The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1904-01-01
Old Time New
Years Customs
Setting Up" in Years Gone BY.
The Dutch and Their Calls. ,
Coin to sit up tonieht?"

1IeCAOu-yeS, 1 reckon L VIII. Nuth-
In in it, y know. but lots {" fun and
fresh cider"
Such a conversation might have been
heard in any rural region Of the cen
trail west some forty years ago on any
New Years eve. And the setting up
was he one and only point in which
New Years observations differed from
those Of Christmas. The Knickerbock-
ers have SO 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 unknown institution 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 PEI
culiar to New Years. Wonderful things
were to be seen at that our. Cows
fell upon their knees, fowls went
through a sort Of reverential perform
ance, h wild animals lost their fear
of man, and certain plants of a mys-
FERROUS nature sprang UP In the door
yard.
II have had the children pull and lay
on my lap shoots az long as my hand"
was l1e leStLi1iOHy OIL one GOOD OlQ
lady, and, for aught any nearer could
ever discover, she honestly believed it.
A little later. when the old superstition
died out, watch night became a re-
ngtous proceeding. The ordinary even
ing meeting vas followed by a ''song
and praise" session. A few minutes
before midnight the members Of the
at 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
1eared the XII mark the most pro-
found silence was observed-every
Christian was supposed to be In silent
prayer for pardon for the sins of the
closing When the new hour and
new year began, all broke into a glad
song. often mingled with shouts In
Methodist or United Brethren churches,
and after the song closed the members
pledged cath other to renewed devotion
and greater fatthfulness to duty for
quick to adapt their old African GUS
toms to their new religion, tool special.
delight in this one, adding many fanci-
full features. and 1t 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 1t from
oSSIH1L0 &W4Iil IASilAC d1lO,&dS lI1Cy LO1O
OF the wonderful things that had hap
pened In Scotland, sc their children in
Kentucky and Indiana told the same
things as having happened in Mary
land, and by and by their children in
Illinois and Missouri told of them as
occurrences In Maryland or Kentucky,
n SO the superstition lived on in
many neighborhoods even to the out
break of the civil war.
Strange to say, the custom of calling
on New Years day grew most nearly
universal among the Chinese and
Americans. The former celebrate the
new year through three days, during
which they call or their friends. ex-
change greetings In the streets, beat
gongs. offer prayers and make a
Fourth of July of 1t In fireworks.
In the days when a little group of
frame houses with gable ends OF Dutch
brick clustered about the fort adjoin-
ing the point called the Battery In
New York, Mynheer and Vrouw, to-
gether with their children. the youths
n maidens OF New Amsterdam,
would go about faking visits to each
other, celebrating the day as only a
primitive people could celeb. te 1t, the
elders smoking their pipes end the
youngers making merry and ell en-
Toying themselves heartily.
But the bursfiers of New Amsterdam
as rev generations came on waxed
rich. broadway passed the old rope
walk neal the present site Of the Aston
3 House. shot over Union ss,s-- and