Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-12-25
"HAPPY NEW YEAR."
A Friendly Greeting-The Ancient Custom
of Making Gifts On New Years Day-The
Festival at the Present Time.

| Festival at the Present Time.
Thus wrote the Caliph Abdalrahman
Ell have now reigned fifty years in victory
or peace; beloved by my subjects, dreaded
10y my enemies and respected by my allies
fches and honors, power and pleasure, have
waited on my call, nor does any earthly
bi ssing appear to have been wanting to my
fef city. In this situation I have numbered
the days of pure and genuine happiness
WI have fallen to my lot; they amount te
fouh cen. man! place not thy confidence
In "a present world"
re haps the caliph was more miser.
abe han most men would have been
in MS Apsition; perhaps he was simply
more nest than others in acknowi-
edgiI his disappointment; but any
now experience is sufficiently near
tnaI other human beings to make
OF tish he had fully described the oc-
Fences of the fourteen days that were
4 1P 3py The others are easily account
The Happy New Year. slips from
the children's tongues trippingly
enough, and it makes a convenient sub
stitute for conversation in. New Year 5
calls; but outside of its conventional
and unmeaning use, it is a convenient
formula for expressing a real and earn
est desire for friends welfare 1t is
bened LECTION after its kinda sort of
invocation for a blessing upon the life
of another.
There are few men of as many years
as the caliph reigned who do not re-
gard their own lives as failure; there
are not many whose New Years grow
happier with advancing age. Perhaps
Of 1rllt
have their chief pleasures in retrospect,
as Younger persons have theirs in an
ticipation To these the greeting of
the day may seem like part of an
empty ceremony-like the expression
of a hope that no one expects to be full
filled-and yet it is surely better to
bring Joyous words and pleasant wishes
than that the season should be loaded
with vain regrets and sorrowful recol-
lections.
The disposition to start the New Year
with happy augurieS and pleasant sur
roundings has naturally shown itself by
deeds as well as words, and hence we
have the custom of making gifts which
was anciently much more common than
it is now The Greeks gave it to the
Romans, and the Romans to the early
Britons, whose descendants few hun
dred wears ago were accustomed to take
this occasion to bride their magistrates
This particular kind of New Years gift
is said to have been prohibited by law
in the year 1890, but even down to the
reign of James IL the English monarchs
received tokens on New Years day
from their subjects Gloves, formerly
much more costly than now, were ia
vorite articles for gifts, and it is re-
corded that a certain Mrs. Croaker,
in whose favor Sir Thomas Moore had
decided a case as Lord Chancellor,
sent him on New Years Day pair
of gloves with fifty of the golden
coins called angels in them. This
particular Judge could not be in
duced to violate either the statute or
his own conscience, however, and so
he sent back letter with the gold,
saying: mistress, since it were against
good manners to refuse your New
Years gift, / am content to take your
gloves, but as for the lining, utterly
refuse it."
Sumptuous apparel for the feet, as
well as the hands, was reckoned be-
fitting to both royalty and the New
Years Day, and when silk stockings
teenth century, they were esteemed
acceptable present for the New
Year. Perhaps it was not on this
festival anniversary that Queen Eliza
read that sometime in the course of
with pair of black silk knit stock
ings by her silk-woman, Mrs. Mon
tague, and 'thenceforth she never wore
cloth hose any more"
Almost equally important with en-
broidered gloves and silk chosen as
New Years gifts were metallic pins,
which were invented and brought into
use about the middle of the same CEN
tury Sometimes money for their pur-
chase was given in place of the pins |
themselves. and when this was done it |
was called ''pin money! phrase |
which has since entered into the Ian
guage of the law as indicating an al !
1owance to a wife or the settlement of |
a certain sum upon her for miscellane-
Gus expenses. For buying any con-
siderable number of pins themselves
which came to take the place of those |
that were made of lockwood, bone and |
silver for the rich, and of the thorns !
and small wooden skewers that were |
used by the poor-a pretty sum was
needed, for the prices ruled so high
that in 1913 Parliament felt obliged to
pass IAN Acte for the true making of
Pynnes'' which provided that the price
should be limited to 6s Sd per thou
sand, which, making allowance for the |
difference in the value of money between I
the sixteenth century and the nine
teenth, would make the rate about
cent and half per pin.
1.-The Happy New Year. of the
present time is not necessarily accom-
panied by present of any kind; in
deed, nearly the whole business of
has been transferred
from New Years to Christmas. A |
card is all that is expected, and even
that is not obligatory. Little dinner |
parties are sometimes given on New |
Years Eve. and during the day the
calls occasion more good eating than |
is usual, and good deal more drink
ing; but for all that can be said, the |
observances have mostly |
passed away. The sentiment and ira |
iition of the festival remain-the kind
" wish--the Happy New Year''-and
that is about all,-Detroit Post and
Tribune.