The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-11-01
was started in a straw stack by the |
side OF the barn. The loss Is about
5000. partly insured. Y
HALLOWEEN .
Has Come and Gone, and Has Had
It's Usual observance-The Wealth
er Kept the Boys Indoors Last

40 v ooesA SpSeA FuuSe---4 Lug WeutQ.
er Kept the Boys Indoors Last
Night.
This is the night o. Hallow Fen.
When q, the w!tchie MIGHT be seen,
Some O. them black, some O. them green,
7 Some o. them like turlsey-bean.
Last night was Hallow Fen, and as
has long been the custom, as brown
old October takes his leave and No.
vember's fierce winds and chilly wealth.
er takes Its place. the, evening was
given up to merry making by the
young folks all over the city. 1t was
q good night for the indoor pastimes
that go toward making Hallow Fen
gatherings attractive. but the weather
had dampening effect on the small
boy who Is wont to play havoc with
gates, shutters. etc.. that are not se-
curely fastened.
1t Is the one night above all others
that the average boy thinks about for
weeks In advance. and lays awake
night, wondering what new and novel
sort OF mischief he can work on the
old folks and the nclghbors. It Is also
night when the young lass In her
teens-and some of the older ones-try
their fortunes In various ways In "a
vain endeavor to penetrate into what
the future may have in store for them
In the matrimonial line. All these
things were tried last night, just as
they have been tried in the days of
our grandmothers: and Just as they
Will be tried by our grandchildren.
The eve of November is the mystic
season In the calendar. After G o'clock
on the evening OF October 81 fairy folk
are supposed to walk abroad, much
after the method of good old Santa
Claus, and rule over the fortune of
mortals everywhere. Hallow Fen COM
memorates very ancient festival In
stituted In the earliest centuries by the
Cells and their priests, the Druids, for
the purpose of rejoicing over the in
flowing OF the harvest. Among the su-
perstitious people even to this day NIL
sorts Of magical charms and spells are
invoked to avert evil fortune and Sc
cure the favor of fairy folk, through
whom the divinities dispense. or with
hold favors.
In America all superstitious idea has
been eliminated. The day is reserved
as one Of the jollest OF all the year,
and 1t is growing rapidly in favor in
the middle and western states. It
calls. however, for q special type Of
games and frolics in keeping with the
traditional meaning of the day, in
which mysticism, chance and nonsense
are happily blended. There's no lack
of the goblin element. and fairy folk
walk In most entertaining guise.
The police force was extremely vigil
ant last night in order to prevent the
boys from going too far with joke,
or destroying property, but the rain
had the effect Of keeping most of the
mischief makers under cover. How
ever, not few belated pedestrians ran
into that knockers" or Eel; over some
body's shutter or door steps that had
probably been carried mile or two
away from where they belonged. There
were also a number or gates hanging
on lamp posts or telegraph poles. and
on one of these out in the Fast End
4 card was nailed, upon which was
printed shut the Gate" 1t hung abou.
twenty feet in the air on a telephone
pole.