Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-01

| chalaEce in some odd corner; making il
easy enough to see that whatever might be
the bounty of the night, each one had been
mindful of the farmers small purse and
the assemblage's concrete mighty needs
all much after the manner OF our American
| countryside donation party" Within,
| everything the home possessed shore as
brightly as the faces of all who came. The
| housewife seemed swelling and bursting
with CHEEKY furry and heat over pots and
kettles at the great fireplace of the room :;
| and sundry savory odors promised much for
a Letter hour. The kitchen had been given
over to the youngsters, who were already
| deep in their Halloween charms and games :;
and becoming one of them, like the old man
who ''cared not for the fall,'' in Willis
Saturday Afternoon" soon won place
! and honor.
| OF all the brief periods of Irish pleasure
Halloween yields the sweetest, because the
most harmless and innocent, delights. 1t is
the night of unbounded mirth, witching
charm and sinless dream. 1t is then that
the tenderest of all Of superstition's eerie
broods, the kindly Irish fairies, mingle
| with human moods and wish, and weave
| their friendly spells through all the warp
and wool of thought, emotion, dream and
desire. And his is an insensate heart that
| will not grow younger and tenderer under
the influence Of these mirthful revels.
| Where will one begin and end in telling
| them as ne sees ana 1eelS tnem!
Over every door to house, ROOM or barn,
an apple-paring was hanging, and some
| maiden's eager eye was watching for him
| who first passed beneath, for that one the
| fairies had charmed as her beloved. Groups
| of lads on all-fours ducked their heads in
buckets of water and brought out small
| coin with their teeth. Lassies were cut
ting out alphabets with which the fairies
were to spell in water basins secretly
cherished names. Stolen herrings-which
must be salt; must be broiled without turn
ing; eaten with hot tongs; and dreamed on
without drink''-now made their appear
ance. Then the ''bannock- baking' and its
wild merriment. Whoever
TURNED THE HAMMOCK
on the huge griddle that hung from the
crane was to wed her whose nimble fingers
kneaded its oaten meal, salt, soda and
water together
Nut burning" and ''snap-apple'' were
going on merrily at the hob. The hazel-nut
ashes in dainty packets beneath the pillows
were to yield charmed dreams the burning
''snap-apples" told whether loving pairs
would sputter or mellowly age during we'd
ded life. Then there was the dumb cake'
making for fairy-aided dreams; the
''charm-pies' with their buttons for old
bachelors, thimbles for old maids, and
rings for the lucky ones who should we'd;
the ''candle-a nd-sweets" suspended and
teeth snapped for bites, and luckless
frowsy hair was singed; and hundred
other innocent delights, leading to the more
serious affairs of ''postman s-knock'' and
''forfeits," where genuine old-fashion kiss
ing was there for the fighting, and
bouncing Irish lass from the noun
tains insured her hatred if you
did not overcome her. and sore body or
broken bones If you did and then, amid
deafening clatter and chatter, the supper
in the great room, piled upon tables like
fat stalls in plethoric market, various
smoking, awful; but with the jolliest,
hungrieso crew you ever broke bread with
in all your life. And oh, for room in which
to tell the TALES here told, to give the songs
here sung, to reproduce with all their deli
cious Torture the quips and JOKES here
perpetrated; while oceans Of tea flowed
gurglingly, and the poteen, as clear as rock
water and as guileless of excise,
WENT ON ITS ''wINDING" WAY.
Shortly after, wild hullabuloo arrested
our attention. The ''byes" had planned 4
great surprise. Sallying forth when the
tales and songs were at their height, they
had descended upon another Halloween
party a few miles distant, and by main
force had captured a fiddler and brought
him bodily away, the whole crowd of de-
feated friendly rivals following after in
with wild whoop and huroo, carving their
prize on their shoulders into the great
room, where the procession was received
with ringing cheers. 1t was old Billy
Drain. the blind fiddler, hero now above
all hosts, countryside guests or strangers;
hatless, coatless, breathless from the odd
melee, but with pursed and smiling mouth,
and positive radiance shining from his
white locks and beaming from his blinking,
appraised and sightless old eyes.
Was there dance this Halloween night
at that farmhouse on the ancient Kilma-
crenan roadl Ask the rafters of oak that
shivered a century's splinters and mold
upon the vaulting heads and heels of this
big-hearted Irish peasantry. And ask the
stars that looked softly down until their
shining eyes went out in the brighter All
Hallows' dawn which lifted flaming cones
upon the peaks of fair Glendowan.
Everybody is familiar with Burns IA
nous poem, Halloween In which occur
these lines:
The aud guidwife's weel-hoordet nlts
Are round an round divided,
And monte lads and lassies fates,
Are there that night decided
and were a thousand papers written on
Halloween in Scotland, they could not all
comprise the panoramic sweep and genial
aud Scotia's night of mirth. charm and
love making. In tracing the af1nities be-
tween Irish and Scottish customs, however,
have come upon some curious examples of
Scottish Halloween custom and belief
One of these is the extraordinary and
varied use to which cabbage, or kali, is put
in the traditions and merrymakings of the
occasion. kail-brose or cabbage broth is
inseparable from the Scotch Halloween
feast. Mischievous boys push the pith
from the stalk, fill it with tow which they
set on fire and then, through the key-holes
of houses of folk who have given them Of
Tense.
BLOW DARTS OF FLAME
yard in length. If on Halloween farm
er's or crofter's kailyard still contains I'M
gathered cabbages, the boys and girls of the
neighborhood descend upon it en- masse, and
the entire crop is harvested In five minutes
time and thumped against their owners
doors, which rattle as though pounded by a
thunderous tempest In some shires at the
''pulling of the kail'' the youths of both
sexes go into the kailyard blindfolded and
in pairs, holding each others hands. They
each pull the first "runt" or stalk
that they find, not being permitted
to make selection. All thus gathered are
carried back to the house for inspec-
ton. The straightness or crookedness,
leanness or fairness, and other peculiari-
ties of the stalks are indicative of the gen.
eral appearance Of their future husbands or
wives, while the taste of the pith. whether
sweet, bitter or vapid, also forecasts their
diSnOeition and fh.r Put tho most