New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-12-26
MFTROpOLJT1N FESTTYAL.

|
| money.
| A METROPOLITAN FESTIVAL.
1t was one of the cherished traditions of
| ancient Manhattan that about midday or
| Christmas its patron saint, his pilgrimage OF
| love for the children ended invariably paused
for breath in the belfry of the old Dutch
| Church. That was the hour when with old time
| punctuality tho ovens In the KnickerbOcker
kitchens were opened and tho well-seasoDed
viands and the daintes Of the Christmas table
were brought to light From every household
| on the island the wholesome fragrance of an
| old-fashioned dinner rose 10 heaven, and st.
| Nicholas, who was an epicure in more senses
than that Of taste, derived an exquisite Satisfac-
| ton from shifting the holiday arOmas and glOat-
| ing over all the sweetness that was IN the air.
| Ii the benignant saint were stirring about on
| his old rounds yesterday, he could not ha, o
| found his familiar roost in Dutch belfry, but
| from the highest lookout of old Trnity-we
might have said from the uppermost platform
of THE TRIBUNE tower, if we could have avoid
ed advertising tie printers restaurant on the
twelfth foor-he could have INDUCED his pas
| sion for gastrOnOmic reyeries Novel Odors re-
| sulting from culinary innovations he might not
| have recognized, and lac would have been
! forced to wait from MIDDAY until curiew before
| the best dinners were served but he would have
found the air heavily laden with the wholesome
SAVIOR of the best dinner of the year rising from
thousands of happy households.
1t is singular that people so inventive in
handcIaft and 80 characteristic in their modes
of thought and lite should not have distinctive
| holiday customs of their own. If Christmas
festivities lack originality in America, it is be-
cau1e an austere Protestant ancestry has not en-
| lowed Its descendants with a heritage OF tradl-
tional merry making or holiday observance at a
season of the year with which it had few if any
religious associations. The American Christ
mas is mosaic of borrowed stones with the
dull rather than the polished surfaces upper
most. The English dinner is reproduced in a
matter of fact way, with the finest linen, the
dainticst china and the best eating, but there
is nothing distinctive in the service or III the
feast. There are no characteristic dishes that
are seen only on that day the year round; Che
Christmas meats are not decked with rose
mary; the mistletOe is not hung over the din
ing-roOm door there is not even an imitation
yule- log IN the restored fire place. Tinsel splen-
dora and holiday tokens of remembrance have
been borrowed from the Germans, but the
Chrlst-child is not graded in its topmOst
branches nor is the fruit Of the tree plucked
and distributed by a masked representative
of St. Nicholas himself. The French and
Italian fashion OF holiday masks and children's
entertainments has been so feebly initiated
that there is little in the social festivities that
is exceptional and peculiar to the day. The
70 rfv md
minded. but it lacks originality and is prosaic
and practical. Holiday customs are the out
growth of traditions, and there are none CT
these here only well-regulated practices, good
cheer aud open handed hospitality.
If the American observance OF Christmas
is not in any special sense characteristic of
tho people, it is not lacking i'll tervOr kindly
feeling and human kindness Nowhere in
Christendom are the poor remembered az Christ
mas-tide so generously rs they are in Amerl-
can cities especially in our own. Who can say
how many fires were lighted yesterday on cold
hearthstrnes, or how many dinners were served
in asylums, lodging uOnsrs, mission schools
and tenement,, where charity had opened her
arms and taken to her heart tho young who
had scarcely a STOCKING to hang up at the CHM
new corner, and the middle aged and the old,
overwhelmed with misery and disappOlntmcnts
New-York with the squalOr of its tenement dis
tricts and the appalling records of its criminal
courts seems on every other day of the year
the worst city in America, but on Christmas
da, it is one of the best. Nowhere is more
Goodwill TO men practically illustrated. No
where is the restfuness of a holiday more gen
orally appreciated, for the press and rush of
Christmas trade exhaust in body and mind a
large proportion of the city's population. But
the significance of tho day does not end with
its charities and its welcome rest. Long before
the shadows have heightened into Christmas
night even the dulIest soul feels within it a
development of it's finer senses In the metIop-
oils Christmas is invariably one of the quietest
and most orderly days in the year, perhaps be-
cause even the criminal classes have crude
feeling of supeI stition that wickedness commit
ted at that time could scarcely fail to prove
unlucky and if even the vicious invest the day
with semblance of sanctity, honest men can
not help but be better men for every new
Christmas that passes. The lesson of the day
has not wholly escaped them, even if they had
to preach it to themselves without Bible to
refer to, or a child in the household to remind
them Of the innocence of the Christ child.
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