Decatur Democrat, Volume 50, Number 43, Decatur, Adams County, 27 December 1906 — Page 6

Qwtaas ©IT ! j Mfe ' By JAMES ARTHUR THE Christmas spirit is about the only thing traded in on Dec. 24 on Wall street, and the brokers have a celebration each year that literally jars things loose. The features of this ceremony vary, but the horseplay does not The brokers let off the tension and have a good time generally. The festivities begin at noon and sometimes last for several hours. The galleries fill early, mostly with wives and sweethearts of the members on the floor. The Stock Exchange is liberally draped with green and red. The Seventh Regiment band to on hand and as the chairman sounds the gong begins playing “The Star Spangled Banner” or some other patriotic air. Sometimes an elaborate programme is arranged, made up of minstrel acts, coon songs, comic talks and similar performances. But, whatever the especial form of the entertainment, the bulls and bears conduct themselves In much the same way. They make Borne howl. Hats are smashed; bags of confetti are thrown at the ladies in the gallery, who in turn empty the contents over the heads and shoulders of the shouting brokers below. If there happen to be new members they are “Initiated” and are carried about the room in a yelling procession to the music of the band. On one such occasion an amateur football game ■was played in the great chamber of the Stock Exchange. Afterward the members indulged in a cakewalk for an Immense forty pound cake, which was temptingly displayed on the chairman’s balcony. One staid old financier played the piano, another strummed on a guitar, while the younger brokers cut pigeon wings about the floor. In older years a Christmas tree graced the Stock Exchange celebrations, all sorts of comic presents were handed out, and the carnival ended up by everybody telling jokes on everybody else. Os recent years this formal observance of the day has been abandoned. Now the ceremony is simply a small edition of pandemonium, a sort of frenzied Christmas, as it were. The celebration of last year will give an idea of these Christmas eve frolics In Wall street. At five minutes before noot. the whole floor seemed intent on business, pushing up U. P. and other stocks and hurling puts and calls back and forth like a game of battledoor and shuttlecock. Promptly at 12 the great gong sounded, and in the twinkling of an eye the scene was transformed. From somewhere appeared a band and began playing “Everybody Works but Father,” and al! the brokers howled in chorus. A rope was stretched across the room, and Visitors crowded into the open space outside. Pads of paper and everything else that was loose were gathered up and hurled through the air, hats were used as missiles, great showers of colored paper were thrown here and there, and the din was greater than it Is even in a panic. Dozens of young men formed circles about older men in the game of “bull in the ring.” At this moment appeared a great push ball, six feet in diameter, which was sent spinning across the floor, only to be hurled back again, bowling over men in its flight. To and fro went ® 0 "lufiinfl wnix irSiniiii i l l iML'v.yJl 'v j I OME BROKER WAS HOISTED ON TO THE BAUD, the great rubber sphere, while the shouting reached a pitch to drown out the baud. Finally one broker was hoisted on to th’e ball, which promptly ■was kicked out, from under him. But, though his legs were in the air, he was kept from falling and again regained Us feet. Then the ball was rolled toward the high platform of the chairman, when another effort was made to whirl it out from under the broker’s feet. Leaping, he caught an edge of the platform, scrambled over the railing and gravely shook hands with the venerable and dignified presiding dfScer. The hilarious ceremony was wound up by a collection being taken for the messenger boys and attendants, which mounted up to thousands of dollars. Whatever new methods of playing Aorse will be introduced In high finance -circles for the Christmas eve festivities this year, it is certain that the men who make and wreck fortunes will enjoy themselves. -SKI?" '*■ ’».

I CHRISTMAS EVE IN PARIS. I Pic* areoque Scene* at ,the Madeleine, Historic French Church. They drove to the Madeleine through streets already full, of life and movement of hurrying crowds, darting figures now plunged in the black shadows and now slipping out into the full glare of the clustered lights. The big perspective of the Place de la Concorde, thickly sown with lamps, was Shot through with glistening reflections from the tops of carriages, the arcade of the Rue de Rivoli was brilliant as a stage setting, the hotels in the broad Rue Royale were ablaze with light, and far at the end of the street, where the lofty portico of the Madeleine showed clear against the starry sky, a hundred sparks twinkled from the cabs flitting along the boulevard. The steady roll of wheels merged with the varying notes of horns In motors and the sound of talk and laughter from the sidewalks, and all blended In a great humming symphony, struck through with the rattling, syncopated clack-clack of hoofs upon the asphalt, like the staccati of sharp drums. The crowd at the Madeleine was almost impassable, but somehow they gained the steps, the vestibule, and were swept in the solid pack of men and women through the door at the right. The great floor was filled with a throng as varied as Paris itself. Piety and the idlest curiosity, youth and age, came together. As the procession came In sight its song was joined by the organ in the sanctuary, and the music rose louder and fuller in a single godlike voice ranging down from the dazzling altar. Suddfenly, like artillery, the great organ overhead crashed out in a volume of sound that flooded the whole vast interior like a wave, sweeping over the heads of the kneeling crowd and mounting to the shadowy arches of the roof. The very concussion took the listeners’ breath away, and in the recoil men and women burst into tears, - and billows of emotional excitement rolled back and forth through the church. — Winfield Scott Moody in Scribner’s. YULETIDE IN SHETLAND. Curious Customs In the Island Where the Ponies Come From. The festival of Yule, as is well known, dates back to prehistoric times, when men worshiped nature rather than nature’s God. The inhabitants of the Shetland isles are descended from Norsemen, who were zealots in religious belief, and “Yule” to them meant a season of great importance. The “Gammel Norsk Hjul” signifies, literally, “wheel,” and the festival so called was held in honor of the sun at the winter solstice wheeling round toward the equator. The re-_ turn of the sun formed an important period of the year as being the beginning of renewed life ip nature, which only could be revived by the light and warmth of the ascending orb. The course of the sun was observed in all things as far as possible. Everything was turned from left to right—the boat was so turned on the water, the corn stacks so built in courses, the mill so turned in grinding and the wheel in spinning—in fact, everything went with the sun. even the round of the drinking horn. Many superstitions included in nature worship had full scope at the “Hjul” time—or more modern “Yule” —when a vast multitude of “trows,” or faipy folk, who. at that season were not only active, but maliciously disposed, had to be propitiated. To give the fairy folk no opportunity of playing tricks, the fishing creel and lines were removed from the wall, the spinning wheel taken out of gear and its integral parts laid aside, and everything suspended from ceiling or walls lifted down, as if left in their usual places the übiquitous elves were supposed to set all going against the sun’s motion, which of course would mean serious trouble. The time of Yule was, and still is/ rigidly observed as “belly” —l. e„ a time of rest from all manner of labor.—Madame. Christman In Guam. Christmas was celebrated in Guam last year in as true American style as the possibilities of the situation would permit. Great interest was taken by the Americans in celebrations for the native children. A number of entertainments were provided. A feature was a floating Christmas tree, magnificently decorated, which was paraded through the streets of Agana drawn by six plumed mules with costumed outriders and preceded by a native band and from which Santa Claus distributed abundance of good cheer. A New Malady. It was Christmas day. and the candy lion had been waiting—oh, so patiently —for Mary to finish her dinner. Much against her baby wishes had she been obliged to swallow the last of her bread. When her mother insisted on her finishing her milk the small face i looked up in desperation as she lisped, j “Mozzer, if I eat apy more food I will , be humpback in my stomacp, like grandpa!”—Lippincott’s. Only Two Realities. t Billy—So yer didn’t get nuthin’ but a jackknife and a sled fer Christmas’? , Tommy—Yes. dat’s all 1 got worth . speakin’ of. Dere wuz a suit of clothes, and a overcoat, and a hat or two, and ’ some underclothes, and a book of poems, and some stockin’s and gloves, and some collars and cuffs, and a few i other things like dat, not worth speakin’ of.—Men nnd Women. I • *— Den’t Let the Mistletoe Drop. It is very unlucky if the mistletoe should fall from the place where It has hMßhuagapu ~~ - -.-i i„.;

AT THE “FOREIGN” WINDOW How Cnele Sam’s Stepchildren Remember “Old Country" Friends. “Home and mother !” These magic words are responsible for the sending out of Cleveland daily at this season of the year of thousands of dollars. At the window over which is the word “Foreign,” in the money •rder office at the postoffice, a continuous string of people patiently await their turn to send sums .varying from $5 to $25 to loved ones living in what they lovingly call the “old country.” Out of their bounty Cleveland’s adopted children are sending something to cheer up those who are living In less favored climes. From week to week they lay small sums aside as the end of the year approaches. When they have accumulated the necessary amount they troop down to the postoffice, the one bank in which foreigners have absolute confidence, and scud to mother, father, brother or sister the tokens of their regard. Distances are so great that the actual money, is much more appropriate than any of the gaudy articles which would naturally be forwarded. “Me getta twenta dol’s worth,” explained one woman as she elbowed her way gradually to the window. “What?” demanded the clerk. He is required to understand everything. “Me wanta twenta dol’s,” repeated the woman. , “Oh, you want to send S2O home,” explained the clerk. The woman signified with her head that she certainly did/want to send some money home. Tightly clutching her check, she made a break to mail the order. Her face was lighted up with a glad look. “Who are you sending it to?” asked the clerk of the next In the line. “Mudder,” says the woman. It is the only word she utters as she lays down two ten-dollar bills. Enough said. She, too, clutched her order as if it was a pardon from death and hurried away to mail it. Russians in large numbers, Italians, Germans and Irish are among the daily throng that seeks to make the loved ones at home happy.—Cleveland Plain Dealer. SANTA CLAUS’ WORKSHOP. Curious Corner of Toyland Is the Austrian Village St. Ulrich. Tourists wandering out of the beaten tracks of their kind occasionally come to a little village In Austria which presents the aspect of a corner of toyland. The name of the village is St. Ulrich, and nearly all of Its inhabitants are toymakers. Each household, too, has its specialty. Qne old woman has done nothing but carve wooden cats, dogs, wolves, sheep, goats and elephants. She has made those six animals her whole life long, apd she has no idea how to cut anything else. She makes them in two sizes and turns out as nearly as possible a thousand of them a year. She has no model or drawing of any kind to work by, but goes on steadily, unerringly, using gauges of different' sizes and shaping out her cats, dogs, wolves, sheep, goats and elephants with an ease and an amount of truth to nature that would be clever if they were net utterly mechanical. This woman learned from her mother how to carve those six animals, and her mother had learned, in like manner, from her grandmother. She has taught the art to her own granddaughter, and so it may go on being transmitted tor generations. In another house one will find the whole family carving skulls and crossbones for fixing at the bases of crucifixes, for the woodcarving industry has its religious as well as its amusihg side. In other houses are families that carve rocking horses or dolls or other toys and in still other houses whole families of pqinters.—London Tit-Bits. " Edible Christmas Novelties. A housewife whose purse is light, but who makes delicious things to eat, planned this original Christmas for her young friends: A box of animal cookies to the family with three small boys, homemade candy and stuffed dates to college youths arid maidens, two individual plum puddings to the dear old lady who keeps house by herself, a loaf of salt rising bread and one of nut bread to the bride serving her first Christmas dinner and a basket of doughnuts to the eastern chap spending his first holiday season away from home. Mince pies and pound cake were among her gifts. All these went done up in the most attractive manner. —Chicago Record-Herald. Where Christmas Tree* Grow. It is said that at least three-fifths of the 1,500,000 or more Christmas trees used in America each season grow on the bleak hillsides of eastern and i northern Maine. Thousands of young ■. farmers and timbermen make good in- | comes by cutting and shipping the trees. The Christmas tree businesa in . Maine began only about thirty years ago, with four schooners to carry the cargoes of trees. Now many times that number of vessels are engaged Ip the trade. Most of the trees sent from Maine are firs. • '■■■ ' ■ ■■ ■llli I , Mistletoe and Holly. i Mangin* of the mistletoe — that’s where Love is led, I An’ ain’t his cheeks as rosy as the holly berries red! I j Ah’ his eyes they shine like stariight. an’ ’ the sweetest word that’s said He whispers 'neath the mistletoe an’ ' holly. ’ Hangin* of the mistletoe—an* take yonr rosy place,' Laughin’ lips an’ bright cheeks, where \ the dimples love to race! An* listen to that story that holds heaven ! in its embrace— I I Whispered ’neath the mistletoe an* 1 holly I —Atlanta Constitution.

Doll HospitaJ J r By J. A. EDGERTON j t (Copyright, toll by J. A. Edgerton.] r i^ , HE world is full of hospitals, not only for disease racked and wrecked human beings, but for ■ flogs, horses, birds and—dolls. And why 1 not? Dolls have ailments as well as t other folks—in fact, rather more so. They lose their hair, their eyes, their ■ teeth, their hands, their legs, their saw- , lust and even their complexions and ( heads. Small boys delight in crippling • and maiming them, rockers smash J them, big folks step on them. This . la a hard world for dolls. So the doll hospitals flourish. Most large cities support one. Doll surgery has become a science. The poor things Jo not have to take medicine, fortui nately. except paint applied externally , and sawdust internally, so that a phar- , tnacopoeia is not required In doll doc- , taring. The operations are all surgical. But for all that the doll doctors are entitled to place M, D. after their names, M. D. standing for mender of dolls. It is quite a grewsome sight in the .

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| the Fool Killer | [Original.] Mrs. Cleaver had an object Her daughter Carrie had inherited a fortune from her father and another from her aunt; nevertheless Mrs. Cleaver’s supreme object was to marry her daughter to a rich man. Mr. Algernon Bedell was composed of two parts, man and money. There was very little to the man, but a great deal to the money, which his father had . made for him out of bones. The only notable thing Mr. Bedell had ever done was to give a dinner to a dozen persons costing SI,OOO a cover. He was looking about for another opportunity to distinguish himself when he met and wooed Carrie Cleaver. She supplied him with a method for gaining a new distinction. “Mamma,” said Miss Cleaver one day after her mother had taken ten pounds of flesh off the girl in her efforts to induce her to wed Mr. Bedell, “I will consent on one condition. I must be abducted.” “Abducted!” exclaimed the mother. “Yes. I am of a romantic disposition, and Mr. Bedell has aspirations for distinction. An elopement would set all the world agog.” “Caroline.’* said Mrs. Cleaver, amazed, “have you taken leave of your senses?” And she swept out of the room. But Mr. Bedell, though he feared the absence of motive would render .the plan unsuitable to his purpose, still had a mind for it, and so told Mrs. Cleaver. That lady, being absorbed in the main object, the marriage, finally consented - to allow the pair “to moke < fools of themselves If they likpd.” 1 All things must end, even engagement periods, and the day finally arrived. or, rather, the night, when Miss Cleaver was to be abducted. She was to sleep in a wing of the house, where her mother would not be likely to become aware of her flight. Miss Cleaver insisted on carrying out ail the details the same as in a real elopement Mr. Bedell was to bring a ladder and a ’ carriage, and the fugitive was to take only a hand bag. An address was to be left on Miss Bedell’s pincushion to t which the trunks were to be sent the next day. Soon after dark on the evening of the , elopement a wagon drove up to the Cleaver residence, a man carried a lad- • der into the back yard, and the wagon was driven away empty. Mrs. Cleaver 1 looked out of the window, saw the proceeding and wondered why her daughIter preferred to see a ladder carried into the back yard to numerous costly

wards and operating room of the hospital itself. There heads, arms, legs, eyes and trunks lie about in startling array. Most of the heads are minus hair and have great holes in the tops of them. Arms or legs are hanging literally by a thread. Noses are broken. hands are minus, feet have been amputated, faces are mashed in, while the internal machinery that makes the doll cry, say “mamma” and open and shut Its eyes Is out of whack as bylly as some people’s livers. The wax, china and papier mache babies have never developed appendicitis as yet, or stomach ache, but they are subject to almost every other ill. The doll hospital is a great boon to the little mothers. They come at all hours of the day, bringing their ailing darlings, or, if they live too far away, they send dolly by express or messenger* with cramped and pathetic notes. One little girl had let her precious fall downstairs and break Its leg. another had been listening to a hand organ on the street, and her brother, who was playing that he was a Chinese emperor and was executing some of hiS subjects, just to keep in practice, had cut dolly’s head off with a fireshovel. Still another small miss of seven had kissed the nose off Me- I hitable Jane—dolls usually have long

1 presents carried in at the front door, i “Carrie,” she called, “the ladder has 1 come. If the tool killer should happen by he might feel disposed to put it up to your winddw and carry you off himself.” “Would he take Algy, too?” drawled Miss Cleaver. “Mr. Bedell only consents to this folly to humor you.” “Well, mother dear, if the fool killer comes I hope he and Algy will meet It would, be so romantic to have them fight for me.” “Romance, romance, nothing but romance. I call It Idiocy.” Eleven o’clock was fixed for the elopement, and as the cathedral clock in the neighborhood struck that hour 1 Mr. Bedell drove up to a corner op- ' posite the Cleaver mansion, alighted I and walked across to the Cleaver back | yard. He was surprised to see the lad- ' der standing up against the brick wall and Miss Cleaver’s window open. An- • other thing he saw, but it did not liai press him at the time—a carriage driv(l ing away from a point near the gate, ; just as he alighted. I However, resolved to carry out the ‘ programme, he mounted the ladder to the open window and was about to look in before entering when he heard a policeman’s club strike the curb opposite, so he tumbled in at once. The ( j room was pitch dark. He called, but i there was no answer. He heard some I one coming up the ladder and. looking , i out, saw the street lamp shining on , brass. A policeman was mounting. At I the same time there was a loud hami mering on the front door. The next ----- thing that happened was Mrs. Cleaver coming into her daughter’s room in her I nightdress, though this was simultaneous with the entrance of the policeman by the window. Mr. Bedell made a i dive under the bed. “We’ve got him, ma’am,” said the policeman. “He’s here. Lock the door.” Mr. Bedell was dragged from under the bed and stood looking at his in- ’ tended mother-in-law and the guardian ’ of the city, who had stepped to the dresser, brought his lantern to bear on a button and turned on the light ' I “What’s this?” he said, picking up a ‘ . bit of paper fastened to a pincushion. I Mrs. Cleaver snatched It from him, ran her eye over it and held it, crushed, ' in her clinched fist. Meanwhile there was a renewed hammering at the door. ' “Go downstairs,” she said to Mr. Bedell, “and tell whoever is at the door to go away.” Glad to escape the contemptuous look ' she gave him, he departed at once. Mrs. Cleaver explained to the policemap that there had been a mistake, slipped a bill into his hand, and he went downstairs to call off his comrades. When they had departed Mrs. Cleaver stood with Mr. Bedell in th* drawing room, he in traveling suit she

names, you know—and would the doetors please fix it? They would. On work table at the hospital are W I not only arms and legs galore, but all j- II •kinds of wigs, paints, threads and I || cords, miniature teeth, tiny curling iJI irons, pastes and glues, hooks and seis- BfiLsors of many shapes and sizes and even wW an appalling assortment of .glass eyes B|| of various colors and sizes. The eyes, H|| which open and shut w’ith a weight, E|| are placed in position through the opening in the head. A few stitches serve to mend loose arm or leg, while hooka l|l| and cords are usually required to fix a HB fractured joint. The paint brush touches up a faded complexion, as to the case even with flesh and blood grown folks. There are almond eyed Chinese dolls mI with faded yellow complexions and »l long cues, Indians with feathers missing from their war bonnets, picks- . H ninny dolls with moth eaten wool and . angel faced cherubs with a battered ■. Mb appearance that makes them look as if B they had been In a Bowery scrimmage. T' r ’ W But surgery does miracles, and this particular branch of it performs even greater wonders than that in the sure Si£S3fl enough hospitals. It makes bodily i members grow on where none had been II I before, and before its marvelous powers even decapitation is not fatal, f

still in her nightdress. She handed l| him the slip of paper found on the 1 dresser. He smoothed it out and read: I The fool killer came first and carried I me off. Send trunks to Mrs. Theodore Wickwire, U. S. Army Hotel, St. A., P. Q. t CARRIE. *.W P. S.-P. D. Q. THEODORE. ■ F. A. MITCHEL. I The Modern Mistletoe. ■■ Prominent in the Christmas revels | and, with the holly, most essentially “Christmasy” of all the plants used was the mistletoe. With us the old significance and sacredness have gone, leaving but charm enough to give the ■ well known privilege to the man who meets a girl beneath it There exists also in some places the tradition that the girl who is not kissed under the mistletoe will not be married for a sll year. (The present writer once knew J a thoughtful and provident damsel who wore a hat trimmed with the sacred plant.) But the kiss permitted in olden time was originally of the religious variety, our mistletoe celebration being borrowed from Scandinavian lore. —Critic. Said Little Socrates. 1 “Some generous person,” said little Socrates Bulginbrow of Boston, “has been kind enough to send me a copy of Mother Goose’s lyrics for Christ- L mas. Do you know, the theory that a V representative of the bovine genus at one time leaped over the chief luminary of the night leads to some inter- j esting calculations as to the muscular development of the cows of that time. I have ascertained that they must have ■ been endowed with strength proportionate to that of the flea of the present day.”—Baltimore American. A Hard Headed Boy. “Dar’s jes’ dis about It,” said Mammy Minerva, “I’s gotter han’ dat Pickaninny Jim over to de Society Foh de Prevention o’ Cruelty to Animals.” “What’s he been doin’l” K “We give him a goat foh a Christmas present, an’ Jim an’ de goat got I to playin’ rough, an’ de fus’ thing I knowed Jim he done los’ his temper an’ butted dat goat almos’ to def!” - — ■ > I" • He Knew the Boy. __ Ij Head of Firm—You had better give the office boy a couple of dollars, Mr. Penwiper, for Christmas. Mr. Penwiper (the bookkeeper)—l think we had better make it a New S Year’s gift, sir. I have just sent him out with a telegram, and I don’t think he will get back by Christmas.—Brooklyn Citizen. A house is never perfectly furnish. ‘ ed for enjoyment unless there Is r 1 1 child in it rising three years old and • 1 | kitten rising six weeks —Southey. J j I - Il 'll