The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1903-12-31
Old Time New
Years Customs
Setting Ve" in Years Gone BY.
The Dutch and Their Calls. $50
Coin TO sit up tonight?'

GOln TO SIT up
Il reckon-yes, I reckon I will. Nuth-
In In it. y know, but lots O. fun and
fresh Cider
Such a conversation might have been
heard In n rural region of the CEN
trail west some forty years ago on any
New Years eye. And the setting up
was h n and only point In which
New Years observations differed from
those of Christmas. The Knickerbock-
ers haye13so far impressed themselves
upon American life that most Of the
present generation think calls and.
congratulations have always been the
great feature of New Years.
Know then. innocent youth, that as
late as fifty years ago New Years
calls were an MISREPRESENTATION in
three-fourths of the United States.
But in the border states, especially the
southern sections Of the states just
north of the Ohio, the practice of
watching the old year out and the
new year in" was the one thing PEE
culiar to New Years. Wonderful thins.s
were to be seen at that hour. Cows.
fell Gpo their knees, fowls went
through a sort of r~evererrial perform
ance, the wild animals lost their fear
of man, and certain plants Of a mys-
FERROUS nature sprang up in the door,
yard.
II nave had the children pull and lay
on my lap shoots as long as my hand,'
was the testimony or n good old
lady, and, for auEht any nearer could
eve discover, she honestly believed it.
A little later, when the old superstition
/ died out. watch night" became d re-
ligious proceeding. The ordinary even
ing meeting was followed by q song
and praise" session. A few minutes
before midnight the members of the
church gathered around the "altar"
Ut was merely the space in front of the
pulpit, but the old name remained) and
sometimes Joined hands in a circle.
AS the minute hand of the clock
neared the XII mark the most pro-
found silence was discretionary
Christian was supposed to be in silent
prayer for pardon for the sins of the
closing year When the new hour and
new year began, all broke into a glad
i song, often mingled with Shouts" in
Methodist OF United Brethren churches,
and after the song closed the members
pledged cath other to renewed devotion
n greater faithfulness to duty" for
the coming year. Tho negroes, always
quick to adapt their old African GUS
toms to their new religion, took special
delight in this one, adding many fanci-
full features, and it still survives in the
far south as walking Egypt
But what Of the original watch
night?" Well, all we can say is that
some of our ancestors brought it from
Scotland with them. and, as they told
of the wonderful things that had hap
pened in Scotland, so their children in
Kentucky and Indiana told the sam
things as having happened in Mary
land, and by and by their children in
Illinois and Missouri old Of them as
occurrences in Maryland or Kentucky,
and SO the superstition lived on in
many neighborhoods even to the out
break of the civil war.
Strange to say, the custom Of calling
!, or New year's day grew most nearly
universal among the Chinese and
Americans. The former celebrate the
new year through three Gays, during
which they call or their friends, ex-
charge greetings in the streets, beat
gongs, offer prayers and make q
Fourth Of July of it in fireworks.
In the days when a little group o.
frame houses with gable ends OF Dutch
brick clustered about the fort adjoin.
ing the point called the Battery ii
New York, Mynheer and Vrouw, TO.
sether with their children. the youths
and maIdens Of New Amsterdam
would go about making visits to each
other, celebrating the day as only {
primitive people could celebrate it, thu
elders smoking their pipes and thu
youngers making merry nj ali en-.
joying themselves heartily.
But the burghers OF New Amsterdam
as new generations III on waxes
rich. Broadway passed the ole rope
! walk neal the present site Of the Asto,
House. shot over Union square, AM