Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1912-12-18
THE MOST WONDERFUL MAN.
Plain Christmas Story of the Birth of
Christ Told in Pleasing Com
pleteness and Reality.

Companion appears an extraordinary
account of the birth of Christ written
by Washington GLADDEN.. The story is
told with completeness and reality
just as one might relate the story of
the birth of Lincoln or any other
great man.
Joseph and Mary were young peo-
pie who lived in Nazareth of Galilee
which is sixty miles north of Bethle-
hem. They had to go to Bethlehem
because it was the city in which their
family belonged and the Roman en-
peror who was making great census
in his empire required every family
to be enrolled in its native place.
So Joseph and Mary had come, in
the middle of the winter, to this old
town of Bethlehem. 1t was a long
journey for those days and those
roads, far more wearisome than trip
to Denver or Minneapolis would be
for people on the Hudson or the Con-
hOSeiNot. IL thCy ny tHc pi III
cipal road, as doubtless they did, we
know exactly the route they followed
across the great plain of Esdrae-
Ion, over the mountains of Samaria
and the hill country of Judea to the
great city of Jerusalem, then south
ward, about six miles, from that city
to Bethlehem.
Now let DR.. GLADDEN. proceed with
his narratives:
Whether Joseph and Mary had ev-
er visited Bethlehem before, we do
not know.
The first thing to do was to find a
place where they could abide in Beth
lehem, and this was not an easy task.
The little town seems to have been
full Of people who had come perhaps
upon the same errand that brought
them. You can imagine how it would
be if all the descendants of all the
families that once lived in one of the
old New England hill towns, in Itch
field, say, or Deerfield, or Leominis-
ter, If all the descendants of all these
families in all parts of the country
were ordered to go back there and
register.
so it was at Bethlehem. Very lit
tie dependence was placed on inns or
hotels by travellers in those days.
There were few places of public en-
tertainment. Every private family
gladly received and kindly cared for
such pilgrims as CHANGED to pass thru
their neighborhood.
But, no matter how hospitable
men may be, when their houses are
full to overfiowing, they can take no
more guests, and this was the condi-
ton in which Joseph and Mary found
the homes in Bethlehem To the inn
they made their way; but the inn was
simply a shelter-a shed enclosing a
court, with no furniture and no other
provision for the comfort of the trav-
eler than the stone walls and the roof
which protected him from the storm
Here upon the bare floor he could
spread his rugs for sleep; here he
could partake of the food that he had
brought in his haversack; and his
beast could be left secure in the court
within the building.
"Such were the inns, or khans, of
the East when Joseph and Mary came
to Bethlehem. But even such cold
comfort as this was not for them.
This bare shelter was so crowded that
there was no room for them there.
The only place they could find was
in the stable, and this, as seems prob
able, was a kind of cave or excava-
ton in the side of the rock, or near
the inn.
1T has been believed from the
earliest day that the place where Jes-
us was born was cave under shell
tering rock. This story was current
among his followers not hundred
years after his death, and there is no
reason to doubt it's truth. 1t was per-
haps some such place as the pioneers
in Minnesota and Dakota used to call
"dugout'-a shelter, partly under
ground, where man and beast togeth-
er were sometimes forced to find pro-
lection from the wintry cold. This
was the best entertainment Joseph
and Mary could find in Bethlehem;
and here it was that the wonderful
Babe was born, and found His cradle
in manger.
THUS it was that the life which
was and is the Light of Men began
here on the earth. Doubtless this was
the greatest moment in the worlds
history. Could anyone who looked on
this Babe as He lay in the manger
bouo Jroo,caI IS Tho plooa lie worId