The Virginia enterprise., 1909-12-17

AuWUAds through Maryland duu "oAA A
to Pennsylvania. Here it is still the
Christmas of the candlelight and OF
the blazing log, the Christmas OF inc
distinctive old England cheer.
1t Is probable that there has Deen
q Christmas tree in the White House
at every holiday season in every ad-
excepting that OF Ineo.
dore Roosevelt. Old residents OF
Washington say that even the bach
elor and the widower presidents had
Christmas trees to remind them OF
their own childhood, or to be used as
au attraction for specially invited chill
dren guests.
President Taft's youngest child,
"Charlie," is of Christmas tree age
and inclination. Both the president
and his wife are young in heart, and
the Christmas tree has always had
place in their holiday merrymaking.
The presidents two older children,
Robert and Helen, are in college, the
one at Yale and the other at Bryn
Mawr. Like all other college students
who can make the journey home, the
presidents older children are with
their parents.
Christmas in the White House Is
very much like the Christmas in the
homes CT all American families When
there are children in the great colon
lal mansion stockings are hung up.
and the expectation and excitement of
Christmas eve are just as great as
fhnV iv 1c IN h,,r
in the land. Christmas is a home
day for the president and his family.
All business is given over, and the
White House clerks and employees, to
say nothing of the cabinet officers and
the senators and representatives who
make daily journeys to the presidents
office, know that on Christmas day Of
all the days in the year the president
wishes to throw OF the cares of state
and to have the same privilege that
any other American citizen may have
the privilege of enjoying his family
and OF partaking with it undisturbed
of the Christmas cheer.
1t has been said that there was no
Christmas tree at the White House in
the holiday seasons when Theodore
Roosevelt was president. There were
six children in the Roosevelt family,
all of them of Christmas tree age
when the colonel of Rough Riders be-
came president. There were always
happy times at Christmas in the
Roosevelt household, but the Christ
mas tree was barred because the pres
ident being strong advocate of the
preservation of the forests. thought
that 1T was, little less than sin to
cut down trees and of necessity kill
them, in order to use them for merely
decorative purposes.
1t is said that on one occasion the
youngest boy of the household had a
tree give nhim, and thinking that in
asmuch as 1t was already cut down
he might as well keep it, he put it in
the closet off his room and there sur
reptiously trimmed it. 1t is also said
that his father discovered the tree.
but the historians of the household
know, or at any rate do not say, VIII
pened then, and so the end of one ST.
former Christmas tree celebration in
ecutive mansion must forever remain u
In this Potomac river section where
time Virginia Christmas spirit still dwell
is an openness about the holiday thai
the openness of the Virginia home. Pr
but here the ready doubter probably W
pose objection-it Is the transmitted
the old days still indwelling in the
the inhabitants-the spirit of the cava
generally made too free with his meal
ward cheer, but with whose "vices" ch
ways kept pace.
The war did not kill Christmas in
py and lusty to-day as it was in the
when the slaves brought the oak log!
firing 1t is the great feast of the SO
of the northern country which lies adj
the Mason and Dixon line.
Washington is on the dividing line
most things northern and southern,
Washington Christmas is wholly of tn
The markets of the city are fat and {
The marketmen sell and sell, and yet th
of Christmas things seemingly never
1t is the season of game. Washington
the rule of New York and Chicago.
day markets give the quail and the can
the places of honor, while the chicken
turkey stay in the shadow.
1t may be, and probably is true, that
ducks no longer darken the water of Il
Potomac with the close-hying focks
mer years: it may be that the quail.
ginia partridge, numbers its kind by
where onces it numbered 1t by thous
may be that the Virginia deer, the dee
woods of eastern North America, is #
ing: but no evidence of an approachir
accomplished scarcity is to be found
markets of the southern cities or in th
of southerners who keep Christmas
forefathers kept 1t.
The Christmas of that part of Virgin
lies close to Washington is still the c.
Of other days, but warning has com
change. Northern capital and northern
lists are entering the state and the can
and the blazing logs are giving way to
light and steam heat which are as allie
Old Dominion home as are the hveriet
who soon will displace the old "un'
the old nanny" in the quarters"
The steel man and the packer are
virginia to become neighbors Of the I
have been lords of the soil since the