The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-24
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Last week in the Pathe News I saw
 a scene taken from the great northwest
 where Christmas trees were being GU,
 and put into carts and hauled to the
 station and piled on flat cars.
 l It brought viyidly to my mind a
 Christmas speht in Vienna more than a
 quarter of century ago. It was then
 the gayest of the gay, and it is hard to realize the picture of the want and
 misery which now grip it, and all be-
 cause Austria was caught in the grip
 of the destructive programme which
 was matched out in wilhelmstrasse. l I never really cared for the Germans, and my stay in Berlin marked rather
 drab part of my student days in Europe,
 but I did enjoy the pleasure loving
 viennese. for nowhere in the world
 was a people more given over to the joys of life. Austria has been terribly
 punished for getting into bad company, and somehow can't but hope that the pitiful hand held out to Paris for re-
 lief of some kind will bc given aid.
 
 1 When the fight is on I can rise to great heights of rage, but when it is | over, somehow I can't cling to hate, and so I hope I will be pardoned if at this time when the spirit of Christmas ! thought that there should be suffering anywhere and particularly among chill dren. It is said that the cry of the child is the same around the world, and I'll admit that in spite of the cru city of the Germans in Belgium and | elsewhere I hope that even the little ones in the fatherland may have enough | to eat to wear and visit from Santa Claus.
 But what I started out to comment on was the great piles of Christmas trees which used to be seen in some of the open spaces in Vienna during the holidays. It was the first time that had ever seen them by the thousands. One of the things which Germany lost I in the war, or rather In what brought it about, was the place she were fond of Christmas lore. One of the pretty stories which come down to us about yh1etide customs Is of German origin. One tale tells how Martin Luther, seeking to explain to his wife and children the beauty of snow cov- cred forest under the glittering stars of the besprinkled sky, went out into the garden and cut down fir tree and dragged it into the nursery and dec orated it with candles.
 The custom has been explained by another authority as being derived from the ancient Egyptian practice of deck ing houses at the time of the winter solstice with branches of the date palm, the symbol of life triumphant over death, and therefore of perennial life in the renewal of each bounteous year. Tn eEgyptiahs regarded the date palm as the emblem not only of immortality, but also of the starlit Armament. Some of our Christian churches to this day make much of Palm Sunday.
 Scandinavian myth of great an- tiquity speaks of a "service tree" sprung from the blood-drenched sbil where two lovers had been killed in violence. At certain nights in the Christmas season mysterious lights were seen flaming in the branches that m wind cnuld avtio0,,fSb .Cor,a of the traditions. it has also been noted, may have sprung from or at least been strongly influenced by the fact that about this time the Jews celebrated their feast of Chanuckah or Lights. known also as the Feast of Dedication, while in Greece at about this season the celebration is called the Feast of the Lights.
 The yule log dates back to the time of the Saxons and Goths, who burned such a log at their festival of the win ter solstice. It is still burned in many farmhouses of northern England, and there are many superstitions current among the peasantry about it. If, while it is afire, a squpint-eyed or bare foot ed person comes into the house, it is considered an i'll omen. A stick charred from the yule log placed under the bed is thought to keep lightning from strik- I ing the house.
 One of the prettiest stories about the origin of the Christmas tree is the one which tells. the legend of St, Boniface, who is reputed to have converted the German tribes from their worship of Thor to Christianity. and their "Thun- der Oak" under which human sacrifices were made, was supplanted by another tree dedicated to love and good deeds. Let us pray for the resurrection of the dear old saint that he may return to life and do his work over again, for the Germans under the Kaiser reverted to the old gods and ran amuck.
 Many lands claim the honor of hay ing started the custom of the lighted Christmas tree, but as a regular insti- tuition it is pretty well conceded, how l ever that it can be traced back only to the sixteenth century. During the middle ages it suddenly appeared in 1 Strassburg; it maintained itself along the Rhine for 200 years, when suddenly at the beginning of the nineteenth cen 1 f,Irv tho fashion cpra,5 .1t