St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-12-25
The XMAS HOLIDAY.
characteristics OF Christmas
--Ante-Bellum Holiday
TranspiringS.
How the Early Settlers Cele-
brated Christmas and
New Years.
Dudes of '59--The Cold New
Years Of
1864.
CelebrationsThrough-
out the Northwestern the
Long Past.

CerSal Christian holiday, is rot OF chris
tian origin. The celebration as feSti-
val of that time in the year when the
earth begins to swing backward toward
the sunlight of summer, began 50 long
ago that its Inauguration is lost in the
mists of antiquity. The dressing OF
churches and homes in eVerg Gems, thus
IMPLYING the spiritual life that fingers
forever under the outward covering OF
cold and death. originated with our an
reStOrS in the old Druidieal times when
Europe was wholly Pagan. But intro
duction of Christianity gave new and
deeper meaning and a wider religious
significance 10 the Christian season.
About the middle of the third century
of the Christian era 4 council of the
primitive church fixed the birthday of
Christ on the 18th of December, and
from that time the day has been OBJ
served as the great Christian festival.
The holidays" formerly comprised all
the time from Christmas Eve December
pa, to Twelfth Night February 2)-all
the intervening season being given up
to festivity and rejoicing.
The manner Of observing the natal
day of our Savior is as various as are
the peculiaritieS of the different peoples
who have adopted the Christian religion
but amongst Christians of every sect
the season is one of rejoicing. Among
English Puritans the season was not
looked upon with favor. They were
suspicious of everything that had in the
past been regarded with kindness by
:, ot.,, 10
RuthOritIrS of the established church in
their own country. and it must be con-
feSSed that the bOiSterOus Ieyelry, wine
bibbing and gluttOny which obtained
amongst all classes of the English pe0-
pie three or four hundred years ago.
was not calculated TO impress really
devOut mind with the dignifed serious
ness of a religious festival.
Hence in the Puritan annals of New
England. we hear little of the Joyous
ness of each recurring Christmas sea-
son and only faint echoes of religious
and family reunions. With the early
settlers of Virginia and Maryland and
the primitive Dutch inhabitants of New
York it was diff, rent. Indeed, that
eminent Christian gentleman, so dear to
the hearts of the children of to-day,
'Santa Claus" or ''St. Nicholas" was
introduced to the Western continent by
the KnickerbOcker families who came
from Holland and found an abiding
place on Manhattan island in the six
teenth and seventeenth centuries.
With the tobacco planters of Virginia
and Maryland, however, came to this
country
THE TRUE CELEBRATION
OF the generous Christmas season, as it
was observed in the country districts of
"Merrie England three hundred years
ago. The large plantations, the num-
berleSS negro servants, and the great
wealth of these pioneers, made unlimit-
ed hospitality the cOmmOnest of virtues;
and the holiday season was the chosen
time for eXtravagant expenditure and
unlimited giving. To this day. all over
the South. the Christmas salutation is
''ChristmaS Gift" = never 'AIerry
Christmas" Old and young, rich and
poor, white and black, expect to receive
and are ready to give according to their
means.
The pioneer period with Minnesota
closed with the opening of the great
civil war. And it was queer. and in
many respects unique condition of So
ciety that existed in this state back in
the sos. In 1857 the settlements
in Minnesota were chiefly on the
shores of the Mississippi and MINNESOTA
rivers. St. Paul had less than 5000
inhabitants, st. Anthony 1.500 and Min
neapOliS a less number, New Ulm was
the outpost of civilization on the south
west, and MankatO, a village or 500
souls or few more. Little Falls and
st. Cloud had been doomed" the year
previous, and were mere villages in
size. though with wonderful possibilities
for the investor in the future. Willmar,
Fergus Falls, MOOrhead and CroOkstOn
were not known to the maps of Mime
sofa, but were part of the uncOnteSted
hunting ground of the noble red man.
There was no settler to yGX the green
prairie OF the two DakOtaS-then a part
of the territory of Minnesota, for this
state had not as yet taken its place in
the Union.
Immigrants were crOwding into the
''prOmiSed land" The first Scandi-
navian settlers had located within our
bOrders-One colony IN Goodhue county,
and another had gone up the beautiful
st. CrOiX valley and taken homes around
ChiSagO lakes. An Irish settlement,
the settlers just from Limerick and
Tipperary and Cork, had ''SQuatted'' on
the southeastern shore of the Mime
sofa river from Mendoza to lie Sueur,
with ramificatiOns extending backward
to Credit river in Scott county, and
Shie.dsYIlle in Rice. Germans had
captured the other bank Of the Mime
sofa ard made settlement in the south
erH part of Hennepln, Carver and Sib-
ley counties, with an otfShOOt of free
thinkers. who loved freedom so well
that they hated every preacher, at New
Tim.
Amongst other foreigners, the Maine
ho fol- oil no al
both sides of the river at the falls of st.
Anthony, and had assumed full and
complete possession of the Rum river
and St. CrOiy lumber region.
Americans we've SandWiched in be-
tween the conflicting and antagOnistic
foreign elements everywhere-Yankees,
PennSylvanians, New Workers, Buck
eyes, HOOsierS, with
VERY SLIGHT ADVENTURE
of SOuthernerS, mostly from Kentucky
and Virginia. Added to these was the
the genus ''old settler" WAS there
ever a country so new and virgin that it
could not boast Of old settlerS-of that
valuable class who lie about the cold of
winters thirty years ago, and the cy-
clones that tore the StumDS out of the
ground without disturbing the soiI?)
These ''old settlers were of the type of
men who trapped beaver and killed
game in the winter, and sat around on
street corners, absorbed whisky and spit
tobacco juice at mark all summer.
Every new and enterprising village had
from one TO twenty Of tins class, and
when the hard times" of 81 had been
fairly inaTgurated. they were the piO-
neers in that salvation industry-dig-
ging gInseng-which put bread into so
many hungry stOmachs in '5S and 80.
There never was, and never can be
again, as enjoyable holiday seasons in
Minnesota as those before the war"
The curse of plethoric wealth had not
entered this primitive Eden. Probably
until after the close of the war there
was no man throughout all the borders
of the state who was possessed of $50
600. The currency was not entirely
trustworthy in its stability-being the
issue of state banks in Tennessee, Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois, until our own
shrewd and enterprising capitalists es-
tablished with basis of the old railroad
bonds for capital and reserve fund.- the
bank of issue. located in the back room
Of q eOUntrV LAWYERS 0fficn. with a nine