Charlevoix county herald., 1910-01-01

Itself felt through the District of Co
dumbia, through Maryland and well In
TO Pennsylvania. Here 1t Is still the
Christmas of the candlelight and OF
the blazing log, the Christmas of the
distinctive old England cheer.
1t is probable that there has been
Christmas tree in the White House
Mt every holiday season in every adj
ministration excepting that of Tkeo-
dore Roosevelt. Old residents of
Washington say that even the bach
Flor and the widower presidents had
Christmas trees to remind them of
aheir own childhood, or to be used as
an 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
presidents older children are with
their parents.
Christmas in the White House is
very much like the Christmas in the
MONIES OF all American families. When
there are children in the great colon
ial mansion stockings are hung up,
and the expectation and excitement of
Christmas eve are just as great as
they are in any Of the humber homes
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 off 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 he
came president. There were always
happy times at Christmas in the
Roosevelt household, but the Christ
mas tree was barred because the pres
1dent being strong advocate of the
preservation of the forests, thought
that it was little less than a 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 q
tree give nhim, and thinking that in
.asmuch as it was already cut down
he might as well keep it, he put it in
the closet off his room and there sur
Teptiously 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
cacutive mansion must forever remain u
in this Potomac river section where
time Virginia Christmas spirit still DIVE
is an openness about the holiday tina
the openness of the Virginia home p,
but here the ready doubter probably W
nose objection-it is the transmitted
the old days still indwelling in the b
the inhabitants-the spirit of the cava
generally made too free with his meal
ward cheer, but with whose vices" CT
ways kept pace.
The war did not kill Christmas in
1t survived battle and poverty and it is
by and lusty today as it was in the
when the slaves brought the oak log
firing. 1t is the great feast of the sc
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 tt
The markets of the city are fat and
The marketmen sell and sell, and yet Il
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.
It may be, and probably is true, that
ducks no longer darken the water of {
Potomac with the close-hying flocks
mer years; it may be that the quail,
ginia partridge, numbers its kind by
where once it numbered it by thous
may be that the Virginia deer, the de-
woods Of eastern North America, is fl
ing: but no evidence of an approachil
accomplished scarcity is to be foun'
markets of the southern cities or in ii
of southerners who keep Christmas
forefathers kept it.
The Christmas of that part of Virgin
dies close to Washington is still the c