Our Holidays by Various
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6 =OUR HOLIDAYS=
HISTORICAL STORIES
RETOLD FROM
ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE
IN FIVE VOLUMES
INDIAN STORIES
A mirror of Indian ideas, customs, and adventures.
COLONIAL STORIES
Stirring tales of the rude frontier life of early times.
REVOLUTIONARY STORIES
Heroic deeds, and especially children's part in them.
CIVIL WAR STORIES
Thrilling stories of the great struggle, both on land and sea.
OUR HOLIDAYS
Something of their meaning and spirit.
Each about 200 pages. Full cloth, 12mo.
THE CENTURY CO.
[Illustration: HO, FOR THE CHRISTMAS TREE!]
OUR HOLIDAYS
THEIR MEANING AND SPIRIT
RETOLD FROM ST. NICHOLAS
[Illustration]
PUBLISHED BY THE CENTURY CO.
NEW YORK MCMVI
THE DE VINNE PRESS
=CONTENTS=
PAGE
OUR HOLIDAYS 1
ST. SATURDAY _Henry Johnstone_ 3
HALLOWE'EN 7
ALL-HALLOW-EVE MYTHS _David Brown_ 9
ELECTION DAY 13
RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF CITIZENS _S.E. Forman_ 15
THANKSGIVING DAY 21
A THANKSGIVING DINNER THAT FLEW AWAY _H. Butterworth_ 23
WHITTIER'S BIRTHDAY 35
THE BOYHOOD OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER _William H. Rideing_ 37
CHRISTMAS 51
HOW UNCLE SAM OBSERVES CHRISTMAS _Clifford Howard_ 53
NEW YEAR'S DAY 79
EXTRACT FROM "SOCIAL LIFE IN THE COLONIES" _Edward Eggleston_ 81
A CHINESE NEW YEAR'S IN CALIFORNIA _H.H._ 82
LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 85
ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Helen Nicolay_ 87
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 99
O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! _Walt Whitman_ 101
ST. VALENTINE'S BIRTHDAY 103
WHO BEGAN IT? _Olive Thorne_ 105
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 111
THE BOYHOOD OF WASHINGTON _Horace E. Scudder_ 113
LONGFELLOW'S BIRTHDAY 123
LONGFELLOW AND THE CHILDREN _Lucy Larcom_ 125
INAUGURATION DAY 139
HOW A PRESIDENT IS INAUGURATED _Clifford Howard_ 141
EASTER DAY 153
A SONG OF EASTER _Celia Thaxter_ 155
THE GENERAL'S EASTER BOX _Temple Bailey_ 159
ARBOR DAY 175
THE PLANTING OF THE APPLE TREE _William Cullen Bryant_ 177
APRIL FOOL'S DAY 181
FOURTH-MONTH DUNCE _H.M.M._ 183
MEMORIAL DAY 185
THE BOY IN GRAY _Mary Bradley_ 187
FLAG DAY 193
THE STARS AND STRIPES _Henry Russell Wray_ 195
FOURTH OF JULY 199
A STORY OF THE FLAG _Victor Mapes_ 201
=PREFACE=
To most young people, holidays mean simply freedom from lessons and a
good time. All this they should mean--and something more.
It is well to remember, for example, that we owe the pleasure of
Thanksgiving to those grateful Pilgrims who gave a feast of thanks for
the long-delayed rain that saved their withering crops--a feast of wild
turkeys and pumpkin pies, which has been celebrated now for nearly three
centuries.
It is most fitting that the same honor paid to Washington's Birthday is
now given to that of Lincoln, who is as closely associated with the
Civil War as our first President is with the Revolution.
Although the birthdays of the three American poets, Whittier, Lowell,
and Longfellow, are not holidays, stories relating to these days are
included in this collection as signalizing days to be remembered.
In this book are contained stories bearing on our holidays and annual
celebrations, from Hallowe'en to the Fourth of July.
=Our Holidays=
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work.
SHAKSPERE. _King Henry IV_, Part I.
=ST. SATURDAY=
[Illustration]
BY HENRY JOHNSTONE
Oh, Friday night's the queen of nights, because it ushers in
The Feast of good St. Saturday, when studying is a sin,
When studying is a sin, boys, and we may go to play
Not only in the afternoon, but all the livelong day.
St. Saturday--so legends say--lived in the ages when
The use of leisure still was known and current among men;
Full seldom and full slow he toiled, and even as he wrought
He'd sit him down and rest awhile, immersed in pious thought.
He loved to fold his good old arms, to cross his good old knees,
And in a famous elbow-chair for hours he'd take his ease;
He had a word for old and young, and when the village boys
Came out to play, he'd smile on them and never mind the noise.
So when his time came, honest man, the neighbors all declared
That one of keener intellect could better have been spared;
By young and old his loss was mourned in cottage and in hall,
For if he'd done them little good, he'd done no harm at all.
In time they made a saint of him, and issued a decree--
Since he had loved his ease so well, and been so glad to see
The children frolic round him and to smile upon their play--
That school boys for his sake should have a weekly holiday.
They gave his name unto the day, that as the years roll by
His memory might still be green; and that's the reason why
We speak his name with gratitude, and oftener by far
Than that of any other saint in all the calendar.
Then, lads and lassies, great and small, give ear to what I say--
Refrain from work on Saturdays as strictly as you may;
So shall the saint your patron be and prosper all you do--
And when examinations come he'll see you safely through.
[Illustration: St. Saturday]
=Hallowe'en=
_October 31_
The Eve of All Saints' Day
This night is known in some places as Nutcrack Night, or Snapapple
Night. Supernatural influences are pretended to prevail and hence all
kinds of superstitions were formerly connected with it. It is now
usually celebrated by children's parties, when certain special games are
played.
=ALL-HALLOW-EVE MYTHS=
BY DAVID BROWN
As the world grows old and wise, it ceases to believe in many of its
superstitions. But, although they are no longer believed in, the customs
connected with them do not always die out; they often linger on through
centuries, and, from having once been serious religious rites, or
something real in the life of the people, they become at last mere
children's plays or empty usages, often most zealously enjoyed by those
who do not understand their meaning.
All-hallow Eve is now, in our country towns, a time of careless frolic,
and of great bonfires, which, I hear, are still kindled on the hill-tops
in some places. We also find these fires in England, Scotland, and
Ireland, and from their history we learn the meaning of our celebration.
Some of you may know that the early inhabitants of Great Britain,
Ireland, and parts of France were known as Celts, and that their
religion was directed by strange priests called Druids. Three times in
the year, on the first of May, for the sowing; at the solstice, June
21st, for the ripening and turn of the year; and on the eve of November
1st, for the harvesting, those mysterious priests of the Celts, the
Druids, built fires on the hill-tops in France, Britain, and Ireland, in
honor of the sun. At this last festival the Druids of all the region
gathered in their white robes around the stone altar or cairn on the
hill-top. Here stood an emblem of the sun, and on the cairn was a sacred
fire, which had been kept burning through the year. The Druids formed
about the fire, and, at a signal, quenched it, while deep silence rested
on the mountains and valleys. Then the new fire gleamed on the cairn,
the people in the valley raised a joyous shout, and from hill-top to
hill-top other fires answered the sacred flame. On this night, all
hearth-fires in the region had been put out, and they were kindled with
brands from the sacred fire, which was believed to guard the households
through the year.
But the Druids disappeared from their sacred places, the cairns on the
hill-tops became the monuments of a dead religion, and Christianity
spread to the barbarous inhabitants of France and the British Islands.
Yet the people still clung to their old customs, and felt much of the
old awe for them. Still they built their fires on the first of May,--at
the solstice in June,--and on the eve of November 1st. The church found
that it could not all at once separate the people from their old ways,
so it gradually turned these ways to its own use, and the harvest
festival of the Druids became in the Catholic Calendar the Eve of All
Saints, for that is the meaning of the name "All-hallow Eve." In the
seventh century, the Pantheon, the ancient Roman temple of all the gods,
was consecrated anew to the worship of the Virgin and of all holy
martyrs.
By its separation from the solemn character of the Druid festival,
All-hallow Eve lost much of its ancient dignity, and became the
carnival-night of the year for wild, grotesque rites. As century after
century passed by, it came to be spoken of as the time when the magic
powers, with which the peasantry, all the world over, filled the wastes
and ruins, were supposed to swarm abroad to help or injure men. It was
the time when those first dwellers in every land, the fairies, were said
to come out from their grots and lurking-places; and in the darkness of
the forests and the shadows of old ruins, witches and goblins gathered.
In course of time, the hallowing fire came to be considered a protection
against these malicious powers. It was a custom in the seventeenth
century for the master of a family to carry a lighted torch of straw
around his fields, to protect them from evil influence through the year,
and as he went he chanted an invocation to the fire. The chief thing
which we seek to impress upon your minds in connection with All-hallow
Eve is that its curious customs show how no generation of men is
altogether separated from earlier generations. Far as we think we are
from our uncivilized ancestors, much of what they did and thought has
come into our doing and thinking,--with many changes perhaps, under
different religious forms, and sometimes in jest where they were in
earnest. Still, these customs and observances (of which All-hallow Eve
is only one) may be called the piers, upon which rests a bridge that
spans the wide past between us and the generations that have gone
before.
=Election Day=
The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
This day is now a holiday so that every man may have an opportunity to
cast his vote. Unlike most other holidays, it does not commemorate an
event, but it is a day which has a tremendous meaning if rightly looked
upon and rightly used. Its true spirit and significance are well set
forth in the following pages. By act of Congress the date for the
choosing of Presidential electors is set for the first Tuesday after the
first Monday in November in the years when Presidents are elected, and
the different States have now nearly all chosen the same day for the
election of State officers.
=RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF CITIZENS=
BY S.E. FORMAN
Read the bill of rights in the constitution of your State and you will
find there, set down in plain black and white, the rights which you are
to enjoy as an American citizen. This constitution tells you that you
have the right to your life, to your liberty, and to the property that
you may honestly acquire; that your body, your health and your
reputation shall be protected from injury; that you may move freely from
place to place unmolested; that you shall not be imprisoned or otherwise
punished without a fair trial by an impartial jury; that you may worship
God according to the promptings of your own conscience; that you may
freely write and speak on any subject providing you do not abuse the
privilege; that you may peaceably assemble and petition government for
the redress of grievances. These are civil rights. They, together with
many others equally dear, are guaranteed by the State and national
constitutions, and they belong to all American citizens.
These civil rights, like the air and the sunshine, come to us in these
days as a matter of course, but they did not come to our ancestors as a
matter of course. To our ancestors rights came as the result of
hard-fought battles. The reading of the bill of rights would cause your
heart to throb with gratitude did you but know the suffering and
sacrifice each right has cost.
Now just as our rights have not been gained without a struggle, so they
will not be maintained without a struggle. We may not have to fight with
cannon and sword as did our forefathers in the Revolution, but we may be
sure that if our liberty is to be preserved there will be fighting of
some kind to do. Such precious things as human rights cannot be had for
nothing.
One of the hardest battles will be to fulfil the duties which accompany
our rights, for every right is accompanied by a duty. If I can hold a
man to his contract I ought (_I owe it_) to pay my debts; if I may
worship as I please, I ought to refrain from persecuting another on
account of his religion; if my property is held sacred, I ought to
regard the property of another man as sacred; if the government deals
fairly with me and does not oppress me, I ought to deal fairly With it
and refuse to cheat it; if I am allowed freedom of speech, I ought not
to abuse the privilege; if I have a right to a trial by jury, I ought to
respond when I am summoned to serve as a juror; if I have a right to my
good name and reputation, I ought not to slander my neighbor; if
government shields me from injury, I ought to be ready to take up arms
in its defense.
Foremost among the rights of American citizenship is that of going to
the polls and casting a ballot. This right of voting is not a civil
right; it is a political right which grew out of man's long struggle for
his civil rights. While battling with kings and nobles for liberty the
people learned to distrust a privileged ruling class. They saw that if
their civil rights were to be respected, government must pass into their
own hands or into the hands of their chosen agents. Hence they demanded
political rights, the right of holding office and of voting at
elections.
The suffrage, or the right of voting, is sometimes regarded as a natural
right, one that belongs to a person simply because he is a person.
People will say that a man has as much right to vote as he has to
acquire property or to defend himself from attack. But this is not a
correct view. The right to vote is a _franchise_ or privilege which the
law gives to such citizens as are thought worthy of possessing it. It is
easy to see that everybody cannot be permitted to vote. There must be
certain qualifications, certain marks of fitness, required of a citizen
before he can be entrusted with the right of suffrage. These
qualifications differ in the different States. In most States every male
citizen over twenty-one years of age may vote. In four States, women as
well as men exercise the right of suffrage.
But the right of voting, like every other right, has its corresponding
duty. No day brings more responsibilities than Election Day. The
American voter should regard himself as an officer of government. He is
one of the members of the electorate, that vast governing body which
consists of all the voters and which possesses supreme political power,
controlling all the governments, federal and State and local. This
electorate has in its keeping the welfare and the happiness of the
American people. When, therefore, the voter takes his place in this
governing body, that is, when he enters the polling-booth and presumes
to participate in the business of government, he assumes serious
responsibilities. In the polling-booth he is a public officer charged
with certain duties, and if he fails to discharge these duties properly
he may work great injury. What are the duties of a voter in a
self-governing country? If an intelligent man will ask himself the
question and refer it to his conscience as well as deliberate upon it in
his mind, he will conclude that he ought to do the following things:
1. To vote whenever it is his privilege.
2. To try to understand the questions upon which he votes.
3. To learn something about the character and fitness of the men
for whom he votes.
4. To vote only for honest men for office.
5. To support only honest measures.
6. To give no bribe, direct or indirect, and to receive no bribe,
direct or indirect.
7. To place country above party.
8. To recognize the result of the election as the will of the
people and therefore as the law.
9. To continue to vote for a righteous although defeated cause as
long as there is a reasonable hope of victory.
"The proudest now is but my peer,
The highest not more high;
To-day of all the weary year,
A king of men am I.
"To-day alike are great and small,
The nameless and the known;
My palace is the people's hall,
The ballot-box my throne!"
WHITTIER.
=Thanksgiving Day=
Appointed by the President--usually the last Thursday in November.
Now observed as a holiday in all the States, but not a legal holiday in
all. The President's proclamation recommends that it be set apart as a
day of prayer and rejoicing. The day is of New England origin, the first
one being set by Governor Bradford of the Massachusetts colony on
December, 1621. Washington issued a thanksgiving proclamation for
Thursday, December 18, 1777, and again at Valley Forge for May 7, 1778.
The Thanksgiving of the present incorporates many of the genial features
of Christmas. The feast with the Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin-pie
crowns the day. Even the poorhouse has its turkey. The story of "An
Old-Time Thanksgiving," in "Indian Stories" of this series, well brings
out the original spirit of the day.
=A THANKSGIVING DINNER THAT FLEW AWAY=
BY H. BUTTERWORTH
"Honk!"
I spun around like a top, looking nervously in every direction. I was
familiar with that sound; I had heard it before, during two summer
vacations, at the old farm-house on the Cape.
It had been a terror to me. I always put a door, a fence, or a stone
wall between me and that sound as speedily as possible.
I had just come down from the city to the Cape for my third summer
vacation. I had left the cars with my arms full of bundles, and hurried
toward Aunt Targood's.
The cottage stood in from the road. There was a long meadow in front of
it. In the meadow were two great oaks and some clusters of lilacs. An
old, mossy stone wall protected the grounds from the road, and a long
walk ran from the old wooden gate to the door.
It was a sunny day, and my heart was light. The orioles were flaming in
the old orchards; the bobolinks were tossing themselves about in the
long meadows of timothy, daisies, and patches of clover. There was a
scent of new-mown hay in the air.
In the distance lay the bay, calm and resplendent, with white sails and
specks of boats. Beyond it rose Martha's Vineyard, green and cool and
bowery, and at its wharf lay a steamer.
I was, as I said, light-hearted. I was thinking of rides over the sandy
roads at the close of the long, bright days; of excursions on the bay;
of clam-bakes and picnics.
I was hungry; and before me rose visions of Aunt Targood's fish dinners,
roast chickens, berry pies. I was thirsty; but ahead was the old
well-sweep, and, behind the cool lattice of the dairy window, were pans
of milk in abundance.
I tripped on toward the door with light feet, lugging my bundles and
beaded with perspiration, but unmindful of all discomforts in the
thought of the bright days and good things in store for me.
"Honk! honk!"
My heart gave a bound!
_Where_ did that sound come from?
Out of a cool cluster of innocent-looking lilac bushes, I saw a dark
object cautiously moving. It seemed to have no head. I knew, however,
that it had a head. I had seen it; it had seized me once on the previous
summer, and I had been in terror of it during all the rest of the
season.
I looked down into the irregular grass, and saw the head and a very long
neck running along on the ground, propelled by the dark body, like a
snake running away from a ball. It was coming toward me, and faster and
faster as it approached.
I dropped all my bundles.
In a few flying leaps I returned to the road again, and armed myself
with a stick from a pile of cord-wood.
"Honk! honk! honk!"
It was a call of triumph. The head was high in the air now. My enemy
moved grandly forward, as became the monarch of the great meadow
farm-yard.
I stood with beating heart, after my retreat.
It was Aunt Targood's gander.
How he enjoyed his triumph, and how small and cowardly he made me feel!
"Honk! honk! honk!"
The geese came out of the lilac bushes, bowing their heads to him in
admiration. Then came the goslings--a long procession of awkward,
half-feathered things: they appeared equally delighted.
The gander seemed to be telling his admiring audience all about it: how
a strange girl with many bundles had attempted to cross the yard; how he
had driven her back, and had captured her bundles, and now was monarch
of the field. He clapped his wings when he had finished his heroic
story, and sent forth such a "honk!" as might have startled a
major-general.
Then he, with an air of great dignity and coolness, began to examine my
baggage.
Among my effects were several pounds of chocolate caramels, done up in
brown paper. Aunt Targood liked caramels, and I had brought her a large
supply.
He tore off the wrappers quickly. Bit one. It was good. He began to
distribute the bon-bons among the geese, and they, with much liberality
and good-will, among the goslings.
This was too much. I ventured through the gate swinging my cord-wood
stick.
"Shoo!"
He dropped his head on the ground, and drove it down the walk in a
lively waddle toward me.
"_Shoo_!"
It was Aunt Targood's voice at the door.
He stopped immediately.
His head was in the air again.
"_Shoo_!"
Out came Aunt Targood with her broom.
She always corrected the gander with her broom. If I were to be whipped
I should choose a broom--not the stick.
As soon as he beheld the broom he retired, although with much offended
pride and dignity, to the lilac bushes; and the geese and goslings
followed him.
"Hester, you dear child, come here. I was expecting you, and had been
looking out for you, but missed sight of you. I had forgotten all about
the gander."
We gathered up the bundles and the caramels. I was light-hearted again.
How cool was the sitting-room, with the woodbine falling about the open
windows! Aunt brought me a pitcher of milk and some strawberries; some
bread and honey; and a fan.
While I was resting and taking my lunch, I could hear the gander
discussing the affairs of the farm-yard with the geese. I did not
greatly enjoy the discussion. His tone of voice was very proud, and he
did not seem to be speaking well of me. I was suspicious that he did not
think me a very brave girl. A young person likes to be spoken well of,
even by the gander.
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