing in T. P.'s Weekly, offers an W explanation of this by saying that far away back in the ages you find Xi^JTv Teutons believing in a mystic ash tree, Yggdrasil, which, with its roots and branches, united the f world of the living and the world of the dead. "At the foot of Ygg- \T /. drasll sit the three Norns, who determine the destinies of men, and Yggdrasil's branches bear gifts for men to take." Is that our Christmas tree? Anyhow, the idea that Prince Albert introduced it into Great Britain is very prevalent. One of the prettiest and most eagerly looked for events of the Christmastide?that of the setting up of the Christmas tree?is associated with the late Empress Frederick of Germany. Queen Victoria, after the birth of the princess royal, had Christmas cele Drated at windsor lu 1840, ana on tnat occasion Prince Albert Introduced the pretty German custom of decorating a Christmas tree. Since that period it has become a welcome custom for both rich and poor, and affords 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 "Georglcs." It will be seen by this that the generally accepted notion is that Prince Albert was responsible for the British adoption of the pleasing tree and all that It means, symbolical and practical, to the youngsters. But on the threshold of this acceptation we are met with this statement from the "Grevllle Memoirs," under date Dec. 27, 1829. when Queen Victoria was yet but ten years old. "On Christmas day the Princess Lleven got up a little fete, such as is customary all over Germany. Three trees in great pots were put on a ,UI,K lauie cuvereu wiiu '!^fcw i^jn^U linen; each tree was illumlnated with three circular tiers of colored wax candles ?blue, green, red and white. Before each was displayed a Jf Quantity of toys, gloves. x/ \'x handkerchiefs, workboxes, l&SsStL \ books and various articles, W presents made to the owner ' i\i3V&^AV *'ie tree-" This princess ' . j^t^V was a Russian, and in her ^ ?? ?j later days lived mostly In Paris. Then again Prof. Ditchfield, in his "Old English Customs." says that the Christmas tree was first imported Into England by some German merchants who lived at Manchester in the first years of the nineteenth century. In 1900 a writer on folklore said; "Although we are accustomed to consider Germany the home of the Christmas tree, It has not been general there for more than a couple of centuries. Old people are still living whose parents never saw one In Germany. The decoration of houses with olive leaves and green branches, as in England at Christmas. Is a far more ancient custom, and can be noticed in Botticelli's picture of "The Adoration of the Shepherds," In the National Gallery in London. It Is, as Fritz Ortwein observes. a distinct remnant of an ancient neatnen custom, as at the turn of the year during the twelve days of the Jul festival in honor of Woden, greencrv could be fetched by all from the woods P" without punishment, and every hall was decorated with green leaves and branches. Again, in old works on English customs we . find many references to the decorating of the I interior of the dwellings, as well as the pious t adornment of the churches with greenery, and P the introduction of a fir tree as symbolical of I the palm. In the halls of the barons and the ^ squires and In the gigantic kitchens of the fanners 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 Jnsuro good harvests. Going abroad we get fuller knowledge of these things. 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 a' Salzburg. In 1753, and at Nuremberg, in 176< severe by-laws were issued against persons purloining from the forests. In some regions of Hungary a Bolemn procession with a decorated tree takes place through each village before the , shepheld play begins. "It is adorned with ribbons nnd fruit, and is eupposed to symbolize the tree of knowledge. Although most of the Christian customs adhered to by the AustrianGerman peasant can be traced buck to heathenish Germanen rites, Borne 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 nineteen days." The Christmas tree was introduced into Austria 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 Romau history of the setting up of a decorated tree at Christmas time and the presentation of gifts of fruit and toys. The Romans are supposed to have taken the idea from the early Egyptians. Centuries old. the customs of Christmas observance have taken myriad forms in the various countries of the world In many cases they perpetuate some ancient custom which long antedates the advent of Christianity. Such are the customs which have grown up around the mistletoe, worshiped by the ancient Druids of Britain as a sacred and magical plant. An old English writer, speaking of the Druids' celebration of the winter solstice, our Christmas, says: ?L * .?i ?r i niS ?U8 lilt] IlilJBl ICBl'CllttUID lirouiai ui cur Druids, called Yuletlde; when the mistletoe, which they called nil-heal, was carried in their hands and laid on their altara as an emblem of the salutiferous advent of Messiah. This mistletoe they cut off the trees with their upright hatchets of brass, called celts, put upon ends of their stuffs, which they carried in their hands. Innumerable are these instruments found all over the British isles. The custom is still preserved. and lately at York on the eve of Christmas day they carry mistletoe to the high altar of the cathedral, and proclaim a public and universal 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 Scandinavian 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 Haider, the god of light or benevolent principle of northern mythology, rne inspiration of the use of the mistletoe was. of course, due to the oppos ?which had not given definite promise to Preva to prove harmless If used against the person of her son Haider. Thus Scandinavian mythical lore accounts for the death of the latter And nccprdingly, a traditional Idea of the poisonous properties of the mistletoe is found to persist In remote regions of the north and west of Europe, even to the present day. In Great Ilritain (In the Forest of Deant it has been used down to recent date as a popular remedy in the treatment of cardiac troubles. Like ihe strophantus of African nrrow poison fame, it proved a reliable substitute for digitalis Kissing under the mistletoe Is all that now re ammmohmnc jommkmbh = ?mmmm, mm? cn MBrf ^ N '^jifjl mains of a once .horrible Druid rite. ^he ceremonies which tho inistletoe figured In among the ancient Druids always accorded it a place ?' honor. The myths that clung $Wm around it in their wondering, puz0, zling minds were many more than Wt | the few that have come to us In ? these later years. But, old as they 1 are, those hoary, heathen myths vy .Jfr lack the true flavor of antiquity when it comes to measuring tradi- 1 tiona by the centuries. jSp*' Oh, we do not by any means owe i 1 our mistletoo to the Druids. We 1 jSagcy can go back so much further for the 1 adventures of the mistletoo H9E** that the Druids become merely modern Innovators. It was one of i j>yjV the noblest of the trees In Paradise, V the lordly tree of good and evil; ' and on its twig hung the apple which Mother Eve plucked with such disastrous consequences. Alas j?|k_ for Mother Eve and Father Adam! And alas for us. their punished jpBjgL, i helrs-at-law divine' Put alas, too. for the wicked, handaome, tempting tree of knowledge which put humanIty In such graceless plight! I'pon I ffi its lofty crown, its massive trunk, i 'ts delicious fruit, descended the L&'y'ffe universal curse. It shriveled away from horrified earth; it dwindied to the meanest smallness; it Wjgfr was cast out into the bitter cold: mjm !f- became a parasite and beggar existing by the bounty of vulgar neighbors. Only in the pearly -jR n translucence of its shrunken fruit. the most trivial of berries, did it r '(&r preserve some semblance of its once rad'ant 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 principles of eternal Justice or with cold observation of cause and effect. Hut 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 nad another designation as well?St. Valentine's Blckness. The 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. Hut whether It did or didn't the mistletoo's rare birth and fruition still carry with them the tenderest of Christian ' ^ faiths, as they carry, too, tho story of humanity's most far- , ,? reaching disaster. It is one /y - - JLjra / of the Christmas greens ' wQX&Zwlilch has the warrant of re- : ?r=. ligious associations dating ^ back to the very beginnings of man's creation, even as if is accorded the sublime honor of typifying the ances- I . usa <3*^^ tral origins of the Redeemer I ft ?i of Man himself. l|l Hut what about the mistle- It IV- tfcrh toe kiss? 'im1 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 sucli careful investigators as Alfred R. P. Raymond Dowling have dug up while studying the general subject. None will deny that the most consistent Christians have taken to the mistletoe kiss with abundant enthusiasm and a faith in Its excellent results that has never been surpassed. Rut that doesn't make the mistletoe kiss any more Christian than it ever was. Isn't the excellent story of foolish Mother Kve and the original mistletoe apple enough for any reasonable Christmas decorator who wants to Justify its employment? And if it isn't, haven't wo the legend of the Rod of Jesse to make it distinctly o.^e of the Christmas greens? As for the kisses that are supposed to go with it?well. If you Insist on knowing about them, you'll J simply have to take the consequences, same *" 11 1 nn tlctinwr nf as tive (J1U wueu one lusiawu v/?. w. that confounded tree of knowledge. The mistletoe kiss seems not to bo Christian at all?Druldlcal, 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 fien the accursed roof, as if it were the house of Arrla Marcella and you were not Gautler'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 ihan It did In Eden. But If you have Ivy, wreathe It generous!}", 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 I and death of its beloved, but clings ever more closely n3 the fall impends and bears up Its fall- | lng ally against al! adversity. Learned s'udente of these legends havo surmised, too, that It :na> be the herb of Sr. John the Baptist, who Is uuual ly pictured as the boy in his camel's-hair coat gazing at his cousin, the infant Jesus. Feared Nebraska May Sue ^ I 117 ASHINUTON. "Naval officers are a ?? guessing whether the -United c State battleship Nebraska, which ran upon au uncharted shoal a short time igo. is going to take the place of the D ill-fated Texas, later named San Mar- b ?os, which was the hoodoo ship of ^ the navy," remarked Captain L. L. 0 Darbey, a retired naval officer, the ' ather day. "Ill luck pursued the Texas n ilmost from the beginning, and it d seemed that it was never out of trouble during all the time it was in com- e mission, except at the battle of San- i' tiago, where it did great work. * "Refore the Spanish-American war j t [he Texas while being overhauled at 'I the Brooklyn navy yard was sunk, be- r cause the yokes of its sea cocks were t broken in the course of repairs, and a ilie water poured in just as if the c boat had been scuttled. The Texas 1 sank, as everybody knows, and was r raised as soon as possible. It was on ! that occasion that. Captain Jack Phil- c lips, one of the bravest and best naval t Enterprising Sam Conserves IF Sam Lee should put a big gilt sign bearing the words, ' Electrical Chinese Laundry," on the front of his little shop, at 310S Fourteenth street, Northwest, any time in the near future, his customers in Mount Pleasant woultl not be at all surprised. In fact, a number of those who in trust their neglige to the tender ministrations of the affable Celestial have been wondering for some time why Sam has neglected such a splendid j opportunity for a bit of advertls- ( ing. j Hut although Sam has been reju- j venated to the extent where he real- ] Izes that electrical power Is much ] stronger, cheaper, and more efficient , In the long run than the muscles and < sinews of the human arms and back, he has not awakened to the wonders | of the "ads." < Sam is a typical specimen of the i "new" Chinaman?the product of that l stirring spirit which caused the an- I clpnt empire to become transformed ' Into a republic in a remarkably short I period, and with the loss of only a few hundred heads and other incl- i dentals. 1 Sam is wide-awake and alert, and in the "Melican slang" he Is "on the i He Wants a Wife, and V .AO 4m . f I AL'GUUST SEYMORB, otherwise known as August Scbaefelsky de Mukkadel de Castellane, one time dentist to the bey of Tunis and his harem, wants a wife, and wants her double-quick, lie has from now until January 1 to persuade an American girl to marry him, or he will forfeit a legacy of J 150,000 promised by a California woman. An aunt, formerly of Oakland, Cal., told him five years ago that if he would cam "something worth while and capture an American for a wife," she would give him $150,000. Seymore is a relative of the Cas tellane family made famous by the marital difficulties of Count Doni. In Doubt as to Mr. Wilsoi JUST at present Washington is wondering whether it will soon behold a president of the United States roll ine leisurely by on his bicycle. It has just com" out that the president-elect is fond of that manner 01 locomotion. He has gone on his vacation, and proposes to spend a part of it riding on his wheel. He has pedaled over many miles of English and continental roads in this fashion and likes it. j Time was when Washington was filled j i with eminent men and women aw heel. ; j but they have all vanished save one, j i Assistant Secretary of State A. A. < Adee. He is the permanent assistant ' | secretary of sta'e. a man who sticks < to his own notions about things. Ev- j< ? ry summer he voyages to Europe and ! i spends a month or so bicycling to j < places of interest. He and the new j president should establish c- -dial v \ lations very early. . j If as president Gov. Wilson wants ; to bike" around Washington, he will ( not want for good reads. They stretch in cv? ry direction, except toward Vir- ' ginia. The secret service men who guard him, cf course, would also have ; i I :ceed Texas as Hoodoo fflcers, by the way, that ever trod a ridge, hnd some fun with Fighting iob Evans, at that time commanding be Iowa. When the Texas was raised : was found that in the hull were bousands of eels that had been suckd through the open sea cocks. Knowig Captain Evans's fondness for eels 'hillips had a lot of them sent over o the Iowa. He was somewhat snrrised a day later to receive a note of cknowledgment from his brother oilier, which read: 'The eels were fine, ack; sink her again.' "It was Jack Phillips, you may relember, who, after the great navsl attle of Santiago, when the Spanish attlesbips were lying on the shores f Cuba smoking from the shot of the unerican ships, solemnly said to his r\^,? nSon, Knvo' thp noor UCU. LAiU I 'vucv-i, vv/ify r levils are dying.' "Jack Phillips was one of the bravst, and at the same time moBt relig0U8, naval officers I ever knew. He ^as the direct opposite of Bob Evans, tut the two were great friends. The "exas, you know, was afterward tamed the San iMarccs, and was the arget for gun practice a *ew months igo. It was a fitting end for a good dd ship that had always been in hard uck, except at the time when it was nost needed. I say, I wonder if the sebraska is going to take the place if the Texas as th?^ hoodoo ship of he navy?" > the Natural Resources lob." Therefore, when an enterprising salesman revealed the wonders of i now and Ingenious device for ironing clothes at the cost of but little perspiration, less physical energy, practically no mental waste, and only i few cents a day in the cost of power, Sam said: "I buy him." Now Sam Irons with an electrical ,ron which saves him so many hundreds of steps a day between the stove and his ironing table. Further, Lhe iron is so arranged that by pu'lIng a string he releases a weight which bears down on the top of the iron and relieves him of that duty. Better still, the pulling of another string lifts the iron Just the right height above the board and Sam does not have to lift it and put it on tne old-fashioned Iron holder. Vants Her Double-Quick lie Is now in Washington, where he expects to remain until ho finds "the woman" that his aunt told him he must have before he is entitled to her money. He has lectured, written, practiced dentistry and served in the French army. In a wife he would have a chum. "I used to believe in my mother's view of marriage?the marriage of the eye?but I have come to the view of the marriage of reason," said Scymore. "Mother said that marriage progressed from the stage of catching, or buying, a woman to the wooing of a woman regarded in a nobler sense, and the winning of the wife. "Now I feel that the marriage of the eye is the result of the sentimentality of youth and immaturity. Retter is that marriage where the couple are partners, chums, sharing everything alike. I don't believo In the marriage where the man has the money and forces his wife to ask him for every cent she gets. "Itather, there should be a balance of power, so that the man and the woman ar> on an absolutely equal footing as regards money, morals, pleasures and sorrows." i's Mode of Locomotion to be mounted, but that is only ar? ncident. They have been accustomed to following the president on motorcycles and sometimes in an automobile of their oun. If the new preslJent takes to bicycling, however, official Washington will do likewise. That s a way official Washington has. If iov. Wilson goes out much awheel, it will not be long before embassadors ind ministers and secretaries and military attaches will also be pedaling llong the sleeky-oiled reads and iodgir.g automobiles. Cabinet officials ! i congressmen will do likewise, rhe revival of bicycling among the well-to-do may be expected somewhat ill over the country.