Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-31
THIS Is HALLOWEEN
FRONT GATES WILL BE IN DAN
GER THIS EVENING.
Pedestrians Must Keep a Strict Look.
out for Children and
Their Franks.

/ QualnteSt CuStOIHS OI dHCleHt EHSldHu. ~
was night set apart in pagan times for a
grand promenade of invisible spirits. Added
to the procession of shades was a walking
body of human men and maids who, by
some occult power, were enabled to shed
their corporal bodies and meander around
as fancy took them, through the realms Of
space.
Things change in the course Of a half
dozen centuries, and the only lawful de-
| scendants of the ancestral spooks are
small boys who now detach front gates and
sprinkle flour on unwary passers-by.
The rites and mysteries of pagan times
and the fireside customs of a later era
have. alike, found their places in folk lore
amusement, so long will All Halloween
be night for merry pranks.
1t Is a custom in Ireland, even in these
days. for young woman to test the 10y
atty Of her lover by placing two chestnuts
on CRATE. She names them for herself
and the young man, and then watches her
rate If Mr.. Chestnut cracks or jumps he
Is unfaithful; if, on the other hand, he
biazes his devotion is proved. If both
chestnuts burn together married happiness
Is certain.
An old custom on this merry night was
to hang up a stick horizontally by-e string
from the ceiling and put a candle on one
end and an apple on the other. The stick
was made to twirl. and the young con-
testants leaped up in succession to snatch
at the apple. AS it generally happened that
the candle swerved around and scorched
or creased some unlucky face much amuse-
ment was created-for those who watched
the game
Apples Retain Their Charm
Apples still retain their charm, and at
most Halloween parties to be given to-
night the young people will duck for the
fruit as It bobs on the surface of tub
of water.
A Halloween test faithfully believed in
by the slaves of southern Maryland was
to walk backward, at midnight, from their
and pluck a sod from an unconsecrated
grave. AS these graves of bad people were
always separated by a fence from those
who had died in the fold. and were over
grown with weeds, briars and subject to
snakes. the ordeal was not a joke.
Il know all about it because 1 made the
test" Washington woman said today.
1T was just after the war, and when my
nurse couldn't get me to go to sleep after
terrifying and fascinating me with her
plans she had to take me, walking back
ward. mile and half to the Catholic
churchyard.
"A poor, crazy fellow, who had killed his
wife and was hanged was smothered under
years growth of tangled weeds, and when
Sarah put me down to pluck the sod con-
cluded to try my own fortune. I wasn't
able to reach down to the mound, but I
managed to get in touch with briar and
as / yelled out I saw the face of a boy I
knew, on the other side of the grave, and
my cry was frozen stiff. OF course. he had
come to try his fortune, and equally, of
course, I ought to have married him, but
l didn't Someway all my tests went wrong.
which is the only excuse 1 have for being
single today"
place three dishes on a hearth, one with
clear water, one with dish water and the
third one empty. The seeker of future
wife, say, is blindfolded and made to dip
a finger in a dish. If he chooses the one
with the clear water he will marry a maid;
If the dish water, a widow will be his fate.
II he selects the empty dish his doom is
sealed. He will be an old bachelor until
the end of his days.
Some Other Tests.
Another test was to wet a shirt sleeve
and hang it by the fire to dry. Then the
maid who made the test was to be in bed
and watch it until midnight. At the stroke
of twelve the appariton of her future part
ner would appear and turn the sleeve.
Old belief ascrbed to children born on
Halloween the possession of mysterious
faculties which enabled them to chum with
supernatural beings One old publisher who
was doubtless the yellow journalist of his
day and generation got out a book in
structing such fortunate people how to
master the rites of invocation to spirits
In ancient England, poor people would
go a-Souling on Halloween. In New Eng
land they would call it a-begging. In the
1.-Two Gentlemen of Verona" Shakespeare
refers to this custom when he makes Speed
speak of some one whining like a beggar
at Halloween"
All Halloween has had it's centuries of
romances, witcheries and even tragedies
but the chances are it has never yielded
more fun than the youngsters of Washing
ton will get out of 1t tonight.