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Show i "" ' i r i child, it ".o in sound and it is old " enough to exercise judgment, it is a competent witness in a case at law, according to an opinion handed down by the state supreme court. Jack rabbits are becoming so numerous nu-merous in the western portions of the county that they are a great menace to growing crops of every d& scription and means of extermination are being seriously considered. Offlcia's of the high school at San Jose, Cal., have written to the Salt Lake Commercial club publicity bu-reau bu-reau requesting that an exhibit ol Utah's resources be forwarded thers to be placed on exhibition at the school. J W. Marr, aged 50 years, a stock-VQf stock-VQf , River, Nev., is in an n''-l as the result of in-ries in-ries recd last week when ha Is knockdown and kicked by a accident occurring ' iD e ordinances of Logan ato eiieit. They provide ng of candy kitchens on at 11 o'clock in the even-?r even-?r a $100 annual license permit pool halls to run ck. neve Inlow, who, with uuouciuu, C. A. Inlow, was arrested, arrest-ed, charged with the murder in Salt Lake of Charles E. White, a taxicab chauffeur, was held to the district court with the conclusion of the pre-1 pre-1 liminary hearing. T" Plans for the state capitol building have been filed wU,h the building in-r in-r spector for examination. It will re quire a week or more on the part of the inspector to go over the plans and see that they comply with the building build-ing requirements. W. C. Downing, the station agent at Westwater who killed William E. Linn by beating him over the head with a stove poker, was acquitted al his preliminary trial at Westwater Justice of the Peace Anderson held that the killing of Linn was excusa We. Milburn Allred and Clarence All red, brothers, aged 16 and IS, met i terrible dea'h in the city jail at Prica A fire, probably started from a light ed cigarette, communicated to tin bedding. The younger boy was badlj ' burned on the face and leg. Th elder died of suffocation. ) Contract for boring an experimental 1 well near Monticello in San Juaa L county, Utah, has been awarded bj r the state land board to B. H. Harsh I berger on a bid of $1.50 a foot, the contractor to stop at any depth where jT' a sufficient quantity of good watel may be & uck. Three million dollars is being expended ex-pended in Utah by the Denver & Rio Grande on the increase of trackago facilities in such wise that the roaJ can handle the traffic increase wh c'l j . thg growth of the state in the pasl Jive years has brought to it. j There are thirty-seven factories re- ; I ported from Weber county, exclusiva of creameries and canneries, and most X of them in Ogden itself. The making of eugar and cement, the packing o( meats, brewing, candy making and f milling are the leading manufacturing interests. been killed. In Italy he was known as a tall man, dressed in white robes and wearing a crown. But the happy Dutch did not think of this kind man that way. To the Dutch people he always appeared as short-legged and pot-bellied and well wrapped in furs. He was accompanied by a black slave, who cairied a bag full of sweets and presents. St. Nicholas carried a birch rod with him and asked the children who had been good and who had been bad. If they were good he gave them nuts, crackers and candies, can-dies, but if they had been bad they got a flogging. The children r put their wooden sabots in the open fireplace fire-place so he could put some more presents pres-ents in these on gofcg out. In Russia he was worshiped the name way, but he always appeared as a tall person wearing the vestments vest-ments of a bishop, with miter and crown. His companion was a beard ed man wearing a fur coat, carrying a stick and a basket full of presents. There are many interesting legends associated with the name of St. Nicholas Nich-olas or Santa Claus in England. On Is that he was put in prison for some unknown offense, but managed to escape. This is told in "An Hue and Cry After Christmas," and it tells of the arraignment, conviction and imprisonment of Christmas, and how he "broke out of prison in the holidays holi-days and got away, only leaving his hoary hair and gray beard sticking between two iron bars of a window." In Germany he was at first considered con-sidered as an advance courier for the Christkindlein, distributing part of the angel child's gifts and promising a visit of the Christkindlein en Christmas Christ-mas eve when he heard that the children chil-dren were good. In some of the small places he appeared grotesquely sometimes in goatskin and dancing like a goat, again in a white sheet with a stick and two lights in his mouth. The legend says that Claus, Nicholaus, Necht Ruprecht, or whatever what-ever his name is, "comes in wearing a white sheet and holding a stick in his hand." He tells the children to pray, and if they disobey he flogs them, but if they obey he gives them plenty of nuts and apples. The Italian children also believed in their patron saint, but they worshiped wor-shiped his wife Instead. Her name is La Befana and they pay as much homage hom-age to her as the other children do to the saint She is not good looking, look-ing, for she is supposed to be more than 2,000 years old. The legend says that when the three wise men were about to pass her window she refused re-fused to go to the window and salute them. She saw her mistake when it was too late, and lias tried to repent by making the children of Italy happy 'i'i ii anta Claus. TS.S1 she is caileoBabouska, and the story tells that she is so kind because she is repenting of her sins. When the Dut'h came to America they brought theiT" ""-.heir patron pa-tron saint and theV sas celebrations. cele-brations. And theUldren commenced com-menced to hang up their stockings instead in-stead of putting wooden shoes into the open fireplace. Their Baint was the same kind, jovial man, excepting that he came with reindeer instead of driving horses as in Holland. The German children told their stories of the Christ child, who sent Prince Ruprecht Ru-precht as his servant to inquire into their behavior and to distribute their presents. They did not see a great deal of difference in the stories and so took the twenty-fifth- of December ad the day for Santa Claus' appearance. appear-ance. !n France it was the angel child who came every year to bless the chil-5ren chil-5ren and to remember them with some small gift Afterward he had so much to do he sent his servant, Pere Noel, which is the Santa Claus of the French and Dutch children, to help him distribute his gifts and to tell them that he will come to bless them before the New Year. Though Santa Claus has a large sleigh and two splendid horses or reindeer, according to the countries he visits, he has such long distances to cover that he cannot appear in all countries on the same day. Santa Claus was born in Holland, or rather it took the Dutch children to find him. But he is a great traveler and goes to all countries, where he has many shops and thousands of men and women wom-en working for him. He goes to all the forests of Germany, especially to the wonderful "Black Forest," and gets thousands and thousands of trees. But even the great forests of Germany Ger-many cannot give him all the trees he needs, so he hurries to Russia and even to Sweden and Norway until he gets all he wants, lie has many shop3 in London, Paris, Chicago, New York, and in many ether cities. His great factories are In Nuremberg and in Switzerland, in the Bernese Oberland. Here he has many of the dolls, wooden wood-en toys and miniature watches made that go to all countries of the world. By the time he reaches Germany the Christmas market are emptied of their trees, which are always dressed awaiting his coming. Then he takes a fast steamer to America, and by the time he lands in New York he is pretty well tired out. He alwayB brings one or more servants serv-ants with him and he has so many homes to visit that only a few of the children get to see him. He hurries in and out of the chimneys just as fast as he can. i tuuruioreBXtend his jou into farthest Norway, and evea-V Iceland. f While he is busy with the children of the north his wife is looking after the children in the south, in Italy, Spain and Greece. At dark on the eve of Epiphany the Befana begins. The open squares are crowded with trees of all sizes, wax figures of the Christ child, candies and toys, while the air resounds with the sounds of whistles, horns and carols. When these celebrations are finished fin-ished Santa Claus and his wife go off jr a short holiday, nobody knows ex actly' where. It is said that they have been seen in the high mountains of Switzerland enjoying - the winter sports. Wherever they enjoy their holiday it is short, for as soon as they are rested they commence their work for the coming year. This is only a part of the real Christmas legend, for Christmas would not be nearly as beautiful as It is were it not for the splendid evergreen ever-green trees, shimmering with their many brilliant candles and gay trimmings. trim-mings. The Dutch may boast that Santa Claus was born in Holland. Who knows? Perhaps he was. But Germany is the home of the Christmas Christ-mas tree, for it was the first country that used the evergreen tree in Christmas Christ-mas celebration, and it supplies more than one-half of the trees that are used by Santa Claus. There are many beautiful stories associated with the origin of the first Christmas tree. One legend says that on the holy night all nature, even the animals and the trees, were rejoicing and that the cedars, instead of pointing point-ing their branches upward as pointed, slender trees, spread their - branches wide to protect the -mother and her new-born child. Though It was midwinter mid-winter the thorn commenced to blossom blos-som and its white flowers made a cover for the child's cradle. The olive poured forth oil for the newborn new-born child. All were happy except the small pine, which had nothing to offer, and year by year it grew taller. Still it never forgot that holy night and the wind sweeping through Its branches moans because the pine is still unhappy because it had nothing to give. |