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Show CHRISTMAS IN HISTORY. Many rotable occurrences have taken placo at Christmas lime in the history of tho Christian era. Indeed, its pages are flecked with events which have had a momentous influence upon the progress prog-ress of mankind. A writer in tho Springfield Republican Repub-lican has compiled an exhaustive summary sum-mary of noteworthy happenings at the season of the Nativity. Tho first' observance ob-servance of tho birth of the Savior, of course, was that of the shepherds at Bethlehem. Early church authorities attempted , to confine Christmas celebrations to prayer and devotion, but they were not very successful, and, even in remoto times, Christmas was made a period of feasting and rejoicing. Until quite recently, re-cently, Christmas celebrations extended over several days, and were marked with gatherings of people who transacted trans-acted business affairs as well as making merry. One of the most noteworthy marks in the' history of Christmas events ivas tho crowning of Charles king of ' the Franks Charlemagne on Christmas day, S00. The coronation took placo in St. Peter 's church at Rome, and the crown was plaeed upon Charlemagne's head by Pope Leo III. Tho ceremony marked the founding of the holy Roman Ro-man empire, which continued until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Another famous coronation of Christmas Christ-mas day was that of William the Conqueror, Con-queror, who, on the Natal day in 1066, was made king of England when he received the scepter at "Westminster. A dramatic event during the celebration celebra-tion of Christmas was the murder of Thomas a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, Canter-bury, who was assassinated in front of the altar of the church of St. Benedict of Canterbury on Christmas day, 1170. Perhaps the most important of all events in profane history the signing of Magna Charts was the direct result re-sult of a Christmas day observance. The movement for liberty was begun on Christmas day of 1214, when imperative demand was made of King John, although al-though the document was not signed until the following June. Froissart relates an incident which throws light upon the Christmas observances ob-servances of the nobility in the old days, and shows how hardy and cruel were their sensibilities: "So it was on a Christinas day the earl of Fois held a great feast, and a plentiful of knights and squires as is his usage: and it was a cold day and the earl dined in the hall, and with him a great company of lords. After dinner he departed de-parted out of the hall and went up into a gallery twenty-four stairs in height. There was a great chimney wherein they made a fire. It was a small fire, and when the earl noticed it he said to the knights and squires about him: 'Sirs, this is but a small fire, and the day so cold.' Then Ernalton of Spayue went down tho stairs, and beneath in the court he saw a great many asses laden with wood to serve the house. Then he went and took one of tho greatest asses with ail the wood and laid him on his back. He then went up all the stairs unto the gallery and did cast down tho ass with all the wood into the chimney with the ass's feet upward. Whereof the earl of Fois had great joy, and so had ail that were t here. Probably the first noteworthy Christmas Christ-mas celebration to be held in America was that of the newly founded Plymouth Plym-outh colony iu Vi-. It seems that some "lusty yonge" nn who had come over in the Fortune, a small vessel ves-sel which sailed some time after the Mayflower, felt that it was unseemly to work on the birthday of the Lord. Governor Bradford records the event in these words: "On ye day called Christmas day. ; ve go ernor called them out to work j(as was used', but ye most of this i now colony cvuod themselves anil said it wente against their conscience to worke on ye day. So ye Govr tould them that if they made it a mater of conscience ho wnnld spare them till they wcro better informed. So he I led away ye T' z an i h. ft tl.-jm, licit w!,-n tii.y came l.oa.e a: uooue fiom ir worl.i', he found tie in in the stro'te, a', play, oteniy; s'-a.o pi "-'.;: c ye hair, and some at stoole-ball ami s'l'-U like sports. So he went, to them and took away thir impieiiiea t s an i told them tha' it was a-jainjt his con science that tle-v should . play ami others wnrke. 'if they made ye keeping keep-ing of it a matter of devotion, let them kepe their hint-i s, but ther should le no gameing or revell'ng in ye streets. Since whieh time nothing hath been attempted at-tempted that way, at least openly." The very life of tho United Stales was forever insured on a ( hiastmas day or, rather, Christmas night. The attack on Trenton was a supreme effort ef-fort of George Washington and his pitiful piti-ful army, but it was a successful one. Every American has seen the depiction of "Washington Crossing the 1'ela-ware." 1'ela-ware." The crossing wail effected on Christmas night, 177.1, and was undertaken under-taken in tho face of a blinding snowstorm, snow-storm, with the stream filled with huge cakes of floating ice. As the Christmas season approached that year King George's forces were making their leisurely way from New York to Philadelphia. The out-at elbows mob with "Mr." Washington was no cause for hurry. One of tho most important im-portant posts on the journey was the city of Trenton, and it was garrisoned by the trained Hessian mercenaries under un-der Colonel Rail. Washington determined deter-mined to strike a blow- which might revive re-vive tho dying spark of patriotism in tho breasts of his countrymen. Knowing Know-ing the bibulous way in which tho Germans Ger-mans were likely to celebrate Christmas, Christ-mas, he decided to risk an assault on the town Christmas night. That ho was successful is proved by the existenco of these United States today. Inseparably connected with Christmas Christ-mas is St. Nicholas, who was bishop of Mysa in the time of the Emperor Diocletian. Dio-cletian. Ho was persecuted on account of his faith. In art St. Nicholas is commonly depicted with three children, standing in a tub by his side. Of this there are various interpretations. One explanation is sousrht in the leyend of St. Nicholas miraculously restoring to life three rich youths who had been murdered and concealed in a salting tub by a thievish innkeeper or butcher in whose house they had taken refuge. A legend of St. Nicholas's surreptitious surrepti-tious bestowal of dowries upon three daughters of a poor man who was unable un-able to procure fit marriages for them is said to have originated the old custom cus-tom of giving presents on the eve of St. Nicholas, December C. Subsequently Subsequent-ly this custom was deferred till Christmas Christ-mas eve. Hence the association of St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus, a corruption of the Dutch for St. Nicholas, with Christmas. . St. Nicholas is the patron saint of Russia, the special protector of children, chil-dren, soldiers, merchants and sailors. |