The age-herald., 1897-12-25
CAROLS SUNG AT
 CHRISTMASTIDE

not in the yirulent form of the olden time, when well-to-do citizens were aroused at night by bands of strolling singers, who made the night hideous and expected to be rewarded for their un- earthly noises. Today the custom exists in the carols which are sung in the church. es on Christmas day and Christmas Sun day, and in the productions of the com rosers which litter the counters of the music sellers during the weeks of Decem- Der.
 Those who like to go back to the very earliest times to find the root of anything say that the Christmas carol has its ori- gin in the gloria in excelsis, the song with which the angels hailed the birth of tbe Redeemer in the fields near Bethle- hem. The first Christmas carol was:
 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men," "As soon" says Jeremy Taylor, "as these blessed choristers had sung their Christ mas carol and taught the church hymn to put into their offices forever on the an- niversary of this festivity, the angels re- turned to heaven"
 There has been no Christmas carol to rival this, the first of the hymns in praise of the nativity, and most of the Christ mas carols depend not only upon the beau- ty of the music but upon the considera- ton given to their meaning. It Is this that makes the rudest carol that ever flung its notes upon the still air, impressive and dignifed
 The word carol itself is derived from ''cantare," to sing, and 'rola, an Inter- jection of joy. Although durihg iate yea.e 1t has been applied almost entirely to Christmas songs, 1t formerly was applied to any song sung upon an occasion or fesi- val or rejoicing.
 Earliest Christmas Carols.
 The practice itself as applied to religious commemoration, has existed since the nrst ages of the church. It Is frequently men toned in the apostolic writings ana the celebrated letter of the younger Pliny to the Emperor Trajan, in the seventh year of the century, mentions, among the hapits of primitive Christians, their assembling at stated times ito sing among themselves, alternately, a hymn to Christ as God.
 As early as the thirteenth century Christmas carols were sung in England Among the Harleian manuscripts in the British museum is Christmas carol which begins:
 Nay, Ivy! nay, it shall not be I wys; Let Holly hafe the maystry, as the man.
 ner wys
 Holly stond in the halle. fayre to behold; Ivy stond without the dore; she ys ful
 sore cold
 They were popular In the fourteenth century, and as early as the fifteenth cen tury, collections of these songs were pub lished The purely religious carol, how ever, seems to be due to the Puritans These enemies of all mirth, even religious mirth, found the practice mind' and to make the songs as harmless as possible adapted the ancient airs to strange relig- ious ballads
 : Few of the old ballads yet survive, hav- ing been driven out by the more polished compositions of later times. One of the most popular began: The moon shines bright, and the stars
 give light,
 A little before the day. And wanders on somewhat after the fol- lowing unconnected fashion,: Awake! Awake! Good people all Awake! and you shall hear How Christ our Lord died on the cross, For those He loved so dear.
 In FiftyEight stanzas.
 It then proceeds to tell the story in fifty eight stanzas of equal poetical merit con- cluding with:
 My song is done. and must begone, I can stay no longer here; God bless you all, both great and small, And send you all a happy new year. Many collections of these old ballads have been published. One of the oldest contains this, from which an extract is given to show the familiar tone with which the old writers treated the incidents of sacred story:
 Mary that may she sang lullay
 and sore did weepe. To kepe she sawght full fast a bowte her son fro cold; Joseph seyd, wifi, my joy, my Jeff, say what ye wode No thing my spouse is in this howse unto my pay; My son kyng that made all thyng lyth in hay.
 Another of the same type begins:
 Joseph was an old man,
 And an old man was he,
 And he married Mary,
 Queen of Gallilee.
 Another strange wild ballad begins:
 saw three ships come sailing in,
 On Christmas day, on Christmas day; I saw three ships come sailing in,
 On Christmas day in the morning One of them relates how the boy Jesus. having asked His mother permission to go and play, receives it, accompanied with the injunction:
 And let me hear of no complaint
 At night when you come home.
 Jesus as Child.
 He went out and asked the permission of the other children to join in their games which they refused on the ground of His having been "born in an ox's stalP'-they being 'lords' and ladies' sons."
 Jesus in distress. returns to His home and tells His mother of it. when she an- swers:
 Though you are but a maiden's child Born in an ox's stall, Thou art the Christ the king of heaven And the savior of them all
 Carols are still sung in the country dis tricts of England by boys in smock frocks with ribbons tied to their hats and shoul- ders. An American traveller a year or so 5ago reports that this was the carol he