St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-12-31
Our Boston Letter.
Correspondence of the cALEDoNrAN.)

! OF evergreen trees, out lHe tHlstletO
from Virginia was not as abundan
as usual. Holly branches with re,
berries cheered festive boards. Yer
mont turkeys, as usual, rated tn
finest the market produces, although
there was a great surplus of turkey
from the West this year. There wa
fine music in the churches upol
Christmas day and also upon Sun
day, but a heavy fall of snow all thu
afternoon prevented a large attend
ance in the evening.
We went to Christmas service il
the old historic Christ church il
Cambridge. The rector discourset
upon the theme, "Christian Joy
making a distinction between JOY anC
happness-one was innate, sprang
from within, while the other was
from without and dependent largely
upon our circumstances and environ.
ments. As we listened to the sweet
toned voices of the choir, we were
carried back in imagination to '76,
when the first service was held there.
Then our mind reverted unconsciously
to the spring OF 1875, when Capt.
Chester's military company from
Weathersheld, Conn, used this church
for their barracks and the pipes OF
the organ were melted into bullets.
But we seemed to see on the follow
ing New Years evening Gen. Wash
ington quietly walking up the aisle
to the front seat, and later Col. VIM
Palfrey read the familiar, well known
service. What changes and vicissi
tudes What stories this old church
could tell if it had a tongue and
voice! The Archbishop of Canterbury
gave his sanction to the formation
of this society in 1859. They have a
Bible given by Mrs. Mary Faneuil,
1853, and prayer books with the
monogram G. R. (Georgius Rex,
the silver communion service, the
gift OF King William and Queen Mary.
But The service over and we passed
out with the throng; the sky is blue
overhead, the sun shining and the
walking dry and most excellent, truly
a rare and phenomenal Christmas
day.
All classes and grades OF society
have been most generously and boun-
tifully remembered today, so you can
enjoy a good dinner without any
conjunction of conscience. The
newsboys have rejoiced in turkey and
all the good things they could eat.
The Salvation Army have fed hun
dreds with the money furnished them.
Hospitals have been visited and all
the patients cheered with cards. The
jails and prisons have not been for
gotten. How much Christian civil
ization has done for New England!
The 70 kindergarten schools in Bos-
ton, with their 1000 pupils, were fur
nished Christmas trees by Mrs.
Quincy Shaw, and the trees were
decked out by many beautiful things
that the children had made them
selves. Miss Alice Fletcher of Wash
ington, D. c., who is specialist in
Indian work and education and has
spent mouths among some of the
western tribes, has collected over
1000 Indian songs. She has some of
them on cylinders; the explosive
consonants are used for war songs.
She recently visited Boston and ad-
dressed the Folk Lore society.
Of the rs, 900, 900 of people in this
country, it is estimated that there
are 93S, 900 Jews. Mrs. Hatch on
her return from Europe brought
back present of $4,000 from the
Baroness Hirsch and they hope to
have a building for an Industrial
Training school soon.
Forefathers' day is becoming a
dav or institution, not
only in New England, but her sons
in other cities observe it with much
pride and honor. There is great
deal of patriotic literature being
coined which should be collected for
future use. We are glad Senator
Hoar has called the attention oil PEG.
pile to the distinction between the
Pilgrims and the Puritans. The blum
ders of public men in referring to them
as the same colony is surprising.
The children in our public schools
should teach them better. To accuse
the Pilgrim Fathers of hanging
witches in Salem is simply ludicrous.
John Stoddard has retired from
the lecture field, but E. Burton
Holmes of Chicago, after four years
of experience in the West in lecturing,
has engaged to give a course during
the Lenten season in Boston, and a
double course in Music Hall, begin
ming Jan. S. He has a chromomatho.
graph for projecting pictures in mo
ton, which are coored to make them
realistic. Considerable attention is
aroused by little Italian boy of II
years who has no arms but has
learned typewriting with his feet and
toes. He is good scholar.
The Daughters of The American
Revolution have observed the return
of The Boston Tea Party" annual
by appropriate exercises. The re.
gent of the Hannah Winthrop chap.
ter of Cambridge, Mrs. Bradbury,
opened her house for a delightful
entertainment, when Miss Alice
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