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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 25, 1912)
i Merry Christmas in Monkville - M -rrrr i ,i, , 1 1 Christmas in the Mak ing Many Nations Have Contributed and Many Customs Art Blended Christmas In still in the frisking. In this respect It Is different from other holidays. The 22d of February Is fixed and limited in meaning. It cannot be made to appeal to the feelings of a Rus sian, who believes that Peter tho Great Ib the true type of a nation builder! La bor iy does not' arouse emotional In. terest In a poet or a musician. Memorial day. like tfic Fourth of July, Is intensely American in origin and meaning, Easter has a clear-cut, definite significance. That significance Is not likely to change. Christmas Is a complex holiday. To It many nations have contributed and many customs are strangely blended; It has not yet taken on its final form, it Is In the making; but wp can already see that It is to become the one supremo festival of humanity, the one tlmo In tho year when men of various traditions come nea t to realizing the fact that "God ,hath made of ono blood all tho nations 'o'f tliearthV It Is a pleasant cqpcglt to supjjqso jtha, the Christian, faihers,- somewhere .In- tho latter part of the fourth century, were impelled by a happy divination when they fixed on December 23, the Roman Sa turnalia, as tho day when most appropri ately Christ's day could bo celebrated; for on that day presents were exchanged mong friends, children being given little earthenware toys. Carnival processions formed, hospitality made universal, and the slnves allowed their freedom, and even Invited to feasts served by tho mas ters themselves. It was also a happy thought to weld together the Christian traditions that came down concerning the good St. Nicholas with those Norse tradl Hons which represent Father Odin, riding out from the north, far above tho house top., and bestowing his favors on the no ble and true, thus creating a symbol of Ierennlal generosity a glft-bringer who makes no distinction In his benevolence between Norwegian, Spaniard. Triton or .Italian, but bountifully remembers all sorts and conditions of men. Much of the past has gone into the mak ing of Christmas. Tho idea of the heathen Druid survives in the mistletoe; tho evergreen treo recalls the ancient Saxons; the lighted wax candles at the windows brings to mind the custom of the Jews, who celebrated, and still cele brate, tho "festival of lights." The yule tide, with Its flaming log. Its laurel and red berries, links Itself to the Persian 'Mlthrlan feast, and that with the Macca bean holiday of tho Illumination, and 'that again with the Saturnalia, and so on through many blended national customs, 'until the original holidays arc hidden in a primitive past. Christmas, bfcauso of its associations with Saxon and Scandinavian. Jew and Honian. pagan and Christian, can be Imudo Is being made the ono supreme human holiday when men nnd women realize that each is debtor both "to the (reek and the barbarian, both to the Aviso and the unwise." What Ih now td be especially Its tone chord which, when 'struck,' will vibrato . In unison with the ,heart-beat of every human being? Surely, 'it can be nothing that will have deeper significance than the 'angel song of 'Olory to God, peace on earth, good will to man." In that divine pliant thero is Inspiration enough to set everybody look ing up to the Source of all goodness; that Id Its flr.t idgnMcance, and then peace. (Peace to young1 and old, pence toward the German and the nusslan, the Mexi can and the Chinaman perhaps of most Importance in a democracy, the impulse Vjf good will; good will toward the heads f corporations and labor unions, toward 'tho Japanese in California nild tho Ital ians In New York; good will toward tho 'Hungarians Ih Pennsylvania and the negroes in Mlssllppl; toward the debtor class and tho creditor class. Christlike ,ood will. Our human relations here Ir. America are not all they ought to be. imld the struggles of commerco and com petition the principle pf good will seems somehow to sink Into the background. The emigrant dreaming of the free land where opportunity and work are gladlv offered, finds too often that he is met juot by helpers and compatriots, but by thieves and robbers. Then comes Christ anas. Kmployer shares with employe, the .rich give to the poor, the emigrant as 'well as the native feels the spirit of the day. Everybody takes new hope. The "world family, for twenty-four hdurs, an way, Is a fact. Christmas is the festival f the world family. That Is its value, tnd that Is what if must come to mean nore and more, especially In this complox 'American democracy of ours -Christian iRegtster. rhe e e; Tony Angelino's Christmas A Story from the Juvenile Court By Anthony M. Easterling mONl Angelino frouzy-headed, incorrigible Tony Angelino waited his turn among the other newsies who were hud dled in defiant or apparently submissive groups In the probation of ficer's "bull pen" Just off tho Juvenile court room. A truant officer, noting tho dreamy-eyed newsy, shook him good naturedty, but the friendly approach failed to bring the usual ready response from tho little Italian. "Maybe he's sorry," Bald the probation officer, who called him the "Dago." "Whnt'R Tony been up to this time?" asked a newspaper reporter, remembering that on divers and sundry occasions not many w;ecks ago Tony had stolen expens ive articles to give to his little friends, "That kid has stolen J100 worth of Christmas goods and had them cached In a vacant shack on lower Eleventh street. He's the limit. We'll have to send him up this time." Tony was In bad, thero was no denying It. The case lopked serious. Alrendy tho walls of the reformatory, looming up In the distance, out In the clay hills near Kearney, were waiting to receive him. "Nig" Callgllo and Joseph Ijivcro, each of whom was a good five years older than Tony, sat silent together in one corner of tho "bull pen." They, too, wero In trouble again, but as usual It was some mirror affair. They had broken a window with a snowbull. They know what tho court would do. "Boys, you want to bo good American citizens, don't you?" the Juvenile Judge would enquire, and they would pledge him their word of honor that it was their great and only ambition in life to be model Americans. "Of course you knew it was wrong to break that window and you nre sorry" the Judgo would continue, but they would oply hear when he put them on probation again and set them free. It was different with Tony. The Judge would be stern nnd relentless with him. The little curly-headed lad walked over to Nig and Jo. They wero his old pals they had stood by him In adversity, had established lilm In tho news business. To them ho owned his success. "You nlnt'a goln'a peach, are you?" Nig Inquired tremulously, although he knew and every newsy In Omaha knew that Angelino's word was as good a gold the kind of gold that looks like tho pen nies with which papers are bought, but will buy ever so much more. Tony did not answer Nig. Ha was med itating, his mouth puckered Into readiness to whistle, but he was not whistling. Now Tony knew and all of these boys knew that the crimes against property are more serious In the eyes of tfle law than are the crimes against tho person. They were not loquacious, but they were wise, knowing well how the scales would weigh. In the boy's dark eyes visions of the holiday season were vivid, for' it was the Yuletlde when the glory of Christmas days ought to throw its mantle of gentle ness over the harshness of the world. Tony began to whistle. How he could be so cheerful with such a fate ahead of him, none of the other newsies could understand. For that mat ter all of them would never understand and whether they did or not was of no Imcortance to AjiitUaa, He, wqs dream ne faazire p)a :Sherlocko as Santa 01aus ing. It had become a habit of his to dream. Urchin of tho Htreet, flotsam of the chastised and legitimate offspring of a commercial system that Is hurnano but to scourge, and gives but to take away, Tony had learned that real life Is up and beyond and awny from the every daj- oc curences. In the land of vision. The yesterdays of hi life were sordid In reality, but to him they had been n succession of dream-voyages to strange, enchanted palaces, nestled In low green valleys through which flowed tho silvery ribbon of a river. Thero tho only music was tho sound of running water and the laughter of enrofree children who waded In tho strenm or played In the soft, green fields. Thero no children worked. Sharply Tony was called from his rev erle. His case was next. The probation officer was already stating the charge: "Judge, I found this boy In a shack on lower Eleventh street and he had stolen at least tlCO worth of toys nnd other Christmas goods nnd stored them there. Ho wouldn't admit his guilt, but we traced the stolen goods and clerks re membered having seem Tony Angelino In the stores where these things were stolen. Ho's a bad boy. He has stolen overy time he had an opportunity. He stole expensive valentines and gave them to bis friends Inst year. He stole a load of bread last week nnd a policeman, en couraging him, paid for the broad and let him oft "Ho is Incorrigible, There are at least twenty-five cases known to the Juvenllo officers where this boy has figured as a thief. I recommend that, he bo sent to Kearney." He did not say that always Tony had stolen that he might give and never did he give that he might steal. "Tony, I thought you promised me that you would not do it again." the Judgo J Selected Uy EDWIN MARKI1AM. James Lone Allen In his delicately ar ttstlo novel, "The Heroine In Bronze," a i story pervnded and vivified by poesy. gives vistas of New York as the seasons come and go. Note the prosy streets and work folk touched by the light of his imagination: "All that day I wandered over the city, an unobserved spectator In the ancient open-nlr theater of great passions. As Into many lands, I entered; I passed', as through many races; traversed many un age, met many a story. "I beheld Abraham as he dwelt troubled of old on the Plains of Shlnar. I saw Job crouched faithful amid the ashes of Vr. In an open square I encountered Rebecca with her pitcher; and away from me once Ituth went, not walking barefooted amid the cleanness of allan corn, but slouching foulshod amid tho squalors of alien alleys. "In the Italian quarter, behind a scar let rag which curtained a doorway. I came upon Tarqulti leering at chaste Virginia. Along the nty shores of the , Greeks, leaning against n door-post of i I a tenement (as once she leuned against i the golden splendors of her proud father's THE BEE: OMAHA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 18)1: Coyprlght, 191!, stated slowly. He was In his heart u Just Judge, and he did not mean that bin do dsloiiH should do great Injustice, nor did lis fully comprehend that If Tony stole It was not his fault, but the fault uf tho system which kept away from him tho things that wore his, made him old In childhood and wlao with tho' wisdom of use. And had he understood he would have been helpless. "You have thrown me down. It looks like the only thing I ran do for you Is to send you to Kearney. They will help you out there for the superintendent Is a good man. He will help you to grow up into a real American," Tony hnd heard these words many times before and had wondered if the time ; iuA I - rt Romances in New York's Streets from her lips the word which the world has never ceasrd hearing In memory stricken Nauslcan. who loved and was not loved In return. "Where the Sicilians throng I met young paphnls, tuncfulest of herdsmen, without his crook and pipe and goatskin mantle; but not without his thick locks and tawny skin and resistless smile, as centuries ago Theocritus found him Idling, comely, shapely, In the slopes of woody Aetna home of fires and snows. "Down at the pier of it German steam ship company on the seaward edge of a waiting cfowd, I saw Elsa with her wrapt gaze turned down the bay, and as the mighty steamer approached I saw a warm Ixmengrln Just come from the val ley of the Scheldt yellow-bearded, yellow-haired, blue-eyed arrived never to leave her for the whiteness of Mont salvut. "Through the windows of a French pastry shop I saw Pierrot flour-sprinkled, and darting Into the shop from a rear loom 1 raw Columbine fly at hln.. take his pasty cheeks between her thumbs and forefingers and admlnUtor to his proper feature things well understood by them, then disappear again Into the myslerle of htr wpjk nnd jir j0y. National New As iv X C you've throw 1 would come when the Judge wotdd say them to him. As an afterthought the Judge nuked the boy why ho had stolen the Christ mas goods. Thero was a long pause and Nig and Jo shifted uneasily In their chairs. The time had come when they would know and perhaps to their norrow whether Tdhy Angelino would "peach" or stand true blue to the bigger boys. "I wanted to give tho other boys a few Christmns presents. Judge," tho boy ald. He spoke without pleading. Ho had chosen a "reformatory" to "fredom." The reporter could read the heart-hunger that shone In the boy's eyes ns he tumbled from the chair, ready. "Why not?" seemfd the question In the "Once I thought I had n glimpse -jf Highland Mary once u sticct Ophelia of some unprinccly Hamlet passed m with eyes too eager for the water's brink. Once I almost brushed against rouged Carmen as she wound an awning on tho sidewalk. "And once, near a church, I beheld, moving slowly toward It In spiritual revery, saintly Elizabeth going to the shrine for Tanuhsuser, whom Venus held fettered to the mountain, while liar own Prayers for htm took flight for Heaven. "As I wandered that summer day, these stories I saw and many others In imagin ation and remembrance. I watched my own story with many of them, under standing It more clearly in their distant lights, finding li overcast by their kindred shadows Far back I tracked the drama of the heart of man, forever changing, never changed." 1'olntrd I'flrnKrntilia, A man thinks lie would enjoy helping J his poor relation--! f he hasn't any. There's no monotony In the life of a ) woman who manic a man to reform him. Some people deuw a lot of plenbure from spreading ad news abo'Jt their friend. Drawn for The Bee child's old oyos forgetful that tincc tlmo Immemorial the reformatory, known bet ter ns the "Industrial school" was a bugnboo to Juvlnllo offenders. ''Why not? It won't bo no colder there. And X It have as much to eat Tho Judge ludn him goodby. Ilo had sentenced him to tho Industrial school until lio wns 21 years of ago or until such tlmo that he showed ho hud re formed nnd wns n fit subject to turn loose among the otliiir youth of the city, What u fine fiction! Tony was taken to the probation of ficer's room. Children were crying .there. Nig nnd Jo were silent, a little ushnmed that u baby should bear their burdens. Tony's stoicism wan a cause of envy utnong the other newslei. who could uo supre.8 the sobs that tosn up and choked thorn. A little mulatto, laughing, inn to Tony nnd called him by nnme. Tony pinched him and the llttlo pickaninny squealed with delight. Nig and Joe were released wth u reprimand, an they knew they would be. An offlclnl from the Industrial school took Tony In charge. "We'll go this afternoon." he said. As they left tho reporter, who had watched the procedure, heard Nig whis per to Jo: "If tho coppers find out we did It apd Tony wouldn't peach they'll sure sooU us, Jo." On the Instunt the roportt- bounded through the door after tho rtl'"ntlng of ficial and Tony. He came up to thum ns they waited for the descending elevator. "Why did you do It, Tony?" he queried. He kney Tony well and by Virtue of the fact that he treated him with re npect und never Jibed htm was admitted to the little tf Low's confidence Tnpv had many a tlmo "tipped him off" to a "feature" story. It wus Tony'H itmliiUon to bo a newspaper man. To him they were all-wise, omnipotent and very wealthy. "Say, you roixirter," be said cheorfully, with the light of affection In his ey, "don't you give It uway. Why. them guys staked mo to every thing I evor had. Whou dad and mother died thuy saved me from goln' to the reformatory Don't yon tell. Mum!" And as a matt In his own right ho extended his hand to bid his friend farewuU, Tears came unbidden to the eyes of Hie reporter, hardened ns he was to every form of human misery und degredatlon But there was a smile behind tho tears, for somehow, by a queer quirk of circum stance, Tony Angelino had vindicated nil the trust and love that the reporter had freely given hlin, "Good-bye, Tony, and we'll see you next summer when the weather's warm " For the reporter knew the Judge nnd would remember to tell him this story. And so Tony Angelino loft for the re form tchool, his only fit companion on hltr Journey being the vague, day-dreumz which had kept lilin as he was, 1 ;lit and clean up through the muck. He wns feeing on ahead. And so he dreamed, as he had to dream, for there was nothing about him fine and good and clean to look upon. Learning that this was true, had strangled the gladness In the hearts of other little children. And so Tony Angelino dreamed. But today I read In n book written by a learned pmfemoi' that day-dreams and all childish fantasies are low and sensual and that no good comes of them. I havo often read siKh things in the abysmal depths of the learned books, 0 8e by Gus Mager Whin They Kiss and Ttil-Whai Dt You Think of the Man in the CasQ? T IIKATIUCIS FAIRFAX. Her lips were so near That what else could I do? You'll bo angry, 1 fear, Wut her lips wero so near Well, I can't muko it clear. Or explain It to you, But her Hps wero so near That what else could X do? -WAUTKIt nUAItNEt). Was tho limn very wicked? Was the girl too cold, nnd did tho punishment fit the crlm7 Head nnd reflect on It. A. M. writes: "A young man had been courting a young lady fur six months, during which time he called on her thro times a wet U Ho proposed and was accepted. He called on her one evening nfter they were engaged and was standing nt tho dour about 10 o'clock taking leave of her. He shook hands with her, then drawing he to him. he kissed her. This was the first tlmo he had hissed her during .ill tho time he was courting her. "She slapped him In tho face for doing H, nnd he left very angry, and did not go to see her annin till she nsked him Vj. "M. claims he was right In doing what she did. "H. clnlms that she did not love hlin, or she would have been more affection ate." H would l Interesting to know how M. nnd H.. being disinterested parties, happened tn know about It, for The ureineM sin 'twlxt heaven and hell, la first to ks. nnd then to tell. But since (l,ty do know, und through them wo are learning of the story of a great crime, this first kiss Is not the dear little secret It should bo. No lon-jir a secret. It Ioi.k nil of Us sweet ness. A UHh that Is analyzed, discussed, or proclaimed on the bill botirdp, Is of no more vuluo than a handshake. Not so much, for there may be a tender pressure In a handshake that nover reaches the ours of M. and H. At, claims tho girl was right. H. asserts rh did not juvo the man, or she would have been more affectionate. I do not know If M. U a man or woman, the Judge trying this case, or simply OH the Jury, but M. Is right' This man cnlled on the girl three times a week for six months, He proposed mar riage, she nccfpted. And he didn't kiss her. He made of the sweetest experience life holds' ns cold and dummy an affair nn Jf ho were u tradesman engaged In dls licmjnr of a kit of mackerel. Tho rraten of heaven were opened to him and he did not enter therein. The plrl " did wrong In lettlnu Imr acceptance Btand Thore Is no one -with any knowledge of lovo lu IiIh hcHrt who will hold a girt to a vow mde In such arctic conditions. She thought she was ncceptlng a man Shi' learned she had engaged herself to an Ictelo. She didn't slap him then She was tou badly congealed. And women, even when badly congealed, havo a way of going on, hoping. Hn called again and again, and then, one evening when tho engagement had become as old as It was cold. Jie kissed her. Then, with her dliappolntment rankling In her- mind, she slapped him And alio had more than one motive In administering this very unladylike rebuke -she wanted tn ex..e her anger, of course, but r (i er'real reason Hhe want -.. 'i were made of Ice. She sl.i. . 4 him to see If the side of his face alio hit would crack and drop off. ft didn't. He was not the snow man she hud feared., He was flesh and blood, and ho was no very human that he got mad, Her heart was relieved of a great fear and flifi asked him to come again. She did not take his anger as an opportunity' for breaking the engagement. She re garded It hb a proof that her lover hadn't all Jcewnter In Ills veins, and asked him to come back. And here Is where M. and H. and you atld I aro no longer concerned, jr.. kod hr and ha be-" -so long. The rest of their courtship will be a happy repetition of what olhurs havo experlenceu hi youi.i tender remembrance, all through Ufa to ur-vent their hearts from growing old More Trouble Afoot. Tho stranger from N.w Zealand touched the Ixmdon native on the arm. "Tell mo why that company of women walks m clumsily and with so much clattering?" he said. "You'll find hoqt soon enough, guv. nor," the native replied. "Them loldles is on their Wy to tit" Ouses of Parliament, an' they're wearln' the 'eavlest 'obnalls the can l?y 'old on. It's 'shoe throwln' day miste". an' you want's to git ready to dodge an cut ' -