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Show t a. A '1, LIFE HMD Wives of President and Cabinet s- Ofncers Kept Busy.. -- SoclalDutles of Women In Washing Onerous Sometime They Break Dowi) Under the ton-A- re Severs Strain. LL the world Christkeeps mas day. From theland of Washlngton,-Wome- s, iX4RR,MX bus-ban- ds distance there is no land where Christmas Is not eele-- bratlon is a part oft the universal history of the What- human-race- r- ever may have been its origin and whatever peculiarities may aspire to husbands becomd preal-dent- s of the United States or or members of the president! cabinet, would do well to consider the social responsibilities whleb would fall to them, as well as to pre pare themselves to give up tbelr to the public service. The life of these women In Washington largely Is public In Itself. There are heavy, demands on tbelr time for social duties which are to many distaatefuL Nevertheless, 'these duties cannot bw thrust aside unless by serious Illness. One winter's social campaign in' Washington has wrecked mora'lhan one womans nerves. It Is no secret that Mrs. Charles W. Fairbanks, wife of the former vlee- president, broke down under the pree- - " sure of her social position. Still more recently, Mrs. William H. Taft, the wife of the president, passed clsm of the time. But 8L Matthew through serious illness, which, while whose narrative bear traces of hav- not due to a winters social campaign St In the White House, is believed to bn ing been gleaned frpm Joseph and Informahis who got probably Luke, the consequence of the long strain tion from Alary. have given ua the abe endured" durlng her husbanda human story with a directness and a campaign for the presidency ness which the grotesque and often One Inevitably atrucklq.Wash- - . wonder-taleao- l apocthe meretricious with the fact that the social tngton ae to ryphal gospels have but served duties of the wife of the centuate as a dark background to a practically parallel the official touching and reverent picture of her husband. The office of duties natuAround the atory legenda has corns to be held by In custom waa the It rally gathered. as a sort of fifth American the people in way thla early days to decorate In case of emeruse for wheel, only ol the graves of heroes and some Nevertheless, ths gency. offthe doubt no are these legends presides dally over the sesslona the spring of the "vulgar tattle ofsome of the senate and has his time aa In apocryphal gospel stories. aald fully occupied as the president himpsrts of the world the bees arecattle self. The If be Is a eve. The to sing on Chriatmaa for the president, companion congenial d at kneel In honor of the manger-bebecomes a sort of an assistant to Bethlehem. The sheep go In procea-ioof the angela' him. In the Taft administration the In commemoration between President Taft visit to the shepherds. The Indians relationship James 8. Sherman and ol woods winter the creep through recent administraIn than closer is and "kneel Canada to see the deer tions. j. look up to the Great Spirit In the Aside from appearing at all such German Alps the cattle are thought to have the gift of language, and the social affairs, non of which la ever ; a servant held at the home of the glory is told of an Alpine farmer eve and Chrstmas on who hid in the atable heard the horaea talking about his oWn death, which followed a few daya later. A Bosnian Legend. There la a Bosnian legend Jbat the aun leaps In the heavens and the atars dance around It. A great peace comee stealing down over mountain and forest. The rotten stumps stand straight and green on the hillside. The and the grass la beflowered with blossoms birds sing on the mountain topa In thanka to God. In Poland the heaven open and Jacob ladder is set up between earth af sky. In AugtTtStfte eand)ee re eel la tb MfidffRLjy-f'the Christ Child may not stumbleV when comes to bless the home. In north' Germany tbs tables are spread and the light left burning for (be Virgin Mary and her attending angel. The English superstition Is admirably Shakespeare la voiced by the myriad-minde- d Hamlet: Borne say that ever irainet that eeaaon cornea Wherein our Lord's birth la celebrated. The bird of dawnlns slngeth all nleht lone. And then they Bay no eplrlt can walk abroad. The nlehta are wholesome. Then no plhnels strike, to charm. No falry take. or witch hath pok-eSo hallowed and so xraclous Is the" time." ths sun midnight to the sunny south of. perpetual summer Is a far cry. But in the long kept ' Its who n have their have gathered about It in its adaptation to different people and different circumstances. It is to us Amera practically national icans to-da- y feast To keep it was at one time, and in our own part of the country, tt is true, a penal offense. It was thought to savor of prelacy and unpleasant memories of political servitude. But it has grown with our growth and the broadmindedness of the " American is seen st its best In the people hearty commemoration of the nativity of the Christ from year to ' year. In some parts of the country, in fact, Christmas day bids fair to supplant Thanksgiving day, and It certainly may already claim an equality of recognition with the national festival of our New England forbears. People of every creed qnd every nationality wlthip our borders delight to participate In the celebration of the Christmas feast, and many a scion of stock finds him- self back home again as the church hells peal and the candles glimmer on the Christmas trees. It is a time of universal peace and good will. It brightens homes, softens asperities and uplifts us as it brings "the light that never was on land or sea. The Origin Unknown. The origin of the festival is said to be lost in antiquity. If, as held by many, it Is a Christian feast gri fled on to a pagan one. Its history is age Ion. The actual institution of Christmas as- - the celebra-tio-n of the nativity of Jesus Christ dates from the second century of the Christian era. St Chrysostom says that it ' was observed from the beginning, according to western practice, from Thrace to the Strait ot Gibraltar, and -- he eaU it he the mother of vice-preside- vice-preside- time-honQre- d t. n d Vice-Preside- vice-presl- The banquet worship. time itself may be a sur- vlval, purified and refined, of the original feast to the gods and goddesses of the fabled Olympus. The "Yule" of "Merrie England la the old Teutonic name of the religious festival of the winter solBtlce, during which Celt and Roman could trace the movement! of their deities as they walked abroad in the world. The Story Chriatmaa Telia The Christian religion it not merely some- 7 thing built over th old eth lg Ael I gla"1 tlomVis - church brstsras ., n 'i built over the ruins of the old heathen temple of Minerva, or aa the grove sacred to Adonis was planted by the order of the Emperor Hadrian over the cave close to the village which Is now honored aa.tbe jeene of the Saviours birth. It had a larger and a deeper meaning. Christmas tells the story of a gradual but complete unfolding of the divine idea of religion aa seen In the Christ Child, of its worship In its at once sacred and Its merry-makin- g . and social feast. The atory 1 told almply but graphically by two or the four evangeHstS:--8Marks gospel, begins with the baptism of the Christ, so logically he had no'need to tell the atory of hla birth and boyhood. - St John wrote near the - close of the first century, and with the dominant Idea of aettnlg forth the divinity of Christ In opposition to the prevailing gnosti- - Handera pagan Europe, in all Its tribes and peoples, had celebrated Its chief festival. So here we have the double truth of the golden age and the rebirth of the unconquered sun, as he breaks the power of darkness, refined and enriched in the Christian teaching of "peace on earth and good will to men, aa -coincident with the rising of the Sun of Righteousness in the 'birth intar the world of. - - all the rest." the son of the peasant wcrtnan who was also the 8on of God. But aa to the time of the celebration there was a diversity of observance. This. view of Christmas accentuates the The early true place of the Christian religion in relation Christian church naturally kept Easter aa comto the ancient and deep-seatereligions which memorative of the resurrection of Christ, which the apostles wer especially chosen and preceded it, and at the same time reveals a instructed to proclaim, and the feast of Penbeauty of development in Its culmination as tecost, which became the birthday of the the completed manlfeststlon of God to man. church, came next in order. "Then to these In the Infancy of the race the winter solstice waa everywhere a season of rejoicing. ' No "were added two others, the one commemorat"matter wjiat the peculiar form which It asive- of ofJesus Christ and.tbe of H of H other of his birth. , The first-these, the' So the very Idea of the Child God which gives Epiphany, or Manifestation, came from the may not only have been east to the west. The second, Christmas, or Christmas Its meaning prophet, but the nativity, came from tbo west to the east foretold by sybil and aeer and infant goda of the Greek and The two were officially recognised and quite prefigured by the Egyptian and Hindu and Buddhist forms of widely kept in 'both the east and west in the fourth century. In a sermon preached by the 'religion. Golden-Mouthe- d These to us Imperfect an unsatisfactory - In -- Antioch on December 25, --A7D. 388. be speaks of the festival of Christ-ma- s "conceptions of the - Divine may have been the aa having first become known there 10 rude hut honest efforts years before and on another occasion he inof the earlier days of the vites his hearers to participate in its. aprace to group the human - ( observance. proaching which a God-maof idea But as to the reason for the selection of made so real been has 25 at first arrived Christmas as December day, and so full of Joy to us . by the HIppolytes, there is much difference of in the Nativity and the opinion. It is held by some that the German Epiphany of the Christ a la literal name of the festival Welbnacht, the early the In this sense have translation of the Hebrew "Chanuka, been church may Jewish festival of the purification of the wiser than ahe wot of. on which begins temple by Judas Maccabeus, Her aim was to select d that as the Passover and December beat features of the the N EVERY Roman Catholic church, and In probably and in were Easter Pentecost perpetuated feasts and emheathen nlnety-and-nln- e out of every hundred Protestant Whitsuntide, so the festival of the Purification them for their purichurches throughout Christendom this Is the seabaa been preserved la Chrlstmastide and the body In Christian fication son when ia heard that grand old hymn whose practice of burning candles on the Christmas sacred and practices tender end solemn strains find an echo In the trees has come from the old Hebrew feast rites and to wean the universal human heart "Adeste Fldeles" (Come, All Ye Early Festivals. converts from their old at Cbrist But the Purification can hardly be numthe Faithful). - It ia the anthem aung at high mass superstitions . to to mastlde for Christ's centuries worshipers past, calling festibered amonr the greater and Important deeper and more 8avlor lies. Bethlehem, where the new-borvals of the Hebrews and, as Behalf says, there truths of the Christian This naive and beautiful Latin anthem is more ancient' faith. is really no Old Testament feast correspondlta bistort, and goes back six or seven centuries. than But In so doing she ing to our Christmas. The weight of opinion Saint Bonaventura, an Italian monk of the thirteenth cenas to the time of year chosen by the Chrismay have been the unwho died In Lyons, France, In 1274, la credited with tian church in the west lies In another and conscious Instrument of tury, the authorship of the beginning: of and solution the different question entirely a divinely guided evolulinks thajJChristian observance to the ancient' tion in religious practice Adeste fldeles, Leetl triumphentee, practice of the heathen world. and belief which haa enIt must be remem nered In this connection nobled and enriched the Venlte, Venite in Bethlehem. Natum vldete. Regem angelorum. that the particular date was first fixed upon world. The symbolism , bjLfbeRoman branch of the church, and at of our Christmas - Venlte adoremus, that season of the yeSf H ierles of pagan fee ln certatnly lewds-ltM- lf Vanit adoremus, tlvals occurred which were clcteely interwoven- many waya to this point Venlte adoremus Domlnum. Roman life of social the and civil In of view. with the the greenery with which we deck our "people. These festivals had an Import which Oh, come all ye faithful, lent. Itself to Ue growth of the Christian houses and churches and and triumphant. Joyful been have trees-whicmay spiritually and In fir the 7-- . they faith, h Oh, come ye, oh, come ye to Bethlehem. gladden our chiladopted by the church In order to counteract new-bor- n the of all See angela. the Saviour, king drens hearts, we still theirevil tendencies and at the samejlme Obfc.QIfiftJet us adore him. the cause of the new religion. "by-Oh, come let us adore him,"" , The Saturnalia, for Instance, represented which oar heathen fore-- ) come let us adore him, Christ, our Lord. ' fathers' abolOh, and tbelr age the of signified golden the peaceful times faith In the power of ished sharp distinctions between cttiien and Saint Bonaventura waa a Franciscan scholastic phtloa- sun to clothe the serf. But It was a time of wild and unholy earth orlth green and revelry. Then the Brumalia the feast of the hang pew fruit on tbr shortest day, or winter solstice waa the comaun trees. new The Christmas of tins' the birthday of memoration carol may be a new about to return to the earth. It waa the die birth of the -- hymns of natalls lnvlcti noils." In the old mythology of of the The . Saturnalia. was the birthday it sun the worshipers mistletoe and Methras himself, and, in fact, the time of year . holly when from unnumbered ages before the Chrle- - came from the Druid moat-venerabl- -- the-baptis- , L r Mrs. If e nan will compliment hie wife upon bet youthful appearance and tell her that he loves her, she will forgive other white He. n ma 17,-aq- til opher, and was surnamed "Doctor Seraphlcua." His preserved writings are of a dogmatic or didactic nature ex clusively, and this hymn Is not to be found among them Doubtless it is to be referred to the seraphic side of his are genius and temperament Ita classic Latin cadences of such lyric felicity that one cannot help hut believe on they were written to the noble and touching melody U whose wings they have floated to our time. Surely this not too fantastic a suggestion, when It Is remembered that the original Greek music of the Delphic hymn to Apollo is preserved intact, and that certain familiar phrase of in the Roman mass, are the Gregorian chant, used identified by Hebrew historians as the same which were sung in Solomon's temple many centuries before the time n to-da-y Christ The hymn "Adeste Fldeles is not known to have been used in England earlier than the seventeenth-centurThe musical setting, as w have It In modern notation, la of y. ' Reading, who was 1681, and organist at Winchester cathedral from 1476 isto lost in ths later at Winchester college. It real origin middle the antedates far mists ot antiquity ych probably ages and the atin't arably wedded. reaches but the one people or race to whom It IsMirectly addressed. But ths language of music Is universal it Is understanded bf the people Jnatantly all the wide world over it needs not tok be written In choice Larin nor "translated into many tongues it is Caught up Ttoa tLe tfeart end eehoes.on forever,. Thatls ChriBtmas why the Adeste Fldeles" has- become the hymn of all tjie world. Word-languag- gift-lade- n ad-van- i by Novello to one -- John ascribed to-da-y v e James dent, thereby relieving his wife ot much of the labor of preparing them, lew social duties devolve officially on these public characters. They frequently entertain informally at the dlnnerjtable, and once each social season give a reception to the members' of the senate,, which ia on of the moat pleasant events of the entire ' winter. Contrary to the White House receptions, refreshments are served to . all Invited guests. The wife of the secretary of state assumes her official social duties formally on New Years day. She ta expected to participate in the presidents reception at the White House from 11 to 11:30 e. m., when nhe departs for her borne to receive tbe diplomatic corps at a breakfast At noon. Invitations to the diplomatic breakfast are confined to the members of tbq corps and tbelr families, tbe assistant secretaries of state, tbe chief clerk and chiefs of bureaus of tbe department of . state and their wives. If they are married. When all are assembled the aecre-tar- y of state give hla arm to the wife of tbe dean of the' corps and leads tbe way to tbe breakfast room. They are followed by -- the other guests, no further attention being paid to the order of precedence, except that the wife of tbe secretary of state and the dean of tbe corps are the last to enter the breakfast room. If tbe secretary of state occupies a house too small to seat a large party of guests In tbe unwritten od ,prtH. ainlng room-tvide that small tables ahall be placed In convenient places about tbe rooms for - serving refreshments from' a buffet It Is also required by the code that only such refreshments as can be quickly served, auch a creamed oya- hot bouillons. t$rmi Ci0Qtiettcs, coffee,' Ices, cakes and short, such dainties aa can be eaten without tbe aid of a knife shall be erved. Champagne la usually tbe only wine served. At two o'clock on New Years day tbe wife of tbe secretary of state Is expected to hold a public reception for three hours and all other cabinet women are expected to do the earner h !! bon-bonel- n V |