The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., December 01, 1925, Page 14, Image 14

Page Fourteen
THE UNITED AMERICAN
EDITORIAL
LIBERTY BELL TO RING ONCE MORE
HE SACRED Liberty Bell will ring once more
when it rings in New Year, 1926, which is the
one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of America’s in­
dependence. The peals of the bell will be broadcast to
the world by radio.
The sounding of the bell will be part of a unique
ceremony arranged for the night of December 31st, at
Independence hall, by Mayor Kendrick of Philadelphia.
The ringing of the bell will incidentally signalize the
advent, on January 1, of America’s sesquicentenniai
year.
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Not only will the tones of the historic old bell be
audible to listeners in the United States, but to those
of other countries abroad and in South America,
through the aid of a national and international radio
hookup which is in the course of preparation by officials
of the sesquicentenniai exposition.
As president of the Sesquicentenniai association,
Mayor Kendrick has transferred the traditional New
Year reception of the mayor of Philadelphia to Inde­
pendence hall and square. Actors costumed as signers
of the Declaration of Independence will enact the tab­
leau of the signing in Declaration chamber in the hall,
where the immortal document actually received its
signatures in the summer and autumn of 1776.
A radio program will be broadcast from the hall
during the late evening,‘and exactly at midnight, Mrs.
Freeland Kendrick, using a rubber padded mallet, will
sound the bell, indicating the new year, 1926, with
taps properly spaced.
To determine that no danger of further cracking
of the bell might result from the tapping, scientists
were consulted before it was determined that the
ceremony might be gone through with without any
danger to the bell.
Just a bit of history in the making, but of interest
to every American at heart who delights to harken
back to the days of 1776 and the years that saw the
birth of this mighty nation.
T
TO TRANSPORT IMMIGRANTS FREE
A S AN AID to immigration a direct method of co­
operation has been worked out by the Canadian
Pacific Railway and the province of Nova Scotia. The
European agents of the railroad will select and issue
permits to such immigrants as are deemed most fitted
to the needs of the farmers in Nova Scotia. It is also
believed that vacant farms in the province will become
occupied through this arrangement. J. S. Dennis,
Commissioner of Colonization for the railways, in com­
menting upon the arrangement stated:
This agreement will unquestionably increase the flow of
immigrants to Canada. The stimulus given the immigration
movement by the enormous Western Canadian wheat crop this
year will also favorably affect the number of immigrants
coming to Canada.
Professor Flynn, of Halifax university, cooperating
with the railway, has reported seventy finds of various
minerals in Nova Scotia and is of the opinion that
DECEMBER 1925
these will furnish opportunities for industries which
will grow rapidly.
If the prospective immigrants will stay on the Nova
Scotia farms and help to develop the country’s agri­
cultural resources, first of all, the transportation aid
for both the railroad system and the province may
prove a good investment.
UNDER THE MISTLETOE
WHAT’S Yule and Christmas without a sprig of
’* mistletoe — one of the ancient derivities of the
season coming down to us from the Pagan times.
Though a sprig of mistletoe is indispensible in any
home to make the festal joy of the season complete,
there are few who know the origin of the playful
custom and the kiss under the mistletoe.
The story runs back through centuries to Pagan
times in ancient Briton, and to the sad days of human
sacrifice to appease the anger of a frowning deity.
Let us try and picture the scene: Winter solstice
was at hand. The season had been one of distress
and sorrow and suffering. Scourged by pestilence
and disease from within, and threatened by the Roman
legions from without, despair, like a pall had settled
upon the ancient Britons. The sacrifices of the Druids
had been unavailing; all power appeared to have passed
from the plant Salago, which, it was believed, preserved
from harm those who wore it about their person; virtue
had gone out from the vervain, gathered five days
after the new moon; savin and shamrock-trefoil care­
fully plucked in accordance with magic formula had
been of no avail. The gods were unappeased and
tribulation was upon the land.
A solemn procession wound slowly across the moor
toward the grove of sacred oaks, for now the berry of
the mistletoe was mature and the time for the sacred
festival at hand. First came the bards chanting in
melancholy strains to accompaniment on their rude
harps; then followed the heralds bearing the gilded
sickle; then a white-robed youth and white-robed maid,
silent and pale leading two white bullocks; then came
the Druid priests, aged men with long white beards,
walking with grave dignity, bare breasts and feet,
their loose white garments billowing to the keen breeze
which floated across the moor. The prince of the
Druids followed, with the golden dagger swinging in
a sheath from his belt. Then came the Britons, male
and female, in an uncouth and motley band. Their
breasts were bared to the biting air, their demeanor
wild and fierce. Many bore strange paintings on
stained wood and others carried plants of supposed
mystic virtue.
Then this weird procession reached the grove of
oaks, a tree was selected, which was most abundantly
hung with mistletoe, and the prince of the Druids
taking the golden sickle, ascended into its branches
Branch after branch of the berried parasite was
severed and dropped on a snow-white mantle, helo
extended by the priests below. Having gathered a
quantum sufficient, the chief priest descended; the
white bullocks were tied to the tree. On an altar near at
hand—an altar made of great flat stones, two set
upright and a third laid across—at a word from one
of the priests the youth and the maid laid themselves,
silently side by side. Then the Druid priests covered