" [spread feasts and leave vi} ¢) snow 5 2 XQ) iis all > yr That gather anear the Nhl eopane ; {Where the winter frost all gy has lain? 7) {They are soulless elves, who Within, and laugh at our fain would Christmas ¢ Ring fleetly, chimes! Swift, swift, iy / rhymes), "They _are_made of the mocking mist of od? Neat? YES 0 Sp /Cease, cease, each Christmas bell ¥ Under the holly bough, Jfalling: chimes! Cease, cease, my|rhymes! ry . now. / \ pili! AN = The Spirit of Christmas. There is hardly a festival in the calen- dar which has such a hold on the hearts of old and young alike as Christmas Day. The ring of the car bells and the voices upon the streets seem to take on a more cheery tone, and the spirit of the time seems to throw a glamour over places and things which ordinarily are devoid of all beauty. As it is with places, so it is with people. They, too, not only seem to change, but the transformation does take place in millions of hearts to a greater or less degree. The spirit of Christmas even affects people who. for | the rest of the year are devoid of | sentiment and of feeling for their fel- | lows. The most interesting stories of Christmastide are those which will never appear in print--true stories of men and women whose thoughts have been only of their own selfish aims and pleasures, but have been awak- | ened, if only for a day or two, from their usual self-complacency, moved | by some force of which they are only half-conscious to do some act of kind- ness to make the day happler for .» someone less fortunate than them- 'selves in a worldly way~--The Chris- | tian Herald. y y The Christmas Spirit. | But don't you see that there is a Santa Claus! He isn't a man in a fur coat, and a reindeer sleigh and all ithat, but he is the Spirit of Christmas, |isn't 'he? They've personified that {and made a saint of kim and invented legends about him--for the children, [but when we're no longer children and don't believe in him, we still have that Christmas spirit--and it's that that gives presents and makes us feel toward one another, and makes Christ: mas what it is--Harvey J. O'Higgins, But no married man's conscience can understand why a bachelor should have need. of reat cure. n's deafness has reached the he can ger b a ristmas Customs. it is interesting to trace the origin of festival customs to those connected with Drulidical superstitions of classic observances, and it will surprise many to learn that present-day sports very closely resemble the celebrations ob- served of old in honor of Saturn or Bacchus. The Roman Saturnalia, which oc- curred in the winter solstice, were a season of great festivity and rejoicing, honored by many privileges and ex- emptions. The spirit of galety had free charter, and even quarrels were suspended, to be resumed after the holidays. As a manifestation of the gratitude felt at the renewed prospects of the returning march of the sun, gifts were exchanged and special hymns were sung. These latter were really the Roman representatives of the modern carol, At the Saturpalia the Roman feast ed, sang and danced, as we do at Christmas. A ruler or king was ap- pointed, who enjoyed certain preroga- tives. He presided over the sports of the season. Probably he is the an- cestor of the lord of misrule, who ex- ercised. a similar power in more re- cent times. Merriment was a matter of general . 'concern, and the joyous spirit of en- . tire districts 1s now narrowed to fam- ily parties. . whole world kin, and it is a pleasant remjader that, after all, history re- peats itself. * LL -------- Not Blessed. ~The presents you forget to give to others who don't forget to give to you dre not so blessed. « If you would pre to $12 a week or than™®13 "Bok ook for tron . De 00k : rouble unless you know just what to find it. rk for you do with it when | old. | Netherlands. It is said that the city | Tt is the touch that makes the Of deen was notorious for its black THE DAILY BRITISH WHIG, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1914. LL around the season of the Coming of love as a little Child there have sprung legends and be liefs, like blossoms in & gracious clime, which testify with | subtlety to the depth of the appeal of {the birth of Christ. Here divinely 18piritual symbolism and there sweet human tenderness 'and pathos appear, and, blended, they evidence the world's belief that this was both Son of Man and Son of God. : An Irish legend tells that, on Christ- mas eve, the Christ{Child wanders out in the darkness and cold, and the Peasants still put lighted candles in their windows to guide the sacred lit. tle feet, that they may not stumble on i their. way to their homes. And in Hungary the people go-yet further in their tenderness for the Child, they their doors open that He may enter at His will, while throughout Christehdom there is a belief that no evil can touch any child who is born on Christmas eve. The legend which tells how the very hay which lined the manger in which the Holy Babe was laid put forth lMy- ing red blossoms at midwinter at the touch of the Babe's body could only have arisen from belief in the renewal | of life through the Lord of Life. 'Holy Thorn. T is not so many centuries ago since there was that holy ! thorn at Glastonbury which blossomed every Christmas, and, so ran the legend, had done ever since | St. Joseph of Arimathea, having come 'as apostle to Britain, and, landing at Glastonbury, had stuck his staff of dry hawthorn inte the sofl, commanding it to put forth leaves and blossoms. This the staff straightway did, and thereby was the king converted to the Chris- tian faith the faith which preached [life from death. The holy thorn of Glastonbury floar ished during the centuries unt he civil wars. During 'those it was up rooted; but several persons had had trees growing from cuttings from the original tree, and those continued to bloom at the Christ-season. just as their parent, which had grown from St. Joseph's staff, had bloomed. And about the middle of the 18th century it was recorded in the Gentleman's Magazine how the famous holy thorn would not deign to recognize the new style calendar, which had then come into force but would persist in blos- soming as of old on old Christmas day! In those days the anniversary of the advent of the'Babe had certainly meant more to the common people than merely a .time for feasting and revelry, for giving and receiving; it had been also a season for holy ob- servances, for they refused to go to church on New Christmas day, the holy thorn not being then in blossom So serious became the trouble that the clergy found it prudent to announce that Old Christmas day should also be kept sacred as before. Only an- other story of men's weak, supersti- tious minds? True, perhaps; but they are better who evidence some spiritual weakness than those who wallow in the wholly material, and when we cease to be careful of the cup and the platter, we become not over careful of their contents. hristmas Rose. NOTHER of those spiritual parables is the legend of { the Christrhas rose, and it ' tells how good things, fit for giving, spring up ready to'the hand which earnestly desires to give to the Child It is said that a certain maiden of Bethlehem was so poor that she had nothing to give to the Babe to whom kings brought wealth from afar. and, as she stood, longing and mourning and angel cppeared to her, saying: "Look at thy feet, beneath the snow." and lo! on obeying the maiden found that a new flower had miraculously sprung up and blossomed at her needs. Every since then, runs this story, this exquisite flower, with its snowy petals Just touched by suggestions of pinkish bloom, is to be found at this season; ard, indeed, its half-opened cups are like chalices of love, and its fully- spread petals are like a happy inno- cence, f't symbols for the gifts for the Babe of spotless innocence, whose heart was the vessel of love. { { as Eve Legends. HERE are several exceeding: | ly touching legéhds concern. | ing bells, which are heard ringing from buried cities and villages | at this season. One belongs to a vil lage near Raleigh, in Nottingham shire, and the story runs that once, where there is now but a valley, there was a village which, with every trace of life and habitation, had been swal. lowed by an earthquake: but ever sioce, at Christmas, the bells of the buried church are hezrd to ring 28 of A similar legend is told cf Preston, in Lancasbire, and yet another and more moving one comes from the and shameless sins, as well as re- nowned for its beauty and magnifi- cence. To the Scdom of the middle ages came our Savior on one anni versary of his birth, and went as a beggar from door to door, but not one. {in all that Cliristmas keeping city | gave the Master of the abundance. Sin he saw rampant on every side; but not & trace of Christmas hounty and good will, and he called 1 he sex, which as of old, obeved his voice, and Been. the city of sin, was buried deep, clean out of sight, beneath the waves. But ever at Christmas m belieath the up from | known as a movable feast, just as Eas. lly to chase | coverilig waters comes the sweet oR ing of church bells buried in Been. It is a legend which appears to tell in parable that nothing which ever be longed to the Christ, and was dedi-- cated to his service, is ever wholly lost from him and alienated from service; that ever and again something of their inherent beauty and compelling sweet- ness rises from the depths through all seeming ruin. anger. RADITION declares that within the stone manger there was another one of wood, and that the stone cradle in the Chapel of the Nativity is, indeed, the outer manger. Splendid is that humble stone trough now with white marble, softly rich with costly dra- peries, and radiant with a silver star, which is surrounded by 16 lamps, ever alit. But yet more glorious is the wooden manger at Rome, held to be the veritable manger in which the Christ-child lay. It was removed to Rome in the seventh century, during the Mohammedan invasion of the Holy Land, and there it is preserved in a strong brazen chest, from which it is brought forth on Christmas days, when it is placed on the Grand Altar. It is mounted upon a stand of silver, which is inlaid with gold and gems, and the shrine in which it rests is of purest rock crystal. In the days in which this was actomplished men. whatsoever may havé been their thoricomings in other directions, gave magnificently to the Church Visible. istmas Bells. RADITION says that the hour of thé Babe's birth was the hour of midnight, and legend adds that from then until dawn cocks crow. In Ireland it is | lield that whoso looks into a mirror on | this eve will see the devil or Judas Iscariot looking over his shoulder, surely thought sufficient to drive the hardiest soul to a theught of the fnno- | cent Babe. | Another legend tells that, on Christ- | mas eve, Judas Iscariot is released from that hell--"his own place"--and "13 allowed to return to earth that he may cool himself in féy waters. Wild and improbable although such and such legends appear on their faces, they bear study and repay it, for we then see that they are full of subtle spiritual expression, as it were: that they are parables of certain spir- itual facts, and it will be ill for us should the Christmas day ever dawn on which such flowers of tender faith and wonder shall appear to us no more than dry curious specimens from the dead roots of superstition. What Christmas Means, Christmas means hope and its realization. The child Brows eagerly expectant as the time approaches for the visit of Santa Claus. While this fiction remains unques- tioned, the imagination opens new and wider worlds, and ideals become so much a part of the mind that the prosaic and commonplace can never crush them. Until the youth reaches man- hood and independence, Christmas is the happiest day of the year. Its gifts and hearty good cheer impress family affection, parental thoughtfulness and brotherly love. The dullest and most irresponsive of fathers and mothers are uplifted to a vision of higher life by the interchanges of souvenirs and -- | the merry meeting with children and grandchildren at the table and fire- side. Few can escape and all enjoy the meaning of the festival, the les- sons it conveys and the inspiration it gives, and we enter upon a brighter future and a fuller appreciation of the beneficence of the practice of faith, | hope and charity. The loved ones who have crossed to the other side, the loved near and far who are still | with us, the old homestead with its precious memories, the old church | whose sacred associations tie togeth- er childhood, maturity and age, love, marriage and death; the schoolhouse where the beginnings of education | were 80 painful, and the ever-increas- | ing pleasures of the pursuit of learn- ing through the high school, academy "= and college are recalled and recited, and there is exquisite delight in these oft-told tales, and new experiences en- liven this blessed anniversary. --Les- lie"s Weekly. First- Christmas Observance, Christmas gets its name from the mass celebrated in the early days of the Christian church in honor of the birth of Christ, its first solemnization having been ordered by Pope Telesphorus. This was in or before the year 138, for in that year Pope Teles- phorus died. At first Christmas was what fs ter Is mow, and owing to misunder- standings was celebrated as late as April or May. In the fourth century an ecclesiastical investigation was or dered, and upon the authority of the tables of the censors in the Roman archives December 25 was agreed up- on as the date of the Savior's nativ- ity. Tradition fixed the hour of birth. at about midnight, and this led to the celebration of a midnight mass in ah the churches, a second at dawn and a thixd in the later morning. At a wedding in the Italian section of Manchester, N.H., the bride shoY- ed expensive taste in the trimmings of her gown. waist was cow ered with yellow backed $20 = bank notes, which she pinned to the dress as they were given to her by friends. vour home it When people call at isn't necessary to ask 0. of your you want to PURITY --QUALITY-- FLAVOR : {BAKER'S COCO, It is absolutely pure, conforming to all Pure Food Laws. It is of high quality, being made from choice 'cocoa beans, skilfully blended. Its flavor is delicious, because it is made without the use of chemicals, by a strictly mechanical process that per- fectly preserves the appetizing NATURAL flavor of high-class cocoa beans. Tate sted, MADE IN CANADA BY - WALTER BAKER & CO. Limited MONTREAL, CANADA Ermpeurains 700 DORCHESTER, MASS. TIPPERARY BISCUITS Ten different designs of golden-brown crispness and sweet delicacy. These biscuits bear pic- tures of troops of all the allied armies, Union Jack, British Coat of Arms, and British Bulldog. The Kiddies will all want a complete set of them, and what could better carry the lesson of patriotism and courage to their little minds? . AAMAMAAAAAAALLAL ; YY They are, of course, of the same flawless quality that has distinguished Perrin's Biscuits for more than fifty years. Every Biscuit guaran- teed. At your grocers. VYYYYIYYYYYY ; D. S. Perrin & Company, Limited London, - Canada iy NR PERRIN LONDON A Double-Barreled Christmas Gift Once in a great while you may find yourself in need of an article that is not "Made in Canada." But Christmas gifts are another story. One's choice is not limited to any particular article, The gift that ve to one of your friends ma ge on Live ors follow who's out Canada." There's nothing he'll For one thing that is not "Made in Canada" which will make just. acceptable gifts. help to Eive 3 work, if i appreciate