The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1863-11-05
LOCAL AND PERSONAL.


Halloween, the evening preceding All
Hallows or all Saints Day, occurred on
saturday'last. Of course, the traditions
and quaint pleasantries clustering around
this historic epooh are too well known to
require repetition at our hands. Every
one is familiar with them, or at ieast
ought to be, seeing that Burns inimltaoie
poem, Halloween" is SO easy OF access
nowadays. The passion of prying into
obscurity and attempting to read events
hid in the dim haze of the future through
,Ie aid of ircantations and charms forms
a striking feature of human nature in its
rude and imperfect state. At one time,
in the. lang -syne, these superstitious OBJ
'servances SO cannily described by Burns
were all but universal. Witches, fairies,
elves, and goblins of high and low degree,
were not only implicitly believed in by
whole communities, but the simplest and
raest commonplace affairs of life were
made the subjects of pow-wowings and
,opsensicsl ceremonies. At the present
time, even, by certain class. signs and
omens are still iudulgcd into instance,
some folks can by no possibility be pre-
vailed upon to kill their cattle, cutthelr
finger-nails, or trim their hair, except IN
a certain sign of the moon, while others
carry swine's teeth in their pocket as a
preventive of the toothache, go into ago
nies over the upsetting of salt-eel!ar at
table, and esehew Friday as an unlucky
day.
80 dullEess portion of the truly hlest
Calm, sheltered haven of eternal rest.
Incantations and pow -wowings, however,
are about played out at the present juno
cure. Their day is past, to return no
more forever. The entire structure OF
Fairyaem and humbuggery in general has
been dem elshed, and "Icha5oo" written
on the doo,-pcst-thanks to our Common
Schools and more enlightened era tor
=. <he which. No one now possesses the
r.ou;site faith for a successful belize IN
!. the manifestly absurd theory, unless he be
: N confirmed idiot or one whose early edu-
cation was unfortunately totally neglected.
So We 60. The world is becoming more
and more enlightened /: errors are being
;: .ra,}ieatea false estimates and ideas dis
sipated by the true--the chaH IS BENG
sepsrated from the wheat and cast aside.
Halloween is held in remembrance only
through respect to tie talents Of one OF
the worlds great pcets--it and its super
,-stitious surroundings would have long
since been forgotten were 1t not ior the
peculiar attraction thrown around them by
che refinement OF letters.
. To those who still persist, on Haiiow-
cen. in the performance Of any or all OF
those weird charms descanted upon by
Burns, we would suggest another and
more modern, warranted by an exchange
70 be as charming as any il the market
Scotch or otherwise. To wit "1ake a
black cat and negro woman go with
them up dark alley at midnight, repeat
ing the words goodnessgracIoushoopde-
doodendo sixteen times in Dutch--pull
the hair of the negro woman and the tali
of the cat by jerks, and the first word
that either of them utters will be the
name of your intended.
Apropos of Halloween, the subject OF
nuts is in order. The yield of all kinds
of nuts indigenous to this section, but es-
pecially of chestnuts, is very large this
fall. Perhaps it has never struck our
readers. but it is nevertheless fact, that
quite AN extensive trade is carried on IN
this latter article from this point. Many
bushels Of the fruit, probably thousands,
are annually sent to Philadelphia and
Pittsburg, to afford our city cousins a
tocthsome albeit somewhat hatulent NOR
sci of refresh1aent for. stray moments
snatched from business. Chestnuts sell
here at $500 Per bushel, or ten cents per
quart when purchased by the "s"'dls :
as. nlacsrd ia certain store, we remem-
ber, used to designate. These figures are
considerably sleeper than old-time pfi'es'
but. then. these are war times, and people
w'N chew, and tobacco's riz out OF sight
and amt good at that, and the next best
thing must be something else. In TACT,
chestnuts are chestnuts--like everything
else.
Anronos of rotb;,o. All masses on