The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-25

pare it to the present decade very
much to the disadvantage of the lat
ter. The pleasantess Christmas L
ever passed was at my old home in Ohio
when l was a boy. with no idea of the
honors and responsibilities of life.
/ remember one occasion when the
sleighing was exceilent-It was about the
winter of 1880, l think-when we were
all together at the old home. Nothing can
ever efface the memory of that day from
my mind. for to us it began on the even
ing before and ended the morning of De-
cember 25
l can see the old kitchen now where We
spent Christmas eve together, cracking
nuts, pulling candy. with pitcher of
mulled cider on the table, while the
smoke-begrimed walls and ceiling of the
quaint old room rang with laugh
ter and light-hearted frolic. There
was. of course, the usual contin-
gent of fiddles-we never called them
violins in those days-and when the nuts
were cracked and the candy pulled the
floor was cleared and fun ran riot in that
old house until nearly dayligh We
danced, We sang, we told stories, we
played the good old-fashioned kissing
games like "Snap-and-Catch-e THE
Needles Eve" ''Postoffice" and dozen
others that / have forgotten. and the old
folks enjoyed them just as much as the
young ones.
1t was nearly daylight when We went to
bed but We were up and at it again bright
and early Christmas morning just the
same.
remember that there were few simple
presents exchanged, but in those days such
things were given more as mementoes
than for the purpose of demonstrating
the status of the donors fortune, as seems
to be the custom now. The presents that
pleased me most on the occasion TO which
refer were pair of suspenders from my
father and some soft, thick mittens from
my mother.
The morning was spent in talking over
and in laughing, chatting, playing jokes
and cling stories.
Then dinner!,
What gathering it was, to be sure. The
table in ordinary use was not half large
enough to seat the company or to accom-
modate the viands, and our ingenuity was
put to the test to make it larger. What a
dinner it was! There was wild turkey,
coon, rabbit pie and 'possum, with vege-
tables galore, mulled cider. tea and coffee,
and such pies as only mans mother ever
succeeded in manufacturing. l don't
think woman ever learns to make pie
until she has son old enough to ap-
preciate it
After dinner nobody wanted to move
everybody had eaten too much. Gradu-
ally, however, digestion got in its work
and we came to life again.
In the middle of the afternoon we boys
got the horses and sleighs ready. That
consisted in filling the boxes
with straw and buffalo robes, placing
the boxes on traverse sleds and hitching
four horses to each outfit. Then We went
from house to house, picking up all the
boys and girls in the neighborhood and
piling them into the boxes pellmel.
can hear those sleigh bells now-some
of them were COW bells to be sure-I can
hear the shouts of laughter, the singing,
the witty sayings; l can feel the fun of
that day to this hour.
What a ride We had, covering about
twenty miles! One rig was overturned in
a snow bank, and it looked for an instant
as though dozen enterprising BARRIERS
had begun business in that region. We
dug the girls out, however, put them back
in their sleigh and drove on, happy,
merry, full of life and energy.
We reached our destination about dark,
1t was large hall that had been warmed
for US, and there. to the scraping of fid-
dies. the rattle of bones and the PUNK Of
banjos, we danced and frolicked nearly all
night. There was a supper, too, of baked
beans, cold turkey, cold coon. bread and
butter, pie-such pie-and hot coffee.
1t was broad daylight when we got
home. That Christmas was thirty-six
hours long. and it was the happiest one l
ever spent. CHARLES FOSTER.