New Year Bells.
Now from every tower and steeple
Clan ? the bells with a gladsome sound ,
Showering down on the hearts of the people
The tidings glad of a year-new found ,
illng away sjrrow and pain and care.
Demons that brood o'er the lives of men.
Let not the sound of a world's despair
Fill our hearts with a deeper pain.
Welcome and greetings ; O ! new born year ,
With thy fair white page on which to write
The manifold changes that greet us here.
Which our hearts in sorrow or joy invite.
Write them down with a golden pen ,
Blessings many and joys a few.
Seek thy thoughts from the hearts of men ,
Who have dared to do rlxht and lived to be
rfrue.
Set thylhand to redress each wrong ,
And never faker In doing right ,
If to help a fallen comrade along.
Or do each duty with all thy might.
Duties will come with every day.
Scorn them not if they seem but small.
From God no action is hid away.
And He a recompense llnds for all.
So write thy deeds with a go'den pen.
Write them down for the book of life
Write them down In the heart of men.
And be a hero In every strlte.
WITH THE OLD YEAR.
" Seven eight nine ! Do you hear
that ? " asked the old clock in the cor
ner. "Here it is a full hour after your
bedtime , and yet you sit there staring
into the fire ! "
In front of the fire sat an old woman
gray-haired , wrinkled , feeble. The
voice of the clock did not disturb her ,
but as she watched the fitful flames
one could have read her thoughts.
"But it's excusable on this night , "
continued the clock , in softer tones.
"Heigho ! but it's the last night of the
dying bed , and if Heaven ever sent its
light to lead a soul across the dark
valley it was given to him. 1 remem
ber your tears and means and sobs ,
and you prayed that death might come
to you as well. "
The woman wiped her tears away ,
and there was a feeling of suffocation
as she let memory bring up the events
of other years.
" Eight nine ten ! " called the
clock after awhile. "How time does
fly ! It seems scarcely a month since I
was striking the last hours of 1S84.
Let me see ! Some one wept with you
at that bedside. There was a son and
a daughter. Ah ! now I recall their
faces their gentle ways their loving
words. Two years later there was
another death-bed more wails and
sobs , ami I saw the pall-bearers as
they carried the daughter's body out
of the house. It seemed as if the last
blow must crush you , and I well re
member of saying to myself that it
wouldn't be long beforeyou werecalled
to go. "
The woman held her face in her
hands and sobbed.
"Come ! come ! " chided the clock.
"Death is ever busy , and it must come
to each and every one. The past is
past , and we must put it behind us.
How happens it that you are alone
to-night ? Where is the son of whom I
spoke ? "
The woman choked back her sobs ,
and her lips moved as if she were
speaking the names of her dead ones.
For many minutes her reverie was un
broken , and she heard not the tick-
tack ! tick-tack ! of the steady old
clock.
" Nine ten eleven ! " suddenly said
the clock. "The son ? Ah ! how absent-
minded I have become ! Well do I re
member the day a woman with pale
face and frightened eyes opened the
door and handed you a letter , which
bore the insignia of death. You
opened it with trembling fingers , and
next moment you were like one dead.
There were days and days when you
hovered between life and death , and
for my part I gave up all hopes. Died
in a foreign land buried among
strangers over the sea. It was a blow
aimed at a heart twice broken. "
WAITING TO BE ASKED.
old year ! Three hours more and we
are done with 1885. You and I are
going to watch the old year out to
gether. Let's see ! How many years
have I seen come and go ? Forty ex
actly forty with this one. That's a
long , long time. "
The woman rocked gently to and
fro , and by and by the clock suddenly
called out :
"What ! Tears in your eyes ! Come ,
now , but that's no way to end the
old year. We were thinking of the
same thing. Yes , he was a good and
loving husband , and I'll say this for
both of you , that I never heard one
unpleasant word between you. It is
twenty years since he died. I could
look into his face as he lay on his
The woman covered her face and
moaned in anguish , and the clock con
tinued :
"Don't grieve so ; the dead are at
rest f orevermore. Life's mistakes may
need to be washed away with tears ,
but the dead have reaped their re
ward. You are old and poor and
broken , but who can tell what new
friends the New Year may raise up for
you ? I cannot tell you to forget the
past , for a mother's heart ever goes
out for her dead , but the New Year
may have some sunshine. Come , now ,
I am about to strike the Old Year out
and the New Year in. Let us greet the
New with a smile of welcome as I
count ten eleven twelve a happy
New Year ! "
If I
AT FOURTH STREET.
The woman did not move.
"Heigho ! " called the clock ; "we have
left the old behind ! "
Her hands had dropped beside her
and her head had fallen.
"Dead ! " ticked the clock , as the last
faint echoes of his bell died away.
"Verily , it is so ! The Old Year will
lead her soul from earth to eternity ! "
CHRISTMAS AND ITS CAROLS.
From the time when the angels in
augurated the custom , hovering over
the stall-cradle of the infant Jesus ,
carols and songs have ever been the
favorite music at the festal season of
Christmas , and antiquarians with all
their researches have not been able to
fix a date at which the popular idea
of celebrating the Nativity was not
carried out by singing and merry
making.
The old carols , however , were not
the long religious ballads now popular
among the peasantry of England , and
which were substituted by those close
cropped enemies to music and mirth ,
the Puritans , but dities of good eat
ing and drinking and general ] ollity , as
may be learned from a rare manu
script poem of the fifteenth centuiy :
The lewid peple than algates agre ,
And caroles singen everi criste messe tyde ,
Not with shamefustenes bob jocondie ,
And holey bowghes about ; and al usydde
The brenning fyre hem etenandhemdriuke ,
And laughten mereli , and maken route ,
And pype , and dansen , and hem rager ne ,
swinke
Ne noe thynge els , twalve daye thei woldi
not.
This is the earliest allusion to the
custom of keeping up the Christmas
festivities for twelve whichac
days , , -ac-
counts for our modern Twelfth Night ,
a great theatrical and general holiday
in England , but to which no attention
is paid in this country. The ancient
carol at the bringing in of the boar's
head at Christmas dinners , still sung
at Queen's College , Oxford , is as old as
the first Henry , for at his coronation ,
in 1170 , we learn that it was used as
follows :
Capat Apri defero , Reddens laudesDomino ,
The bores head in hand bringe I
With garlands gay and rosemary
I pray you all syiige merreli
Qui estes in convivio
The bores head I underatande
Is the chief service in this lande
Loke wherever it be fande
Servite cum cantico
Almost all the old carols have
Latin burdens or intermixtures , show
ing their monastic origin , and it was
when the English Reformation had
established the Episcopalian liturgy
that these Latin scraps were banished
from the jovial songs of Merry Christ
mas , the time when everybody was
feasted , when the meanest serving man ,
the lowliest peasant was welcomed
to the most lordly banquetting hall ,
placed beneath the salt , and among
the nobles and fair ladies , sang his
rude carols and played his merry
pranks ; as we read in an old author ,
"among the Christmas husbandlie
fare , good drink , a good fire in the hall ,
brawne , pudding and souse , and mus
tard with all , beef , mutton and pork
shred , pies of the best , pig , veal , goose ,
capon , and turkey , cheese , apples , and
nuts , with a jolly carol of the tune of
'King Solomon. ' "
Many of the early Christmas carols
are rude in structure , defective in
rhyme , and of a childish simplicity in
matter which appear very comical to
our enlightened generation , while some
deal with mericles appertaining to the
incarnation , of which nothing short of
the most primitive purity could per
mit the recitation. Of this latter class
is the Carol of Holy Mary and the
Cherry Tree , still , in a somewhat mod
ernized form , sung by the peasantry
and lead miners of the Derbyshire
Peak. It commences :
Joseph was old man
And an old man was he
And he married Mary ,
Queen of Gallilee.
Christinas carols were not confined
to the birth and babyhood of Christ ,
but were moulded on other Scriptural
subjects , one being called Dives and
Lazarus , commencing in the follow
ing whimsical manner , which , when
drawled out solemnly by a Derbyshire
psalm-singer , has a most ludicrous
effect :
As it fell out upon a day , richDivessicken'd
and died ,
There came too serpents out of hell , his
soul therein to guide.
Rise up , rise up , brother Dives , and come
along with me ,
For you've a place provided in hell , to sit
on a serpent's knee.
Another very curious carol of Christ
mas time , printed on ballad paper , in
black letter , may yet occasionally be
found pasted on a Derbyshire cottage
wall , which is headed "Christus Natus
Est , " and which is ornamented with a
rude wood cut of the Nativity , in
which are seen a number of domestic
animals with labels issuing from their
mouths. Thus the rooster crows ,
"Christus natusest. " The raven asks ,
"Quando ? " The cow answers , "Hac
nocte. " The ox bellows , "Ubi ? Ubi ? "
The sheep bleats , "Bethelhem , " while
a dove coming out of a cloud , bears in
its beak the legend , "Gloria fn Ex-
celsis. "
Very many of the early carols have
been irrevocably lost , as they were
handed down orally from generation
to generation and never became im
prisoned in type , and these of the most
singular character , too. Old crones
crooned them over to the cradled
babes , and young maidens learned
them from their grandmothers , but
cheap literature and national schools
have banished these customs , and the
carols have gradually faded from
b
DOI/LY MUST BE DRESSED.
memory , a fragment , a stanza , or a
line here and there being heard from
the lips of a shepherd lad or a Derby
shire milkmaid. Thus the glad songs
of Christmas tide which enlivened the
festivities of royalty in the days when
Christmas had its Christmas carols
And ladies' sides were hooped like barrels ,
descended to the serving men and
humble laborer and have eventually
been lost. "Thewellbelov'dservant , "
who , as Southey tells us , "in his lord's
castle dwelt for many a year , " and
who
could sing
Carols for Shrove-tide or for Candlemas ,
Songs for the Wassel and when the Boar's
head
Crown'd with gay garlands and with rose
mary
Smoked on the Christmas board ,
has made way for the modern fine
gentleman immortalized by Thackery
and "Punch , " and even the Christmas
carol itself has not escaped the degen
eration of modern times , but has been
used as a medium for advertising , as
is seen in "A Christmas Carol on Pekoe
Tea , " wherein we are told
How Christ was in a manger born ,
And God dwelt in a bush of thorn ,
Which bush of thorn appears to me
The same that yields the Pekoe tea ,
and after a long rigmarole of religious
fervor and cheap grocery zeal , ends
with the devout wish that
All who do these truths condemn
Ne'er taste one single drop of them
Here , or in New Jerusalem ,
with the added information that Pekoe
tea which is perfectly good and fine
may be found grateful and useful all
the year around , from Christmas to
Christmas , at Francis Hoffman's , at
the sign of the Golden Caddie on Tower
Hill , London. This carol was dedi
cated to "Queen Caroline and the
Princess Carolina and all the Royal
Family , " and was published in 1729.
In spite of modern change and novel
manners , there seems to be a growing
fondness for making much of Christ
mas , and long may it be before its
celebration shall become obsolete as
its carols.
IT IS CHILDREN'S DAY.
It is the children's day. Heap high
the grate and send the sparkles stream-
ine up the chimney. Let the roaring
flame outroar the chilling blast and
melt with Christmas warmth the frosty
breath of winter. Bring forth in gen
erous store good cheer , fill up the cup
to overrunning with wine of joy , let
mirth break bounds , and givefree
reins to all that buoys and lifts the
spirits to above the shocks and weights
of the experience of other days.
Where e'er the family takes sanctuary
let God's love pour its blessed light in
radiance brighter than in other days.
Through the wide land may a thou
sand times ten thousand hearth fires
low on happy faces , and in the genial
glow may the world of child-life ring
with a music born of happiness un
wonted. For one day let the better
angels of our natures take the harp
and make their sweetest melody. Let
not one strain be lost nor one discor
dant note be struck. Let all that
may make merry with gift and game ,
and greeting and cheer and kindly
deed. One day out of the year is not
too much , but all too little to give to
joyous ministrations , but however
much it may and should be made to
be to others , its chief felicity is for
young hearts yet unwrungby the cares
of life. The green wealth of the Christ
mas holly and mistletoe harmonizes
with the freshness of life's springtime ,
and every memory and association
make this a May-day of young experi
ence. For joy and innocence are sis
ters , and they are childhood's angels.
The Christinas day can be in its full
ness what it should be only as the
children's day , and only thus can all
its meaning be unlocked to older
hearts. Give up the day to childhood ,
and giving thus receive its richest gifts.
Make here a day to hang in memory's
halls a picture ever bright. Enwreath-
ed in evergreen , brightened with smiles
of joy , thrilled with the sin-prises of
loving ingenuity , crowned with gifts
and tenderness , that is the only Christ
mas which is illumined by the beams
of gladdened eyes and made musical
by the silvery chimes of childhood's
laughter. Give it to the children , then ,
and make it all the heaven that
heaven-born love can make it.
AT TWENTY-FOURTH STREET.