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Show r THE DAWNING YEAR. NEW YEAR CUSTOMS Old-Tim- Rites end the Origin of Somo That Are Still Practiced. e New Year's Day baa been a day of eremony and rejoicing for a great any centuries In the world's history. Its origin Is traced back to the Roman festival of Janus, after the establishment of the empire. The old Romann divided the year Into ten months only. Numa Pompilius added January and February, and dedicated the former to Among the Saxons thn New Year was ushered In by friendly gifts. Later, this custom of making gifts waa carried to a ruinous excess. Henry IIL of England extorted costly gifts from hla court. Queen Bess carried It to such an extreme, says Dr. Drake, that her costly wardrobe and Jewelry was supplied in this way. When Henry VIIL waa receiving costly presents from hls courtiers, we Janus comas In read that honest old Latimer handed visw him n Bible, with some pertinent Wild hyacinths his robe adorn, And aundropa. rivals of the morn. chapters marked, much to the burly Ha apuma the goal aside. But amllee upon the year kings disgust with pride. Dr. r rake tells us that, in the h And now unlocks, with agate key. century, prince and peasant The ruby gates of orient day." alii- celebrated the New Year with On this day the Roman consuls, fol regularity and parade. lowed by the court, went to the cap Much was made of the waraall bowl ital, all gorgeously appareled, where at this season. It waa carried from they sacrificed two white bulla, never door to door with loud singing and merriment The word Is derived from yoked, to Jupiter Capltollnus. The Druids observed New' Year with was balls, the Saxon for "Here'a to great pomp and ceremony. One fea- you!" an expression still In use by 1 ture of their ceremonies waa the dis- men In pledging each other at sup. tribution iff the mistletoe among iho pert. The present loving enp takes people on New Year's eve. The the place of the ancient wnasall bowL In some of the country districts of priests went In annual procession, on the slzth day of the moon nearest the England old customs era still observBut they were too weak to slid. New Year, wearing white robes and ed. On New Tears eve, at midnight bearing a golden sickle with which to the last of the Christmas carols s All of them were wounded, half-sue-d detach the sacred parasite from the sung, outside of the house, by the and So the tree. Bo much did they esteem It that yourg people, then there la a rush for ment troops propped them, up In It was carried In a white cloth. It the nearest spring, and the first one and shot them as they foiled must be cut from the divine oak. In who fills hls or her glass gets what Only the white man jyys uriiumwfr'tu tiw gftfla. TL they Mil Ike cream ef thoweH.? and JUdSC-th- ar his "caiTSTcht be apple tree mistletoe, used In England, will be the most fortunate during the Into.' la a different thing altogether. We coming year. When he protested to Gen. Mi In the early hours of the morning, a all remember the mythological story s against the cruelty of shooting la held, at some public bouses, when funeral to of who, Eneas, descending captives that triumphant wai w Tom" (aa the old year Is to over "old was with take Avernus. compelled merely blew n cloud of cigarette an te him a branch of this plant to Pro sec- - called), when the boys parade the and remarked calmly: "Cent guerre." "Late on New Year's eve," said is American, "they tried me by c When I woke np on w Years morrlng I was In the ealabe e, sentenced to be shot at sundown, It wnsn't very pleasant waiting. I is quite glad when n of sr entered the cell toward evening, th a paper Informing me that hls e: the citizen president,' had m pleased to pardon me. In tjaaslderi m of the request of the Ameflcan mister and of the fact that Year's day. "I believe they had'never Inteijed to shoot me. but only to frighten e. for they hardly dared to touch s w te man whose courtry owned n navy at might bombard their ports. Anyl w, I got out of Jail In time to sat a dinner with some Amerlctn end I friends on n coffee plantation i nr Janus, 713 B. G " 'TI he I The two-fac- ed six-teert- GLOBE TROTTERS NEW YEARS Love of Adventure Has Landed Many Men in Positions of Discomfort and Danger. i lift h i bard-feature- iy d A grizzled, of aaa, whoee face bore thewaastamp eittlni adventure, and bard ship to the smoking room of a New York He happened to (lance at a mlwdir ud saw that the day-waDee. SI. By Jove! he exclaimed. "Bo la New Year's day. Unless nomethlng happens before then, It will be the quietest New Year Ive apent In twenty-thre- e years. "In all that time I have never been go gear my old home In Scotland as I am now. Often I've tried to set home, hnt somehow or other Neff Year has In always found me In a tight corner erne part of the world." This mans experience Is typical of In Oat of many of the globe-trotter- s this age. when people are so fond of "going to and fro In the earth and Walking up and down In It." like a certain personage In the Book of Job. New Years day, 1897, found one Englishman facing death from hunter and ttlret on board a life raft 100 ' miles routheast of Madagascar. His ship foundered seven days before In a hurricane. The boats were mashed by the fury of tbe waves and aome of the crew washed overborn!. The rect made a raft out of planks and pan. but during the night high seas wept over the frail structure and earned away moet of the water and food. "An we had left. said the man who went through this terrible experience, "were a few tins of potted meat, a mall barrel of biscuit anrd the smail-es- t of the water casks. That was all hunwe had to keep life In twenty-fiv- e nun-tanne- Mi. esr.i itiir f Vm Vmxw smoke on tbs sky line It was a New Zealand liner headed atralght for our raft. In a couple of hours her doctor was giving us a hearty dinner and slops and weak brandy and water." a fever-stricke- n. This came man spent anoth WNcjt Year's day off Cape Horn. He aalled from Valparaiso in a British "windjammer," expecting to reach hls Scottish home In time to spend hls first Christmas there for many yearn. But calms delayed her for weeks In the South Pacific ocean, and when she got off Cape Horn she ran Into a tearing gale, which brought her mlzzen down on deck and ripped out all her Balia. For days she drifted helplessly. exposed to the full fury of the western gale. The crew labored Induatriously at rigging up spare and bending new sails. It was a task of tremendous difficulty, for giant combers rolled over the forecastle head continually, ftlllrg the vessel amidships with green seas. Suddenly In the midst of this toll an apprentice piped out: "I say, fellers, this Is New Year's day. Have you all forgotten It?" "Belay your tongue," retorted the gruff old mete. 'There won't be any New Year dinner except your usual whack of lobscouse." The skipper wss superintending the work from the poop rail and heard the Mlragoane.1 conversation. "Cook!" he bawled out "Lay aft An American globe trotter tells nr here!" he once spent n New Year's day h nt Tbe cook came out of hls galley and Ing n crocodile In Jamaica, West Inthe captain asked what he could give dies. them for a faney dinner. After a long hnrt the crocodile fras gry mer. "Nothin but spilt peas, sir, an salt found burled beneath the mod "We made It last as long as we a could, but In four days everything was horse and marmalade. There aint no hallow bend of a river oi the pis The hunters only arrled s ill gone. Some of the men fell Into de- turkeya In my store room, sir," he said "Let's catch one o' them birds." shotguns, which wen useless ngn ist spair and talked about throwing themselves overboard. Perhaps they would suggested an old tar, polrtlng to sev- tbe beasts touch hide, covered it have done so, but dur g the night of eral abatrosres which were circling was several leches deep k mud. toe fourth day half a dozen big sharks about the wake of the ahlp. "We'll But the planter was a man of iswam around the raft In circles. The stretch a polrt this day and be for- source. He sent hurriedlj for negites sea was phosphorescent and we ennld given for It I guess." ard set them to work to construct wo After several attempts an albatnws strong walls of bamboo see them plainly In the waves of livid yiles aefoi haltwith a fishhook big fire which they stirred up ns thev was captured the bed of the stream, this lnclodn-- t ed with salt pork and dragged aboard the crocodile In a swam arourd. Even the prison from which .men who had talked about drowning triumphantly. Served up nice and he could find no escape. In gravy. It themselves shrark from death In a brown and swimming After the walls were built everyshark's maw and stayed upon the raff. looked so much like a real turkey that body hid quietly in the hll grass on mens and hearts the warmed It up "Next morning I raw by a pocket banks the and waited. Hour after of the holidays they diary which I carried that fhe day was made them think hour they laid there. Tlolr luncheon when home. But at had they mens spent Dec. 80. To keep up the spirits consisted of sandwiches nd n flask of I told them I had dreamed we were tasted It the resemblance ceased, it rum punch. meat was The and was cm New Year's tough. rescued fishy to be going It was not urtll the eft of the aftday. That appealed to the supersti- like knotted rope yarn and the gravy ernoon that the crocodt finding It a was tion Inherent more or lean In all sail- suggested tar. However. It could pot break through the bamboo ors. so I kept on telling them a ship New Year dinner ail the name, and It barriers, crept rut of thawater. Befinest as as the keenly would come along and pick us up on was enjoyed It fore could drag the fholt of Its that day sure, until I began to believe feast ashore that day. carcass out of the huge even discussed graveIt myself. We lassoed and hauled towar An American traveler, who la well ly whether the sail would heave In twenty willing hands. InIn West or the In the afternoon. known the commercially morning night Too surprised to offer rhstaiiee. the nd one man who said he guessed It dies, wss mixed up In one of the perenalwould be toward evening became quite nial revolutions of Haytl In hls hot beast at first suffered Itclf to he on the hnk: hut It most sidragged he foolish and youth. Unhappily, unpopular. "New Years morning broke with a lled himself with the weaker aide, and caught on the edge with Its foreoawa dead calm on the oily, blistering sea one New Years eve found hlmse'f one and made a desperate strggle. Twento the othand a biasing sky that aggravated our of a amall band of desperadoes de- ty jrclllnr rogroes hung er end of e rope, but cold not drag e thirst tenfold. There was not a ship fending the stockaded town of e up: they could only In sight all morning nothing except against a government army, that monprevent it from flopping kck Into the that glassy sheet of water and that which outnumbered them by water again. Honors w're even In cruel, cloudless sky above us. It was th an 100 to L that terrlflc the same In the afternoon, and onr the the night government During At laet a yoke of eight oxen had to hopea fell as the sun sank slowly to- soldiers forced their way into the town. ward the western horizon. Only about thirty of the defenders be brought. They soon dragged the "Just as we were beginning to dm were left alive. hrast to the bank, when it was tied tsnalr, one of the men screamed hyster"Stand (hem up Ir. a line and shoot around e tree and dlantcbed with axes. ically and pninted to a thin trail of them.'' commanded Gen. Manlgat. lp-lea- ton-ma- New Year's day waa a great day la New York with the early Dutch settlers. It waa ushered In by the ring lug of bells and firing of guns. Washington Irving, in hla humorous Knickerbockers History of New York," gives a delightfully amusing account of the observance of New Year among these Netherlander. "The wnole community," he tells us, "was deluged with cherry brandy, pure Holland and mulled cider; every couse was n temple of the merry god, and many a provident vagabond was intoxicated out of pure economy, drinking liquor enough to serve him the remainder sf the year." Irving dwells especially upon the great ball given at the Governor's, old Peter Btuyvesant, New Year's night, "when the good Peter was devoutly observant of the pious rite of kissing all the womenklnd for a Happy Naw Year." On this day the governor alao distributed fiddles to the old negroes, who fiddled nil night while the young people danced. Under Peter was Instituted "quilting bees," "husking bees," and other rural assemblages, where, under the Inspiring Influence of the fiddles, toll was enlivened by gayety and followed by a dance. The governor did not approve of the short skirts worn by the ladles and. ordered n ruffle put at the bottom of them. He likewise disapproved of ' some of their etepa in dancing, and ordered that no other step ahould bs taken but the "shuffle and turn," and the "double trouble. The custom of New Years caning The Joyous New Year gold-lace- d to-da- b I ta-tlo-n. half-craze- d Mira-gonn- Take the child in and Who comes dancing over the snow. His soft little feet all bare and roayT Open the doer, though the wild winds blow. make cozy. Take him In and hold him dear, He la tha wonderful New Year. A him - |
