Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1892-01-09
THE NATAL DAY IN BRITAIN
Curious Customs Of Irish, English
and Scotch Observers.
Edgar l.. Wakeman Tells How the Differ
ept Classes Spend Christmas--The
Poor Make Ii a Day OF
Carousai.

LONDON, Dec 10.-Ireland in the
Christmas holiday time is scenically
perhaps in its least pleasing aspect
But natures hand is loving one even
in the Irish winter, and the blessed
hold that Christmas has taken upon
the universal Christian world heart,
blended with that marvellous compen-
sative power of utilizing the most tri-
fling possibilities for human joy
which the Irish nature posses
ses, permits and provides quality of
Christmas time cheer which is often
surprising TO those whose lives are
measurably filed with bounteousness
and content OF the Irish Christmas
tide itself there Is little in the life and
customs Of the great and powerful,
better than an echo of English Christ
mas cheer. At the country manor
houses and castles there are the same
feasting and aims giving as in Eng
land. In the cities throngs surge and
crowd with elation and despair in their
faces as with us. But nowhere else on
this earth does Christmas time bring
such shuddering, pallid, piteous pow
erty TO stand, stare and hunger for the
glories Of home windows open, or the
wonders of shop windows ablaze with
what these desperately forsaken hu-
mans have never owned or known.
While there is undoubtedly an al
most universal reverence for the more
sacred side of the Christmastide-and
truly know that at least the Irish
peasantry have an innate reverence
for all that is sacred and good-Christ-
mas Is not generally observed in its
high and holy sense in Ireland 1t is
time for much that Is tender and
worthy, but also one for deplora b lie
excess In decoration the ivy and
holly are everywhere seen and pro-
durable, and a tiny sprig of mistlet oe
conspcuously y appears in all the home S
of the more favored classes. Rich or
poor, Catholic or Protestant, every
family will possess christmas
block of ash, which is the favorite, or
of bog deal" found in the Irish peat
| banks or bogs This is to Ireland as
the yuie log TO England, and it burns
| brightly for the home coming Of every
heart the home may own.
| Passing Christmas at home is a senti-
mcnt and determination more impress
i've and unvarying, save with the Irish
nobility, than in any other land know.
| And on Christmas eve itself there can
not be found among the lowly classes
human soul not a lost one, that il
| not there or sometime there within the
| glow and warmth, With the humber
villagers everywhere, and always with
the peasantry of the south and west
| the christmas mold" or huge, long
| candle, weighing from one To two
pounds, IL its price needs be begged ol
stolen, is an invaluable requisite fol
Christmas eve. IT will simply irrevoc
| ably be had. The bog deal block /.
fired; the doors are flung wide open fol
| friend, mendicant or enemy To entei
with cead mile failte Ia Thousand
times welcome): the mammoth candle /:
| lighted 10 burn out, but never be ex
tinguished; and while there is constant
going and coming il is softly done, as
| IL the Nativity were still a universal
| Presence.
There is always a circle of eager
I
| strange, weird, ever old and ever new
[ tales. abounding in religious sentiment,
| are told, while the half lights dance
fairylike among the blaelxened, cen.
| tury old thatch rafters above. TO mid
night mass nearly all repair; then the
tea BREAKFASTS had; those who have
saved enough brew great bowls OF
| punch; those who have not get along
4 nall -
| and as the day comes in Irish oyster
ing with all its liberality begins
| But Christmas time in Ireland is one
| of unspeakable loss to the bird families
of tiny wrens This tragedy of the
| wren should have luminous place in
| literature. Half n million of Irish
children with kippens and clubs are
beating about the hedges for victims.
Sacredly protected during every other
| day of the year, the wren is now
sought with ferocious yelling OF
Come huntin' the wren, says Robin to
| Bobbin;
Come huntin' the wren, says Richard to
| Robin;
| Come huntin the wren says Jack Tia,
one;
Come huntin the wren says everyone
The wren is hunted, for, according 70
the superstition it must be found; its
mangled little body is be-ribboned and
dangled in n rush-cage, or hung from q
| holly branch; and with this strange
hint TO alms-giving, swaying aloft,
hordcs of youngsters shrieking-
| We hunted the wren through frost and
| snow;
We hunted the wren seven miles oi
more;
We knocked him down and he could not
| see;
And we brought him home in holl,
t.ee!-
crowd the streets in Irish Christmas
days; knock at homes and are given
coin; and when the night comes hold
such wakes over the dead wrens as
only a master could paint or describe.
The origin of this strange custom can
not pe found. 1T is lost even in the
rare and fecund birthspot for so much
that gives Ireland surprising interest
that wild, weird, whimsical, loveabis
phantasy called Irish tradition.
The genuine Chrlstmas-tidc which
the people of England and America
know, and which has ever been such q
season of joy in all Catholic countrie.
has scarcely been known in Scotland
since the domination of the Presbyter
ian church in the land o. cakes. Tn.
clergy have ever been jndefatigablc in
their efforts To stamp out any manner
of celebration of the Nativity, and there
was time. happily long past, when
ministers visited every house in theii
parish TO detect II possible any super
stitious" Christmas observanccs on tho
part of the people.
Even TO this day any sacred and rev
erential observance of Christmas in
Scotland is made by Eplscopalian fam
lilies and among the highlanders and
islanders. who still retain strong affin
tiles with that ancient religion 70:
whose rs-cstablishmeut SO many ol
their ancestors lost their lives. In
cities like Edinburg. Glasgow, PERTH
and Aberdeen, the day is observed by
the whole people as mere holiday; al
occasion for license and enjoyment o.
the more boisterous kind, although oi
late years there Is q marked tendency
| IN avantually adoDt some of the i'm