The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1912-12-26

reading of the stars. It furnishes standard time
for half the world and as the year is born
will send it's message clear up to Alaska, to
South America, to China and to London.
Over in France New Years day is not entirely
one of rejoicing; that is, unless is able to
rise above such mundane things finance. for
New Years in France means-bills! 1t is the
universal payng-up day of the year. All the
DEAR familiar old bills that have been jogging
along and accommodating during the year sud
denly pile in en- and greet the head of the
house on New Years morning. 1t is not difficult
to obtain credit in France, provided one pos
sesses the eXternals of comfortable compe-
tence and the tradesmen and landlords and
shopkepers content to wait-until January
first. Then they drop their gentle little remin-
ders in the mails or, more frequently, present
them through representatives. The butcher the
baker, the candlestick maker-and all the gal
axy Of their sisters and their cousins and their
aunts"-are to be reckoned with.
Festival banqueting and merrymaking like
wise hold high carnival. From New Years
until the morning of the second day of the new
year the streets of Paris are fete Beautifully
gowned women, in richly decorated carriages,
and groups of berbboned holidayseekers form
boulevards Cafe life then is wild and brilliant
surging happy pageant that throngs the spacious
and the students from the Latin quarter con-
tribute their full quota of roisterng and revelry
in the restaurants and along the streets.
The German celebration of the New Year is
not lacking in wholesome good cheer and festive
FRANKS, but it is pre-eminently decorous one.
In Berlin elaborate musical programs are rem
dered and everywhere anthems and festival
songs are chanted, beginning at twilight OF the
last day of the old year and continuing until the
bells peal forth the glad tidings of new year
born unto the centuries There is one German
custom that dates from the year 1S4S that has
no little of the spirit of the typical "bad boy
in it.
On New Years eve anyone walking along the
streets of Berlin and wearing high hat need
take umbrage if couple of German Students
who may have endeavored trife too zealously
to find the bottom of the flowing bowl, slip up
behind him and smash the aforesaid hat down
over his eyes. This is the penalty he pays for
wearing such hat at such time and he has
kick coming to him, even if his hat is knocked
off his head and kicked until it to be
hat
The good folks in the Rhenish provinces have
an adaptation of this custom that is more gentle
and-yes-less expensive, considering the dam
age done. This consists of stealing up upon
friend he is walking along the street and
whispering in his ear: "Prosit Neujahr" The
friend thus accosted straightway comes
with little present, such cigar, drink
or an invitation to dinner In Frankfort-on-the
Main the entire city rushes to it's windows as the
old year dies, filings them open and, glasses In
hand, drinks toast to Father Times latest
born. Then the windows slammed down. the
merriment and all retire for a peaceful
nights sumber.
In England the New Year customs are of very
ancient origin and generally observed
than in this country. Every English family sits
up to the old year out and the year in,
and always there is bowl of hot punch, etc,
with which to drink the toasts to the New Year,
The custom is a survival of the time when the
head of the house assembled his family around
a bowl of spiced ale from which he and they
drank each others health and the health of the
New Year. The words used in the toast were:
"Wass Hael," meaning ito your health" Pres
emily, the toast bowl came to be known the
wassail, or wassel bowl.
In Scotland the wassel bowl is the center Of