Evening Star Newspaper, December 30, 1893, Page 17

THE EVENING STAR. PUBLISHED DAILY EXCEPT SUNDAY. aT THE STAR Bi & B Kal i. New Ycrk Office, $8 Potter Building, EVENING STAR is served to subscribers in the carriers, om their own account, at 10 cents rt ini or 44c. per ontb. Copies ‘at the each. By mall-aayerece to the United age prepaid—SO cents per TEEPAT CUneTePLE SuEnr Star $1.00 paw year: et Che Evening Slave.res x fore: port: added Af Catered at the Poet Oeice at Washiegton, D.c/ Bs second-class mai: matter.) Z CF Al wall subscriptions wust be paid tn vance. e Rates af advertising made tows on applic!” Ww ASHINGTO N, D. C., SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1893-TWENTY PAGES. ——..-- + TO ADVERTISERS. Advertisers are urgently re- quested to hand in advertisements the day prior to publication, if order that incertion may be as- sured. Want advertisements will be received up to noon of the day SCENE OUTSIDE THE W HITE HOU SE. OLDTIME RECEPTIONS | Scenes That’ Have Enlivened the White House Parlors. | WASHINGTONS DRAWING ROOM ‘Historic Incidents Connected With New Year Calling. WHE ETIQUETTE OF THE DAY. @ritten for The Evening Star. WO-FACED JANUS again stands at the threshold dividing honors with the old year and the new. Another cycle is com- pleted and 1898, weighted with un- gratified ambitions, thwarted hopes and heartaches, stumbles over the doorstep in- to the darkness as the little king of the Sl new year speeds in- fo the light with his promises of better fortunes, which are accepted with revels and rejoicings,though everybody knows that he is a gay deceiver and that he never kept & promise in his life. New Year receptions at the White House @re an unavoidable government function. ‘They are not mentioned in the Constitution, | !dent of the United States and his cultured but only one President ever tried to evade them, and he ingioriously surrendered to a lot of ‘resolute women, who did not propose | cause in their several years abroad both to be cheated out of the opportunity to dis- | Mr. and Mrs. Adams had acquired many of Play in so conspicuous a place their one aew winter gown. The Easter fynction for this purpose had not yet been introduced. Jonn Adams was Prgsident when the ‘White House was first thrown open to the Public for a New Year reception. The “President's palace” i | Deen in it a few weeks. “Lady” Washing- ton and her distinguished consort had been in the habit of holding heavy rooms“ in the President’s mansion in New | sorrow hung over the heart of President York and later in Philadelphia. Washing- | ‘iarrison, and the doors of the White House, ton detested the “mockery of a monarchy,” as he called it, but people were bound to wee him. There were society vandals even then who stopped ut nothing in their ef- forts to shake hands with the President, | and “to prevent callers from arriving be- fore breakfast" and at all other inoppor- tune hours of the day, Washington at last submitted to the ordeal of public recep- tions. The description of the first of these is very funny, and it must be true, for Mr. Jefferson wrote it with his own hand. He gays: “An ante room and presence room were provided, and when those who were to pay their court were assembled the Pres- Ident set out, preceded by Humphreys. After passing through the ante chamber the door of the inner room was thrown open and Humphreys entered first, calling out in a loud voice, ‘The President of the i United States." The President was so much @isconcerted by this he did not recover in A Receiving Party. the whole time of the levee, and when the fompany wes gone he said to Humphreys, “Well, you have taken me in once, but, by God, you shall never take me in a second time.” After that episode, in which the father of his country seems tu have got the worst of it, the form for receiving was changed, but to the last remained stiff and cere- Mmonious, with a strong tendency to court customs, entirely at variance with repub- Uean institut The Washingtons styled these functions * Wi Mrs. Adams White Ho she termed them “levees” end in Mr. Jefrerson’s time they got to be called “soireess’ Now they are just plain Feceptions. The Present White House. It was January 1, 1801, that the Execu- tive Mansion was frst opened to the gen- eral public and Present and Mrs. Adams, with quaint pomp anq@ ceremony, received the courtesies of the people. At that time only eight rooms had been completed in the mew White House. Mrs. Adams found great cause for complaint that nearly all the wood that they had ordered cut in ad- ae of their arrival to feed the fire in ie yawning fireplaces had been ned be dry the wails, 30 that there was ‘earth | was only a stone shell | gent Lincoln's administration @t that time. and the Adamses had only much time to think of Ne “drawing | gloom. of fire wood despite the fact that Washing- | ton was then very largely a wooded wilder- | ness. The first floor of the White House was hardly habitable at all. The east room | was pot finished for twenty years after that. John Quincy Adams, whose mother had used it for a laundry and store room, was granted $6,000 by Congress to finish | and furnish it in 1827. Mrs. Adams re- marks in one of her letters that the people Were clamoring for an “audience,” but she feared to attempt a drawing room, because there were not lamps sufficient to light the house properly and not enough wood could be kept cut to heat the barns of rooms. | By New Year , however, Mrs. Adams, who was a woman of resolution, had com- a few of the difficulties. She had a suite of handsome red velvet furniture, of which she was very proud. The only room fit to put it in was the library upstairs just above the blue parlor, and oval like it. This room she had hastily covered with a warm red carpet, on which enormous and impos- sible flowers were cast in geometric de- sign. The red velvet furniture was dis- posed to best advantage about the room,and in a letter to a friend Mrs. Adams ex- pressed the sentimert that the room even then was “handsome,” and when finished up properly would be very “beautiful.' in this red drawing room the second Pres- In the East Room. wife held the first New Year reception ‘in the White House. The stately ceremony observed savored of court customs, be- the mannerisms of the court circles and they were naturaily aristocrats. Mr. Lincoln's Reece; From January 1, 1801, to the present, open hous: on New Year day has been the rule at the White House and never broken, except on rare occasions. During Presi- there was not w Year. The east room was crowded night and day with anxious men and women who were far from pleasure bent. Soldiers in blue uni- forms swelled the number, filling the cor- ridors and stairways and penetrating even to the private portions of the mansion. With a growing sorrow in his heart Presi- dent Lincoln could not abide the cere- monious forms. An hour or two of each day he stood in the east room, shaking hands with all who came, and as much as possible avoided the gaslight receptions, He hated a dress suit and kid gloves, and he wanted to spare the people the hollow | troduced to Washington society as the mis- suitable to an ordinary evening party. I am not sure that even dress is much Fe- garded, for I saw there a good many wear- ing boots. The females were all properly attired, although few were ornamented with jewelry, of course.” One of the customs peculiar to those long ago New Year receptions at the White | House was introduced by the ladies. They/| wore, on that day for the first time, their) new wifiter bonnets and shawls. Fashions/| were not as fleeting in those days as they | are now, and the New Year toilet did duty | till the next New Year. It was in 1822 that the now famous Marine Band played for | the first thne at the White House recep-| tions. Refreshmenis are never served at any public presidential reception. Oaly one | President ever attempted a wholesale “feed” | on New Year day, and that was copay eee Jackson. When Old Hickory came into! power he inaugurated a new style of enter-| tainment and served “hand-me-down lunch- | eons” at his public receptions. A farmer | friend up in Jersey, once sent him a cheese of mammoth proportions, and he conceived | the brilliant idea of treating his friends to} this delicious tidbit. So on New Year day | the cheese was cut into “hunks of a/ quarter of a pound each, and served along) with other edibles to the people who throng- ed the east room. Half the cheese thus| served was thrown upon the floor by the| people who were ab » While enjoying the President's hospitelity, and tramped into the carpets till the odor became almost unbearable. The carpets were ruined and had to be replaced. As it required 515 yards to carpet the east room alone, and the car- pet has to be especially woven for the pur- pose, Mr. Jackscn's receptions were expen- sive affairs. When Mr. Van Buren entered the White House he very wisely discontin- ued the feeding process, and it has never since been revived. Some Pleasant Incidents. On New Year day 1839 Mrs. Abram Van Buren, the beautiful brid= of the son and private secretary of the i’resident, was in- tress of the White House, one of the love- | lest women who ever presided over the} Executive Mension. It was at a levee dur- ing the time of President Tyler that Wash- ington Irving and Charles Dickens met in the east room, and there are men iiving who remember of meeting at receptions in the White House Henry Clay, Daniel Web- ster and John C. Calhoun all at one time, with a dozen lesser lights. ‘The New Year reception at the Executive Mansion begins about 11 o'clock a.m. But hours before that long lines of people stretch out for blocks down the driveway of the White House grounds and up and down the} avenue, patiently waiting for the big doors to open. The receiving party consists of the President—the New Year reception is the President's. Beside him at his right stands the lady of the White House and at her right the ladies of the cabinet, accord- ing to the presidential succession of their husbands. These constitute the “line.” The male members of the cabinet can join the “line” if they wish, but none of them ever “wish. It is @ lot jollier to stand “behind the line,” where there is always a perfect crush of elegantly attired women, who are invited to assist in entertaining such of the passing callers as may be invited to step back for a moment's chat. The ladies are generally in gorgeous attire. The President receives in the blue parlor. The receiving party forms upstairs and comes down the private stairway at the west end of the corridor, preceded by the master of ceremonies, who is always an army officer, and in this instance is Col. John M. Wilson, who will be attired in all the glitter of full regimentals. As the party descends the stairway the Marine Band plays Hail to the Chief. The line forms along the front of the blue parlor, leaving a wide passageway, down which the callers pass. Col. Wilson announces each by name. Mr. Cleveland grasps each by the hand and, with a shoving shake, the caller on down the line. He looks like a man- darin to the six ofeight in line and slides | joyfully on into the green room, and finally emerges in the east room mopping his brow and thanking the fates that he is through. If the caller is a woman, she gets rattled about the second bow, and if she does not walk on her dress, drops her card case, or handkerchief, or flowers, or does something else awful, and thereby confesses herself a “tenderfoot” at official receptions. The old stagers go through with it like a piece of machinery, and make another mark in their memory to display to posterity how many presidential receptions they have at- tended. The Matter of Precedence. ‘The Vice President and cabinet pay their respects to the President and his party first. Then the Secretary of State takes his station at the President’s left hand and in turn presents each member of the corps diplomatique, the one longest in point of service coming first, as dean of the diplo- mockery of public receptions with attend- Ee display while the nation was in mourn- ug. During President Arthur's administration the grand reception had just commenced. The cabinet had been presented and the diplomatic coi had just passed when the Hawaiian minister dropped dead in the lit- tle reception room. The mansion doors were closed at once, and a gala day ended in Last year the shadow of a recent which never opened more freely to the pub- lic than during his administration, were Closed and the sun shone upon the quietest New Year day that Washington has ever known. When Mr. Jefferson came into office he was opposed to presidential receptions of all Kinds. He seems to have been born for the purpose of upsetting established ethics in all directions. Much of it was ascribed to his desire for “simplicity,” but the mag- nificence with which he refurnished the White House astonished everybody; arid though he rode horseback to his inaugura- tion, and in plainest of clothes, it was a matter of pique. His splendid “coach and four,” which is described as rivaling any- thing royalty had ever displayed, failed to reach him in time for his inaugural, as ordered, and in a fit of pique he fitted his clothes to his conveyance. Later he is de- scribed as wearing richly embroidered coats, silk stockings, huge silver buckles on his shoes, giddy waistcoats, ruffied shirt fronts and rare laces about his wrists. ‘The statue of him at the Capitol represents him in this almost royal attire, and it must have made a very handsome man of him. When Mr. Jefferson decided to do away with receptions he reckoned without the women. Washington was a city of only 5,000 inhabitants at that time, and the offi- cial receptions were the bright spots in an otherwise dull existence. When the Presi- dent closed his doors to the public and in- augurated an exclusive social system in which the common herd had no part the tabinet officials followed suit, and it was Ret to be endured for a moment. On the day when the reception should have been hel@ the society women congregated at the Waite House, and they were told that Mr. Jefferson was out riding. They composedly seated themselves and awaited his return. When he came soon after, he was informed of the raid that had been made upon him, and, booted and spurred, with his clothing splashed with mud, he entered the recep- tion room and greeted his guests with all the urbanity imaginable. After that the re- ceptions were held at stated periods, as had been the former custom, Mr. Jeffer- son’s dauehters or Mrs. Madison or both assisting him. The residential receptions during the time of Madison and the lovely Dolly are said to have been dreams of delight. There Fas no kind of formality whatever, and from highest to lowest each was received with charming grace. A Cheerlens Place. During Monroe's time the White House was considered the most cheerless place It had been rebuilt after the ed the Madisons out of it and was meagerly furnished. Monroe was given the munificent sum of $30,000 to refurnish it. It would take more money than that to buy carpets alone for the house as it now stands. But for that sum a suite of ele- gant furniture was ordered for the east room. It was purchased in Paris and was patterned after that in the palace of Louis XVI. with the eagle substituted for the gilt crown. He also ordered a silver service, which was used until 1869. Cooper says of a Monroe reception: “I will acknowledge surprise at the respectable air and deport- ment of the assemblage. The evening at the White House or drawing room, as it is sometimes pleasantly called, is, in fact, a collection of all classes of people who choose to go to the trouble and expense of dresses matic corps. After the foreign legations NEW YEAR IN ASIA How the Day is Celebrated ou the Other Side of the World. WATER FEAST OF BURMAH Siamese Children Who Bathe Their Grandmothers on New Year. es lc ES IN TURKEY AND JAPAN ene ae Written for The Evening Star. EXT MONDAY them a new suit of clothes on New Year Day, consisting often of a new waist cloth and a Turkish towel. The celebration of New Year Day is sanctioned by the Buddhists and the Siamese believe that the souls of those Buddhists who have gone to purgatory come back to earth on that day. The people pour water out on the ground in celebration of this and they always go to the temples and visit the shrines. Every idol in the king- dom is bathed with perfumed water and in- cense is burned by the cord. They lay flowers upon the idols and they weave gar- lands and put them into Buddha's hand. The children play tricks upon one another much the same as we on Halloween or push each other into the river. They have a water celebration much the same as in Burmah and the king has reception of his offcers much the same as has our President. , will be New Year day in America. It will not be New Year all over the world. Nearly every Asiatic nation has its own calendar. The New Year festivities of the Chinese take place during the lat- ter pert of January or the first of Febru- ary. Russia has a New Year about twelve days different from ours, and the pretty girls of Burmah do not celebrate their New Year until about the Ist of April. In my trip around the world a few years ago I struck a number of queer New Year celebrations, and I find that every nation celebrates the day differently. The people of Burmah and Siam have the most curious customs. The Burmans think that a spirit king at that time descends from heaven to earth and upon the manner of |his coming depends the prosperity of the year. The astrologers fix the time of his appearance and they give the signal when he has come. Then cannons are fired, guns are shot and every man and woman in the country makes a prayer and pours a libation of water on the ground. This is the last night of the old year, and the next morn- ing is to be the beginning of the New Year holiday: ‘The Burmese Water Feast. New Year in Burmah begins with a great water feast, and the Burmese girls and wo- men for this day reign supreme. I wish I could show you a Burmese girl. She is as pretty as any of her kind the world over. She is straight, well-formed and fine look- large, brown and velvety, Mock King. Speaking of the king, Siam has another queer holiday, during which the king nom- inally gives his power over to a mock king, and the whole of Siam takes part in this ing. Her red lips are luscious, her eyes are| celebration. The governor of the province % hole in the center. The and her cheeks| sent me an invitation to it while I was in | April 1. They black each other's faces and | are the color of the cream of your own Jer-| Bangkok, afid I watched the proceedings in‘ sey cow, with a faint tinge of red in the] company with an Austrian prince, who was center. She wears but two garments, one is] visiting Siam at that time. There were @ white saque of fine silk or cotton, which | thousands on the streets, and the rich Slam- covers the arms and bust and falis to the|ese as well as the poor were out. There waist, and tie other is a strip of silk or cot-| were lots of royal babies, who were dressed ton of the brightest colors,which is wrapped |in nothing but diamonds. 1 remember cne tightly around her waist, hips and loins,and| young prince, who had a cupful of dia- fastened with a twist at the front. It falls| monds upon him, and his sole dress was to her feet and when she walks she kicks | these and a silver belt. He was about four her bare heeis out behind, so that the only | years old, and he was smoking a cigarette. exposure of her person is from her foot to| There were lots of pretty Siamese iris, the knee. She wears rings in the lobes of| many of whom wore silk waist cloths, xn ber ears as big around as.a silver quarter, rough the came a number of Siam- and she smokes cigars as long as a lead|ese debtors, with chains about their legs. pencil and as thick as the wrist of a two-| They were going to work, and were not al- year-old baby. She has more rights in the| lowed to take part in the festivities. The Way of business and love-making than has| celebration took place in a great court near cestral tablets. They go out to the graves and they worship the gods in the temples. They fire off firecruckers to scare off the bad spirits, and New Year night in China is a good deal worse than it is in America. New Year morning finds all the shops clos- ed. The day is devoted to calling and visit- ing. Presents are given. The ladies visit one another and carry gifts of candy. As Soon as they come in each guest is served with a cup of tea, in which an almond has been placed as an emblem of good fortune. The officials hold receptions as we do, and the princes at Peking call upon the em- peror and say that they hope he will reign 10,000 years. These New Year festivities are kept up for days. Presents are sent | between friends, and one of the most com- mon presents is a cake as round as a ball fried in oil. The Chinese watch the weather very carefully on New Year and on the week following it. If the first ten days of the year are good they believe that the whole year will be fine and that every- thing will flourish. There are lots of proph- ets, soothsayers and gamblers, and the whole country for the time goes wild. The beggars are out in force. They go about the last night of the old year with buckets of paste and red placardss.on which are written good fortune and New Year wishes. They paste these on the walls and | doors of the houses of the people who are | well to do, and come around early the next | day and bez for a gift as a reward for their printed card the night before. How the Koreans Fly Kites. Some of the queerest people I have ever met are the Koreans. The world knew nothing about them ten years ago, and they have today about the same customs which the Chinese had four hundred years ago. They are to a large extent a nation of children and New Year is a great day with them. On this day men and boys turn ovt to fly kites and they keep this | kite fying up during the New Year holi- days. When they are over they cut the strings of their kites and let them fly away, | believing that the kites will carry off any, ill luck which may be waiting for their |owners. A Korean kite is different from | any other kite in the world. It has no tail and it is nearly square. It is made of thin pieces of bamboo covered with paper, with no tail makes it juire great $s erate it, and the Korean iS use instead of balls. When they high up in the air they try to mak > — im — that so e strings o: n the strings become entansled ti pull at them and the of his enemy's kite first These kite fights are very Fond ed thousand em wi as much interest tards: do the = as = do 4 bull Aight and’ we’ Americans One Sunday a Year. New Year day ts a sort of a Korean Sab- bath. It is the only Sunday the Koreans have, and .ne same may be said of the Chmese. In Korea no one ever works on A Marked Absence of Little Attention: her American sister, and on New Year day she is more giddy than ever. As soon as the day breaks she gets a squirt gun made of tin or bamboo and with a bucket of water goes out to saturate her gentlemen friends. No one is safe from her, and boys have had their turn the justices of the Su- preme Court have their inning. After the Supreme Court has exhausted its stock of small talk Congress is turned loose, the Senators coming first. Congressmen and Senators fight shy of ti part of the program, fro the reason, ex- Pressed rather tersely by a western mem- ber recently, that he “could come near enough making a holy show of himself on ground that he was acquainted with.” After the statesmen come the men who support the military dignity of the nation, the army, headed by the general command- ing and his staff, and the navy, with the ranking commodores at its head. Then the civilian chiefs of the department service present themselves, followed by the repre- sentatives of the Grand Army of the Re- Public, and they in turn by the Mexican veterans and the oldest inhabitants. ‘That ends the strictly official program and at 12:30 the great American public, without Tegard to color, sex or previous ‘condition of servitude, is turned into the line and! Tushed past the receiving party at the rate of forty-five a minute while the Marine Band plays its maddest, merriest airs. At 2 o'clock the wide outer doors are closed in the face of the advancing popu- lace and as the footfalls die away the band plays “Home, Sweet Home,” and the President's reception !s ended. In the three hours he shakes hands with from three to five thousand people and the ladies in line have each bowed about as often. Immediately after the reception the Pres- ident and his wife usually entertain at luncheon in the private dining room all the ladies in the line and behind it who re- main to the end. By 12 o'clock, however, the wives of the Vice President and of the Secretary of State and most of the other cabinet officials find it necessary to retire from the recetving line so as to get to their own homes in time to greet their own guests. ‘Ihe Secretary of State always en- tertains the diplomatic corps at a break- fast between 12 and 1 o'clock on New Year day. ISABEL WORRELL BALL. ELE SO ae ‘The Christmas Sunday School Scholar. From the Detroit Free Press. The small boy hadn’t been to Sunday school since last Christmas, and the teacher didn’t recognize him. “Who was it,"" she inquired after a num- ber of questions had been unanswered, ‘who said: ‘Suffer little children to come unto me?’ “Santa Claus,” he replied with a vehe- mence that quite unsettled the teacher. Hopeless Higgins (in great surprise)— “Where did you git them funny lookin’ clothes, Fad?" Footworn Fadden—“A young feller down the street there give "em to me—he says he’s jest fipieked his course at Yale Col- lege!” Holiday Oren: and girls, men and women, devote the day to sprinkling and soaking each other. No one has the right to get mad on this day, and a boy has the right to pour water over his father, and the girls drop bucketfuls from the roofs of their houses down the backs of their parents, and Europeans as well as Americans are soaked. At a New Year not long ago an Englishman in a tall plug hat arrived at Rangoon, Burmah, on New Year day. He had letters of introduc- duction and he went to present these wear- ing a high silk hat, a long frock coat and light trousers. At the front door he found four pretty Burmese girls, who told him in their lingo they were going to throw water over him. He thought they were asking whether he wanted to see their father, and he raised his hat and said “Yer Upon this he got about four gallons of water and he was drenched to the skin. Another Englishman who was treated in this way picked up the girl and dropped her into the bath tub from whence she was get- ting the water. She was a high-toned Bur- mese girl, this action was entirely contrary to New Year etiquette, and caused, it is said, the young man’s social ostracism. They Bathe Their Grandmothers. The Siamese New Year is the 27th of March and the holidays last for five days. There is no tax on gambling at this time and all the gambling houses of Bangkok are opened. Thousands of these half-naked Siamese squat about playing fan tan anu one ,of the funniest customs is that the children have of bathing their grand- mothers on New Year. The ugliest looking old women of the world are the Siamese. The maidens are plump and bright-eyed. They are short, seldom over five feet in height, but they are straight and well form- ed. They wear nothing but a strip of cot- ton cloth a yard wide and about three yards long, which they wind about their hips and fasten by pulling the ends through between the legs and tucking it into the belt at the back. This is the dress of the common women, and it is only the better classes who have anything about the shoulders, the bust ard the neck. In such a costume a plump girl looks weil, but a strawny wrin- kled old woman looks horrible. The Siamese women cut their hair short. It grows coarser as they grow older and it stands up like a shoe brush all over their heads. These grandmothers have bristles about an inch long. They all chew the betel and long be- fore they have grandchildren their teeth are black and their lips are cracked and stained. They squat around the house on their haunches doing little but smoking cigarettes and chewing betel nuts and they vary the puffing out the smoke with the spitting out betel juice. This betel juice i red and it lcoks just like blood. The most of the houses of Bangkok are right on the river and the children dip up the water in buckets and pour it over these old hags as they sit on the porches in the sunshine. They act as though they loved their grand- mothers and they probably do. After they are through pouring the water over them they sprinkle them with perfume and pow- der their necks and faces. They also give the city market of Bangkck. We waited about three hours before we heard the pro- cession. Then a noise arose like that of a thousand dogs with tin cans tied to their New Year in Japan. tails rattling over the stoniest of streets, and a moment later we saw about 2,000 na- ked legs carrying 1,000 half naked Siamese, who carried banners and escorted a wrin- kled old prince as their king. This old king was as black as the ace of spades, and his under jaw was no thicker than your finger. le was in gold and silver clothing, and he had a crown on his head that looked lke a pyramid of ice cream. The people cheered him as he came up, and he stopped in front of our party and wagged his thin lower jaw at the governor, saying some- thing that I could not understand. Right near here there was a great swing fastened to a beam across two poles about 100 feet high. From the top of this beam the ropes holding the swing were hung, and on the board at its foot four naked Siamese stood. A purse of money was tied to a long bam- boo fishing pole and fastened to one of the uprights, so that the money hung about thirty feet out from the swing. The pole was so bent that the bag of money hung quivering from the topmost point, far out to the side of the swingers. The feat was for them to get the money while the swing was moving. They first knelt and prayed to the king, and then went up and down upon the swing until they swung them- selves high up in the air and nearer and nearer the money. At last one of them reach- ed it. According to the .rules he had to bite it off with his teeth and to hold the money in his mouth until the swing stopped. This is no easy feat, and the peo- ple went wild. Then four other men took their places on the swing, and more money was put up, and so it went on. I was not able to learn just what it meant, but I was told that it was semi-religious in character and that it came from the Brahmins. Queer Chinese Customs. The Chinese .New Year festivities often last for three weeks. The people prepare for them, and the last days of the old year are the busiest. Every one wants money, and the storekeepers are getting ready for | their annual settlement. All debts are ex- | pected to be paid at the end of the old year, and every one figures up his accounts. The women celebrate the occasion by cleaning house. The floors are washed, the chairs are covered with red cloth, and strips of red paper marked with names of fortune, wealth and happiness are pasted outside the front doors. The last of the old year is celebrated with a feast, and on the last night the little boys of China run about the streets yelling out good reso- lutions. One of their cries is that they will sell their folly and their lazy habits to any one who will buy, in order that they may be wiser next year. On the last day of the Good Fortune for the New Year. old year the Chinese pray before their an- New Year and there are family reunions like our Thanksgiving day. Children on this day are expected to go home to parents. All debts have to be paid, every one expects .to get last of the year. On New Year morni it is imperative that you call friends, and you are expected to sacrifice your ancestors. Lhe giving of New Y. presents its and these presents are always sent out in a certain kind of known as New Year boxes. comes out in new clothes and for a week little else than is done. The Ko- of money and also a piece of. paper on which is written a prayer asking that the owner be delivered from all plagues and diseases and misfortunes for the year to come. Boys call for these effigies and they cut them up to get the money out of them. The more they are cut the better will be the luck of the persons who make them. After they are torn to pieces the remainders are thrown at some cross roads, where they are burnt. ‘The Japanese celebrate the NewYear much the same as do the Chinese. Calis are |made, presents exchanged and settlements | are expected. The children are out in force. ‘They play all sorts of games and they make snow men just as our boys do in America. New Year in Turkey. ‘The Turks have a number of holidays. I was in Constantinople on Mohammed’s birthday and the people were all out in their best clothes, and I watched the sultan go to the mosque. I also saw the procession which goes every year across Constanti- nople to kiss the mantle of Mohammed. The Mohammedan year is eleven days shorter than ours, and its New Year day changes from year to year. The astrologers fix the exact beginning of it by firing a rocket from one of the heights about Con- |stantinople, and the Turks celebrate it in | great shape. The sultan gives a reception |tn one of his palaces an@ at this reception | every one gets a New Year gift in the shape of some Turkish gold pieces which are especially minted for the purpose. Al! the high class Mohammedans make pres- ents to their households on this day, and nearly every servant gets a piece of money. FRANK G. CARPENTER. ane oe coi bce se Danger of an Obscure Prescription. From the New York Tribune, A prescription written by a well-known physician in New York recently gave the following directions: “First day, take three pills at intervals of an hour; second day, take two pilis at intervals of an hour; third | day, take one and then stop.” This is certainly obscure, and as a matter of fact the wording of the prescription came near causing serious trouble. The direction for the third day would be likely, of course, to make any one pause to consider what was meant by the whole, but, if that last direction had not been given it would have | been easy for some people to interpret the | directions as “Take three pills every hour during the first day and two pills every |hour during the second day.” What was meant, of course, was that three pills were to be taken on the first day, one pill at a | time, with an hour between every pill; two pills on the second day, one at a time, with an hour between each, and one pill only on the third day. But there certainly was danger in the di- |rections to people who were either not | quick to grasp a point or were careless in | following the whole meaning. Suppose, for | instance, some one had undertaken to read |the directions on the installment pian, so to speak—that is, suppose he had thought “Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof”— and had considered that it would be time enough to study the directions for the sec- ond day when the second day came. Then he might have taken three pills every hour for twenty-four hours, and tne coroner | could have done the rest. j But to be serious, it is desired here to im- | press upon physicians that no room should | be left for doubt as to their meaning, and upon those who read the directions of phy- sicians’ prescriptions that they should read the whole carefully, and then hesitate if | they are in doubt. | — Forty-one pounds of dynamite have been stolen from a quarry store at Dottingen, Wurtemburg. Twenty dynamite cartridge: one hundred and fifty blasting caps and fif- teen pounds of dynamite have been found in a warehouse at Sanbrucken. one |” CC THE DECLINE OF COURTESY. in Social Life g In Paris there are some cases of vival of the salon. For instance, there the salon of Madame Charpentier, well-known publisher, tinguished she adopted when making Persia. This does not mean excavations in an evening suit Ue, but that in Paris male attire. Another f jet rfid By sg BFE The fame of the old Htlnt Pind tas tee call test Tata osteo j pleads upstart enters the claim of a kind heart for whose manners would be scarcely able in a stable—such a aHEient Z “Do you care to dance this?” if she should be very handsome, dously weaithy and young he might more eagerness into his —it hardly be called an invitation. He in such a case, convey an idea of favor, though, in the majority of considers his dances blessings eonferred. Another case is that of a chaperone brings up a young bachelor to introduce to the daughters of a friend only to see him « bow and walk away, when, moreover, he ~ has received, many times, the hospitality of her house, and if really under obligations -help her entertain her charges. Again, at supper, who has not seen young men re- peatedly push their way before elderly la- dies to serve younger ones that were afford- _ ing them amusement and pleasure for the time? The lack of civility to any but those that are a particular pleasure or advantage to © s | him detracts from the matrimonial desira- bility-of any man. The girl that sees her admirer leave her to pay deference to her mother or her hostess will not think the less of him: she will be more apt to see in that a foretaste of the courtesy coming to her also when her youth and beauty are fied and she has reached the dismal stage of the “‘yello-* leaf.” unselfish politeness nowadays. It is argued that nobody has time to think and about little courtesies in this busy age. The road of life has become so crowded that people think more of struggling after wealth and fame—or for sheer existence, it be—than of such trifies as little civiiities. ‘We must hustle and bustle and jostle others, or we ourselves will be thrust out of the roadway. Although men are sometimes lacking in small courtesies, it must be admitted that women often are lacking in acknowledg- ing and appreciating them. When polite- ness is shown it should certainly be politely nowledged, yet many men have had ex- periences where that rule has not been ob- terved. They could tell of more times than one when they have held open a shop door or tried to prevent its swinging back in the face of the next comer and their little ef- forts have been accepted without one word of thanks or even a slight acknowledging bend of the head. They could mention many cases where they have been kept waiting by an unpunctual lady friend who would have been surprised to be told that she had been guilty of selfishly impolite behavior in showing such scant consideration for a man’s valuable time. It is a strange femi- nine trait to be rather proud of this par- ticular failing. Independence is the miti- gating name given to the want of polite- ness in small matters of word and deed. do just as one chooses and to behave it as one likes is dubbed independence—that has a far better sound than selfishness and stupidity. It will be found, however. that those very much given to acting indepen- dently do not appreciate with delight the effects of that form of behavior when it te indulged in by others, and towards them ALETHE LOWBER CRAIG.