Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1882-01-10
CHRISTMAS IN THE OLDEN TIME.

ance is annually extending. But it il
not kept, even yet, with anything like
the universally. much less the enthu
siasm, of the olden time in England.
Three hundred years ago, Christmas
was, emphatically, the great festival
of the year. 1t was the one that ap
pealed, more eloquently than any other,
TO that feeling of common brother.
hood in man, which is the very essence
of true Christianity. On Christmas day,
rich and poor were drawn together, rs
they were at no other time. The men,
dicant was sure of his aims, no mat
ter at what gate he knocked. The lord
Of the Manor saw that every one, who
took his hire, had Joint for dinner. In
the houses of the wealthy, relatives of
every degree met, as they meet now at
Thanksgiving in New England: the
son from across the sea, the married
daughter from another country, the
widow, the orphan, the heir, the re-
pentant prodigal. The chimneys blazed,
the boards groaned, the minstrel piped.
The young danced the long evenings
through. The aged looked on, thought
OF the past, and smiled. While many
a bashful lover, who had sighed in vain
all the year, took courage, when he
caught his sweetheart under the ever
green, and availing himself of the old
time license, kissed her, and found
tongue to speak
But that which hallowed Christmas,
especially, was the sacred memory con-
nected with it. The story of the Babe
IN the manger was story that melted
the hardest hearts to love and rever-
ence. 1t was kept vividly before the
mind, on every recurring Christmas
season, by the words Of Holy Writ, by
poetry, by legend, by pictorial repre-
sentations even. The lowly stable, the
Wise Men offering gifts, the actual
Star in the East were real to the men
OF that day, in sense that can hardly
be understood in this material age.
The times were, essentially imaginative.
People saw the steps OF fairies in the
rings of blighted grass. The devout
believed, as Milton believed long after,
m spiritual presences all about them.
What wonder, therefore, that, in the
quiet, etarlit night, the carol singers,
wandering homeward, almost fancied
they heard, in the sough of the wind
among the trees, the rush of angels
wings, rs the celestial messenger chant
ed, far "a, and out of sight, "Glory to
God in the Highesti''
with folded hands, in stoles Of white,
On sleeping wings they SAIL"
For Christmas was ushered in in
variably by carol-singers. The custom
has now disappeared, almost entirely,
even III England. Here we only know
lt, as practised in the domestic circle,
when a mother, or elder sister, gathers
the little ones around her, and sings
carols with them. But as evening drew
on, in the old times of which we write,
the picked singers OF the vicinage, both
men and women, came together, and
going from house to house, sang carols
until long after midnight. Many of these
carols are still eXtant, the Oldest being
a Norman one Of the thirteenth century,
of which we give the first stanZa:
"Tordlings, listen to our lay
We have come from far away
TO seek Christmas.
In this mansion we are told
He his yearly feast doth hold
'ris to-day:
May Joy come from God above,
To all those who Christmas love-"
Sometimes the music was wholly
vocal; sometimes viol accompanied
the voices sometimes there We're music
al instruments of every variety then
known. But the carol, in the main de-
pended for its success, on the voices !;
and wisely, for vocal music was as
,,,,suarcally c,,Itiuafod iy, Epolau1 than