Greenfield Republican, Greenfield, Hancock County, 29 December 1910 — Page 5

CHRlSTNAS_CUST01iS

SANTA CLAUS THE MOST MODERN ALSO KEPT AS A FAST "DAY

Rigidly Observed by the Puritans— The Christmas Tree—The Mistletoe Bough and the "Wassail Bowl

Descend Froin Antiquity—Presents Were Given at New Years. The actual birthday of Christ cannot be determined with any degree of accuracy, but it has been celebrated on the 25th day of December since the year 70 A.D. Some of the apostles were alive at this time, and it is not recorded that they disapproved of the date, so it is fair to assume that it is approximately correct. It is true that almost every pagan god's supposed birth was celebrated about the same time. Pan, and Ammon, and Buddha, and many a lesser were supposed to have been born at the time of the winter solstice. Since the beginning the return of the sun and the renewing oi the year have been greeted with rejoicings, and it was but natural that primitive man should assume that his deity first visited the earth at this most favorable season.

Longfellow's Christian warriors sat at meat with their Scandinavian comrades, on a Christmas eve, and as they drank deep they made the sign of the cross over their ale horns, the wild vikings at the same time making "the sign of the hammer of Thor over theirs."

It was one of the circumstances that made the introduction of Christianity easier than it might otherwise have been, that pagan and Christian could thus keep feast with each other. The early fathers realized this, and wisely forebore to banish the saturnalia of the Romans or the New Year's festivals of the Britons. Instead they adopted the custom and made it a part of the new religion.

It is curious and interesting te trace the commonest Christmas observances back to the childhood of civilization, long before the Christian era dawned on the world.

One. of the old fathers writes knowingly that: "The trymyng of the temples with hangyngs, floures, boughes and garlandes, was taken of the heathen peorle, which decked their idols and houses with such array." And so it was, and very sensibly at that.

For many generations after the last Druid was dust the mistletoe had Its votaries. The plant had almost ©very medicinal property, according to early physicians. It was believed to be a remedy for all ills, physical, mental, and sentimental. In pagan days it was dedicated to Olwen, the Celtic Venus, and through the ages the plant and the tender passion were rather intimately entwined. Kissing beneath it began so far back In history that no one has ever attempted to trace the custom to its youth.

The custom of giving presents at the new year is older than our modern custom of Christmas gifts. In the Middle Ages it was the common usage in churches to display boxes for especially liberal almsgiving in honor of the season. Parents gave their children, masters their servants, employers their apprentices small sums of money to put in the box. By and by the money came to be given in the form of tips. "Boxing day" in England is still the day following Christmas. The boxes very seldom remained in the hands of the recipients. Usually they were passed on to parents, or sweethearts.

Christmas presents, up to a comparatively recent period, appear to have been confined to the rich and great. Kings and Queens and nobles spent fabulous sums for gauds tc present to their friends. The sovereigns expected royal gifts. A catalogue of the richesse lavished on Queen Elizabeth year after year by her subjects and parasites reads like a fairy tale.

The common people celebrated in another fashion. There is an inextinguishable desire in man to disport himself on every legitimate occasion to throw discretion, politeness, good breeding, decency itself to the winds, and just get down and howl like a caveman.

The Puritan was naturally much shocked at the annual holiday gambols, and tried to put a stop to them. In fact, he put a quietus on the whole eustom of Christmas keeping. In 1647, or thereabouts, even church services were forbidden. To worship God on His birthday was rank popery, In the opinion of Praise God Barebone?, and to enjoy life, at that season even more than another, was Inherently bad and vicious. The Ohristmas hearth was black, and the wassail bowl empty during the rule of Cromwell. They came back with the Restoration, but a chill had fallen on the whole thing. Christmas has been kept more usreetly and with less warmth since then.

The Puritan on our shores kept Ohristmas as a fast, or tried to, at least. It was very difficult to censor all the household In a single day, and there is reasonn to believe that the sinful mince nle and the meretricious plum pudding were served on more than one back sliding housewife's table, wi+Mn sight of the church doorB of Plymouth and Boston town. There is a pretty Btory told of an Irate elder coming upon a feast in the house of one of the Pilgrims. The table Was decked with greens and holly berries, and luscious was the display of pastries and baked meats upon the board. There was really nothlngr to be said in the way of defence, until the quickwitted hostess came forward and invited the elder to partake of the celebration ol heir wording anniversary.

CHRjSTMAS

|N RUSSIA

CUSTOMS UNLIKE THE FESTIVITIES OF OTHER COUNTRIES.

Mumming By All Classes—Eating and Drinking Upon an Extraordinary Scale—Special Service to the

Famous Icon of the Virgin in the Cathedral. Christmas in Russia is a church festival and a turning point in social life. For the upper classes it marks the beginning of the "season" for the lower orders, a sort of wild saturnalia, during which crimnal justice is as blind as a bat to various breaches of the law which are punishable at all other times, says the London Telegraph. The streets are full of peasants In sheepskin coats, many of them with shrill concertinas In their hands, with which they make night hideous as they stagger along or drop like weary soldiers on a fatiguing march. For even despite the indulgence of the police, the courts are full of "cases" after the holidays, and the cells full of prisoners. But with all its wild joys, Christmas is not a great national festival like the Yuletide of England and Germany. It awakens few oldworld associations, exercises less influenec than with us over the loosened ties of family affections, conjures up none of the delightful visions which endear Christmas to every English speaking man, woman, and child throughout the world. Even as a children's holiday it is a foreign import of recent date, like the spruce or fir tree, which sheds a blaze of light in the rooms of the well to do.

Mumming is a favorite diversion with Muscovites of all classes, sexes, and conditions. In the north, south, east, and west it is the great occupation of the people. Men, women, and children, in the country as well as the towns, disguise themselves in other people's clothing or purchase fantastic garments for a shilling or two the girls don a crown or a tiara, the men a mask, and both sexes cover their cheeks and forehead with a thick daub of paint. In that guise a mother would not know her own child from an Aztec, for the apparel they wear is often grotesque. In groups they then wander from house to house, dancing, singing, declaiming, and gathering in the good things which the well to do offer them in return for the entertainment.

The very repast with which at about 8 o'clock at night pious Russians break their long fast on Christmas Eve is as pure a survival of paganism as an archaeologist would care to see. The room Itself is arranged as of yore. In the place of honor, under the holy image—before which burns a red or blue lamplet—is placed a round table, over which a layer of sweet smelling hay is spread and over this, again, a white table cloth. In a spacious tureen the characteristic food of the season is piled up buckwheat porridge colored with saffron, sweetened with honey, arid variegated with fruits. When eaten it is washed down with ardent spirits. On another dish stands a pyramid of a fruit stew, the ingredients of which include apples and pears, dried cherries and prunes, grapes and oranges, the whole flavored with honey, and served up cold. There is a peculiar kind of bread, too, baked for this meal feast, as Easter has its own special cakes. Its characteristic is that it is covered with a thin coating of poppy seed or barley. Flesh meat cannot be eaten on Christmas Eve, and fish, if it figures in the repast, is only an ornament.

The church service must be over before the Muscovite family sits down to table. There is no ecclesiastical obligation to take part in it, but Russians are church going people, and there is a powerful attraction in the circumstance that a very special te deum is chanted on that evening to thank God for the deliverance of the coun.ry from the"twelve tongues," as the clergy term Napoleon's army, which was driven out on Russian Christmas Day (January 6, 1812). People, therefore, pray fervently, and come home hungry and thirsty.

Tapers are lighted on their

crossing the thresholds, incen&e is burned inside, and the guests,

if

any,

are heartily welcomed. Then little Christmas cakes containing the figures of kine, sheep, birds, on one side and a Greek cross on the other, &re sent with the children to all the neighbors in the village, to signify the deslr$ of the senders that their friends may be wealthy and happy during the coming year. A person who fails to receive one of these cakes Is doomed to lose his household and become dependent upon others before the year is out. At last the host rises, takes a big spoonful of the porridge, known as kootya, and flings It against the celling. If there be only plain rafters he flings it against the sash-window. That was the sacrifice offered up in former times to the Frost God, whose anger It appeased. It is a very hopeful sign If a considerable portion of the porridge sticks to the ceiling or the glass—the deity Is conciliated and the harvest will prove abundant. Another relic of olden time is embodied in the custom observed when this sacrificial meal 1b over. The host and their guests stand up and wait upon the servants and laborers, who take their places and sit down to supper. When this second meal Is over, masters and dependents all crowd round the table and draw blades of grass or hay from between Its surface and the cloth, to the accompaniment of quaint pagan chants and by the length of the blades they are able to "give a shrewd guess" as to luck in store for. each one in

GREENFIELD REPUBLICAN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1910

Hancock County Patrons of Big Milk

Company|Were*[Royally Enter-

tained[0n First Excursion.

(Written By J. L. Smith) Tbe first free excursion of the Polk Sanitary Milk Company of Indianapolis, was run over the Honey Bee Interurban road from Willow Branch on Wednesdaygof this week.

This was for the benefit of the patrons of their milk station at Willow Branch. They were farmers and their wives and some of their daughters, who live in Erown, Green and Jackson townships, tbis county. There were two car loads and some two hundred people in all. On arriving at the plant of the Company the crowd was divided into squads of about fifty people and each squad (or herd, as one farmer expressed it,) was furnished a guide who took them through the plant discribing it from the time of entering the|building until arriving in the assembly room.

The firstjplace was in t£e chemical room where the milk is all tested and that Which'Iwas pure was used, that which proved impure was thrown out.

We next passed into the cold storage room where we noticed a great change in the temperature.

Fromihere to the storage room and then to the engine room. In the engine room they have a well 350 feet deep from which they get the purest of water.

From here we were conducted to the barn or storage room for their wagons, of which there are about 50 in number for the use of their retail trade in the city. Then on the second floor of this building where the horses seventy-five incumber, were stabled, when not infuse. This stable seemed to be in aj thorough sanitary condition. The horses and harness are washed and cleaned every day.

One of the most beautiful sights was the room where the milk was heated to a certain temperature, then cooled and bottled. This was a very large room with glazed white brick walls, and'was very light. No one

Friday

Women's and Misses' Coats

Half Price

It has always been the determination of all our Big Co-Operative Stores not to carry over merchandise from one season to the next. We never have, and we never will. Price is a small consideration with us when working to this end.

Here's What We Are Doing

Every woman's and misses' coat in the store has been marked at just one-half their former price, which is far below their cost to manufacture, and if you are in need of a

0

km

New Stylish Coat

a better opportunity was never presented. Don't wait too longthere is only 150 to choose from, and they are going fast at these prices.

1-2 PRICE

for the most stylish and serviceaHj ble coats ever shown in Greenfield.

POLK'S MILK GO. HOST TO FARMERS

Its money in your pocket to watch our advertisements.

SPECIAL INDUCEMENTS

FOR

and

Spot Gash Co-Operative Store Go.

was allowed in this room except the employees, who were all dressed in snow white linen. We were permitted to look into this room-through large plate glass windows.

We were also shown through the departments where the milk cans are scalded and thoroughly sterilized Then we were taken to a sanitary kitchen and dining room where the heads of the different departments get their noon day lunch. After this we were seated in the assembly room where we were served with a two course luncheon. The first consisted of ham sandwiches and a bottle of milk. The second, a piece of apple pie, ice cream and coffee.

Then a souvenir was presented to those present. We were also given cards on which each wrote their name and address. After this, D. B. Johnson of Mooresville gave a short talk on dairying. He first gave the Poik Sanitary Milk Plant a great deal of praise for the manner in which they conducted their. business which was on a strictly sanitary, honest plan. Mr. Johnson is a successful dairyman and gave good advice to his audience, one of which was to put their barns in a sanitary condition, feed their cows good feed and use cleanliness in everything. Also to treat their cows kindly and give them a good place to lie down. Mr. Johnson said he had sold milk to the Polk company for 25 years and had never failed to get his check.

We wish to say that the Polk Milk Plant is strictly a sanitary one and the visitors were all highly pleased with what they saw, and the courteous treatment they received while there,

The inside walls of the building are all painted a milk white and everything about the plant is kept as clean and sanitary as possible. It is worth anyone's time to visit this plant. At 2 o'clock we left the plant and returned to our homes.

While it is impossible for us to give all the names of the people who went on the excursion, among them were the following:

W. H. Sherry and wife W. T. Martindale and wife W. W. Martindale and wife Emory Vanduyn and wife Frank Piper and wife Andrew Marsh and wife'""' *\-JWill

Parker

Saturday

Our Meat Market

Superior Round Steak 15c lb Good quality Boiling Beef 7c lb Fine Country Sausage 15c lb Country Spareribs 12ic lb Extra good Breakfast Bacon_20c lb

Figure Up Your Savings ...On These Grocery Prices...

Extra Fina Oranges, 15c to 30c doz Fine quality English Walnuts, per lb 18c Apples 40c to 50c peck Gallon Syrup 30c Old-fashioned Country Dried

Apples, per lb 10c Plenty of Fresh Oysters, 40c quart Crackers, 2 lbs for 15c Fancy Cranberries 10c quart

REMAINING STOCK

Toys and Dolls HALE PRICE

If you have forgotten any of the little ones, or would like to make them a New Year's gift, you can save just

ONE-HALF NOW

t9$

and wife a*®*

S. M. Addison and wife Charles Hayes and wife H. Smith and wife

Charley Bridges and wife George Wilson and wife Albert Reger and wife Andrew Parsons and wife A. J. Walker and wife W. M. Wilson and wife Herman Poole and wife Bruce Marsh and wife Wnj.. Whetsell and wife J. P. Reeves and wife Orville Reeves and wife Wm. Baker and wife Ira Kennedy and wife Orvil Roberts and wife Joe Ferrell and wife John Collins aud wife John Collier and wife Mesh Collier and wife Omer Eakins and wife George R. Smith and wife Ila B. Haney and wife Henry Spegal and wife Lucien Collins and wife John Hull and wife Oscar Power and wife George Power and wife Will Jackson and wife Sam Price and wife R. H. Eakin and wife Frank Slaughter and wife Wm. Templeton and wife Alec McDaniel and wife Rob Collier and wife Ben Gard and wife John T. Fort and wife M. C. Fort and wife Ord Kuhn and wife Charlie Collier and wife Oscar Addison and wife John Addison and wife John W. Wales and wife Albert Watson and wife Lem Moore and wife W. S. Powell and wife W. M. Barnard and wife James Williams and wife. John Hunt and wife. John Kennedy and daughter Lewis Eppert and daughter Mrs. W. S. Thomas Mrs. A. E. Sipe Mrs. Tom Albea Mrs. Ida Wilson John W. Thomas E. F. McComas. Ward McCray W. R. Gibbs Riley Hamilton Leonard Cook Ol Gilbreath W. A. Johns Charles Hatfield Henry Paxton Charles Pickering Hubert White David Moore Albert

W*lker

OaswU Hull'

OF PEBfif

Mr. Perry Hobbs, of New Palestine', age about fifty years, (lied Wednesday after an "Illness of a few days. He leaves a widow and grown children, Mr. Hobbs was in the ha'l at New Palestine when an explosion occurred three years ago and was injured. He brought suit but failed to recover damages.

Mr. Hobbs was the plaintiff in trial here only a week ago but complained at that time of being sick. Funeral Friday morning at Crows Point cemetery.

TRADE MORAL—The between business and succest It

advertising.

"Si

Inquire

•ur rates.

abMtf

rOW about that printing job you're in need of?

&

&3P

Come in and see abort it at your first opportunity. Don't wait vntll the very last moment but |iv« u* little time and well ebow yon what high |rade work we can tarn ont

J*

Hi