Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-10-31
Alb HALLOW E'EN.
now the FESrIVIL WILL ne on
sERvED IONIGHr.
The Usual Dcprsdations by the Dss,ruc-
tive small BOY to be ESpec How the
Festival Was Kept In Ancient Times


small boy have not undergone a complete
AMI radical transformation within the past
| year he will make Rome howl tonight, the
occasion being the celebration of his iavori,e
annual festival, All Halloween. lie will let
| himself loose AS soon after the shades Of
evening have fallen as he can tear himself
away from the restraints of the parental root,
and from the time he begins his nocturnal
orgies until long after midnight the stsid cti-
zen may expect to hear tremendous thuds at his
panels, OF cabbage stalks, and tire.
mendous and irequently-repeated peals at his
door bell. This entertainment will probably
be occasionally varied by the sound OF break
ing glass. as a cabbage stalk, leaving the
hand Of celebrating small boy, devates from
its intended course toward the door and
crashes through window pane. Mysterious
rsppings and tappngs at the window pane
in the si,tiug-room must not he
mistaken tor manifestations of spiritual
indus,riously at work, at safe distance,
manipulating the string which operates the
tick he has steslthily and silently at
tached to the window sill. Alarm should
not be felt at hearing m ys,erisus and burglar
like footsteps in the back yard. 1t is only
some solitary small boy reconnoiterng for
cabbage stalks. His supply exhausted and
fearful Of ven,urng into the front yards
along the street to appropriate some OF
the many spent stalks that litter the
doorsteps lest some irate citizen, crouching
in wait Tor his prey, pounce upon him, he
chooses flank movement and one that is at
tended with less danger to his personal safety,
and invades the back yards to lay in an as-
sortment of missiles from the cabbage stalks
in the gardens.
The citizen who, upon arising tomorrow
morning and emerging from his
castle to view the ruin and desola-
tion wrought the night before,
loses his temper and fills the atmosphere in
his immediate vicinity with profanity, upon
discovering his yard filled with cabbage stalks
IN various stages of decomposition, perhaps
aged beyond recognition, and bis gate deco
rating the lamp-post on the corner, or, per-
chance, exchanged for that of his neighbor,
will be sorry for it when he has cooled
down ard has come to remember that
at certain period in his lie
he had been guilty of completely in just such
outI ages upon other peoples property. And
if he thinks real hard, he may recolect how
mean and msanthropic be considered his VIC
tins who got mad and swore by all that was
holy they'd find out who the young outlaws
were who'd wrecked their property if they
had to spend the last dollar they'd got to do
1t; and how much meaner and more misan-
thropic he regarded the citizen who,
having successfully beaded his energies
to discover the perpetrators OF the outrage up
on his property, dragged the trembling cul-
prts before the nearest magistrate and de-
manded their immediate incarceration in the
city prison. If he thinks this all over, the
chances are that he'll go patiently to work
and pick up the cabbage stalks, replace the
broken psnes with new ones, and restore the
gate to its normal position without any fur
ther display OF anger.
The juvenile observance OF All Hallowe en-
In this manner has been customary almost
from time immemorial, and all attempts to
break itup have proven fiat failures. Indeed,
the custom has grown rather than decreased.
In some localities the original observance of
oh hal II.
night Immediately preceding aud that mme-
diately succeeding All Halloween being in
cuded Each night is diguifed by certain
ceremonies: Forinstance the first may he de-
voted to bombirding doors with cabbage
stalks, the second to removing gates, and the
third to other and in many cases more unpar-
donable depredations.
The festival OF All Halloween is known
variously as hallowmas Eve, Hallow Eve, or,
in Scotland, Halloween, it being the vigil of
All Hallows or All Saints day. The latter
10 a tes.iya! in honor OF all the angels and
saints OF heaven, and is observed by the
Protestant Episcopal and Lutheran churches
~ well MS by the Roman Ca,holic church In
'ne Ntul'ues VI 'ht tflent the festival OF
All Saints has been observed since the
4,h century. In the west it was insti-
tuted by Pope Bonifnce ". in the early
part OF the 7th century, on the occa-
sion Of dedicating the Pantheon, temple
built by Marcus Agrippa, % b. C., 10 honor
OF Jupiter the Ayenger and all the gods, TO
the worship Of the true God, under the
invocation OF the Virgin Mary and all
the saints, the feast becoming general in the
oh century. How the vigil OF this festival, Hal
loween, came to be so popular is not very
clear Two or three centuries ago in Scot
land there had grown about the night certain
superstitions and customs, traces of which it
is not difficult to find even at the present day
in the remote part OF Scotland. What these
superstitions, customs, aud beliefs of the Scot
tish peasantry were readers of Burns famous
poem "Hallowe'en," are well aware.
| In England the celebration assumes
more OF home reyelry, and il it
did nothing more than bring young
folks together in family intercourse and keep
them from outside influences which might
hurt them, the celebration WAS one worthy o,
countenance. But In Scotland, where the
desire TO look into iuturty was all bu,