Arizona silver belt. [volume] (Globe City, Pinal County, Ariz.) 1878-19??, 1886-10-30
xmE FESTIVAL OF All mALLOws

Halloween, the name popularity
given to the eve or vigil of All Hal
lows, or festival of All-Saints. is the
evening Of the Slst Of October. In
England, it was long customary to
crack nuts, duck for apples in a tub of
water, aud perform other harmless
fireside reveir,eS, chief Of which was,
by the unmarried, to look in a mirror
and there see reflected the face of ones
affinity, The senior editor, in othcr
days, had full faith in the illusion and
was gratiied at seeing the face of
Julia, whom he then loved, pictured
there and realized that dove is like
dizziness; 1t will not let a body 20
about his business, -" She married DR.,
Jenkins, and the pair were blessed by
the birth Of several children, We saw
her again, years afterwards, when her
form was less 1.-the and so different
from that presented by the mirror
that We asked her the question, why
was this thus, and was answered "'tls
the way with our sex when crowned
by maternal years"
Had it not been for q circumstance
which happened on Halloween, 1915,
we, perhaps, mieht have taken little
interest in that festival, but 1t is so
interviewer with our history that we
can never forget the annual recur-
renee Of that eventful night, not be-
cause Of the swimming of apples in a
tub, the reflection of mirror, or what
Brands Popular Antiquities have to
say of Halloween, but because there
was boy baby in the house, who was
not there the previous morning. That
boy waxed fat, grew TO hoary age, is
living still, notwithstanding in vigor-
Gus youth he experienced the pangs Of
blghted love, and attendant loss of
sleep, and is likely to out-wind very
many of his juniors, who nurse life
with friendly care.
Burns in his inimtable poem, en-
TITLED Halloween, represents witches,
on that auspicious night, on a frohc,
astride of brOomsticks, coursirg the
air from John O'Groat's to Lands End.
Twas on such night the same author
mounted Tam O'Shanter on his gray
mare Meg GA better never lifted Leg
which conducted him, through mud
and mlre, past Kirk Alloway where
ghaist and hOwlets nightly cry" and
where Tam saw an "uncO" sight, war
locks and witches in a dance, where
'sat auld Nick, In shape o'beast," Ito
gle them music was his charge" for the
purpose of putting life and metal In
their heels"
Twas on the night of the 3lst of
October that Macbeth met, by appoint
ment, witches in a cave, who then
about the caldron sang, like elves and
fairies, in a ring, enchanting all that
they put in"
But happily all are not supersti-
tlous. Another class more rational
than the rest regard Halloween and
the succeeding day as religious festi.
val They venerate the memory of
all the Saints, and are promised that,
for their devotion, they shall see God
and stand before his throne, clothed in
robes of righteousness. 1t is this class
who perpetuate the recollection of that
eve and succeeding day, which is sup
posed will prove as enduring as time;
and while we have tried our luck by
the attempt to seize a floating apple
with our teeth and to discover our
affinity by the assistance of the Illu-
sive looking glass, our faith in such
agencies long since vanished. We.
concluded that they were fraud and
a snare and abandoned them imme-
diately after the marriage of Julia and
Jenkins, when it was definitely de-
termined that, like Mungo Park, we
were to have mo child to bring me
milk, no wife to grind my corn" for
the more rational view that the 3lst
Of October and November lst, were es-
pecially days OF religious observance,
devoted to the angel ascending from
the rising sun, having the sign of the
living God.