The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-12-25


future when il shall become the now, ut down
together, let us this morning, and chat some>
What Of ssthe day we celebrate" We Will
not claim great originality herein-you and
ve--ouly take that which othsrshs,e cleaned
from ssmany quaint and curiouA volume Of
forgotten love-" So may We enter, not un'
pro6tably, into their labors-
Pope Telesphorus, It's said, gave US the
celebration Of Christmas. That Was in A.
D., 1873. Many shall rise up and call him
blessed for that, for many Pope has given
vor.ethinrs to his fellows. These have given
strife, dispute of words that have been the
evil genii Of many battle fields, Ill g'is
to humanity and generations that have
inherited only wretchedness from ..
past that should have given them
better, Bat Pope Telesphorus' Christmas
has lived on through all the years. Through
strife of East and West, through fall OF the
Roman Empire, through strife oftemporal and
spiritual bower for sovereignty, through the
Furnishing of so much evil and 20 much
of good too, in its day, through thess
seventeen centuries. 1t was . happy
idea Of TrLEsrHoRus, Of whom you and Ne
know no more than this, but certainly not
great idea. Later Popes have given TO the
world greater ideas-ideas that went out
through the nations, and baptized peoples
with blood, and then persisted. Better and
simpler idea Of old TELEsrHoRus-it didn't
convulse governments-didn't shed one drop
ofblood-only made one day in the year Of
the lives ofold and young happier, and there>
fore better. Thus it was good to humanity
and humanity cherished it. Would the men>
Kings give gifts to their fellows? 1t were
better they give the good than the great.
In the Fourth Century Of the Christian era,
Bishops of the East and West settled upon
this, the 25rh of December, as the time Christ
was born, and error though it may be, all
christendom. has been just as happy in its
celebration At this season as though it were
the true time Of the SAvior's birth.
In those centuries that . clearer seeing
Present calls Dark, Christmas was celebra>
ted with the widest revels and in the
most grotesque style. 1t was the age Of
muscie-and if not rational nor scarce
decent, il could not fail to be vigorous.
The first utterance of man is inspirstional,
says Coasin-it takes the form Of poetry and
song Faith does, at least, and enthusiasm,
which is faith articulate. So the literature
Of Christmas is in carrols-simple rhyrnth-
mic expression of gladness and worship
Still preserved in the spasse archives of those
early ages-faint relics and soundings Of the
strains in which those Middle Ages folk gave
utterance to that early song of the announce
ment, "Pesce on earth, goodwill to men,
which, had it been Hebrew gospelwould have
framed itself into Hebrew hexameters. Wals
is rich in these carols, and all Europe hal
them. So do you sit down, now, and lie
Dickens read you Christmas Carol, il
prose to-day. He does it prettily, and 20,
will be the better for hearing it, All the bet
ter, because he but forms in prose, thought,
md fancies that Europe, centuries earlier
formed in song. 1t establishes the kinshir
of human kind. And while you read your
Dickensian prose. carol to-day, more
Imaginative and poetical, because more prim-
tive and oriental people-the Calabrians-
have descended from their mountains for .
week past and made their way to Rome, there
with rude musical instruments and wild un-
unsteady musical carols to greet this morn>
ing and the imagined yearly new birth Of
Christ with gladness and joyous songs. They
do this every year, and their ancestors did
1t and yet their ancestors.
Wild beliefs and legends mingled with our
ancestors observance Of Christmas ia the
times when ghosts were real messengers of
the night, and witches rode veritable broom
sticks in veritable aerial navigation, and Fsi.
ries and Dryads. peopled groves and forests,
and the Court of the Fairies was no more q
myth than the Kings Bench. Those old
North countrymen, Scandinavians and more
recent Swede, had story that the country
men yet North Of them were transformed into
wolves in this Christmas season, and come
down in focks upon the South country-far
more ravenous and terrible than any truly be-
gotten wolves that ever were born. Marcel,
lus, the Dane, spoke more than Danish faith,
when he said on the night of that watch for
the ghost of Denmsrk's murdered king:
"Some say that ever 'gainst that season come.
Wherein our SAvior's birth 10 celebrated,
This bird Of dswning singeth all night long
And then, they say no spirit dares stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome; then no planets str;ke
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm.
So hallowed and 90 gracious is the time,
England was "merry England in the olden
time when Christmas came. Then was tho
yule log, and heaped fires, and cheer, and
rare sport as blended day and night into one
season of unbroken gaiety. Then, and even
now, when the midnight houieame every bell
in all England rang out merry chimes. and
what . medley Of bell, what a diapason Of
ringing sound, goes over all the Island. by
way of "Merry Christmas to all the people.
But Germany is the native home of Christ.
mas, as it is Of Fairy stories. 1t invented
the Christmas tree, and gave gifts. Then
too,-a healthy practice-you we're told Of
your faults, and rewarded for your good ac-
tions during the year. There is no more at
tractive episode in the life of Luther. than
the picture of the great, stern, severe Ger,
man, making an epoch in history, fighting
Kings and Popes and Devils, ceasing from
his mighty labor, and spending Christmas
with his children--as very romp for the
nonce IS the widest of them.
But our chat has taken us too far. ONLY
this then. The ancient English decked house
and church with evergreens, because they
thought good fairies dwelled in them and KEEP,
them verdant amid the utmost rigor Of win.
ter. You use them for beauty and to yield
rich fruitage of gu for others pleasure. The
only good fairies at can make green your
heart and househeld. in this Holiday season,
are the charlie II prompt you to relieve
suffering and want, st il exists about you.
The Burnfng OF the New Irensides.
IFrcm the Philadelphia North American, Dec. III
We chronicle wish regret that will be
shared BY everybody, the total destruction by
fra Qf tho nj l.I