Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-10-31
IS HERE.
Ancient Festival, Revised Up To
Date, TO Have Customary
Observance.
NIGHT FOR YOUTHFUL FRANKS
Boys Assume Role of Mischief
making Witches-.Love Tests
by the Girls.

There will be '.doings" among
the young folks of the land tonight.
for, as all the younger generation
know-and the older, too, if they
have not forgotten-it is "Hallew-
Gen." the night looked forward to all
the year.
There is perhaps no night in the
year which the popular imagination
has stamped with a more peculiar
character than the evening of the 31st
of October, for it is the time when
many believe, or used to believe, that
witches and devils and mischief
making beings are abroad and have
more than their usual power over
earthly mortals.
Halloween originated in the days of
the ancient Celts and their priests,
the Druids, long before the christian
era. 1t was their harvest festival and
immense fires were butt on the hill
tops in honor of the sun, which the
people worshipped. But when chris
lianity took the place of the heather
religion, the church, instead of for
bidding the celebration, gave it diff
ferent meaning, and in this way the
ancient harvest festival of the Celts
became ALL Hallow eve, or the eve of
All Saints day, as the first day of
November had been dedicated to all
of the saints.
TIck-Tscks, Etc.
Just what viii happen tonight
among the young folks of the land,
unless youthful human nature has
changed nightly in the past 12-
month-which it hasn't-would b
hard to tell. The boys think on Hal
loween they have license to do just
the thing they wouldn't dare to do on
any other night. They may stretch
ropes and wires across sidewalks to
trip the feet of the unwary, tie door
knobs of opposite houses and then
ring the bells; also hoist light wagons
and other vehicles on top OF the barns,
attach tick tacks" to the windows to
brighten timid folk, causing mysteri-
Gus rappings to be heard about the
hour of midnight. Another source of
amusement will be the Incorporating.
For once in the year the youths will
appear arravod in the apparel of the
maidens ana vice versa. There is a
law prohi hitting this. but it is rarely
an arrest is made on Halloween.
There viii be Glove tests and it |
seems as if it was for these that the |
night that ushers in the month of No |
was especially constructed. |
Every girl-every girl on the under
side of 20, at any rate-Wants to know |
"who" he is and what" be looks like |
that is, if she hasn't already made |
up her mind.
MaIdens' Love Schemes.
To determine this Halloween brings |
in it's wake lot of schemes. The in
1uisitive maiden will peel red apple
SO that the skin remains an unbroken
sequence and then whirl the peeling
three times around her head anu
throw it over her left shoulder, and
the initial which the peeling forms on
the floor will be the initial of the man
she is to wed. If the inquisitive mai
len doesn't do this, she will do one or
more of a.lot of other things.
Should her pocketbook be heavy
enough she will invest in a new coat
At the nearest clothing sore and HE
herself to the closest stream of running
water and dip the left sleeve of the
coat in the water and hang it cfore
he fire to dry. She VIII then go to
bed and watch the sleeve dry. Some
lime near midnight an apparition
having the figure of her ''only man on
Earth" will come and turn the sleeve,
IS if to dry the other side it.