Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1913 — Page 3

by religious observ-, M J ance and festivals among the Egyptians, Chinese, Jews, Rom__ans and Mohammedans many w flnBL— centuries before the Christian 111! era, New Year’s day is still the ==—> one holiday celebrated by all nations, civilized or savage. While I H true that the first day of the new year does not fall simul-Z-J taneously in all sections of the ♦ (llllll'llllij ** globe, since all countries do not use the Christian calendar, it is. nevertheless, a fact that each nation has its own 1 New Year’s day. Even the cannibals of the SSouth Sea islands and savage tribes of Central Africa celebrate the beginning of the new year with some sort of ceremonies. One general characteristic, however, marks all the celebrations, and that is the spirit of rejoicing and

feasting. Many of the customs are quaint and unusual, but still fraught with the spirit of v revelry and good will. In our country, of course, especially' in the large cities, merriment and conviviality hold full sway, though the watch-night servin the churches appeal more to those of serlods bent, to vOiom the passing of the old year and the welcoming of the new are causes for reflection, meditation and even sadness. In New York, Chicago and other cities the New Year’s frolic is a veritable Bedlam of noise and revelry. Millions are spent in wine and costly suppers,* and as the hour of midnight

strikes a full hundred thousand glasses are raised aloft in the joy palaces, and the health of the New Year is drunk. The lobster show places of New York —human and crustacean —are jammed to the doors, with the tables engaged weeks before hand. The noise and the wine-drinking zone extends fully ten miles, with every fopt of it packed by a yelling, struggling, good-natured crowd, marching in tinending procession up apd .down the streets. At midnight the din, the roar and the rattle that has kept up unceasingly since the electric lights were turned on breaks loose in one mighty blast that threatens to tear‘even the subway trains from underground and jar the elevated from their tracks. Nowhere else in the country is the celebration so blatant, so ridiculous and so recklessly extravagant as there. From the spectacular standpoint and the long list of notables on dress parade no celebration equals,*’ perhaps, that at the White House, at Washineton. All society of the capital attendsSecond only in splendor of display to the glittering uniforms of the diplomats and the army and navy officers are the floral settings. Uncle Sam furnishes the flowers from his wonderful greenhouses and likewise the music, the famous United States • Marine bhnd, that always plays at White House functions. Every vantage point is seized upon for the banking of flowers and extreme care has. to be taken that they will not impede the progress of the 10,000 people and more who surge through the rooms at the reception. All mantels are covered with blooms and palms and bouquets in vases are placed at every convenient point. The president takes his place in the blue room and the procession begins with the foreign ambassadors, headed by the dean of the corps, and the ministers and attaches of the various legations. Then come the chief justice and the other members of the judiciary; then the senators, representatives. army and navy officers and other officials of the government Later in the day the president receives the people at large, and their waiting line generally extends from the front door of the White House out to and down Pennsylvania avenue for several blocks. At the present instant old 1912 changes to new 1913, a million miles of telegraph wires and countless wireless stations will publish the glad tidings to every city and village In the country and to ships at sea. And this will be official, too, for the message will come direct from the United States naval observatory at Washington, and still more directly from an old sidereal clock that has long held an honored place In that institution. This plain-faced old clock Is always correct, never varying even one hundredth of a second from the astronomical

CELEBRATING NEW YEAR’S HERE and THERE

reading of the stars. It furnishes standard Mme for half the world, and as the new year is born will send its message clear up to Alaska, to South America, to China and to London. Over in France New Year’s day is not entirely one of rejoicing; that Is, unless one is able to rise above such mundane things as finance, for New Year’s in France means—bills! It is the universal paying-up day of the year. All the dear, familiar old bills that have been jogging along and accumulating during the year suddenly pile In en masse and greet the head of the house on New Year’s morplng. It Is not difficult to obtain credit In Frarlce, provided one possesses the externals of a comfortable competence, and the tradesmen and landlords and shopkepers are content to wait —until January first. Then they drop their gentle little reminders In the mails or, more frequently, present them through representatives. The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker —and all the galaxy of “their sisters and their cousins and their aunts’* —are to be reckoned with. Festival, banqueting and merrymaking likewise hold high carnival. From New Year’s eve until the morning of the second day of the new year the streets of Paris are en fete. Beautifully gowned women, In richly decorated carriages, and groups of beribboned holiday-seekers form a boulevards. Case life then Is wild and brilliant surging, happy pageant that throngs the spacious and the students from the .Latin quarter contribute their full quota of roistering and revelry In the restaurants and along the streets. The* German celebration of the New Year is not lacking in wholesome good cheer and festive pranks, but It is pre-eminently a decorous one. In .Berlin elaborate musical programs are rendered and everywhere anthems and festival songs are chanted, beginning at twilight of the last day of the old year and continuing until the bells peal forth the glad tidings of a new year born unto the centuries. There Is one German custom that dates from the year 1848 that has no little of the spirit of the typical “bad boy” In it. On New Year’s eve anyone walking along the streets of Berlin and wearing a high hat need take no umbrage If a couple of German students, who may have endeavored a trifle too zealously to fln<j the bottom of the flowing bowl, slip up behind him and smash the aforesaid hat down over his eyes. This is the penalty he pays for wearing such a hat at such a time and he has no kick coming to him, even if his hat Is knocked off his head and kicked until It ceases to be a hat. The good folks In the Rhenish provinces have an adaptation of this eastern that Is more gentle and—yes—less expensive, considering the damage done. This consists of stealing up upon a friend as he Is walking along the street and whispering In his ear: "Prosit Neujahr.” The friend thus accosted straightway comes across with a little present, such as a cigar, or a drink or an Invitation to dinner. In Frankfort-on-the-Mafn the entire city rashes to its windows as the old year dies, flings them open and, glasses In hand, drinks a toast to Father Time’s latest born. Then the windows are slammed down, the merriment ceases and all retire for a peaceful night’s slumber. In England the New Year customs are of very ancient origin and even more generally observed than In this country. Every English family sits up to see the old year out and the new year In. and always there Is a bowl of hot punch, etc., with which to drink the toasts to the New Year The custom is a survival of the time when the head of the house assembled his family around a bowl .of spiced ale from which he and they drank each other’s health and the health of the New Year. The Words used In the toast were: "Wass Hael,” meaning “to your health” Presently, the toast bow) came to be known as the wassail, or wassel bowl./ , In. Scotland the wastrff bowl is the center of

the celebration, which is a distractingly mad and merry one. God-cakes, triangular In shape, filled with mincemeat and about a half-inch thick, are eaten on New Year’s day In both England and Scotland. They are sold in large numbers and can be purchased for from a penny apiece all the way up to one pound. Feasting is really the chief feature of the Scottish celebration, more so than at Christmas or any other time of the year. Steaming hot wassel, too, is carried from door to door and indulged in by neighbors and friends. " In Russia the Julian calendar is still In vogue and January 1 there corresponds to January 14 of our calendar. The Russian festival begins on New Year’s eve and lasts until the fourteenth day of the New Year. At midnight, as the old year is dying and the new being born, the Czar attends public mass, and precisely on the stroke of 12 o’clock a hundred cannons are discharged and the revelry begins. At thh end of the celebration —two weeks hence —the people fast and attend solemn religious services, marking on the doors of their houses, also, a cross to prevent Satan from crossing the threshold. In the rural sections the Russian children make the day peculiarly their own, for, armed with peas and grains of wheat, they sally forth in 'bands early New Year’s morning, stop at every house, enter and wake the Inmates with a bombardment of peas or by scattering the wheat over the sleepers. Later in the day they choose the very finest horse raised In the village that year, decorate it and present it to the nobleman who is master of the village. In return he scatters small coins among them. Their elders, too, make presents to the nobleman, such as cows, sheep and fowls. The strangest of all Russian customs, perhaps, Is the gathering around a jar of water by each family group In the belief that. If their faith Is sufficiently strong, the miracle performed by Christ In Cana of Galilee when he turned the water Into wine will be repeated. New Year’s day In Japan is z picturesque to the extreme. The emperor holds a formal court reception, much as our chief executive does, which Is attended by the foreign diplomats and high officials of the Japanese government The and preparations for It are begun long before. The fronts of all houses are covered with emblematic decorations; branches of pine and of bamboo are planted In large vases filled with earth and placed before the doors, and over the projecting roofs of the houses are strung garlands of plaited straw. These latter bear leaves of certain trees, shell fish and other charms believed to be potent factors In bringing good luck to the household. The people flock to the temples, which open all New Year’s night, and there cook their zooml, a sort of rice cake, always eaten before the sun has risen. Later, on New Year’s day, there is much visiting and tea drinking and exchange of. good wishes for the coming year. If he ean do no better, even the very porest of peasants wraps pieces of dried fish In paper, tied with a peculiar red and white string used only on this occasion, and sends them to ,hts friends as his New Year’s gift. The Japanese new year date falls simultaneously with our own, they having adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1872. The Jewish New Year is usually celebrated some time In September and Is called Rosh Hoshanah. also Yom Hardin, which‘last means days of judgment. New Year’s eve Is observed with fasting and the day Itself with feasting. "May you be In favor with God this New Year" is the* Jewish form of salutation, from which the Gentile greeting, “Happy New Year." Is said to be a contraction.

BREATHE THROUGH YOUR EARS

In those prehistoric times "When you were a tadpole and I was a frog," we breathed through our gills, and if we still did tuberculosis and all kindred germs would have a batting average of .000. Such are the teachings of Dr. John G. Davis of the University of Virginia medical department, delivered before a local body of medical students, according to a Washington correspondent of the Pittsburgh Dispatch. “You can exhale air through the ears now. Just take a chett full of air, close the nostrils and try to exhale. The air will come out through the ears. Muscles of this old breathing organ have been out of practice for a few thousand years and It will require some practice to get them in order. "I would advise mothers to train their children in this new but old mode of breathing. It will greatly help against man troubles, as there would be no chance of getting Infectious matter Into the lungs or throat. After a little practice a child will be able to close or shut his ears just as a fish works his gills. “Originally the nose was used for smelling only. After a while man began taking long, generous smells, and later developed his breather into a smeller at the expense of his ’gills.* If my advice were followed man would have three breathing organs instead of two within two generations.*'

LIKE A DUTIFUL WIFE

. A- / - - ’ FRANCES AGREED TO DRESS TO SUIT HER HUBAY. *

But, as When Most Women Agree to Accede to Such a Request, .There Was a String Attached to 1 . the Promise. Frances glanced up from her morning orange to find Paul regarding her over his paper. It was not an uncommon- experience, but this time There was something out of the usual, a critical, almost disapproving look inhis eyes. “What Is the matter?” she asked. '“lf you must know,” said Paul, laying aside the morning paper, "I was wondering why women wear those sloppy clothes at the breakfast table!” “Sloppy nothing! This is a perfectly clean kimono!” “It may be clean, but it’s sloppy all the same. It reminds me of the darkey’s description of the fit of Dick’s shirt —‘touches no whar ’cep at de neck.’" “But, Paul, all kimoons are made like that. It’s their cut!” “Then I wish they could'.be cut out. How any nice, trim, tidy woman can be contented to wear a—a —clothes bag like that with no line or shape to it passes me! I’d a good deal rather see you come to the table in a pretty nightgown I What’s the special advantage of a kimono, anyway?” “Well, It Is so comfortable and easy to get into —” “I’ve nothing to say against your being comfortable or easy, but I should think a clever woman like you could Invent something which would be both those and yet look trig and neat and have some outline to It. Can’t it be done?” “I —suppose —so,” said Frances. “Of course, if you don’t like kimonos —” “I don’t!” “ —i’ll stop wearing them. Only a shirtwaist is so fussy to put on and this is so comfy!” “What’s the matter with taking a tuck In your kimono or a gusset or a bias or a plait or one of those things women are always putting In clothes, and making even a kimono have some fit to it. Couldn’t you do It?” “Would you really like It a lot better, Paul?” “I really would! Perhaps I’m an idiot, but I have an Ideal of my wife’s looks and that sllmpsy kimono effect Interferes with it. I don’t like to remember you in It when I’m at business.” .. "Then the kimono must go!” said Frances, firmly. “Sooner than that my lord and master should have a painful picture of me In his mind all day I’d get up an hour earlier every morning and make a grand toilette! And, than, If I want you to put on your dress clothes for dinner at any time of course I shall have no hesitation In asking you to have It, for I know you are as anxious to please me as I am to please you.”

Magic Italian Lakes.

Every one knows how beautiful the Italian lakes are and how luxuriant is the vegetation on their banks. This is due to a large extent to the heat absorbed in summer by the water, stored up and given out slowly in cold weather. A calculation has been made by a scientist named Vercelll. He estimates that Lake Como has an area of 136 square kilometers and an average depth of about six hundred feet; in some places the depth is twice that. During mid-summer this mass of water absorbs each bright day an amount of heat equal to that produced by burning 34,000 tons of coal. This storing up of heat goes on from the end of February until the water reaches its highest temperature in August. * From that time on the water gives out heat to the surrounding stones until spring comes again, so that it is no wonder that this region is a floral paradise.

Wouldn't Let Wife Eat With Him.

Mrs. Lida L. James of Peekskill seriously objected to eating at the “second table,” even though so ordered to do by her husband, Herbert James, and so she went after a divorce. Furthermore, she got it. Supreme Court Justice Tompkins of White Plains had never heard of a marriage contract calling upon a wife to eat after her husband and children had devoured all the "white meat.” That’s why he was so generous with his divorce. James owns a summer resort comprising a 50-acre park. After a good -many years he grew tired of looking at his wife across the table and so ordered her to provide herself with material sustenance after the rest of them had pushed back the finger bowls.

Drops Dead at Wheel of Auto.

George A. Sumner, for 14 years postmaster of Hill, N. H., and a former representative in the state legislature, dropped dead of heart disease while at the wheel of his automobile and the machine crashed into a fence, throwing out the dead man, his daughter and a woman friend. „

Fatal Shock In Firecracker.

The discharge of a firecracker near where he stood watching a parade caused the death of Mrs. Lillian Souters, aged thirty-four years, at York. The woman suffered from a weak heart, and when the firecracker exploded she fell over and could not bo ’wvlved.

A Christmas Sermon

By REV. JAMES M. GRAY. D. D.

Dma ei tbe Moody BiUo Inotitula, Chkago

TEXT—When the fulness of the time was come, God' Ws son,‘ made Of a woman, made under tha law, to redeem them that were u rider the law, that, we' might receive the adoption of sons.— Galatians 4:4, 5. A

that were under the law.” Why this delay? Why did not thej ■ birth of the second Adam follow Immediately upon" the fall of the first? Why was a diseased race allowed to suffer in the absence of the only physician who could give relief? Some of the most interesting and thoughtful answers to this question are In a great sermon on this text by the eloquent Robert Hall, an English Baptist clergyman of an earlier generation, from whom I quote in part In the first place, it may have been God’s purpose to Impress the race with the great lessons of Its apostasy,, and the fearful consequences of rebellion. Thus to restrain our haughty spirits from acting In the future life, as we have acted here. In the second place, if it was neo-i essary in any sense that salvation: Should be prepared for man, it may have been equally so that man should! have been prepared for salvation., Man needed to have a true knowledge of his sinfulness and the misery it produces, as well as his moral inability to overcome it in his own wisdom and strength. It needed time for man to find this out, for he must exhaust everything that nature could do before he would be prepared to receive' the grace of God tn the present work} of his sdn. Another reason for the delay isi found in the necessity for the accumulation of prophetic evidence concerning the Savior, that , when he came : he might be Identified beyond a doubt, When Jesus came it was at the mo*, meat when all the prophecies concerning his advent had reached a focus. The Most Favorable Time In History. Finally, in this connection it may be added that of all the periods in the world’s history that which was selected for the advent of the son of God - war the most favorable Tn at least three particulars: (1) It was a time of great intel-' lectual refinement, when the human mind had been cultivated to the last degree, and was therefore able to detect and prevent imposture as at no, previous time. Tom Paine or Robert Ingersoll did not live then, but such rush lights as they could not have been seen among the luminaries of the Augustan age. In other words, if Christianity stood the test of the first century, it has nothing to fear from the present one. (2) It was the time of a centralized human goveptment, and Rome was In the heyday of its power. This made the whole of the civilized world easily accessible, furnishing an opportunity for the propagation of the gospel message to mankind everywhere. (3) It was the age of the perfection of the Greek language, which for many years had been under process of cultivation. This was a tongue preeminently adapted to illustrate spiritual truth, and to assist later ages in discovering the meaning of its words. Whatever was written in Greek was accessible to all, and at any earlier period the want of such a vehicle of thought would have made the general, teaching of the bible almost prohibited. Ths Lessons for Us. And, finally, whatever may be said as to the delay of the father in sending the son Into the wYold, the two* points to be considered now are these! In the first place, the delay caused no injustice to the preceding ages, for the mediation of the son of God looked backward as well as forward, and his sacrifice on Calvary atoned for the faithful who had died before that event as well as for those who follow after. And in the second place, "Now” that “once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself,” it behooves us to Inquire whether he has yet been received into our hearts. This should be our chief concern on this anniversary occasion. This is the “fulness of the time" for us, and God forbid that the opportunity should come an* go and leave ns where we were before. The way to make the Christman in the earth a Christmas tn the soul Is to receive Jesus Christ by faith as a personal Savior. He is God’s unspeakable gift to us. Will you now say to him.*l accept this gift, 1 take thy son? It is so simple, and yat so vital Do it now. >

Christianity was not precipitated upon the world, but came in as the result of a long and patient preparation. - The seed which blossomed in Bethlehem, was planted in the garden of Eden. In other words, it was not until "the fulness of time” that “God sent forth His Son ... to redeem the m *