The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-12-27


Tuesday, and all seemed by mutual, tacit
consent to agree in having holiday and
enjoy themselves. From the vast amount
of poultry sold by our provision merchants
during the two or three preceding days, we
are assured that almost everybody except
ourself had turkeysor some nice chicken
hxings, for, dinner. We were cheated out
of ours after the fullest confidence that
we were in the ring.
sef.5i 81 CHRISTMAS MORN Is.tltlt
was ushered in by less noise or burning of
powder than on former occasions, our
| people having evidently lost their taste
for the smell of villainous gunpowder.
| Young America made feeble efforts here
and there to get up a demonstration, but
they generally terminated in the explosion
| of a few innocent fire-crackers, or the dis
charge of sickly pistol, making feeble
noise. Religious exercises were held in
most of the churches of the city, pretty
| liberal report of most of which VIII be
| found on the inside pages of the JOURNAL.
To us was assigned the pleasing duty of
attending the | -
| SUNDAY SCHOOL CELEBRATION
of the Old School Presbyterian Church,
! corner of Vine and Second Streets.
Long before the appointed hour for
opening the exercises, the church
began to fill with smiling, happy
hearted children with joyous and
brightly beaming faces, and by the hour of
ten the church was filled to it's fullest ca
| pacity, the entire middle block and several
of the side pews being filled by bright-eyed
and rosy-cheeked, and intelligent-looking
children, all arrayed in goodly apparel, and
all casting admiring glances towards the
gorgeous Christmas tree which had been
planted in front of the pulpit, and which
bore more than two hundred different va
rieties of fruits, besides beautiful flowers,
wreaths, or garlands, &C., &C., forming de-
cidedly the handsomest Christmas tree we
ever saw, and such was the judgment of
our greatly experienced and discrimina-
ting friend, Mr.. John F. Glover, distin-
| guished for his experience in Sabbath
School celebrations.
| There is usually motto hung up in
the room on Sabbath School mornings 81
am late," with view to admonish pupils
to be punctuaI and prompt in their attend
ance. On this occasion it was turned
around, and presented the words
81 am early;' gentle reproof, as we
understood it, for the unusual promptness
of the attendance.
| The exercises opened by the school, led
by Professor Genung, on the organ, sing
ing the beautiful and touching hymn en-
titled "The Children's Jubilee;" after
which thrilling anthem was performed
| by full choir with much power and fine
effect, and then Rev. Martin, Pastor of the
church, offered up solemn prayer and
thanksgiving for the children's jubilee,
and the manifold blessings that had sur
rounded the Church, the Sabbath School
and the congregation during the year now
drawing to a close, and imploring the con-
tinuance of the Divine favor during the
year upon which we are about to enter,
upon the scholars, teachers and officers of
the Sabbath School. and upon the congre,
CATION and the Church. 1t.l ~.
| Master Eddie Lewis then delivered
| neat little practical and appropriate adj
dress. A beautiful duet was then sung by
the Misses Genung, accompanied by Prof.
Genung on the organ, with chorus
by the school. This was followed by brief
but highly interesting addresses by the
/ Superintendent, Mr.. @. Maghee, Rev. Mr..
| Dodge, Rev. Mr.. Martin, and others, inter-,
spersed by a pleasing recitation, by Miss
Mollie Brown, of the Annunciation, as re-
corded by Matthew; duets by Miss Wagley
and Miss Allis, accompanied by Prof. Ge-
hung on the organ, and other beautiful
songs by the school, The music was most
admirable. The duets Fairy Dell" and
Moonlight, Music, Love, and Flowers, (.
by Miss Wagley and Miss Allis, were espe-
1 cially pleasing and beautiful. Then COM
menced the distribution of the fruit pluck
ed from the magnificent Christmas tree
an event that produced the liveliest ami
nation among the little folks, as their
names were called and their gifts were
presented.
We presume all the children were Salts
fed, as the Superintendent assured them
before the distribution commenced, that
awards had been made with the most per-
feet impartiality. Our little Canary bird,
however, thinks her family of Christmas
! tree dolls is sufficiently large, having re-
ceived one at each recurring Christmas for
the last five or six years. We regretted to
see the total absence of books, except a
few small toy books for very little child
rem, and the distribution of so many arti-
cles not of the slightest use to the rec1p-
| tents, and only I'll to please and amuse for
a moment, and then to be thrown aside
or destroyed. The whole affair was, how
ever, one of unspeakable delight both to
the school and to the spectators, and we
hope that all will live to meet around the
\ next Christmas tree, surmounted, by its
beautiful nags and Goddess of Liberty,
with the number of scholars largely in
creased.
Religious exercises, appropriate to the day,
were held at the German Lutheran. the
/ Zion Church, and the German Methodist
Church, but no extraordinary preparations
were made. All these were filed by large
congregations. Taken altogether, the
Christmas Just passed was an unusually
pleasant one, and was celebrated more
generally and more appropriately than
any we have witnessed for many years.