Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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s » / * fThprsday, December 24, 1931 McCORMlCK MESSENGER Published Every Thursday ! Established June 5, 1902 McCORMlCK MESSENGER, McCORMlCK. SOUTH CAROUNA < PAGE NUMfi] EDMOND J. McCRACKEN, Editor and Owner Entered at the Post Office at Mc Cormick, S. C., as mail matter of the second class. old-age pensions have been adopt ed is that it is a more economical way of taking care of the aged poor thaji the poorhouse used to be. It certainly seems to be more in har mony with our civilized social con science than the .old system of making “paupers” of these • un fortunates. theologians. About the middle of the sev enteenth century a celebrated -Strasburg divine wrote: “Amongst the other absurdities with which men are often more occupied at Christmas time than with the Work I duce the growing stock or “capi- | tal” but the increased light and food wdl enable the trees that re main to grow much more rapidly than they would, had the thinnings not been made. The Christmas tree market will Student Program | n Ay CD a cpi Next Sunday At \ tK /\brl Baptist Church' is always SAF of God there is also the Christmas' be supplied regardless of the cost. BEWARE OF IMITATION! SUBSCRIPTION RATES: — Strictly Cash In Advance — One Year $1.00 Six Months r .75 Three Months 1 .50 LOOKING AHEAD -sxt- or fir tree, which they erect in j Farmers and timberland owners their houses, hang with dolls and should prepare to take advantage sweetmeats, and then shake, caus- j of this new source of income by ing it to shed its flowers. I know planting suitable trees, and by re- not the origin of the custom; it is moving trees from their timber- a child’s game.” j lands in such a way that the best „ „ _ ^ . Others of the clergy taking up trees remain undisturbed for the e “ tkg cr y a g ains t the innocent ob- production of timber, get the custom, dated their first THE YULE LOG The Yule Log is no new thing. V&P't. m “The year is dying—let it die.” We echo Tennyson’s words. So far as we are concerned, anybody can have 1931 that wants it. We are | forest and burned with pomp and knowledge of the Yule log back to the Norse invasion. In the win ter-locked halls of the Vikings it was usual to celebrate the winter solstice in honor of Thor by the feast of Juul, or Yule, and a log always was brought in from the all through with it. It has been a tough year, in some ceremony. Medieval England kept up the respects, but, after all,'we still sur-| custom of its fore-fathers, and in vive. It may or may not have our own country the tradition has been the worst year, from the eco- persisted. nomic point ° f ™w, in ^eri_can |_oid New England made more of ^‘‘virt^hteh were^gni^ed in their religion servance, so denounced it that the spread of the Christmas tree throughout Germany was retarded. But clerical fears appear to have i been groundless. The Christmas tree in time displaced other popu lar rites of that age. Modern as the Christmas tree undoubtedly is in its present de velopment, many ancient sources, lost in antiquity have contributed to its evolution. Often these sources may be traced to pagan times, when the ancients equipped trees history. Some say that it was, and Thanksgiving Day than Christmas, some think that we haye had but in the Southern States during worse. If there were any worse the days of slavery the Yule log years we don’t remember them ' played a great part. As long as it right at this time. j burned in the big fire-place of the The important thing now is to plantation house, the slaves were look ahead and see whether 1932 free to observe festival and do no is going to be any better and, par- work. Therefore, the Yule log was ticularly, what we can do ourselves always thoroughly soaked with to make it fret^er. For one thing, j swamp water before it was drag- we think that most people have ged in, to make it last longer, and dropped the idea that there is some the singing and dancing continued easy way to get money without for many days, working for i$. That is all to the | The pleasures of the open fire good. The early American settlers are being awakened again, and the had the right idea. One of the first hearth is once more the center of rules laid down for the Pilgrims of many a household. It is not al- Plymouth was “they that will not ways possible to go out and chop work shall not eat.” That admon ition, indeed, goes back farther than that. You can timi it in the first chapter of the Book of Gen esis. It sterns to us that we have pretty well got over the foolish no tion that we,-as a people, had dis covered a way to beat that game. There is no doubt that 1932 will still |pe a tough year compared with the year 1927. Everything isn’t down a private log for Christmas, but there are peple who, even, no\y will make a trip to the fuel shop down the street to observe theirs Yuletide in a manner to their lik ing. According to District Forester H. Y. Forsythe of the State Forest Service, the loss of potential tim ber when trees are cut is not great. , In the forest the best formed trees; going to change for the better on are usually not only the most rapid New Year’s Day. We have got to j growing, but are the ones that are work our way back to a stage f relied upon for the timber crop, where everybody who wants to However, trees suitable for Christ- work will have a chance to work mas purposes can be removed from and nobody to speak of will be get- fully stocked timberlands in such a ting something without working for J wa y that their removel will act as it. Everybody has got to work a' a thinning and the trees that re little harder to pay off the debts main wi ji b e benefited. This is that we ran \ip in the boom times, and that applies to individuals, states and the national govern ment alike. TXT OLD AGE PENSIONS The movement for old age pen sions, under some system of state supervision, or directly by. the .states with funds ram^d by taxa tion, is growing strongly all over .the United States. The American Association for Old Age Security, done by selecting trees that are be ing crowded by large ones and that Will eventually be over-topped and shaded out. % Origin Of The , Christmas Trees The Christmas festival, with its observances of feasting, its decor-> ated home, its exchange of gifts, is _ in its present development a pro- which is a group of'philanthropic-| duct of dim and remote antiquity, minded people trying to advance But the Christmas tree, perhaps the cause of old age pensions, re- the most essential feature of the ports that out of 1,345 newspapers holy season as we now observe it, is which have editorially discussed the so recent a usage that many peo- subject in the past two years, more pie are incredulous when told how than a thousand are definitely in modem it really is. favor of the movement. J In England, where the festival It is undeniable that people who of the Christmastide (described by are too old to work and have noth- Dickens as a time of feasting and ing saved up have a harder time of plenty) has been celebrated ever it, in this industrial age, especially since the middle ages, the Christ- in the cities, than folk similarly mas tree was not generally known situated had when everybody lived before the beginning of the nine- ....... on farms. In the country a few ( teenth century. In fact, the use ^ look at a .. tr< ; e we should^think old people, more or less, make little of the evergreen tree at Christmas In pre-Christian Germany the Winter festival was, we are led to beheve, a riotous celebration with many gross observances. This great Yule feast was held in commemor ation of the return of the fiery sun wheel. For twelve nights, from December 25 to January 6, their great deities, Odin, Berchta, and others gave revelations of their worshipers. The early Church, eager to replace pagan festivals with Christmas, sent missionaries among the German tribes. In the “Lives of the Saints” ap pears an interesting account of St. ^oniface, also called St. Winifred, who obtained many converts among these wild people in the eighth century. It is recorded that in Hesse some of these “con verts” with a perfectly human if primitive desire to propitiate the gods of both religions professed Christianity, while at the same time, led by the wizards, adhering to the old worship of sacred groves, and many Gods. The story relates th&t at one of their Yule festivals at Fritzlar St. Boniface, who appears to have been a mai^ of singular strength hewed down a venerable oak, sac red for years to mighty Thor, the Thunderer. As the oak tottered sbeneath the last blows of the saint’s axe out of the sky came a whirlwind which the awed people believed to be Thor hastening to avenge the sacrifice. But instead of the intrepid saint being destroy-; ed, the oak toppled and with a mighty crash fell to the ground. The pagans bowed in fear and rev erence before the superior strength of Christianity. In connection with this story there arose a legend that attempts to account for the advent of the Christmas tree. In the place where the veteran oak had stood there suddenly appeared a young fir tree. St. Bonifire told his aston ished listeners that the pagan oak was gone forever, and that the fir, symbolizing the eternal Christ, should henceforth be the tree of their new faith. “Let this green fir,” he said, “be your holy tree tonight. Take it into your homes as a living emblem to honor the birth of the Christ Child.” Trees live to give. Whenever GREENWOOD, S. C. THURSDAY, December 24 , Kay Francis Lillyan Tashman and Joel McCree in “GIRLS ABOUT TOWN” FRIDAY, December 25th Jackie Coogan Mitzi Green and Junior Durkin in “TOM SAWYER” Next Sunday at 11:00 o’clock, students from the local Baptist, Methodist and A. R. P. churches will be in charge of the service at the Baptist Church. College stud ents now at home for the holidays and recent graduates will have charge of the ushering, Scripture reading, special music, and discus sion. All college graduates or for mer college students will be recog nized, as will all high school stud ents. Students from Bethany and Buffalo districts will be present and | used on the program likewise. All * students or graduates are urged to be present. 1 v Brother Joseph Dukes, senior student and President of the Y. M. C. A. of The Citadel, will preach at the evening hour. We bespeak for him a prayerful hearing. Teachers Home For ! 11^, tree ^ D UNLESS you see the name Bayer and TTrJirliivc the word genuine on the package as Y^miSimdS noiiaays picturedaboveyoucan never be sure that you are taking the genuine Bayer Aspirin Teachers arriving this week to that thousands of physicians prescribe soend the Christmas holidays at in their daily practice. their homes in and near town are: j -Mien- Vimh~neasdn, Fairfax. | 1 - means genuine A/r ?r f M ReB, ifftbn'iHnT'ill" Aspirin. It is your guarantee ot punty Miss Lucy Brown. Plum Branch. y° ur protection against some imitation. Miss-Pwasye- Williams, Woodville. Millions of users have proved it is safe. BeHr Woodville. Miss Mary Quarles AUondale. Miss Kate Price, Bamberg. Vi SATURDAY, December 26 Richard Aden and Fay Wray in ‘THE CONQUERING HORDE’ MONDAY and TUESDAY December 28th-29th Ruth Chatterton in “ONCE A LADY” WEDNESDAY - THURSDAY December 30th-31st Paul Lukas Dorothv Jordan in “THE BELOVED BACHELOR” Genuine Bayer Aspirin promptly relieves: or no difference in the cost of was not widely introduced into maintaining the household.' It is England and France until about easy to say that these old people 1840. should have been thrifty, but there To the German people is at- are so many obstacles in the way tributed the first use of the Christ- of even the ablest in their effort mas tree. That their tree was es- to save up for old age, that it is sentially the same as the one we unfair to blame any but the utter- know today is attested by the fact ly lazy and reckless for not ac- that Goethe, in 1774, described it cumulating an independent in- as being decorated with candles, come. * I fruit and sweet meats. Schiller, The old-fashioned “poorhouse.” in 1789, called it the “green tree.” with its stigma of pauperism, has Later it was given the distinctive been abolished in seventeen states names of Christbaum and Weh- where old age pension systems are naebtsbaum. in effect. It is no disgrace for old j In Germany the Christmas fir folk who have worked hard all can be traced back, in approxi- their lives to take help from the mately its present form, to the social group which has benefited early seventeenth century; but its by their labors. think the best 1 earlier use appears to have been of all old-age pension systems for 'local rather than national, wage-earners would be one in ^ in 1605 an unknown German which employers and workers alike mentioned the custom of bringing contribute to-an insurance'fund to fir trees, adorned with paper flow- be available whenever either ill-jers and fruit, into the homes of ness, accident or age removes the Strasburg. The seventeenth cen- worker from the ranks of active in dustry. But it would take a great tury apparently had its share of reformers and reprovers of human wiany years to realize the full ef- pleasures. For the Christmas tree, feet of sue)} a plan, even if it were which in our age is an accepted put into universal effect tomorrow. | symbol commemorating Christ’s And even it might not reach all of birth and which brings joy and th? agfd people. ’ Experience in the states | pleasure to millions*of children, was top for a Christmas tree. The re- where then severely condemned by the it has some gift for us. Of all that tke forest yields to man, perhaps no gilt is more prized than is the Christmas tree. The child ac customed to his Christmas tree is keenly disappointed when it is not present. Nations used to trees and the gifts they give are indeed most desolate when the forests cease to bestow their blessings and comfort. According to H. Y. Forsythe, Dis trict Forester of Aiken, it is not the intention of the State Forest Serv ice to discourage the use of ever greens for Christmas trees. This old and well-established custom brings joy to the hearts of old and young, and should be continued. However, two important points will be admitted: (1) The unnecessary loss through the careless cutting of Christmas trees in South Carolina is to be deplored and should be stopped. (2) By planting trees on idle acres and the conservative cutting of natural growing trees, it is possible to grow within the State sufficient Christmas trees to meet the demand. It is often possible to cut trees from ten to forty feet high that are being crowded, and utilize the moval of these trees will not re- McCormick School Faculty On Vacation Out of town members of McCor mick school faculty who have gone to their homes for the Christmas holidays are: Miss Elizabeth Johnson, Colum bia. Miss Elizabeth Kennedy, Lugoff. Miss^Grace McCord. Greenwood. Miss Sara Bowles, Columbia. Miss Evelyn Ramsey, Wedgefield. Miss Louise Corbin, Springfield. Ky. Miss Louise Collins, Columbia. Miii»*¥iiiginift Li§ei>i Bfcawi—— Miis ■fflnrftncA vtlle; Mmmi Annie Hairki: "BBllun. Miss Bertha Mabry, Greenwood. Members spending the holidays at their homes here are: Mr. H. H. Shiflet. Miss Frances Britt. Miss Margaret Patterson. -txt- College Students Home For Holidays College students arriving to soend the Christmas holidays at their homes in and near town are: Converse College. Spartanburg. Miss Elizabeth Branch. Miss Olive Branch. Winthrop College, Rock Hill. Miss Maude Dowtin. Miss Selma Walker. Miss Helen Talbert. Miss Cathleen Bussey. Miss Edna Duncan. Miss Harriett Sturkey. Miss Lucfle Caudle. Miss Helen Brown. Miss Frances Langley. Miss Virginia Strom. Miss Rebecca Stallworth. University of S. C., Columbia. Miss Rucia Abercrombie. Mr. Mark Dowtin. Mr. E. P. Bentley. Mr. John Wesley Jennings. Clemson College, Clemson. Mr. Howard Franklin. Mr. Billie Britt. , y Mr. William Dowtin. Mr. Welbourne Schumpert. Mr. Milton Walker. Mr. Frank Corley. Mr. Wallace Talbert. Mr. Luther Drennan. Mr. Benton Talbert. Mr. Carroll Winn. Mr. Porter Dorn, Jr. Mr. Archie Langley. Mr. James Britt. Mr. Tom Stallworth. Citadel, Charleston. Mr. Jim Murray. Mr. Joseph Dukes. Mr. Charles Pennal. Coker CoUege, Hartsville. Miss Louise Bracknell. Erskine College, Due West. Miss Mary Elizabeth Britt. Lander College, Greenwood. Miss Mary Henry. Miss Alleen Arrington. Miss Mabel Lyon. Belmont Abby, Belmont, N. C. Mr. John Thomas McGrath. Anderson College, Anderson. Miss Mary Cornelia Corley. Miss Marion Sturkey, LocKhart. Miss Irene Britt, Moncks Corner. Miss Laura LeRoy, Clover. Miss Louise Langely, Clover. Miss Mary Martin, Congers, N. Y. Mr. Henry Walker, Ridgeland. Miss Claire Henry, Cope. Miss Helen Miner, Meeting Street. Miss Mabel Dorn, Edgefield. Miss Eloise Corley, Norway. Miss Marion Dorn, Rock Hill. Miss Nell Dowtin, Greenville. Headaches Colds • Sore Throat Rheumatism No harmful r r It does n''* N euritis Neuralgia Lumbago Toothache : follow its use. Ga. -txt- ffrr o ^ n> - * members can be expected to fight _ each other fully as hard as they . Ajjgg rliiniiip K>nwt\ Athens, Ga. attack the President. -Misy "Mamte^Keown^FIaL Rock. , The Senate, which is prohibited "mIss Mary^Remsen, RobiSnN. f rom originating linancial legisla- Miss Kate Britt, Plum Branch. tlon an d has to wait until the Low- Miss Alma Walker, Mt. Airy, N. C. er House passes bills before it can Miss Birdie Walker, Weldon. N. C. takp anv a pti nn nn win Mr. James Bradley. Walhalla. ^ ar \ y ac “ .?? th ’ WlU find Miss Josie Talbert, Savannah. its hands full with foreign affairs. Mr. Luther Andrews, Newton, Not since Senator Lodge attacked N 'mSss Annie Willis, Southeiir' Pr ?, side “ t Wilson for his foreign Pines, N. C. policy has there been such a Miss Annie Lou Lankford, Will- chance for Senators to drag in the in M° n Lester Wideman, Irwinvili|^ old s , pectr H e ° f “entangling alU- T ances,” and they can bfe expected to run the entire gamut of political fireworks in the discussions over the payment of war debts and rep arations. Whether the Senate is going to make it harder for the United States to collect its foreign debts or not is beyond the power of any body here to predict. There is a feeling here that the Senate, as a whole, is likely to arouse intense resentment among European statesmen by their frankness over war debts, but, it is being pointed out on all sides, it is going to be difficult to collect the money Ger many owes us, and the other Allied nations, without going to war, an action that is not even remotely considered possible. None of the countries in the World War have the least desire to start another war, judging by their repeated ex pressions. Without force it does not seem likely that Germany can be made to pay the present debts and every indication points to a deep cut in the amount due. It appears more than likely that the Senate eventually will decide to find out exactly how much Ger many can afford to pay and then set in motion the machinery for collecting that amount, shaping do mestic legislation to provide for the required increase in taxes that will have to be levied to offset such re duction. The Senate is going to have its greatest difficulties over proposals that will be offered that the Unit ed States become a part of the (Special to The Messenger.) WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 21.— The adjournment of Congress over the Christmas holidays is giving the country at large a chance to size up the two Houses. It looks •certain that anything Mr. Hoover proposes, regardless of its good ef fect on the country, will be opposed in vigorous terms, and that prac tically everything he has said or done since his inauguration, bar ring only perhaps his Thanksgiving Proclamations, will come in for un stinted abuse. So far as Congress can be said to be in harmony on anything right now, the one subject on which a majority vote can always be re lied may be expressed in the slo gan, “Down with Hoover.” And it is not being expressed in language quite as refined as that. While that idea seems to be the favorite one in Congressional interviews, not even being confined to the op position, political observers here believe that the President’s person al and political enemies will take it out largely in conversation. They TTT have seen too many simUar con- T° d C0 “ rt .’. lf i ot o, th « , Lea ? lle of ditions in the past to be convinced by the uproar against Mr. Hoover. They figure that, when it comes down to action and voting, at least on the fundamental program of reduced expenditures and in creased taxation, they will swing into line. They can be expected, however to dress up the new legis lation in their own words and en deavor to make it appear as their own child, entirely different from anything Mr. Hoover has suggested. The President is playing the game, in his endeavor to have necessary legislation passed, by being careful not to propose anything but the essentials, which all are agreed up on, avoiding any statement that might be taken as dictating meth ods. As a result, it appears un likely that any political capital will be made of any of the President’s messages to Congress since it con vened. There is no question that all Congressmen are convinced that new taxation and drastic cuts in governmental expenditures are de manded. The battles that will be fought will all be on the various plans that will be offered, and the Nations itself. The question is one that will open the floodgates of oratory and, it is expected, result in more patriotic speeches, and flag- waving than any similar discussion since the end of the war. The in terjection of this question, which can be expected early, will furnish both sides with splendid campaign material even if it fails to result in as much benefit to the country as the more pressing demands for domestic relief. Important Notice To Taxpayers This is to notify all those who have not paid their 1931 town tax es that a penalty of 5 per cent will be added January 1, 1932, and a 2 per cent penalty will be added March 1, 1932. These taxes most be collected to enable the town to meet the interest on bonds without further levy of mills. Also, those who have not paid their 1930 taxes are urged to do so at once. On the first of January we have obligations to meet and unless these taxes are paid between now and the first, execution costs will be added and steps will be tak en to collect same. ' J. O. PATTERSON, . . Clerk.