torifs far 
larder was filled with capons, liens, turkeys, 
puddings, nuts, <fcc,, and the lords enter¬ 
tained their tenants in the most generous 
manner. The yule log in the fire place was 
kept burning until Candlemas eve. Fob. 2d. 
The favorite dish on Christmas day was a 
soused boar’s head, borne to the principal 
table with great state and solemnity, “ upon 
a silver platter, with rainstralsye.” 
The Presbyterian Churches in Scotland 
MERRY CHRISTMAS 
A WIDOW’S CHRISTMAS. 
GOOD REASONS WHY WE MAY TRUST 
over this broad land. It is suggestive of | vate dwellings is derived from the ancient the Catholic Churc 
home reunions; of parents and children | Druid practices. The Druids believed that is sung, in which 
gathered together under the parental roof I sylvan spirits which flocked to the ever- spond to the priest, 
after months of separation ; of 
old Santa Claus making his an¬ 
nual grand rounds, filling juvenile 
hearts with joy and their stock¬ 
ings with good things; of little 
ones running about the rooms at 
an early hour, waking up the old 
folks to wish a merry Christmas 
and exhibit their gifts, and of 
bounteous boards whose fullness 
inspires thanksgiving to the Great 
Giver. 
Brother has appeared at the 
gate, and his little sisters are 
rushing out to embrace him with 
all the warmth and enthusiasm 
of juvenile love and affection. 
Parents and elder sisters have 
stood for some time in the door¬ 
way looking for his coming, and 
now they arc gladdened by a 
sight of the absent one. They 
knew lie would not fail them, and 
sure enough here he is! While 
looking on this pleasant scene, 
this beautiful home to which the 
wanderer is being welcomed 
hack, lot us not forget, the tens of 
thousands between whom and a 
merry Christmas poverty inter¬ 
poses her barrier. Were each one. 
of us to contribute to the happi¬ 
ness of hut one of those less for¬ 
tunate, how vastly would the sum 
total of human enjoyment be in¬ 
creased on that day ! As the poet 
has finely expressed it, y»e whole 
world might he merry on Christ¬ 
mas if every one were to perform 
a kind act toward his neighbor. 
Bearing Ibis in mind, reflecting 
that by how much wc contribute 
to the happiness of others, by so 
much wc increase our own, let 
us remember tiie children of the 
poor while we remember our own. 
The observance of Christmas 
dates from the first century,Pope 
Telesphorus, who died A. D. 
138, having instituted it. For 
three centuries, however, there 
was a wide difference of opinion 
as to the day upon which 
Chiust was born. Christmas 
was commemorated by some in 
April, by others in May, and by 
still others in other months. As 
a festive day it was likewise con¬ 
founded with the Epiphany. Fi¬ 
nally, in the fourth century, at 
the urgent solicitation of Pope 
.Julius I., a thorough investiga¬ 
tion was undertaken, and the 
theologians of both the East and 
the West agreed that our Saviour 
came into the world on the 25th 
of December. This decision, 
which was then and has siuce 
been regarded as final, was based 
mainly upon the tables of the 
Censors preserved iu the archives 
of Rome. Tradition furthermore 
fixed the hour of birth at mid¬ 
night. Hence the custom in Ro¬ 
man Catholic countries, early in¬ 
stituted, of ushering in Christmas 
day by the celebration of three 
masses, one at midnight, oue at 
daybreak and one iu the morning. 
The ancient Celts and Germans 
celebrated the Christmas 
BY .JOSEPHINE POLLARD. 
ilfoud was a woman who doled 
on ruins. Nothing in the present 
was ever cpiite so beautiful as 
wdiat she had enjoyed in the 
past; and it was utterly impos¬ 
sible for her to imagine that there 
was anything in the future that 
could compensate her lor the 
trials she had endured. That 
is, any earl lily future. Of course 
she had a vague feeling that 
somewhere, and in some other 
condition, she might, taste the. 
enp uf bliss tluit no sorrow could 
dash from her hand; hut that 
was far away, indefinite, and had 
but little to do with the liard 
realities of her life. 
She had married young; had 
left a home ilia!, wealth supplied 
with the luxuries of life, to enter 
another whoso surroundings were 
hut a I rifle less magnificent, in 
such an atmosphere of luxury- 
and ease were her children horn 
and reared, and the memory of 
those days was the hit forest drop 
in Mis. Mulfokd’s cui>. 
R ill a tor, and on that memorable 
“Black Friday” the idol he had 
worshipped, the god of Gold, 
JtiSl Proved it sell l<> lie nothing hut 
day, and was us dust, iu his hands. 
He could not rally from the 
®k°ck; pride, ambition, courage, 
were all annihilated, and the wife 
MmMafljl of his bosom, to whom beggary 
was worse than death, could 
;? j only mingle her tears with his, 
r in speechless agony. 
AwV_i 
Arthur, the eldest child, a 
boy of fourteen, endeavored, but 
^ vainly, to comfort hisgrief-striek- 
p- ~~ en parents. 
' “I’ll work for you, father. T 
. | c,ln easily get a place in a store.” 
“ Mv boy ! my boy !” said the 
j poor man, Clasping liis son affec¬ 
tionately in liis arms; “slay by 
your mother always — and the 
girls — they will need you. Dear 
boy!” and lie imprinted a kiss on 
the glowing check, that had in it 
a father’s blessing and farewell. 
The next morning Mrs. Mul- 
ford was a widow, and her chil- 
dren fatherless. A trifle the cred¬ 
itors allowed her was all she had 
to depend upon, the money she 
had inherited front her father 
having been also swept away 
by the financial tornado. 
She had taken n liltle place 
in the country, and with Au 
Tirun’s help, and Bridget’s,— 
who had followed the fortunes of 
— - | her mistress—had really suececd- 
. . ' ' ed in making things look quite 
cosy and attractive. 
“ 81 uire, mum,” snys Bridget, 
in her homely attempts to com¬ 
fort, her mistress, who dragged 
herself about like a sable ghost, 
“ if ye’d only smile once in a 
wliile, ye’d be surprised at the 
comfort ye’d get 1” 
“All, Bridget," Mrs. Mul- 
forp replies, with a loug-dra^vn 
sigh, “ my smiling days are over. 
I try to be patient, but I cannot 
be cheerful.” 
“ All, but it’s the cheerful pa¬ 
tience that brings the suushine . 
and ye ra’aly shouldn’t grieve the Childers 
so.” 
“ Do they mind it, Bridget ?” 
“ Shu re, an’ they do? Master Arthur, 
bless the boy! says it’s just like a tomb 
where ye are ; and Miss Minnie and Maud 
have their little hearts nearly torn out of 
them ; and they such woe, liule hurrids !” 
But Mrs. Mulford could not be easily be¬ 
guiled from her sorrow, especially as she 
was obliged to 1 1 a,ve recourse to her needle 
to eke out the limited allowance, and every 
si itch she took was but an additional re¬ 
minder of the depth to which she was re¬ 
duced. 
To such a disposition the needle is but a 
weapon of despair, bringing neither comfort 
nor hope, nor in any way lightening the 
burdens of life. The recurrence of an anni¬ 
versary was, to Mrs. Mulfoud’s mind, like 
the unvailing of a monument to the depart¬ 
ed, and was usually spent in solitude and 
tears. 
imr 
season 
with prolonged festivities, and j 
believed that during the twelve I 
nights intervening between the 
25th of December and the 6th 
of January they could trace 
the personal movements and interferences 
on earth of their great deities, Odin, Berchta, 
&c. Many of the beliefs and usages of the 
Germans passed over from heathenism to 
Christianity, 
During the middle ages Christmas was com¬ 
memorated by “ tbe gay fantastic spectacle 
of dramatic mysteries and moralities, per¬ 
formed by personages in grotesque masques 
and singular costumes.” The scenery, we 
are told, usually represented an infant in a 
cradle, surrounded by the Virgin Mary and 
St. Joseph by bulls, herds, cherubs, Eastern 
magi and manifold ornaments. In Protest¬ 
ant Germany and Northern Europe Christ¬ 
mas is frequently designated as the “Chil¬ 
dren's Festival,” and a Christmas tree is 
erected in every Rome, rich and poor. 
In many German villages, presents are 
deposited with some one person clothed in 
high buskins, a white robe and an enormous 
flax wig, who goes from house to house, dis- 
greens were unnipped by the frost. Christ¬ 
mas Carols date back to the Second Century. 
Many large volumes of these Carols have 
been published from time to time. 
The oldest printed collection of English 
Christmas Carols bears the date of 1521. ^The 
majority of these, though written by men of 
learning, exhibit a lamentable ignorance of 
the character of the two most prominent 
persons in the Carols— Mary and Jesus. 
In 1562 Christmas carols of a more sol¬ 
emn character were introduced in England. 
After the Restoration, carols were revived, 
and became, if possible, of a more jovial 
character than ever. Those with which the 
dawn of Christmas is now announced in 
England are generally religious, though not 
universally so. The Christmas canola of 
France, in which Count and peasant united, 
The Christmas Box is an English institu¬ 
tion. It consists of a small money gift to 
persons in subordinate conditions on the day 
following Christmas, which has consequently 
been known as “ Boxing Day.” During the 
earlier part of this century the practice of 
giving these boxes became so onerous and 
intolerable, that tradesmen placed placards 
in their windows, announcing that no more 
would he given. 
The public authorities likewise issued re¬ 
monstrances against the custom. In 1836 
the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 
went so far as to issue a circular to the dif¬ 
ferent embassies, requesting a discontinu¬ 
ance of t he customary gifts to the messengers 
of the Foreign Department and other Gov¬ 
ernment servants. 
In England, Christinas has always been at 
once a “ religious, domestic and merry¬ 
making festival.” Formerly the revels con¬ 
tinued through the month ot January, every 
and the whole of the English dissenters re¬ 
jected Christmas in its religious aspect as a 
“human invention” and as savoring of pa¬ 
pistical will-worship. Still, the day has 
been celebrated by tbe dissenters as a social 
holiday, there being a complete cessation 
from all business. 
The Puritan Parliament of England abol¬ 
ished Christmas altogether, and holly and 
ivy were made seditious badges. Because 
the Puritans were opposed to Christinas 
pastimes and to the observances of the 
English Church generally, the day has never 
been commemorated in New England as in 
other parts of the country. Now, however, 
as those rigid ideas which caused witches to 
he burned at the stake have given away to 
more liberal views, East, West, North and 
South unite in commemorating our Sa¬ 
viour’s natal day, and iu whatever direc¬ 
tion this issue of our paper goes, it will enter 
tens of thousands of homes bright and joy¬ 
ous with Christmas scenes. 
