Plattsdioulh Daily News
HEWS HERALD PUU. CO. Publishers
V r 11 "SA of.
PLATT5MOUTH,
v
NEBRASKA
1 BTf.JVI
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Flow tewie was the "ld you got?
Why Kluiuld n good barber want to
pose us a writer?
Soon (lify'll be cracking Jokes about
the follow tlint rocks the uir.hip.
New York hole Is are crowded. No
wonder champagne has gono up.
King Manuel of Portugal in look-in
for a wife to help keep his throne
from rocking.
I'nrlo Sam now possesses tho fast
est big battleship In the world, but
feels at) peaceful us ever.
Don't bo lazy this winter, else you
may be seized and put under a ma
chine that detects bookworms.
Whnt If butter does soar If one has
the money to buy it and the bread to
spread It on? Everything Is looking
up.
A super-super Dreadnought Is to
have a displacement of 30,000 tons. It
may soon be necessary to widen the
ocean.
It Is cla'nird that Mfe can bo sus
tained In New York city on 13 cents
a day, but few are willing to test tho
matter.
Late returns from New Jersey indi
cate that the mosquitoes carried the
entire statu in spite of the cool
weather.
An nstrrinqtner says Mars Is sur
rounded by a "gloomy veil." What a
striking resemblance to the push
headquai teis!
The ttiiliine type of engine seems to
have scoied a great triumph In the
builders' trial test of tho battleship
North Dakota.
Tho taxlcab Is now up against the
jlnrlcklahn In Japan, and It is not win
ning fo easily as it did in the contest
wllli (he horse.
Tho camera In conscienceless In the
hands of a conscienceless man, wheth
er he bo on ti e top of a mountain or
In the depths of the sea.
Tho three-yen r-old Boston boy who
hns mastered tho primer In two weeks
will be In Drowning before his play
mates are out of plnaforcB. :
The railroads have the honor to re
port that there are no longer any
empty freight cars standing on the
sidings. Prosperity has "came." ;
Women who wear big bats find lit
tle satisfaction In the declaration of a
teacher that men have a right to
laugh at such pieces of headgear.
An English workhouse has trans
ferred nil Its snoring contingent to the
deaf dormitories. The humanitarian
movement Is widening tm oil sides.
The secret society man who gave
the sign of distress to tho jury which
was trying his case, has rightly now
an opportunity to test the same upon
a Jailor.
The queen of Holland has invented
an Improved baby carriage Over In
Holland the best people continue to
regard It os worth while to raise
babies.
This country never did dread any
foe that it might have to face, so that
1U possession of the greatest Dread
nought ship Is typical of Its character
istic attitude.
A Chlcagoan has won the title of a
Diodel husband. Doubtless he did the
thrashing of the children himself, In
stead of throwing tho burden on an
overworked wife.
Something surely Is doing in this
country when one of the New York
trunk lines of railroads finds Its traffic
for September and October greater
than In any two months of Its previ
ous history, and Is able to expend
J85.000.000 for new equipment and
betterments.
The new tennis court at tho White
House occupies a place near the largo
fountain on the south lawn and a per
fect view or It mny be obtained at all
times from tho portico and windows
of tho White House. Thus If tho presi
dent plays. Mrs. Taft can sit In a rock
ing chair at the window with her sew
ing and wa'ch htm nimbly hopping
a'rdllnd lo meet the ball.
The announcement that the Culebra
cut fa half roinplctcd foreshadows the
finish of the Pnnnma canal. The cut
Is through "the backbone of the hemi
sphere." tio ridge which passes down
and connects the "three Amerlcns."
The work there has been steadily
pushed under the supervision of tho
American engineers, who took up the
task the French excavators left un
done. Assurance that the cut will be
completed In (our years strengthens
belief In the assertion that tho canal
will bo ready for operation by 1915.
SFPisfi
R ro
2 A T JLKJ,
1"1 J
w
Will South America never learn
that the revolutions are a dangerous
foe to Its progress?
The curative properties of radium
ha?e been for sometime recognized,
imt the exnense Involved has nlneoil
the treatment far beyond the reach
f the average man. Every encourage
tnnt therefore. Is to be riven tho
movement undertaken by scientists to
establish such treatment under charit
able auspices. It will be another step
forward in ameliorating me ins or tiu
rianlty.
IX the world
keeps Christ
mas dny. From
tlie land of the
midnight son
to the sonny
south of per
petual tHinntier
Is a far cry.
Ilut in the long
distance there
la no land
where Cbrist
m a s la not
kept Its cele
bration Is a part of the universal
history of the human race. What
ever may have been its origin and
whatever peculiarities may bare
gathered about it In its adaptation
to different people and different
circumstances, it is to tis Ameri
cans today a practically national
feast.
To keep it was at one time, and
In our own part of the country, it
Is true, a penal offense. It wag
thought to savor of prelacy and to
foBter unpleasant memories of po
litical servitude. But it has grown
with our growth and the broad
mindedness of the American
people is seen at ita best in the
hearty commemoration of the na
tivity of the Christ from year to
year.
In some parts or the country, In
fart, Christmas day bids fair t
supplant Thanksgiving day, and it
certainly may already claim an
equality of recognition with the
time-honored national festival of
our New England forbears. People
of every creed and every nation
ality within our borders delight to
participate In the celebration of
the, Christmas feast, and many a
scion of old-world stock finds him
self back home again as the church
bolls peal and the candles glim
mer on the Christinas trees. It Is
a time of universal peace and
good will. It brightens homes,
softens nsperltleB and uplifts us
as It brings "the light that never
was on land or sea."
The Origin Unknown.
The origin of the festival Is said
to be lost In antiquity. If. m hM
by many, it Is a Christian feast grafted on to
pagan one, Its history Is age long. The ac
tual institution of Christmas as the celebra
tion of the nativity of Jesus Christ dates from
the second century of the Christian era. St.
Chrysostom says that it was observed from
the beginning, according to western" practice,
from Thrace to the Straits of Gibraltar, and
be calls it "the most venerable, the mother of
all the rest."
But as to the time of the celebration there
was a diversity of observance. The early
Christian church naturally kept Easter as com
memorative of the resurrection of Christ,
which the apostles were especially chosen and
Instructed to proclaim, and the feast of Pen
tecost, which becamo the birthday of the
church, came next In order. Then to these
were added two others, the one commemora
tive of the baptism of Jesus Christ and the
other of his birth. The first of these, the
Epiphany, or Manifestation, came from the
east to tho west. The second, Christmas, or
tho nativity, came from the west to the east.
The two were officially recognized nnd quite
widely kept in both the east and west In the
rourtn century, in a sermon preached by the
Golden-Mouthed in Antloch on December 25.
A. D. 386, he speaks of the festival of Christ
mas as having first become known there 10
years before and on another occasion lie in
vites bis hearers to participate in Its
proachlng observance.
nut as to the reason for the selection of
December 25 as Christmas day, first arrived at
by the Hlppolytes. there is much difference of
opinion. It is held by some that the German
name of the festival "Weihnacht," is a literal
translation of the Hebrew "Chanuka," the
Jewish festival of the purification of the
temple by Judas Maccabeus, which begins on
December 17, and that as the raasovfr nnd
Pentecost were perpetuated In K&ster and
Whitsuntide, so the festival of the Purification
lias been preserved In Chrlstmastide and the
practice of burning candles on the Christmas
trees has come from the old Hebrew feast.
Early Festivals.
Rut the Purification can hardly be num
bered among tho greater and important festi
vals of the Hebrews and, as Srhaff says, there
Is really no Old Testament foast correspond
ing to our Christmas. The weight of opinion
as to the time of year chosen by th Chris
tian church in the west lies in another and
entirely, different solution of the question and
links the Christian observance to the ancient
practice of the heathen world.
It must be remembered in this cannection
that the particular date was first fivoA upon
by the Roman branch of the church, and at
that season of the year a series of pagan fes
tivals occurred which were closely interwovea
with the civil and social life of the Horn an
people. These festivals had an import which
lent Itself to the growth of the -Christian
faith, and they may , have been spiritually
adopted by the church in order to counteract
thlr evil tendencies and at the same time ad
vance the cause of the new rcllglo.
The Saturnalia, for tnstance, represented
the peaceful times of the golden age and abol
ished sharp distinctions between citlaea and,
serf. But It was a time of wild and unholy
revelry. Then the Ilrumalia the feast of the
shortest day, or winter solstice was the com
memoration of the birthday of the new sua
about to return to the earth. It was the "dies
natalls invlctl soils." In the old mythology of
the sun worshipers it was the birthday of
Methras himself, and. tn tact, the time of year
when from unnumbered ages before the Chris
, REGINALD
HE WASSAIL OYfX
or 5viNMie
ROASTED
ap-
Oteert
tlan era pagan Europe, in all its tribes and
peoples, had celebrated its chief festival. So
here we have the double truth of the golden
age and the rebirth of the unconquered sun,
as he. breaks the power -of darkness, refined
and enriched in the Christian teaching of
"peace on earth and good will to men," as
coincident with the rising of the Sun of
Righteousness in the birth into the world of
tho son of the peasant woman who was also
the Son of God.
This view of Christmas accentuates . the
true place of the Christian religion in relation
to the ancient and deep-seated religions which
preceded It, and at the samo time reveals a
beauty of development in its culmination as
the completed manifestation of God to man.
In the Infancy of the race the winter solstice
was everywhere a season of rejoicing. No
matter what the peculiar form which it as
sumed. It expressed the world joy of the time.
So the very idea of the Child God which gives
Christmas its meaning may not only have been
foretold by sybil and seer and prophet, but
prefigured by the Infant gods of the Greek and
Egyptian and Hindu and Buddhist forms ll
religion.
These to us Imperfect au unsatisfactory
conceptions of the Di
vine may have been the
rudo but houest efforts
of the earlier days of the
human race to group the
idea of a God-man which
has been made so real
and so full of joy to us
in the Nativity and the
Epiphany of the Christ.
In this senso the early
church may have been
wiser than she wot of.
Her aim was to select
the best features of the
heathen feasts and cm
body them for their puri
fication In Christian
practices and sacred
rites and to wean the
converts from their old
superstitions to the
deeper and more real
truths of the Christian
faith.
But in so doing she
may have been tho un
conscious instrument of
a divinely guided evolu
tion In religious practice
and belief which has en
nobled and enriched the
world. The symbolism
of our Christmas today
certainly lends Itself In
many ways to this point
of view. In the greenery
with which we deck our
houses and churches and
in the gift-laden fir trees
which gladden our chil
dren's hearts, we still re
tain the symbols by
which our heathen fore
fathers signified their
faith in tho power of re
turning sun to clothe the
earth with green and
hang new fruit on the
trees. The Christmas
carol may be a new
birth of the hymns of
tho Saturnalia. The
holly and mistletoe
came from the Druid
NECHT RVPRECHT
worship. The banquet
time itself may be a sur
vival, purified and refined,
of the original feast to
the gods and goddesses of
the fabled Olympus. The
"Yule" of "Merrio England" is the old Teu
tonic name of the religious festival of the win
ter solstice, during which Celt and Roman
could trace the movements of their deities as
they walked abroad in the world.
The Story Christmas Tells.
The Christian religion Is not merely some
thing built over the old ethnic religions as the
church of St. Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome is
built over the ruins of the old heathen temple
of Minerva, or as the grove sacred to Adonis
was planted by the order of the Emperor Had
rian over "the cave close to the village" which
is now honored as the scene of the Saviour's
birth. It had a larger and a deeper meaning.
Chrlstmns tells the story of a gradual but
complete unfolding of the divine Idea of relig
ion as seen In the Christ Child, of Its worship
and its merry-making In its at once sacred
and social feast.
The story is told simply but graphically by
two of the four evangelists. St. Mark's gospel
begins with the baptism of tho Christ, so log
ically he had no need to tell tho story of his
birth and boyhood. St. John wrote near the
close of the first century, and with the domi
nant Wea of settnlg forth the divinity of
Christ in opposition to the prevailing gnostl-
clsm of tho time. But St. Matthew,
whose narrative bears traces of hav
ing been gleaned from Joseph and St.
Luke, who probably got his informa
tion from Mary, have given us the
story with a directness and a human
ness which the grotesque and often
meretricious wonder-tales of the apoc
ryphal gospels have but served to ac
centuate as a dark background to a
touching and reverent picture.
Around the story legends natu
rally gathered. It was the custom in
early days to decorate in this way
tho graves of heroes and some of
these legends are no doubt tho off
spring of the "vulgar tattle" of tho
apocryphal gospel stories. In some
parts of tho world the bees are said
to sing on Christmas evo. Tho cattle
kneel In honor of the niangcr-bed at
Bethlehem. The sheep go in proces
sion In commemoration of the angels'
visit to the shepherds. The Indians
creep through the winter woods of
Canada to see the deer kneel and
look up to tbo Great Spirit. In the
German Alps the cattle are thought
to have the gift of language, r.nd the
told of an Alpine farmer's servant
who hid In the stable on Chrstmas eve and
heard the horses talking about his own death,
which followed a few days later.
A Bosnian Legend.
There is a Bosnian legend that the sun
leaps in the heavens and the stars dance
around it. A great peace comes stealing down
over mountain and forest Tho rotten stumps
stand straight and green on the hillside. The
grass is beflowered with blossoms and the
birds sing on the mountain tops in thanks to
God. In Poland the heavens open and Jacob's
ladder is set up between earth and sky. In
Austria the candles are set in tho window, that
the Christ Child may not stumble when he
comes to bless the home. In north Germany
the tables are spread and the lights left burn
ing for the Virgin Mary and her attending
angel.
The English superstition is admirably
voiced by the myrlad-mindod Shakospcare in
"Hamlet:"
Some say that ever 'gainst that nouaon conies
Wherein our Lord's birth Is celebrated, .
The bird of dawning slnxcth all nlRlit long,
And then they say no pplrlt can walk abroad.
The nights aro wholesome. Then no planuts strike.
No fairy takes, nor witch halh power to charm,
So hallowed and so eraclous is tha time."
3
story is
If a man will compliment his wife upon her
youthful appearance and tell her that he loves
her, she will forgive other white lioa.
mntui
mi
mm
N EVERY Roman Catholic church and in probably
nlnety-and-nine out of every hundred Protestant
churches throughout Christendom this is the sea
son when is heard that grand old hymn whose
tender and solemn strains find an echo in the
universal human heart "Adeste Fideles" (Come, All Yc
Faithful). It is tho anthem sung at high mass at Christ
mastide for centuries past, calling Christ's worshipers to
Bethlehem, where the new-born Savior lies.
This naive and beautiful Latin anthem is more ancient
than its history, and goes back six or seven centuries.
Saint Bonaventura, an Italian monk of the thirteenth cen
tury, who died in Lyons, France, in 1274. Is credited with
the authorship of the beginning:
Adeste fideles,
Laeti triumpbantes,
Venite, Venite in Bethlehem.
Natura videte, Regem nngelorum.
Venite adorcmus,
Venite adoremus,
Venite adoremus Dominum.
Oh, come all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant.
Oh. come ye, oh, come ye to Bethlehem.
See the new-born Saviour, king of all the angels.
Oh, come let us adore him,
Oh, come let us adore him,
Oh, come let us adore him, Christ, our Lord.
' Saint Bonaventura was a Franciscan scholastic philos
opher, and was surnamed "Doctor Seraphlcus." His pre
served writings are of a dogmatic or didactic nature ex
clusively, and this hymn is not to be found among them.
Doubtless it is to be referred to the seraphic side of his
genius and temperament. Its classic Latin cadencesare
of such lyric felicity that one cannot help but bellove
thty were written to the noble and touching melody on
whose wings they have floated to our time. Surely this Is
not too fantastic a suggestion, when it Is remembered that
the original Greek music of the Delphic hymn to Apollo
is preserved Intact, and that certain familiar phrases ol
the Gregorian chant, used to-day In the Roman mass, are
Identified by Hebrew historians as the same which wer
sung in Solomon's temple many centuries before the time
of Christ.
The hymn "Adeste Fideles" is not known to have been
used in England earlier than the seventeenth century.
The musical setting, as we have it in modern notation, Is
ascribed by Novello to one John Reading, who was
organist at Winchester cathedral from 167S to 1681, and
later at Winchester college. Its real origin Is lost in the
mists of antiquity which probably far antedates the middle)
ageB and the Latin verses to which it has beon insep
arably wedded.
Word-language reaches but the one people or race to
whom it Is directly addressed. But the language of muslo
is universal It is "understanded of the people" Instantly
all the wide world over it needs not to be written In
choice Latin nor translated Into many tongues it Is
caught up from the heart and echoes on forever. That is
why the "Adeste Fideles" has become the Christmas
hymn of all the world.