Image provided by: Friends of the Dallas Library; Dallas, OR
About Pacific Christian messenger. (Monmouth, Or.) 1877-1881 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 23, 1881)
PACIFIC . CHRISTIAN MESSENGER, FRIDAY, DEC. 23, 1881. 9 forward always to that blessed hope the bond iiian. Discipline was relaxed cards on the wall, neat curtains at the them. It is dreadful to think of such and the glorious appearing of our Sa and when the Yule-log was lighted windows, a little plaster statute of a things, but to see them would make vior /through ^whom we are to come i the slave was allowed a taste of liber shepherd* boy, I believe, and other your heart ache.. When the children Dost remember brethren, that the into that celestial inheritance which ty ; for as long as it continued to burn trifles on brackets. She had another are ’once given away it is hard to get Lord hath said, we are a peculiar Peo he was allowed “ the pursuit of happi room, where, was her fireplace and them again. If they have been only fadeth not away forever.” ple, exalted above all the nations of a trouble and expense, so far, they ness.” In a sense, ho was free—free other washing arrangements. the earth t dost remember too, that we For the Messenger. are kept in order to get pay for it all to enjoy himrelf as he chose; so to The other, well the woman who should live soberly, righteously, and ' ..Yule-tide* him a Yule-log meant freedom,—it livedjkthere was a widow, too, and as they grow older; and if they are godly in the present* world that the : was freedom but for a day, yet it was I ' had two pretty bright children, She already useful of course they will not Old-fashioned hospitality, warmth, heaven promised through Christ may ' ' . ’ i was not quite as daik as the'first, and be given , up. Therd’was years ago and good cheei are g’’ mingled in out- freedom. be ours forever. Now we have grown quiet in our the little ' ones were quite white. an exchange for colored children in The words rang clear and earnest thoughts with the words yule-tide observance of this season a little more There j^asA bed with just masses of] Charleston, but it had to be given up. from the preacher’s lips that Decem and yule-logs. Yule and Christmas refined perhaps. We listen to the * rags tumbled on it for a covering, one i Last winter we could not, help think ber Sabbath morning, while the icicles _ have long conveyed to us the same merry chimes of the bell»r-pluck fruit pillow had no case, and, I think, the ing and talking about having another. were slowly melting from the eaves meaning, yet the sound of the words from the wonderful Christmas tree, ■ case of the other had never keen | And last spring, when four little outside. The voice went on “ as Cod’s affect us differently, (,‘l.yistmas car and peep into our stockings and under ■ washed, there were no sign of sheefs. children were left on the hands of our peculiar people, let us live soberly ; ries us back through the dim centuries our plates for pleasant sni'prises, but ‘ The water “ bucket,” the box of shoe missionary, and when fifty dollar* from a theme so rich in thought 1 see to watch with the shepherds on the heave a sigh when we think that our. came, without anyone asking for it, blacking, and the’little girls clean open wide the arches crowned with plains, to hear the angel chorus, to see stores and furnaces are fast banishing ! stockings were under the bed. An “ to help maks* a home ” for just such temperance banners, through which the star of Bethlehem, and kneel with forever that dear old. relic of barbar old bureau’held all that it could of i little ones, we thought the Lord meant we might wander and never grow the wise men before the blessed babe ism—'the blazing, crackling, hospita the clothing of the family ; the rest 1 for us to begin; and we did. weary, but I tarry only to beseech you in the manger ; while Yule, with all ble Yule log. was piled in the corner or .under the Shouldn't you? When I say wp 1 as Christians never to touch the lur its pleasant associations has still M. ‘bed. The room never had bein lathed mean the missionary, wjio did the ing poison, that drives peace from the lingering"about it a faint, impalpable or plastered; it had been white work and helped about the planning For the MeNwen^er. family, eats out the heart and gives to suggestion that sometime in its misty washed ; I do not think it was ever the minister, who did the planning the devil the soul of its victim. Mióse history it has been mixed up with A Year in Charleston? cleaned. There was-for a window I and helped about the work, sundry' example becomes a jairse, and whose druid-rites, dark . incantations, and others of the teachers who planned Psn Isn ’t it qu££r qufipr how much we don’t just a hole about two feet. by. three, - - destruction at last a blessing to hu"- heathen ceremonies. The drord is an and worked more or less, and myself, heir-loom from our barbarous ances know, and yet never think whether and a i^iaky wooden shutter to coyer manity. ■ who did nothing but cry when I vfas it; no glass or sash or frame even. „ As one of a peculiar people,' the tors, which tells us that they bent the we know it.or not. Which brilliant particularly sorry for them, and* clap The room was just largo enough so. Christian should count it a shame to knee to Baal, or the sun, and, like the remarl? was suggested to me by the my Hinds when their g'K>d fortune that you could walk between the wall take a glass of wine, and a disgrace ancient Persians, were fire-worshipers. | number of things I found out while I cape. <J ’ m going to keep on saying Two popular observances belonging was South. It is strange to have and the bed at one side' and the foot. ■ forever to tipple with the wojld be “ we ' though. Now it remains to be That was all. There was no place for hind a screen at a liquor dealer’s coun to Christmas—popular especially-> in tilings so different with only twenty- seen whether we really were doing a fire in. this room, yet it was all thq ter. Not.only avoid being dragged England—are derived from ourpagan !•. . l. 'Uis ride between them ;«one right in beginning this thing. The day ^>w England villages with their woman rented. She did her cooking _ downward by intemperate habits, but | forefathers—the hanging of the mistle- silver and gold are- “ His, ” and if he white churches, green blinded hoflscs, aver the fireplace of one of her neigh practico sobriety in all things. Be not j toe. and the burning of Yule-logs. wants it he will send it support. We Aule tide with the old Norsemen libraries and school houses, tidy farm bors. She had “ no man to pervide,” tempted to forsake thy duties as Dom •ho said, and so she diad to provide did not meyn to “ run before we were Balaguere by two great big turkeys was ^he winter solstice when beside buildings between, pine and fir and for herself and little ones with her Sent,” and 1 can not help thinking just crammed with truffles, but with I decorating the rude dwellings with hemlock "woods with ^woodbine just own two hands unassisted. The. that the Lord does, care about this reason on its throne, judgment, at the green boughs, and building1 great turned scarlet flaming out here and children were beginning to be old and will not leave it to fail. helm, walk onward in the straight bonfires, the young men with loud there ; and the next the cross roads I’d like to tell you about the child- enough to help. The little girl, eight and naryov way .that leadeth to eter cries rolled a burning wheel (Yule) such as Nasby has immortalized, a I ren, how they thought it was no use years'old, was hired out taking care down hill to indicate the death of the jtore, post office, two or three houses nal life. to try to be neat and nieo.* “ I never of a baby almost as large as she was Live righteously ; do right unto death of the old year and celebrate and a Negro cabin or. two instead of be pretty,- ma,” said one, “I.so black, The boy was eleven, but was in the thy fellow man and pray ever for the birth of the new; a wheel«»being villages, miles and miles of country taint, no use me try for keep clean.” street all the time except when lie'got strength to keep thy tongue from with them an emblem of the year and with never a house instead of the And then, oh, if you could have seen lodged in jail for a while. He was a evil; for he that “ openeth wide his of the sun. The year had rolled cosy farms. Perhaps you would like the getting then! clean and dressed bright, wide awake, handsome little lips shall have destruction.” Say not round, the longest night had passed, the great plantations, but 1 don’t, live for the first time. The n>i*«ioiJtty fellow, quick to learn, and, as the to you! neiglibor on the hill, behold and the sun would soon revive the oak trees with Spanish moss drapery, got a big tub, a big pair of shears, a most that had come in his way, was and great fields of cotton like soft the fault oí my brother in the valley, sleeping earth. big towel, and a big piece of soap. bad ; he had learned the bad. Neither After the introduction of Christiani white'roses; then the queer* little when your own sins are as scarlet, Then she cart ied in warm • water, of these children can road, and-the nor dare to speak of the Haw you de ty, the heathen and Christian obser houses with chimneys of I don’t know mother h* not able to teach theni be enough to drown- the poor little tect in the character of a brother un vance« became curiously blended. what; logs,! should think, standing darkies, if she had been so disposed. cause she can ’ t read herself. She can til you can boast even one1 day of your Long after men had forgotten the outside at one end, as if They j were not keep the boy in school, for he Then she selected one darky and the own without the blemish of foolish significance of the ceremony they had- . waiting to be invited to walk in, and wheel rollings, because it was a time the wide porches about all the better plays truant, and funs about the street clothing that we had got ready for it, thoughts. just, the same when she tells him to and disappeared into the washroom As a peculiar people you do*not honored custom of their fathers ; but houses are stiange, to strangers. But nonsense aside these days after go to school, as whbn she does not. 1 and locked the door. It .took about fall into the grosser errors of cheating at length the practice came to be the suppose'she loves her children. She two hours to & child, I think, and * and lying, but take heed how great a simple burning of a great log on I . left you, the things that seemed works for them, and their things are when they came out they were clean, matter “a little tire kindleth among Christmas Eve, which is still observed strange to me were those that I had better than her own, but she gets mad and neatly dressed, the little girl in a you, when the tongue full oi' deadly in many parts of England, though seen at the North. So much was and cuffs their ears and swears at clean calico, the boys in gingham poison, set on fire of hell,” insinuates sadly shorn of its ancient “ pomp and different 1 expected it all to bp so. them for things they are not one bit waist and shott panties. Their heads Little darkies are cunning, very ; they a story of a brother’s folly, that grows circumstance.” In the old feudal times the bring are more picturesque than white to blame about. She is nothing but had been shorn of all the dust-filled as it passes from lip to lip accompan- a ^hild herself. dirty wool, and tubbed with some - led by shrugs and meaning looks, till ing in of this venerable log was an children, and almost always seem There" are a great many “street kind of stuff to kill vernin; and they it becomes a counterpart bf the cliild- occasion of groat rejoicing. It was happy. <1 think they have a faculty children ” among the lower classes of looked so kind of satisfied, and civil for getting tbo-ioost of enjoyment drawil in triumph from the wnntpimd ish tale of throe black crows, and the the colored people in Charleston. ized that we did not know whether that comes in roach. I ’ d like to tell placed with ringing cliteis upon the ■ victim wonders uneasily at the avert Bright, active, cunning little things, to laugh or cry. Oh, 1 do hope that you about the first two of the houses wide hearth of the old baronial hall. ed heads and cold greetings of his from the time they can toddle about* they can be kept. 1 wish.I had piles of the colored people I visited in The wayfarer who chanced to pass it neighbors upon the street. Is thy till they are almost grown, they run of money. Charleston. There ’ s quite a contrast. as it was drawn from its resting place brother tried and proven guilty, then But 1 ought not to write so much, cast him from among you, but when to its destination, took off his hat to The people ace full of contrasts. wild unless they have some one to and yet I ought to tell you how When you try to think of the Negro care about them ; and there are so it, for it was a promise to him of ye have made him a pagan, forget not ,*s a race you must have a remarkably many who have no real care. The quickly and naturally they seem to cheer that would warm both his your instincts of kindliness and treat broad mind, or you will think' nar father dies, perhaps, then the mother take to anything like refinement. The hands and heart. The ancient bards him still as a gentleman, for- are you rowly. Your thought must cover must go out to work for some family, children who came to our school, were, welcomed it with their sweetest min not as vile as he when from your lips good people and bad, well off and going to her work before light and almost without exception, clean look strelsy, and the children danced about again and again is told the slanderous coming back late in the evening ; the poor, educated and ignorant, impul ing and well dressed. They learn of it in unrestrained glee." After the log story. sive and quiet, and a thousand more people who employ her, of course, do one another. If one comes at first was half consumed the rest was care The fruits'of righteous living is differences. My first ' sight at the not want a tribe of children tagging dirty, he doeen t keep on so, because fully placed in the cellar and the peace, but there can be no peace, till homes is not the sharpest contiast at her heels ; they must be left to get the rest are clean. In winter dark, charred remains used to light the that unruly member which defileth that there is in the homes of the along as they can all day ; most likely woolen dresses arid white aprons make next Christmas log, its presence in Ibe whole body is chained and denies utterance to the heart which is deceit the house being considered a security colored people in Charleston, by any they get into jail for vagrancy, and the girls look almost as if they we rd- against fire. It was an ill omen if a means, but there was a clearly de come out to do something worse than in uniform, and in the warm weather ful and desperately wicked. squinting person looked at it while it fined difference. The first was tho wander about, till they get caught and the white dresses, and light Huffy Live godly; as near like God as was burning, or if a bare-footed per home of a widowtwho does washing. sent back'again. You would have to muslins gave them a kind of holiday there is the power in fraiF humanity; son entered the hall, or worse than all There were neatly papered walls, a bite your lips to keep back tho tears appearance. In some of the heme» growingnearer day by day,till the mist rug in the middle of the floor, a little if you could go to the jail there and you would find nice pictures, curtains, a flat footed woman. rises and eyes grown dim to the beau stand with a bright-chimneyed lamp see little bright-eyed, round checked carpets, a piano perhaps, book», and The Yule candle, which was a Han ties of this‘w*orld see beyond the river on it, a kind of side-board with shin tots, of four or five years old, shut in a kind of eager politeness, that is very dle of monstrous size, indeed, lighted that men call death, to the beautiful ing glasses setroft’ with two or three with, those who have grown old in pleasant. You will find graduates of the festive board, around which gath city built upon the everlasting hills red and white doylies and* a gilt- wickedness, learning evil, with all our school teaching all about there,. *“ ered master and servants, retainers that surround the» throne of God.” edged cup and saucer. A heavy wide their bright powers, just because they others are in business, one, if not and wayfaring strangers. Mirth ran The preacher’s eyes grew moist walnut bedstead stood in one corner, find it, rftit because they love it, or more, in the ministry, one at Oberlin- riot, and the children were allowed to with tears, while his’longing for a not shoved away dost, but diagonally, seek for it. If the mother of a family« preparing to go out as a foreign mis remain up till twelve o ’ clock, to take place in that heavenly city gave his With its foot pointing straight to dies tho children are usually given sionary, «nd very many in homes oi part in the noisy games — racing in voice a pathos which stirred the wards the middle of the room. It a^ay. Colored people are not re their own, bringing up children who- sacks, diving in water for apples, and , hearts of his hearers to renewed pro had the whitest of spreads lucked in, ceived in the workhouse; somebody shall have a better start, and so climb- kissing under the mistletoe bough, mises of Christian forbearance, and and big square pillows with rutiled uiu-it take them, and iw> they go, likely higher than their fathersand mothers. which last in those days, perhaps, was passing out they breathed a reverent shams that shone in the lamplight. enough to some one who takes them noisy, too. amen to the closing words of the I here, I will stop right here. If morning lesson stiff sounding in their_ 1° early days, in some parts of the That woman must have'slept in that only from necessity, and who makes you want to ask any questions, I shall <ais; " shaliwe not then, my brethren, Old Dominion and the Carolinas, the bed, but how she could get those ’ 1st drudge* of them They ire often be glad to answer them, for I shall etrive to live soberly, righteously and burning of the Yule-log was a gracious shams on and off' and not have a shamefully abused arid taught to steal 1 know then that you are interested, N ellie C loudmai ; godly, our few years u,on the earth, ceremony. At this seasdh the yoke of wrinkle in them is tnorq than 1 knpw. and do other wrong things to bring •peaking evil of no man, but looking bondage did not press so heavily upon . There were a few pictures and bright ■ money to pay the cost of keeping' South Windham, Me. For tl;e Messenger. A Peculiar People. >■ 1 ♦