| Show STUDENT LIFE awake miss the sheep suspect Mak and search his house They are made to think that the object in bed is a child so apologising for their suspicion leave They return again however to make the child a present They raise the bed clothes and find they have been deceived Mak is seized taken outside and beaten The shepherds are beating Mak when the angels appear and show them the ‘"star” telling them of the birth of the Child Jesus So the shepherds hasten to His Cradle —in the manger at Bethlehem Of course all this seems gross and irreverent to us just as do many 75 of the acts of revelry in the actual Christmas celebration of that day But in it all we can see one everlasting principle — the distinctive feature of the Anglo-Saxo- n race and that is energy power accomplishment The passage of time has softened the temper and polished the manners of the sturdy Briton Old customs have taken on a new beauty from the antiquity they have But the Christmas seaacquired son is still one of whole-soule- d kindness and rejoicing and the Christ child in the manger seems to the British heart a reality rather than a mystical abstraction A Way That Was Peculiar Jonesville could not boast of a champion baseball team the fastest pacer had never been stabled there and none of its public men had ever paid a visit to the White House The fact is Jonesville possessed nothing of which the worthy inhabitants could boast except “Pi of Mary Walker Evans’ Ladies’ Concert Band” This famous (?) musical organization was the pride of every man woman and child in the village all of whom would show a disposition to fight if any derogatory remarks concerning Prof Evans’ musicians Walker Mary reached their ears Before the story progresses it might be well to relate a little his tory in connection with the band Prof Mary Walker Evans its illustrious founder possessed a natural talent for music After the death of her husband old Jim Evans the town wag she supported herself by giving private instructions on “musical instruments of any nature” so her card in the weekly paper an- nounced All of her students knew more or less about music Prof Evans as she desired to be called originated the plan of a ladies’ band in Jonesville After she had deter-minetc carry it into effect she selected fifteen of her most promising lady pupils who were learning to to play anything from a jews-har- p a bass drum and on securing their solemn promises to say nothing of G |
