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About The Athena press. (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1909)
J r . ' Ti:: Edition con . tu.:.s Six Pages Carry Bio Stocks V Buy Your Groceries from Your Home Grocer Volume xxi. ATHENA. UMATILLA COUNTY. OREGON. FRIDAY. JANUARY J. 1909. 1 NUMBER 1 "H THE TUM-A-LUIYl LUMBER GO, Lumber, Mill Work and all Kinds of BUILDirsTG MATERIAL PAINTS, OILS AND VARNISHES Posts and Blacksmith coal A. M. Johnson, Manager Athena, ESTABLISHED 18G5 g ri-Parton Milling Company iu Damage -'Painting 'Ki reader, Me Arthur Building . J. W BODDY'S MEAT MARKET SOUTH SIDE OF MAIN STREET The Best Meat to be found in Town. Come and see me. I will treat you right. My prices: Boihog Beef 6 & Tots, per lb. Roast Beef 8 & 10 " ", " Stakes 9, 10 & 12 " M V Pork Steak 12, ; " " J. yv. BODDY, ATHENA, OREGON f 2S DELIVERY -if fi m prompt TiiefFresliest and e Best that Money can Buy Always Found Here 1 DELL BROTHERS, Oregon ' the latest r Laid 5 lb. 70ote. Lard 10 " $1.40. Baoon 18ots per lb. Hams 17 " " " fUETDE DDIDCO ADC- DIP UTv FOHNt 1 - :L t-RL miULO H n t 1 1 1 most Choice the Market affords in fj' mtiimi CATERERS TO THE PUBLIC IN t GOOD THINGS TO EA "GREAT GBAPM" HE CEIES. t5he JSfebv ear of the Hoboes. x he Grotto of Modern Miracles. TOWUKlTvfa-i York city at J midnight on New gear's eve is them a busier thror f,f Wry. hnnmi fly Umn thc imjC" 'suii.. ... . i . V. ..' '.' H - il.'U t'lf! itiu"' ' J- j '".tbf thi-oiig aT ',uerrJr j j4 in the . lire hurry-.-i' square, there j.iidlcants and Joy ., nh the money beg .. ..ew'Year shoppers. .one may witness nightly trans lations more wonderful than In the famous "Court of Miracles" in old Paris which Victor Hugo describes in "Notre Dame." The blind see. the dumb talk, the hunchback loses all traces of his deformity, the deaf hear, missing limbs are grown in a twin kling, and the lame discard their crutches and dance in glee. Of all the nights in the year the gladdest in this dive in the Bowery is New Year's eve. Not until long after the late dawn does the drunken rev elry cease, and then only when the merrymakers bare spent all of their 111 gotten gains and are unconscious to their surroundings. The grotto of modern miracles Is In the rear of a saloon, a room 40 by 25 feet. Around are scattered tables and chairs of the cheapest kind. Thick fumes of smoke from bad pipe tobac co, the cheapest cigars made and nau seating cigarettes permeate the at mosphere. : The stranger cau hardly breathe. Through the sickening atmosphere can be detected the odor of , vile heferlind still worse whisky that here is 'sold for 5 cents a goblet - . ' -y From behind the partition a bar tender, with half a nose and but a small nortloa of his right ear to" tell U 1 1 1 - MAIN 83 f Athena, Oregon ; the (are of bis tattles, dispenses liq uor through an opening to a hurrying waiter. - At the tables sit the motley group of hoboes, panhandlers and jailbirds. Fortunate beggars who have had a prosperous day are spending money freely, small change for the most part Whisky and beer flow as they have never flowed before in the year. Nearly all' the mendicants have ar rived. The last tw.o, known as "Pedes trian Tntrick" and "Silent James." are greeted witli an uproar. --Hanging from the neck ol Silent James Is tho sign that re.i'ls: rKAtf 'AND lUJiu. C- o Tjio sign he casts aside, and, with a yell,: he dances and laughs and calls upon "present to drink at bis ex pense. Above his head he waves a five dollar bill. - "Great graf !" he cries. "I touch er bloke for de long green dead easy!' V Pedestrian Patrick discards a pair of well worn crutches and stands up straight on what before appeared to be helpless limbs. "I told his nobs dat wo'd pray fer "lm!" he yells. At this point Blind Phil throws down his sign and peers Intently at the five dollar bill to make sure It is genuine. "I didn't make that much all day," he says ruefully. Asleep near by, with his, head bowed on the table, is Bill, the humpback. No one ever had a more pronounced deformity of the spine. "Bill," cries Blind Phil "Bill, look at de long green Pedestrian and Si lent copped! Bill" And then as Bill docs not awake from the slumber of five cent whisky the "blind beggar" hits the hump, and, lo, it goes with the motion of his hand, sliding down from the shoulders to the middle of the back. Bill awakes with a yawn and slowly adjusts his stock in trade to its proper resting place between his shoulders while giving his order to the waiter. As the waiter sets out the drinks the boboes pass around the bill. The blind examine it closely, the lame dance with It in their hands, and the armless feel of the paper with the air of one who 13 used to it. The bill is passed around the merry crowd and greeted with enthusiasm until taken by Green Goods Ike. "It's a fake," he cries "a bad imita tion!" . And the drinks are on Pedes trian Tatrlck and Silent James, for it is a .counterfeit New York World. ! , How Time Travels. When St. Paul's strikes noon on Jan. 1, 1909, the new year will coine into being somewhere In the Pacific ocean, on a line following longitude 180 east, which is exactly opposite Greenwich meridian on the other side of the globe. Geographers draw the line to avoid passing through any of the Pacific (Islands, for if it did the times and? days of the inhabitants would be hopelessly muddled. .Vanua, one ef the FIJI islands, for Instance, would be otherwise divided by the line where tjie days and years begin and end,, so that while it would be Jan. lypn' the western r;de ft would be Doc. 38 few paces away on the east of th line; One could thus walk Into yesf,erd??j'and a moment later re turn tomorrow I How the new year travels is curi ously HHiitrflted by Its passage across Great Britain: It reaches Greenwich, as the Jlme enter, at midnight, exact ly twelve hours after it started. Sev enteen minutes later it gets to Glas gow, acd another six minutes pass be fore the new year has captured Pen- J raii'.-e.' These are the true times for j thet'e uluccs.. though Greenwich time. ' is the one accepted, uut ireiana is proud in possession of her own chro nology, and it will be 12:25 at night In London before 1009 reaches Dub lin. London Chronicle. New Year Superstition. It is considered a sure sign of death to see one's own shadow in the moon light on New Year's evo. You court misfortune by leaving the house on Now Year before some one has entered it. You must hope for the luck, moreover, of having the first to enter a dark haired man. Seeking to know what good or evil the New Year would bring, superstitious people. la the long ngo girt themselves v !Vi ir.voVds and sat on the- roof of Ih.Tr houses on New Year's eve. They tilso knelt at the crossroads (on a cow hide) for the same purpose. The first thing brought, one might think, would be pneumonia. It Is bad luck to carry anything out of the house on the New Year before something has been brought in. But the best luck of all, which even those most scornful of portents may not despise, Is to beglu the New Year owing no man a cent. Philadelphia Press. A NEW LEAF. He came to my desk with a quivering lip- The lesson wps done. "Dear teacher, I want a new leaf," he said. "I have spoiled this one." In place of the leaf so stained 1 and blotted . I gave him a new one all unspot ted Knd Into his sad eyes smiled, "Do better now, my child." 1 1 went to the throne with n quivering soul The old year was done. "Dear Father, hast' thou a new leaf - .for me? '.-I' have spollod ' thin one.", fie took the oM lenf, stained ' and blotted. And gave mo n '1)0 BETTER NOW." V new one all unspotted . , - And Into my sad heart smiled, ' ' "Doibctter nw, my child." ; : f- "V 'Forward. THE CHILDREN'S HOLIDAY.' ' - ..- C ;'"';' In China New . Year's Is the Little Ones' Great Festival. . Except at the Chinese - New Year, which comes In February, it Is very hard to catch a glimpse of children in China. Little beggars will run beside you for miles to earn 1 cash, a copper coin with a square hole in the middle of it, worth the twentieth of a cent, but children who have parents to care for them seem to be kept In doors all the time or only allowed to play In walled yards and gardens. 'We used to say to each other: "Why, where are the children? Haven't they got any?" But at New Year's we found out that they had. This Is the great holiday of all the year In China, when everybody hangs out flags and colored lanterns and sets off firecrackers. (We borrowed our custom of firecrackers' for the Fourth of July from China's New Year's.) All the people put on their best clothes and the children the best of all, Jackets and trousers of bright blue or green or yellow or pur ple, the boys and the girls so much alike that you can only tell them apart by their hnlr. The boy's of course Is braided in a pigtail, and the girl's is done up on her head with silver pins or, If she's a very grand little girl, with gold or Jade. Thus decked out, the children go walking, with their proud papas and' mammas and often go to the theater, which Is a rare treat for them. Perhaps Chinese children have romp ing plays together, but they always look as if they were born grown up. St. Nicholas. Where New Year's Lasts a Month. The celebration of New Year's is carried on more extensively in Japan than In any other country. The reason for this can only be accounted for by the fact that the custom has been handed down to succeeding genera tions for centuries. The time the oc casion Involves Is quite lengthy, last ing from the l;?th of December (Koto Ilajime viz, beginning of things) to the 10t!i of January (Hokonin no yabu lri), which Is apprentices' holiday. On both of the occasions a sort of stew Is eaten, composed of red beans, rice, sliced fish and konnyaka root. Every Little Bit Helps. "You say you encouraged our friend to make another New Year's resolu tion?" "I did," answered the man whose heart Is all right. "But don't you know he'll break it at the end of six weeks at tho least calculation?" "I hopo not. Aud,even If he does he'll be six weeks ahead of the game." Revised Version. I remember, I remember. The house where I was born And also the Janitor, bellboy, butcher boy baker boy, bootblack, elevator man, grocer's boy And newKoy Christmas morn. New lork Sun. Cut it Out r A New Year's poem. THE old year's shades were quit pulled down When through each village, city, town, There passed a sandwich man with sign Whose legend filled a single line: "Cut it out!" wBe more specific!" said the man Who plainly rushed too much the can. The sandwich man ne'er turned aside) Only the legend writ replied: "Cut it out!" "Please state ex actly what you'd sayl" Desired the man who smoked all' day. But all the an swer that he got Was this laconic, center shot: "Cut it out!" , The man whose face so haggard white ' . Meant poker play ing night and night Required to know what thing was meant And got this answer eloquent: "Cut it out!". So every one who looked on it. Felt his especial fault was hit. Their souls with new resolves did fill, And all exclaimed aloud: "We will .. Cut it out!" So all braced up and for three days Frequented narrow, proper ways And followed fully up the plan Suggested by the sandwich man: . , "Cut it out!" ; ' But ere the sandwich man did trace A four days' journey from the place All things were as they were before And no on ever hinted more: : t "Cut It out!" .'. New Orleans Times-Democrat. " AZTECS' HORRIBLE HOLIDAY. They Celebrated the New Year With 1 Human Sacrifices. , Tho bloody and complicated ritual of the Aztecs commemorated the return of their masterful war fe'od, tho sun, from tho south, and the ceremonies carried on in his honor occupied n period of several days. The Initiatory rites be gan before daylight of tho first morn- ing, when the chief priest and his $uS" dignitaries wended their way In sol emn procession to the top of their greatest pyramidal sanctuary,' Hero the high priest retired nlono to-a small temple, whose doorway opened toward- . the cast, aud as the rising su'n tflfts'on-- -ed and purpled the serrated mountains ji be knelt and sprinkled thickly, upon . the marble Boor tho sacred menl.' ' Ah the first rays of , the newborn sun strike slantingly across the floor of the tiny temple tho beaded., priest beholds a miracle. Intiy at first thlmTstrW er and stronger, grows an imprints tbsmcal or the naked foot of their war"?:' god. Upon, this, miraculous manlfesta- , ilon the high prlcat announces to tha assembled couriers 'that their god has returned -to them and that the grand ; festal occasion Is Inaugurated. . ; . , Unhappily the first feast rites were of a grewsome and horrible nature . consisting mainly In sacrificing youths to the gods. It Is snld that they were feasted for days prcvlousjto the cere mony that tbey might bo In a whole some and pleasing condition upon their last and the war god's first great day. In other womenies human beings were killed and flayed, and the partici pants in the sacrifice, enveloped them selves In tho bloody skins-of the vic tims, while they took part in a wild and uncanny dance. While the observance of the new year among the Aztecs seemingly pre dominated In bloody rites, they were most likely confined to the religious or- der of the priests, and the great mass of the people, with no taint of blood on their hands, might bo happy and revel In the feast of the uew year. New York Herald. The Jewish New Year. In striking opposition to the spirit of Joy and happiness which pervades Christendom generally is the New Yettr of the Jews. With the Jews, who also observe the New Year for two days, the days are not days of , feasting and enjoyment, but days of Judgment. According to the belief of every orthodox Jew. every member of tho Jewish race Is tried on tho New Year. The books kept In heaveri are opened on that day. The record of each man for tho year Just ending Is looked through and taken under advisement for ten days. On the tenth day, the day of atonement, the fate of each man for the coming year la drawn up, whether he should live or die, prosper or be poor. On the day of atonetnemt the fate Is sealed and nothing can .-' change it any more. Chicago Tribune, j Their New Year Wishes. Weary Wrnggles- if Iwuzonly back at me old houw, what a spread T" a - 4