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OF NIN8 fCH 11¶MA TWlf
I10 invented the
Christmas tree?
\Whence does it
come? It is a
curious fact
that most of the
old chroniclers
ha\e thrown a
veil of mystery
' around the
Christmas tree
and make no at
tempt to ex
Q plain its origin.
" it has been
'~ - stated 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 *as not -in
troduced into England from Ger
many until after the marriage of
Queen Victoria to her German con
sort, Prince Albert. But where did
the Germans get the Christmas tree
idea from? 8. J. Adair Fits 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, Yggdrasil, 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
Tggdrasil's branches bear gifts for men to take."
Is that our Christmas tree? Anyhow, the idea
that Prince Albert introduced it into Great Brit
ala 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
Pritee Albert introduced the pretty German cus
tom of decoratiag a Christmas tree. Since that
period it has become a welcome custom for both
rich and poor, and afords 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 "Georgics."
It will be 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
meat from the "Greville Memoirs," under date
Dec. 27, 1829, when Queen Victoria was yet but
ten years old. "On Christmas day the Princess
Usven got up a little fete, such as is customary
all over Germany. Three
trees in great pots were put
on a long table covered with
linen; each tree was illuml
nated with three circular
tiers of colored wax candles
-blue, green, red and white.
Before each was displayed a
quantity of toys, gloves,
handkerchiefs. workboxes,
books and various articles,
presents made to the owner
of the tree." This princess
was a Russian, and in her
later days lived mostly in
Paris. Then again Prof.
Ditchfeld, 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 gen
eral 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 Eng
land at Christmas, is a far more ancient custom,
and can be noticed in Bottlcelli'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 pustom,
as at the turn of the year during the/ twelve
days of the Jul festival 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 palm. In the halls of the barons and the
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
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 at Salzburg, in 1755, and at Nuremberg, in
1768, severe by-laws were issued against persons
purloaning from the forests. In some regions of
Hungary a solemn procession with a decorated
tree takes place through each village before the
shepheld play bega. "It is adorned with rib
bens aad fruit, and is uapposed to symbolste
the tree et knowlege. Altsheas most of the
is f.X.ý. ; ý ' h;.
IF IIrs~- C~":-_i
ir L .s z L iIt'r
ý." .,; fi
13',
ýr r~,·,;gr ·;-~
cI i'
't,.ý ;r°
dSI ý >
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 fire 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
tri some eighty years ago by a Duchess of
Wurtemberg and spread throughout Germnany.
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 presebtatidn 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 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-hpbl, was carried in their
hands and laid on their altars as an emblem of
the salutiferous 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 the British isles. The custom is still pre
served, and lately at York on the eve 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
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
not given definite promise to Freya to pbrve
harmless if used aginst 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
reeent date as a popular remedy in the treatment
of cardiac troubles. IAke the strophanthus of
African arrow poison fme, it proved a reliable
sibrlttute for digitalis.
Klsing ander the Jastletoe is all that now w
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 mesas 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 twig 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! Upon
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 iq 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 fe
with a vestige of the glory that arrayed it in at
Paradise. a
Time was, and time is now, when epilepsy is K
one of the scourges of mankind; only now we al
look for its cure, as we look for its cause, in to
quite natural means and conditions. The notion at
that some poor devil with the falling sickness to
has been cursed from on high is held scarcely to
compatible, in popular science, with the priacl- lI
pies of eternal justice or with cold observation I
of cause and efect.
But in times that were, In Wales, whe an
epileptic developed the symptoms characteritic i
of the disorder, it was commonly believed that w
he was being scourged with the "rod of Chrlst"
and that was the name by which the disease d
went, although it had another designatio a P
well-St. Valentine's sickness. The cure for it
was believed to lie in the Rod of Jesse. The use a
of the mistletoe as the Rod of Jesse in epilepsy
was general and, if faith can work wonders, per P
haps the miracle of cure did sometimes attend P
its employment.
Perhaps it didn't, if hard.headed science E
choose to take a shy at that gracious addition to a
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
faiths, as they carry, too, the
story of humanity's most fan
reaching disaster. It is one
of the Christmas greens
which has the warrant of re
ligious associations dating
back to the very beginnings
of man's creation, even as it
is accorded the sublime
honor of typifying the ances
tral origins of the Redeemer
of Man himself.
But what about the mistle
toe kiss?
Hm! To tell the trqth, if we want to be coan
sistently Chqistian in our Christmas greens and I
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 1
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. But that doesn't make the mistletoe
kiss any more Christian than it ever was
Isn't the excellent story of foolish Mother IEve
and the original mistletoe apple enough for
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-wvll,
if you insist on knowing about them, you'll
simply have to take the consequences, same
as Eve did when she insisted on tasting of
that confounded tree of knowledge.
The Wistletoe kiss seems not to be Chrisl
tian at ill--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 fee
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 loot
the fruit of the mistleto, ascursed tree of
knowledge, prove now more bitter in the mouth
than it did in Eden.
But if yep 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
pare friendship,, the vine that heeds not deca
and death of its beloved, but cltngs ever more
closely as the fall impends sad bears up its hB
t ing ally agaist all adversity. Laraed stMSien
of these legends have surmised, too, that It may
be the herb of St. John the Bsptist, who Is w-s aI
ly pictured as the boy in Ms eamel's-hatr eo,
gsnag at his eousn, the inset Ses..
THOMAS CARLYLE ON WAF
Great Scotch Philosoepher Indulsed in
Some Severe Strictures as to Its
Effect and Necessity.
What, speaking in quite unomfficial
language. is the net purport and up
shot of war? There dwell and toll
In the British village of Drumrudge
usually some 500 souls. From these Ten
there are successively selected, during In
the French war, say thirty able-bodied
men; Dumrudge, at her own expense,
has suckled and nursed them; she
has, not without difficulty and sorrow, p
fed them up to manhood and even sity
trained them to crafts, so that one can live
weave, another build, another ham- sell
mer, and the weakest can stand under pr
thirty stone avoirdupois. Neerthe call
leks. amid much weeping and swear re
Ing. they are selected all dressed In ens
red, and shipped away at the public er
charge some two thousand miles, or
say only to the south of Spain, and wh
fed there till wanted And new to the
that same spot are some thirty simi- ant
lar French artisans, from a French
Drumrudge, in like manner wending; for
till at length, after infinite effort, the
two parties come into actual juxtapo- p
sition; and Thirty stands facing Thir
ty, each with a gun in his hands.
Straightway the word "Fire!" is giv- t
en; and they blow the souls out of
one another; and in place of sixty ro
brisk, useful craftsmen the world has s
sixty carcasses, which it must bury in
and anew shed tears for. Had these he
men any quarrel? Busy as the devil
is, not the smallest! They lived far
enough apart; were the entirest t
strangers; nay, in so wide a niverse,
there was even, unconsciously, by t
commerce, some mutual helpfulness 1
between them. How thea? Simple- t,
toe! their governors had fallen out; a
ad, astead of shooting one another, ba
had the canning to make those poor p1
blockheads shoot!-Thomas Carlyle.
fo,
PI
SPOT THAT DRAWS BATHERS .e
It
Natural~Sheet the Chutes" on Island
of Kauai Furnishes a Delightful
Amusement.
SThere is a natural "shoot the
chutes" on the Island of Kauai *hich
would make the fortune of aa amuse
Smeant manager it could be trans
t ferred to the United States. Kausi is
a sixty-Ave miles northwest of Honeolulu,
and has a volcano of Its own near
SKalso, but now extinct. Down one
a side of this lavooated volcanic moan
a tat rushes the Kopea, a deep. wide
a stream of delightfully clear, cool wae
a tar. Half way in ts rapid descent It
y takes a leap of twenty feet over a
1- tava li sad, podrla downward with
a accelerated speed, empties into a pool
te feet deep and dty feet wide.
a Jer ftty feet above the pel the we
i ter bas eat a Beep ebam l na thue lava
t w a or as a th as lass.
Down the carves of this atural
chute the bather slides swiftly to the
Spool below. So steep is the hute and
t so rapd the descent that it Is only
Sa asem4 after the bather la
1 himself te the stream from a natral
, platform of sava above beaere he
Id plunges into the crystal pool t the
bottom. Visitors to Honolulu go all
ea tIe way to Ksal to enjla thOe d op
toslide. I
ar I
ad Presidential Eles.
In the early days of the repablie
the electors were chosen by the 15ge
latares of the different states and
voted without any formal instruction
for two persons, the persn receiving
the highest number of votes Veeltug
president and the sett highest vie
presidentL At the fimt election,
1789, there were ten states voting and
69 electoral totes. George Washing- ,
ton received all the eletora vote, s,
and John Adams of duY1 heta re
alved 34 votes; John Gay of New
York, 9; John Rutledge of South Cun
Ias, 6; John Haaeock of Maae
na setts, 4; Samuel Hutinstol ot of Co
d necticat. ; Georse Clinton o New
e York, 2; John Miltmon of Geor., 2;
s James Aramstron of Georsia, 1; Be
. JaiMn il of Massa chnetts, 1.
ia So Washinston became presidt a5t
he Adams vicepreident Thi pas
he continued aeveral year.
' Anoher Eely e the Ply.
The T y has an emetive erney other
than the hand that wields the swatte.
y Thls I e e t rmhte / us kawn
-as t e empua musome- This fungs
is a deadly eea of the house r,
and it must destrey myriads of these
pn iosinsets, especially the
for ail. The iles may motea be sea i
a dead or dying emudion a wails,
edlinps and window panes, arrund
me ed by a qusatity o( white powder
o ., the spores of the s which
have fell bon te amet's bod.
SThese spores ar caspable oft ineti
a o ter ies wicd may eem in el
Stact with them. Whether the le
uly actuanlly eat the spores, or merely set
Ut themn ttahed to thseir bodies ap
slyea tly is not know
er's FreNainuas Wourkcs 8hert Time
live Racent invetigatieus into tho
of hors of workby ob dmsa of the
S reach department of avigation
have brought to Ulght' recor in gov
mth rnaet suleomt In the shops of
an ocial wbose daily "hburs of
for duty ampent to egnaotly two miptes
te This man dweis at a place ao the Bel
r gian fratler, and his arenous labos
e consisn ti fetching from c a de
~r lit of the number of barge that have
s - rneecd h tetry the -.rvus
en ahurs ao a~ag th da l sL aL
nrat amenetr eeae U the psosls bs a
-, m eet. n amumaisa as 51 a.
T Bon -PAIR
Prefect Outlines Reforms Et
mated to Cost $49,000,00.
Ten Millioneto Be Spent for Enlart
Ing and Improving Water Supply,
$200,000 in Precautions
Against Consumption.
Paris.-"To live is the first nee
sity, and for such a city as Paris
live is to develop, and beautify
self," were the words used by
prefect of the Seine, M. Delanney,
calling on the Paris municipalcon
recently to sanction a farther loan to
enable the authorities to spend anot>4
er $49,000,000 on the city's needs _
The largest part of this amount
when borrowed. be applied to rea
the colossal scheme of hyglene ,
anti-tuberculosis reforms on w
Prefect Delanney has been
for some time.
In connection with this scheme it to
proposed to spend $10.000,000 for end
larging and improving the water
ply. $2,000,000 in precautions
the consumption scourge alreads
spent, over $4,000,000 for keeping the}
roadways cleaner and in a bettas
state of repair, $3,000,000 for rebulld"
ing and enlarging the slagte
houses, and $1S000,000 for Improy4
meats in publc hbosptpls.
In addltion to this program, no lesm
than $24,000,000 will be applied t
opening new streets and widening en
isting ones, to solve the trallie prob
lm, which is still the gravest befo'm
the city authoritles; $2,400,000 fo
schoolbouses; $2,200,000 for muanicipai
nldings, and $400,000 for wals aend
plmtings.
Them operation, it is thougt.
form a minimum necessary to keep
Paris in a moadition worthy of Its pe
sition among the scpitali of the world.
It is also pmrposed to expropriate a"
L f f
r tI.
* ers Walls nL Pls Are SemetSi
- pal dows a larm, aimber of unhesheM,
Stul dwelage ald bel tIn bsi pfae
e hytLesic oe, Ia the ohadr at the
e 1or'sotampetl.
9 The momy, which wl b bo rrswe
t fot e ree, Mw l tbe he mneoe
Instftumat a the pnt lean of IEt~
0,0e whic the eityr f Paris wa
athorhed by partaLmean last year to
SCOURTEDm As MVALUOS; WiD
SgrmeewLoh airl and Auburn Vau
In
R It tt Melth Imee la
. Greenwieh, Gesa--Miss Gladys Un
R ielt, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Wil
. Iam 3 Llnstet,L has returned to her
Shome from a trip to New York. S
Swas bubbing *ar with pleasur.
S"WhIt I o thInkt" abe aads .
S"While I was Ia torn I set Wi.,
and Fe vll ete hism to come here to
mmorrow."
; The sbdleet a the estldsur is Wo -
a trop C. laurdip ey o Aubmarn, t . T.
1.He is tweataorne, sad so Is Mi I,,
yet.a They met tn Saratgc a Ith
winter. He a saueru from pam
mona, aud obe from another art of
luan trouMe. Both are now in the
best of helth.
S Berdsjey, oo after ias arrival at
the nlarste bhms, sugest ed tha
he and the ynm woman o or a
stro Her br er ofered ahs amt
, Thirs was aeted, and the ouple
daroe or'
rThey retuoned aboet one o'dcoet b
the afternosm. Dr. and Mrs. iUsted
were at bome together, adn, 1es41t
Sneardsley u to theum, the strl mM:
"I am pleased to be able to reO t
to y m my huemad."
The parens almost ftated.
"New I teew why you msdae Ctha
Strip to New Taerk," md Mr. r
"It 'wasat an satedeat."
The pareats deeMed that there was
no occasionl to beeome ansry, aso the
blessed the couple and hustled thom
of on their heaymoon.
LIVES WITN BROKEN NECK
hey ae n o V ,s Tahgh eo. lm
St. Jg stp, Md.-A-ltt lving dm
manths with a bekem neck HaroM
Mil~ea, lseen years oM, semcumabd
to a rs t's dhms . her. He susta.
eve ed his tlakies at Upie Reek, Nub.
, Jue la a Sa be dived asa
shalow rwater ia the Roepuble river.
Pret a tim It wa t sr e be woeul
Is oflar satsep we e
-nal when be was tro te
