The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1870-12-22
tHt ~. cloud adnfnal,
7. B MITCHELL, EDITOR.

v. b MTG HE'LL, EDITOR.
Thursday, Dec. az, 1870.
A MERRY CHRIsTMAs!
To all Its many readers, TuE Jour-
NAL SEMI in advance, greetings Of 4 |
"Slerry Christmas!'
All over this laad-wo might nearly
say, all over the world-there will be
the echoes Of these merry wishings,un-
til it would seem As though they might
gather into = great wave that would
wash sorrow from whole year.
To old and young alike, Christmas
comes happy day. To the little ones
it is alive with the mysteries Of Santa
Claus, Saint Nicolas, Kriss Kringle,
Pelzuiokle or BY whatever name the
great magician of good things may be
known to them, with his inexhaustible
storehouses in some PARKWAY, taper
lighted cavern, where little genii work
every day and night the year round in
manufacturing his delectable treasures.
Their bright eyes reluctantly close ia
sleep, while their eager ears almost fan
cy they can hear the light steps of the
reindeer pattering on the roof, and the
shaking Of Santa Claus Ground little
belly" az, quietly laughing, he squeezes
himself into the chimuey.top. With the
first break Of dawn, they peer over
coverlids At the uncertain outlines Of
stockings dangling, chock full and run
ming over, from the mautle-piece,o or plead
10 be taken to the room where the t.
psring tree stands glitseriug with its, to
them, royal wealth-fresh from jolly
s.. Nick. This is one Of the most de-
liehtfol detions Of youth, and there
oaa he no pardon for the sniffy s.ucti-
moniousness which would rob child OF
it, belief in an actual Santa Claus.
Happy hearts stin chsriaA fsndly each dsluion Of
ih:ir youth,
j., !. eeia q ~.llss'i'v.,s, and the fiction wraps
To the older ones, Christmas brings
ID reunions, With the memories Of the
hy running back from gray-haired old
ags almost to infancy. There are the
giving Of gifts, the merry.makings, and
the genuine pleasure that comes with
= time meant to be begun and ended
with happiness.
For nearly sixteen hundred years
his there been the celebration, in some
form, Of the birth of the Christ Kind.
chen-the Christ Child. In the third
century the people who assembled for
this purpose were prisoned in their
churches and consumed in the blazing
buildings. It was in the next century
that the 25th of December was united
on as the day to be observed, and
thus it has come down to US. In the
United States, it has until recently been
held il pre-eminence only in the
Southern, Middle aud Western States,
but in New England it has lately edged
up close beside the recent conner,
Thanksgiving day. While to all now
the enjoyments Of the day are very SIM
liar, yet how different from those Of
fifty or . hundred years ago that we
read Of! For the great boar's head
which was brought with wonderful
pomp to the dinner.table, we have the
= festive bird-'-the turkey, plump with
oysters. Instead Of the steamjng and
odorous "Wassaile bowle," there is the
sparkling champagne, or at the better
regulated board Of an uprie ht deacon,
hard cider. (But from all such changes
> as these VIC must except mince pie,
which, amid the mutations Of time,
seems, from reliable records, to have
held its own, being the same now as q
half-dozen centuries ago; and some eat
en- then is yet, if the eaters could bu'
- speak, still uudigested.) For the crack
ling Yule log and the Christmas candles
we have myriad.armed chandeliers will
their flaming jets Of gas. For the state
~ minuet, we.substitute the giddy galo]
and endless German. That which
was boldly claimed and with illfeignet
reluctance yielded under the white-ber
RED mistletoe, is now Unanswered dur
ing
~ sly filtration,
By the light Of Oh sndsllef,
With music 70 play In the pausss,
And nobody very near"
These are some Of the changes Of
hdf.eentury. Those who want to ca
POINT the moral % TO our more advance,
civilization and greater refinement a
read in these sigus.
will joy be less uncon6ned if i
cur nerry-makings and givings to eao
ether 10 glance back through the age
10 The Cause that has given Us the day
Ne Christ Child whose birth We. cele
b1.tel Remembering Him, shall v
ut remember His 'tlittle ones 18th