The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1880-12-29

ing heart, he continually repeated to those
about him the words which his Lord had
taught him. Little children, love one an
other'
December rs. f'he Holy Innocents These
are the martyrs in deed, but not IN will, the
unconscious witnesses for Christ, who fell by
the sword of Herod, as he was seeking g to
destroy the young Child Is life, 2 just born at
Bethlehem,
Both the Germans aud the old English call.
ed it z The Ghildrens Feast :" and in many
places it is still very properly chosen as the
day On which the children shall receive their
gifts from Pastors and Sunday School teachers.
In our boyhood the day next after Christ
mas was the time, among the Lutherans, foi
saying Christmas hymns 1--WE knew nothing Of
carol singing then), and receiving Christmas
tracts and cookies aud 1t was always called
"second Christmas day.
Still longer ago--acentury, or two before
December 26, was known III England as Boo
ing Day, from the prevalent custom Of jour-
neymen and apprentices receiving from their
employers, and from some of their masters
customers, small gifts-ertorted gratuities, they
might almost be called, for the custom was so
firmly fixe0 that there was no escaping It.
In a modified form the custom continued in
our own country and almost down to the pre-
sent time. Benjamin Franklin, it is said,
while his stern brothers apprentice, wrote
verses for the Carriers Address, which drew
the attention of literary men in Boston to the
youthful author, who thus early began to give
proof of talent and the fruits of careful read
ing. Many of our readers may remember the
yearly presentation, at their fathers door, of
city Waterman, postman and newspaper car
rier, with their printed address-rhyming, if
not poetical-cap in hand, smile on face, and
expectation strong, that silver quarter would
be Forthcoming from each patron, to reward
the lamplghter that had not failed to bear
his smoky torch, each dusky eve, along the
streets, and illume his dim oil lamp; who had
beat his hourly rounds, till dawn, and drawl.
ed out, at every corner, g Past ten,' or what
ever O'Clock - to repay the letter. carrier,
because he had not lost one of all those costly
missiyes, for which we used TO pay the Gov
eminent five times as much for bringing them
from Ohio as now from China, and two cents,
besides, to this same postman, for carrying
them from the post Office to our house to re-
ward the Ledger man, because he made
his rounds so diligently, that it was not quite
noon when bis last customer was served with
the morning paper How strange all this
sounds now to young ears, so rapidly may city
customs change in fast growing country
We are yet within the range of the Haloyon
Days-a term that seems strangely contra
dictory of the weather to which we have been
lately treated, for the period so called by
the aneients included the seven days proceed
ing and the seven days following the winter
solstice, the years shortest day, December g.
The word, as we use it, is expressive of peace
and tranquility. 1t is, in fact, the name of
the King fisher, and means, in Greek, sea-
6rood6r, the fable being that this bird hatch
ed her eggs upon floating nest, in the midst
of the sea, at the period of the year just indi-
Gated. and the favoring gods made the sea
then to be always calm, SO that the mariners
might sail IN safety.
Pliny says, The very seas, and they that
sail upon them, know well what time they sit
and breed. And the time when they are
broodiug is called the halcyon days, for dur
ing that season the sea is calm" One has
spoken, beautifully, of "the halcyon mo-
ments of the heart when it lies still, and
waits, and listens, as the holy angels hearken,
for the will of God"
Such halcyon moments, we may be sure,
will help get the heart ready for whatever
winter storms are to follow and will be the
happier preudes of that still happier time,
when all days will be halcyon, an unending
Day of Peace. x.