The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-12-26

tiyifie-aOld Massa' and OH
Mistis'' Held Up for ..Chr;strnas
Gifts by Their Faithful Darkeys.
(Hors'on Post.)
"A man nigh. then behold
At Christmas in each hall
Good fires TO ci:rb the cold,
And meat for great and small,
The neighbors were friendly hidden
And all had welcome true,
The poor from the gates were net
chidden,
When this old cap was new"
Old Song
The Christmases of fifty years ago!
How they seek the hooks and crannies
of the told-timers memory and haunt
him with their hints Of mellowed cheer
and heartiness! How the mind goes
back through the golden years to the
old mans youth, when summers were
greeuer and autumns ripper and Christ
masses cheerier than those of the pres
ent day! Bowered in the mistletoe
and holly and smilax of a forgottn
time, the hoarv old holiday that has
breasted the ages for nineteen long
centuries still retains it's old time
charm, its glamor that fingers on with
wralths Of ~sweethearts' faces and lit
tie children's smiles, it's spirit Of
merrymaking and it's lure of Lively
laughter. When the old souls that
hustled and thrOve in their youth some
fffu uparc oo0 ionE hncy in fnndnoSC
at the days of mirth and holly in The
years ''befo' de wah," the tears III a
too sweet memor must come to their
eyes, and the fun and frOlic which
gladdened them in hat generation
long since gone now rouse only the idle
tears of which tie poet sung. Like an
immortal god, the old holiday, crown
ed n its greenery and it's crest Of
snow, smiles steadfastly through me
t~hickening years on young and old
alike. To the youth, in the lustfu9-
ness of their blood, he is a roistering
hoidenish fellow. gay in their own
manner and full of delight; to the cid,
old men, with their gray boards ana
their pipes and their memories, ne
lives On solely as a spirit, a myth but
of the past, touched with tenderness
and reverence, sublimely broOding ov-
er 1ylng things. Such is the spirit OF
Christmas.
But Christmas in the south on half
a century back must have been an eVA1
greater pleasure, md an even sweeteT
memory to the gay young bucks Of that
a~nte-bellum time. Virginians still keep
the customs of their fathers, and the
south is still pretty we'll represented
in the Christmas celebrations Of the
Virginians q generation or w ago
Christmas was distinctively The Hi
idays' with southerners; and in Thorn
as elson Pages delightful little sketch
Social Life in Ola Virginia." he de-
votes considerable space to a descr:D-
ton of fetes and celebrations which
attended the old-time festival.
Gradually the big house on the hill
would fill with visitors, for the south
erners had established their courtesy
and hospitality when they established
their galaxy of states. The young
men of the family would bring home
their schoolmates from the university
probably Tom Jefferson's old univer-
sity, the first state university in the
country, the University of Virginia
and the pretty cousins would troop in
from the n~eighboring farms with a
trunkful of laces INC fine raiment to
stay the two weeks out and go to the
parties and the dances. The members
Of the family who had moved to other
states, valiant pioneers in the build
ing up of the middle country, return
ed to the old homestead to join in the
merrymaking of the glorious holiday
time.
Turkeys were fattened toward the
preparation of the big Christmas din
ner. the woods and forests were Faked
for nuts, the orchards had long since
yielded up their rosy drift Of apples,
which had forthwith been lain away IN
the cellars; the pigs and ducks mi
geese were killed; the mince meat
and pumpkin for The pies prepared: I'll
was in readiness for the week of mirth
and holly.
Then out into the woods scurried the
searchers with their axes after the
evergreens that were to grace the big
hall and lend their emerald warlcth
Of color. to the rudy blazes within
the house. The mistletoe was cut in
enormous clumps from the oak and
elm and hickory trees and festooned
with shouts Of joy and sly hints OF
fun aoross the lintels and over the
chandeliers. Snow on the ground? Of
course these we've in the old days.
Maybe now the youngster will have
to search a weary while to find
enough Of it to make a SNOWFALL with,
but in the OLD tines it never failed.
Why, the very tint OF the cranberry
sauce would have lost its luster if the
diner could not have looked out the
window from his place at the sunp-
tuous prandial board and seen the
glimn.er of white under the trees and
over The hills! There for miles and
miles the candid mantle of the bluff
old storm king covered the waste
stretches of meadow and valley and
by its very crispness and keen chill
ness accentuates al the more the mer-
~ warmth and festal glow within