The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-12-29
ALL THE WORLD OVER.
Christmas Day Is Celebrated Ev-
erywhere Nowadays
How the Nations Keep It-English, Ger
naD, French, italian. Russian and Bull
garian-In Psrtibus InEdeIium-
Paris Dolls in the Tar East
TCoPYRIOHr. 1892 !

tCoPYIGHT, 1927
Never did feel so like messenger
of mercy and a herald OF happy
thoughts.
Wherever / went it was the same.
Men with preoccupied faces turned
from their business to hear but SEN
tence before they broke into broad
grin and called to each other across the
desks, and others came up TO see what
it was ali about.
At the British consulate, for instance
= sick seaman, an irate doctor and dis
gusted clerk were having triangular
duel of words when / entered. but when
l spoke the clerk looked relieved, the
doctor and the seaman ambled off to-
gether, while | was shown into an inner
room where sat Consul Gilbert Fraser,
and his blonde-bearded face lighted up
with a smile, too.
For it was of Christmas spoke, and
its observance in many lands varied,
but always with a core Of kindness
and hone-feeling running through it.
IN GREAT BRITAIN.
Christmas in England has not
changed of late or grown in its observ-
ance," said Mr.. Fraser. st couldn't
very well, for the British have always
been famous at yule-tide merry max
ing. Of course the lord of nisrule and
his tweiVe-daV court have gone, for
Englishmen are now too busy, though
up SO much time"
Then you think we do work harder?"
''Oh. dear me! yes; twice as hard.
One of the greatest things about the
English Christmas is the way in which
it has been carried round the world
yew and holly. mistletoe and bay, snap
dragon, plum pudding and abby Eng
ish people. III Australia, New Zealand,
or Madras, in spite of the burning heat,
you will find the English Christmas.
Shiploads Of holly and mistletoe go out
to the far colonies. Between America
and Great Britain flow two amending
streams of holiday gifts at this season
of the year. With this we have, Of
course, no official connection, out the
numberless queries we get about rates
of duty and money orders tell the
story
CHRISTMAS IN THE FATHERLAND.
Herr Ferdinand Ritschl, vice consul
of Germany at New York, has a broad
and good-hunored face, which grew an
inch broader when | explained my er-
rand. "As you see the German Christ
mas in America" he said, 80 it is at
home. On Christmas eve the tree is
decked and lighted and everybody is at
home. There is the first holiday and
the second, for December 90 is holi-
day, too, and the tree Is kept declsed
until New Years day. Your Santa
Claus is orr Kriss Kringle, you know.
Oh, the German Christmas has gone
round the world and is fast conquering
this country. America is learning
Christmas from it's German citizens"
THE tree Is universal, then, in Ger
many?"
Eyes, the spruce and the cedar"
''Und taunenbaum anch?'
eyes, the tannenbaum Chemlock),
too; that sounds good. Hundreds of
thousands of young evergreens from the
schwarzwald and from local forests are
USED every year
CHRISTMAS IN FRANCE.
NJ. Maxine Durand, at the French
consulate, assured me that France has
a Christmas, too, of somewhat differ
ent pattern-rather a church than a
home festival, and without SO much
evergreen mixed up in it.
And do the children hang up their
stockings for Santa to FLIP"
mo. not their stockings, but their
boots or shoes And not at Christmas,
but at New Years, which is the day
sacred TO gilt giving, and not for Santa
Claus, for we have nothing akin to him
unless it be our Pere Noel. French |
children are rather too ia tional to care |
for such INVESTIGATIONS. But they APP
preciate the gifts and the home visits
just as well without"
IN SCANDINAVIA.
Mr. Christopher Raun sat in his Office /
at the consulate Of Sweden and Norway |
pulling over I don't know what astute |
problem when the mental conception Of |
a Scandinavian yule-tide was substi- |
tuted, and he straightway became elO- |
oueDt and drew me an enhancing pic (
ture of festival around the boughs of /
the big evergreen and of pretty girls /
from the saeters hard by, with long /
faxen braids hanging down their backs, |
who dance all night with Axel, of Chris
tiana, or Asmund, just back from Min |
nesota. with a pocket full of dollars.
There is plenty Of snow on roof and
field, and the birds have scant prov
ender. So, If it be farm or hamlet
not in the city of course-up goes plump .
Johann and fixes sheaf of wheat upon /
the ridge of the roof for all the wander
ing ones of the air TO feast at and make
merry, too, while the rafters ring with
the dance and the laughter below.
CHRISTMAS IN EASTERN EUROPE.
At Arnautkeui, ct the narrow en-
trance to the Black sea, every year the
water is blessed by 4 priest IN presence
IF as many Greeks, Bulgarians and
Russians as can be present. After the
blessing the priest filings lis large,
silver crrcifix into the river. Strong
swimmers plunge into the current amid
5ne ice aud snow. and the one who Sc
,ures the crucidx is held fortunate
lboTe all his fellows.
CHRISTMAS ~ SOUTH AMERICA.
Consul Gustave II. Gcssler, of Brazil.
Old me, when pumped the question
qua-elv at him. that in all the Latin
american countries Christmas Is mainly