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Show ST. LUJiE S DAY. jrie-e seemed no particular rms'iti whv fit Luke's day should be the ocanion of the Old pish 'fair at New York h-'A in MIokl Hate. This used to be H fair ihieflv for wooden dlt-hes. ladles and so on and 11 ridicule the smallness ar.d un-importanre un-importanre of the wares sold an.) bought at It an old custom prevailed of .anv iug about a large wooden sj o.,n in pro. , esslrn. borne by four laborers, ea' h one r.f whom was carried by another laborer There must have been many unemplove.l in the York of olden days, but the custom cus-tom l Interesting to note on aroount of It analogy with the contemptuous use of the wcxiden spoon at Cambridge The spoon as a symbol of poverty or of wealth I very English. Our proverb about being born with a silver spoon In the mouth, for Instance. Is rendered In French far more charmingly as "etre ne 1 Pgt Luke's day Is also railed Whip Dog day In the almanacs, wheh refer us to the calnt offices of dog whlpper and sluggard slug-gard waiter that used to be held generally gener-ally rT on Pr"on attached to every rhurch. As late as llI there Is a record of one of these officials at Punchurch. who. armed with a wand that had a fork at the end of It. used to go round the church during; sermon time and wake the y!eeere by crooking It around their necks fiopnettmes the wand had a fox's brush atJbe other end with which to arouse jBi Veepers more courteousry. In some pIbVjT the whip for driving doga out of the' church ! sjiill preserved; and till quite recently the schoolboys had a custom cus-tom of whipping the do-s out of the streets on St. Luke's day In a similar way. A curloua entry fh the Wakefield church accounts runs thus: "170.t: For hatts. shoe, and hoses, for sexton and jaog whJpper, 18s. d." London Chronicls. |