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Specials See our Cigar $2.00 to $2.50 Pen and Pencil Sets $2.00 to $8.00 Desk Sets $5.00 Leather Goods at various prices. China & Glassware at 10% reduction. Boys' Wrist Walches $6.00 to $10.00 Girls' Wrist Watches, $8.00 fo $10.00 We have many other beautiful ar- ticles at very rea- sonable prices. I. R. BENTLEY JEWELLER AND OPTOMETRIST > A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year TO ALL Your patronage has been appreciated in the past, and we shall continue to give our best service, and ask for your continued patronage. P. G. Morrison DRUGGIST STATIONERY CONFECTIONERY FS ---- -- ---- ------------{ = WILLARD & C0. Wish You A i Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and remind Jou that they always Gary an Tissue papers may drift the floor in red : and white and green mounds and ribbons of scarlet and silver tangle the feet most hopelessly, but Mother smiles happily in ET the midst of chaos. Christmas Eve may mean nerve-thrabbing, aching bodies and fagged minds, worn out with strenuous preparation, but Christmas finds the family indulging in bigger plans for next year. Decorating the church with e Polydore Vergil says that "Trimming of the Temples with bangynges, floures, boughes and garlondes was taken of the heathen people, which decked their idols and houses with such array." In old church calendars Christmas Eve is marked "Templa ex- ornatur." However this may be, the greatest charm of Christmas is the decorated church, the power which makes man see beyond the bare walls of the church and which carries him back through the ages to wor- ____ . : ship with the shepherds at the manger cot in Bethlehem. Christmas without its religious oo- servances, for all the feasting, gaiety and re- joicing, would long ago have passed away. Christmas carols as they are known to-day are a literary inheritance handed down from an age when there existed neither popular songs nor drama. At fixed seasons of the year the British people used to congregate to sing simple ballads in which secular themes were close- mingled with religious. Of the store of popular poetry nothing now survives in actual use except the Christmas carols, But in those old days the Christmas carols were only a portion of a larger collection of semi- religious songs, each group of which had its special association with the ecclesiistical year. Easter had its carols, so had Whitsun and May- day, and many other religious holy days. Thesc were not part of the church service as they are to-day. They were mostly associated with those early dramatic representations--mystery plays. The festival of the Christmastide is a herit- age of the long ago, and the date of its origin is unknown. Traditions tell of celebrating in mid- winter with feasting and merriment in the days of antiquity. Perhaps the most widespread of all festive institutions is the Christmas tree. The present form of the tree decked in candles and hung with colored balls and images does not seerh to date back prior to the seventeenth century. In England there is a legend of Joseph of Arimathaea which tells us that when the Saint settled at Glastonbury-he planted his staff in the ground. It put forth leaves and blossomed every Christmas, The tree very likely is a sur- vival of the older laurel decorations which were tied to the doorposts of houses. @hristmas is @hristmas all the Wide World Over HRISTMAS the world over! Perhaps in some distant Yuletide the applied science of television will permit Canadian folk revelling in a sparkling, frosty merry-making the privilege of watching their New Zealand cousins celebrate, Pulses will quicken as one glimpses the picnic ever a feature of Christmas Day in New Zealand, and the Yuletide Camp where "little brown Maori fairies with flowing black locks, clad in national costume, with mat and string of beads, come out of the woods and dance festive poi and haka to the delight of the little white folk." Then will come the thrilling hour of dusk, when camp-fires gleam by the wood- land streams to the delight of the Christmas campers, A glance at Christmas celebration in India will also find campfires lighted. The tender pea chick will replace the famous Canadian turkey at dinner. Gaily attirad -Indian natives will bring their gifts and their greetings to the Bri- tish officers, and much feasting will feature the merry-making in Bombay and Calcutta. New South Wales, Australia, will present the gayest of scenes, with thousands of country Brown." name?" n on Christmas Eve is as old as the hills, Christmas ¥ mob by police with gleaming bayonets to prevent disturbances between religious factions. Religious antagonism is so bitter that should a Greek or Armenian priest set" | "Is that you, Santa Claus?" * Yes, and you are little Marjorie "What, Santa! do you know my fjome £20 a eld in the Roman Catholic part of the Church, the : PServed for the Greeks and Armenians who hold their "The interior of the church which rather resembles an enclosed market with, great pillars and huge flagstones, presents a cold and cheerless scene. A surging Eastern the building, pushing and fighting for places, while the aisles are guarded -- Santa On the Line for it, «Set of doll's furniture an' dishes, [i 4 § " "Stop a monient, Marjorie; I know everything you would like, but have you been a good girl?' patsorit reir busi- ness, 'during the past year. In asking for continuance of the: same, we take this opportunity of wishing them a RPY CHRISTMAS rand a people thronging the streets of the city, the cafes, the theatres and the races. In Melbourne a carnival shopping scene will reward the tele- vision fan, with festivity in abundance in swim- ming and picknicking, for it chances that in Australia Christmas Day falls in mid-summer. "Looking-in" 'at Christmas in the Italian highlands will be rewarded with a charming pic- ture, with the time-old custom followed with the peasants making offerings of fruit and flowers at the shrine of the Redeemer. Christmas airs, ** Yes, and 1 know your voice, too. Oh, yes, 1 know you, Marjorie, very well, and I have seen you asleep in your bed." "Aren't you wonderful, Santa, to know so much?; . May I tell you what I'd like you fo bring me on Christmas Eve? Yes?" Well," I'd like you to "Oh, yes; you can ask Mumsy if 1 haven't; she is sitting right here." Never mind now, Marjorie I know -you always. tell the truth. So. 1'll bring you just what you want. Good- bye, Marjorie." "Oh thank you, Santa Claus, you are so good. Good-bye." with blazing bonfires and fireworks, will arrest bring me a big dollje an' a carriage the attention as the Canadian views at long dis- tance the celebration in Naples. In Norway a charming scene will be portrayed - as the Norwegians provide a Christmas dinner for the birds. The "looker-in"' watching the festivities carried out in Ukraine will discover the homes the centre of merry-making on Christmas Eve. Many courses will mark the feast at the dinner hour and featuring strange dishes. In many homes the extra "cover will be laid for the stranger, who, should he come knocking at the door that Christmas Eve, would be welcome at th2 table and no questions asked. It is an ancient but beautiful legend that tells how the Christ-Child wanders through the town on this night of nights, and to the Ukrainian home the stranger may represent the Holy Babe. Irresistible will prove the temptation to take a peek at Christmas festivity in Switzerland, where the gay, sparkling tree will be found in the poorest of homes, and Father Christmas with his generous pack of toys a welcome visitor, Bethlehem the Site of Christ s Birth i thiehem is the one place in the whole we ted in a setting of threatening crowds and armed "foot ona carpet belonging to the, Latins, or vice versa, it is enough to cause a riot '. + possibly ending' ify bieddshed: "So jealous is each church of its particular bounds that at the border line the wall hangings are even pinned back to prevent them swinging over foreign ground. At midnight there is a procession to the chapel of the Manger, where, down two small flights of steps in a small lamp-lit crypt, is the famous "Star of Bethlehem' marking the actual spot where Christ is said to have been born. This is in a small recess of the wall over which stands ap altar shared by all three churches, each con- tributing its share of dimly burning lamps; here in the holiest spot of all Christendom a sentry stands by day and night to préserve religious peace. ; . Close by is a small ledge on which the manger is said to have pfsted but the manger itseM is now locked up in the church of Santa Maria Maggio in Rome. + «is only othe lonely hillside of Judea where dwells the peace flonks fhat the true atmosphere of the first Christmas is to be fojing, : y European countries shafe ' comes round. Many of the count d march in procession and the cattle Fand Prosperous a a a ra as. Melee & Son "Extend to All the Season's 'Greetings, wishing You Health, Happiness, and Prosperity for Christmas and the Coming Year. Our Store has been greatly we are in, a position to give up-to-d fice i Groceries, B Smocks, O ly you with choice meats and tmas table. Prompt enlarged and improved, and & v