The record-union., 1891-12-26
among them. In Fifeshire there is ais
the Quatrain-
1ule's come and Yule's game,
And we haze feasted weel;
Sac Jack must to his fail again.


making, and in most of the rural districts
the day for friendly and family gather
lngs of a tender and genial rather than an
uproarous nature. But Hogmanay is the
great children's and youths day OF the
holiday period. In olden times it was the
last day of the year. In many localities
it is now the day before Christmas. No
body has ever discovered what the word
really means, but Hogmanay Day, wheth
er the day before Christmas or New
Years, is in Scotland that one day of the
year in which all children, in fantastic
dress, are permitted to sing, dance and
beg from door to door in the most boist
erous manner imaginable, and no one
is so daring as to refuse them cakes,
''sweets" or coin.
Perhaps this custom is observed with
greatest vigor in the Hebrides, the High
lands and in the Shetland Islands. In
the latter, at Lerwick, the children and
youths prepare for the day for weeks in
advance. The most fantastic and out
rageous costumes are invented. The
elder ones taking part in the bacchanal
are called ''Guizers," and the lads and
lasses "Peerie GuiZers'' or little disguised
ones. They learn some fine carols, but
most of their songs are of the veriest local
doggerel. Attired in their weird costumes
they proceed from house to house shout
ing as they enter,
Hoemanay
IrolIolay,
Give us your white bread,
And none OF your gray!
In LerWlck they are accompanied by
musical instruments and agreeable mu-
sic is often furnished. They are invaria-
bly, offered refreshments; dancing and
other amusements are INDUCED in, for
there are always crowds awaiting them
at each house, and they are often given
money at their departure. This is kept
up through the entire night varied by
the explosion of firecracke rs and rockets,
and the dragging through the narrow old
streets of the quaint Dutch built town OF
numberless blazing tar barrels.
Probably nowhere in all the world is
Christmas time more thoroughly observed
and enjoyed than in England. In what
ever else the English people are chang
ing, OF 1.-THE peerlessneSS of this time and
hour there can be no doubt. True, Eng
land can no longer boast of her royal
Christmas Mosques, costing often quar-
ter of million of our money, and the
Court Lord of Misrule is a parsonage OF
the past. But royal and noble gluttony,
guzZling and Righteousness have given
place to Christian tenderness and almost
regal opulence in help to humankind
Whatever may be the shortcomings in
general of the English nobility they
should be credited with splendid muniti-
whole area of their dependence is blessed
and frightened during the Christmas hol-
lday season. 1t began away back in Eliz-
abeth's reign. In 1889 there was such a
crush at the royal masque that an order
was issued to the gentlemen of Suffolk
and Norfolk directing them to leave Lon
don before Christmas and give their at
tention to keeping Christmas in their re-
spective residences. 1t is an inviolable
social rule of the nobility to this day.
Wherever English gentlemen's or no.
blemen's families may be during all the
rest or the year, they are at their country
seats and castles at Christmas.
This manor house sends its folks and
servants to that one, or the gentlemen,
from dozen, congregate at another
With the gentlemen, shooting, coursing
or athletic games, and with the ladies
gracious calls upon tenants or each other
with most brilliant intercourse, and al
ways devout attendance at the little
parish churches, rule the sweet and ge-
NAL day. Great state marks this going
and coming over the crisp country roads
AT the castles it is the same, save that the
retinues are greater, the feasts more ire
mendous, and more respect is paid to
prophecies and form. But it Cav truly
be said that there is not a dependent, a
tenant or tradesman, and not a human
being suffering from sickness or poverty
discoverable in the neighborhood of these
people of quality, who is not generously
remembered, practically aided and tend
erly succored by this class at Christmas
time. Politically we may abuse it's mem
bers at will, but this custom makes a bet
ter Christmas for them and the world
than any olden Yuletide of wassail and
debauchery that ever was known.
Many of the olden English Christmas
customs are truly disappearing, and good
radiance to them. But there is not one
sweet and good old thing or custom W hich
has not been retained. Roast beef, plum
pudding, Christmas pies and buns, snap
dragons with the mistletoe and holly, are
all cherished with olden zest and zeal.
Even the boar's head, decorated with
rosemary or prickly holly is still brought
in at thousands of English Christmas
boards. The mummers are nearly gone,
and only linger,a feeble reminder of their
former organisms in remote districts of
Devonshire and Cornwall.
The Yule-log may be to-day found in
more English homes than in the Tudor
Christmas times, and no home is SO poor
| in England that the glowing Christmas
tree we have all borrowed from Germany
may not be found within it. The Christ
mas bells of England chime truer and
sweeter than ever. l have sometimes
wondered if one could find a spot on Eng
lish soil where their tuneful voices could
not DC Q0dTU. MUCH mas Do6n written OF
English carols in the vein of their having
disappeared. So they have, those of in
expressible grossness and ribaldry that
were common from the fourteenth cent
ury to the eighteenth. But, in their place.
from Penrith in old Cumberland to PEN
zance in Cornwall, there may now be
heard throughout all England, from
Christmas Eve to Christmas Morn, such
sweet and tender words as these of. I'm
the East Gray Light ''Hark the Her
aid, }" "Hark, What News" Hail, Smll-
ing Morn" attuned to noble song.
The Christmas of England, and for that
matter of all Britain, and our own Christ
mas are blending into one. Protestant
and Catholic, puritan and prude, are get
ting upon common ground in adapting
and preserving all that is best in Christ
mas in all lands. Church and home sane
tuaries glow with radiance less and less
dimmed by ranking wars of creeds,
while Christian humanity gathers closer
with its strong and tender clasp the poor
and the desolate at every recurring and
blessed festival of the birth of our Lord.
EDGAR l.. WAKEMAN.
AT the Newsboys' Mission School.
Taachar@ (to Miclxevl-Nop Nf;ol-ar