Grand Rapids Herald-Review Newspaper, December 31, 1904, Page 8

A VISIT FATHER CHRISTMAS One Christmas Eve, while his par- ents were out dining with friends, lit- tle Walter began a letter to Father nas. To tell the truth, Walter could only write straight strokes as yet, but he set them side by side very | and neatly. All the while he | t , Walter argued with him- | t Father Christmas would be | ad the exact meaning he had | evenly W i Walter wanted was to visit the place where all Christmas toys are | “Oh, if only I might go into that house of things,” he thought, and clapped his hands with joy. zht to have written it yester- or he must be awfully busy to- Buc he can manage so many at once. What trouble could y visit give him? I would not stay g; 1 would look ‘round very quick- and come back to papa and mam- | » would not yet be home.” | were the reflections that | in Walter's brain, for he was | ta stupid boy. ad not finished his page of ke when two little angels, one haired and one fair, who were x through the window—perhaps what toys were to be delivered that house, silently came in and ried him off. Away went Walter, up through ce. The brown-haired angel went his way, but the fair one took Wal- to be introduced to Father Christ- who is the King of the Toys now and forever. After mounting thousands of white Walter found himself in the presence of Father Christmas. The id man had a white, pointed hood on his head. His face was serious and his beard long and silvery. Behind him a wide staircase led up, up, and other stairs, too, led up to an immense cathedral, white as milk. Father Christmas looked hard at the er and said to him: “T ha ad your letter. I cannot allow you to go into that building, in my charge. But I can tell ma, wh little trav which is you this It is full to the dome with toys which I shall send as-presents all he world this very night. But I low my messenger boys to take into the forests of Christmas You may help them to cut wh or pull up the fir trees, and then tie little toys and colored tapers to the branche They will sew wings to your shoulders that you may be ple to fly. Go, little ones!” And Walter went with the fair an- not daring to look back at Father Christmas, who spoke to him so grave- y, nor at the white cathedral where were such heaps and heaps of toys. “And where shall we find the things we are to fasten on to the branches of the Christmas trees?” Walter asked of his gentle companion. “They wiil be brought to us from all ; of the workshops where they are made.” “How many are there?” “Three. In the first dolls are made and then dressed from head to foot. In the second weapons and armor are od. Swords must be tempered and breastplates hammered out. To say nothing of the castings of cannon and fe the making of lead soldiers. Our smiths and our chemists are very clever. “In the third they make boats, barges and sailing boats and steam- ships. The engineer angel who man- ag the business knows all the latest improvements. He himself has in- vented a submarine vessel that can be propelled about for six months be- low the surface without stopping.” The vast forest of snow and pine trees stretched as far as the eye could see. The light of the moon and stars brightened the pretty snow, which kept on falling. The straight trees stood as motionless as wooden sol- diers. ow, let us go to the workshops,” 1 Walter, eagérly. ot just yet. It is our business to s and beautify some Christmas s. We will do that here, so as to tors were putting them together, measuring them very accurately; painters were touching the cheeks with pink and lips with red. Careful artists—dressmakers, shoemakers and needlewomen—did the rest. A poet even was engaged to teach the dolls that could speak. | Out of a chimney as tall as the obe- | lisk came a great cloud of smoke. “I will order a suit of armor!” cried Walter, clapping his hands. | “No, no. Nobody can give orders | here. Only Father Christmas has a right to give orders. Nobody obeys any one but him,” replied the angel. Walter saw he had made a mistake. He went in quite grave and silent. He admired the forge, the bellows, the red-hot iron. The smith’s hammer beat in steady time, and the loud tones of the anvil rang out like a song of triumph amid the fireworks of sparks. The hammerman sang to the note of the anvil, to help himself to strike the iron in a regular beat. Next they came to the place where boats were made. Such a_ pretty scene! A wide rivulet of blue water flowed through a sunny meadow, and on it the carpenters and engineers of this heavenly navy.were trying the vessels they had just finished. There were sailing boats for fisher- men, and steamers and ironclads. “Now, come away,” his winged com- panion whispered in his ear. “It is very late; I must be going down all the chimneys. Make haste!” Together they went back to the shining path. As soon as they had left the road they flew down on clouds of snow which were falling. Soon they saw steeples and roofs. “Here, Walter, is the town you live in. In five minutes you will be in bed. I must take off your wings, for they must never touch anything earthly. * * * * * iz Walter awoke. The door of the bedroom was open and his mother, who had just come in, hugged him very tightly. The chimney place was full of toys. * * * On the floor by his bed lay a pege of neat straight strokes. Thank God for Christ. Full nineteen hundred years Of history— Of human joy and tears, And mystery Since Christ was born. Men ponder o’er the past, And what may be; But shall until the last, Imperfect see The path they tread. Yet as they backward look And strive to seize The meaning of the book Of centuries, Whose store is theirs. Their hearts o’erflow with praise While creed and cant | d silent, and they raise ed chant, od for Christ. —James Le Roy Stockton. A Christmas Fairy. In the center of a room place a} large round table covered with a green cloth scattered all over with no time. Postriders come it down from heaven with F hs loaded with little toys, and we only have to tie them with gilt twine to the strong branches.” “And yet,” said Walter, very timid- “there are Christmas trees in the Christmas Day.” ‘f jays before, yes,” replied the fair angel. “But they have all been provided by us. In fact, there is troop especially employed in that service. They set to work immediate- jy after the Sunday before December 25. They go in sets of threes. One earries a lantern, the second the toys and the third the tree covered with tapers. We shall soon be out of the for , my little Walter, and are with- in two flights of the workshops for toys. We will begin with the manu- factory of dolls. You will see heaps of pretty creatures.” The little angel and Walter went into the second paradise. Heaps of little ladies and gentle- men Jay on the tables and on the floor; in the corners were piles of legs, arms, bodies and heads. Sculp- small boughs of evergreen, frosted with tinsel. Suspended from the chandelier, and hanging just far enough apart to admit a little light from above, have garlands. sparkling with frost, with the ends fastened to the sides. of the table, three-quarters of the way around it. The effect will) be that of a tent. The other quarter} should be left open, so that one may | look inside and see an immense cor-| nucopia covered with, silver paper, with its open end toward the front says the Ladies’ Home Journal. As though emerging from it the’ Christ: mas fairy (a wax doll), sparkling in robes of white and silver, should be} poised. A frosted wreath should crown her golden curls, and in her hand she should hold a long silver wand. The cornucepia should seem! to be emptying itself of bonbons and bright candies into the glittering train of the good Fairy. The gifts should be piled inside the tent and beneath the table. .The room should be quite dark when the children are admitted. | vantage. | oats, corn, bran or middlings. To Ship Live Chickens. “Occasionally we ship chickens and old fowls alive to the market. The question may arise, when and what to feed them before shipment. The an- swer depends somewhat on the length of the journey, or rather the time it will probably take to get them into the buyer’s hands,” remarks the Prac- tical Farmer. “If to be shipped only 2 short distance, for presumably imme- diate killing, we give them all the wheat or corn they wish to eat the night before, and all the water they wish to drink just before shipment. This seems to be in keeping with com- mon sense. Fowls should always be quite empty at the killing time, but they should not be allowed to suffer for want of food or water for an un- reasonable length of time before.” It may be, as here stated, that fowls should always be quite empty at kill- ing time, but the consumer who. buys a freshly dressed chicken at the butch er shops of our large cities usually finds the craw as full of grain as it will hold.—Journal of Agriculture. Egg Yields of Hens. We speak of hens laying from 150 to 200 eggs per year, and the man that never takes an account of his egg yield fondly imagines that the hens in his flock are producing at least 150 eggs each annually. If he would keep an account with his hens he would find that he was being deceived and that there were so many hens that were doing little that the average pro- duction falls below the 100 mark. The writer was treated to a surprise ot this kind the first year he kept an ac count and by knowing what hens lay the eggs it is possible to eliminate | the poor layers and have ultimately a flock of good layers. Yet the process is not so easy as might be supposed, | as we must correct the breeding in- clinations rather than do the work with individual layers. Thus when we find a cow that gives a good deal of rich milk we can keep her for a dozen years, but with the hen that is a good layer we have to depend on her progeny because few hens are profit: able when they get old. The Dust Bath. To keep the fowls free from lice during the winter months nothing is so good as the dust bath. Don’t think that lice don’t multiply in winter, for they do, especially those great gray fellows. Get a box, a barrel, or any- thing that will hold the dust away in the dry, and now fill it or have the children fill it with road dust. Now is an excellent time, for later the roads | will be too damp with the fall rains and heavy night dews to dry out and make much dust. Then when the fowls must be kept contined and the earth is hard and frozen, put some of the dust in the shallow box, set it in the sunshine or light of the poultry house windows, and notice how they enjoy that dust bath. Remember, the dust must be dry and if possible warm it, slightly warm. Chickens will not dust in damp earth in winter time.— Farm Star. Feeding Geese. The bill of the goose and duck is designed for the partaking of larger substances than are relished by the hen, and they do not confine their diet to a very limited variety. Geese will eat corn and oats, but food of a more bulky charactef is _ preferred. Their livers are large, proportionately, and they have very large digestive capacity. They prefer grass, especial- ly clover, and, some weeds, such as purslane, are delicacies. Ground grain moistened with milk is excellent in the early part of the year, and a little ground meat added is always of ad- This ground grain may be Once a day on grain, with scalded clover at night, is sufficient. During favorable seasons turn ducks and geese on grass, and give no other food. Too much grain prevents eggs from hatch- ing. Cracked Corn. Corn is cracked simply for con- cenience of feeding to chicks. ‘It is best to allow the gizzard to reduce it. Whole corn contains about 11 per cent of protein, 5 per cent of fat, 70 per cent of starch, 2 per cent of crude fiber and 11-2 per cent of mineral mat- ter. The rest is water. There is no difference in whole or cracked corn, the loss of fine material being some of the starch, and the flinty matter of the outer skin, which is silicious and of no value. Cracking the corn only reduces it in size, otherwise the composition of the corn remains un- changed, though the finer it is cracked the greater the loss——-Farm and Fire- side. Good in Changing Rations. If eggs are scarcer than they ougkt to be, try changing the biddies’ ra- tions. If the hens have been fed on pudding for breakfast, this may be dis- continued for a while, and grain sub- stituted. If they have been having varley for their first meal, wheat can be given instead, or vice versa. If they have no green food, supply it. Hens, as people, get tired looking at old things. Enlarging their Tun, giv- ing range when they have been con- fined, or even changing to another pen, will oftentimes start the eggs, though a great change, like moving to anoth- er farm, sometimes causes an oppo- site effect, through homesickness, | Mame was Strange, and it was said that never since he had started in his profession had he told a lie. But one day he died, and a collection was raised among those who knew him for the erection of ‘a memorial stone. After they got it a dispute arose as to what would be the most suitable in- scription to put on it, They all had something to say except one individ- ual, who did not seem to take any in- terest in the matter, but nothing seemed suitable. At last the person referred to was asked what he thought about it. “Well,” said he, “I have something short and sweet. How's this: ‘Here lies the body of a lawyer who never told a lie’ ” “But people won’t know who he was,” they protested. “Well, when people see that inscrip- tion, they will say, ‘That’s Strange,’ and so it is.” 2 One Better. “T like you well enough, Mr. Kemp,” said the perplexed young woman; “or, at least, I'm not sure I like you as well as I do Jack Cawdrey. He says he thinks of me 265 days in the year.” “He wants one day off every four years, does he?” exclaimed young Kemp, with indignant scorn. “That kind of devotion doesn’t commend it-| self to you, does it, Clarice?” Jack’s doom was irrevocably sealed from that moment.—Cassell’s Journal. She Knew. “There’s mighty few people,” said a farmer, “that knows what to do with a farm after they get one.” “T have noticed that,” answered his pretty piece from town. “They always insist on giving the whole place up to corn and oats and things when they might have such lovely tennis courts and golf links.” Frogs From Honolulu. The steamship Argyl brought from Honolulu to San Francisco the other day the first shipment of island frogs— 100 dozen. The demand of San Fran- cisco gourmets for frog legs has ex- hausted the local supply.—Kansas City Journal. A Rare Good Thing. “Am using ALLEN’S FOOT-EASE, and ean truly say 1 would not have been without it so long, had I known the relief it would give my aching feet. I think it a rare good thing for anyone having sore or tired feet.— Mrs. Matild», Holtwert, Providence, R. 1’? Sold by all Druggists, 25c. Ask to-day. Gave James a Fright. Unfortunately for James, Mrs. J—— is not the most careful of women. In fact, she is the kind of a woman who would fill the sugar basin with starch and wonder how the tea came to taste so curious. The other day she had been doing some fancy work, and, as. usual, not having her workbasket by her, she just put the ball of silk she had been using into a tumbler. James was rather later than usual that night, and, as he had been si was thirsty. Of course, he chose the tumbler with | the ball of silk in it to fill wiih water. ; It was emptied with two gulps. But there was something in the last one which made him think all was not as it should have beer. Then he felt a tickling at the back of his throat. “That’s mysterious,” he said, plac- ing his finger. and thumb inside his mouth. ‘§ He caught hold of the end of silk and pulled it. The tickling sensation was worse than ever, and James’ expression as he kept on pulling and accumulating yards of silk was quite awful to see. “Wife! wife!” he cried, “send for Dr. Squalls this instant; I'm unrav- elin’!” Found at Last. Hensley, Ark., Dec. 26th.—(Special) —That a sure cure for Backache would be a priceless boon to the people, and especially the women of America, is admitted by all interested in medical matters, and Mrs. Sue Williams of this place is certain she has found in Dodd’s Kidney Pills the long-looked for ¢ure. “T am 38 years old,” Mrs. Williams says, “and I have suffered with the Backache very much for _ three or four years. I have been treated by good physicians and got no relief, put thanks to God, I have found a cure at last and it is Dodd’s Kidney Pills. I have only taken one box and it has done me more good than all the doc- tors in three or four years. I want all sufferers from Backache to know that they can get Dodd’s Kidney Pills and get well.” Backache is one of the first symp- toms of Kidney Disease. Guard against Bright’s Disease or Rheumatism by curing it with Dodd’s Kidney Pills. One Better. é Kind Lady—It is a pleasure to hear a man like you whistling at work. The Little Man—Lord, mum, you’d pe pleased to see my brother, then; he jest laughs at work. A woman would rather spend two dollars for dry goods than one for groceries. There was a lawyer in B—— whose | aying | overtime licking stamps for circulars, | it will be easily understood that he | Miss Rose Hennessy, well known as a poetess and elocutionist, of Lexington, Ky., tells how she was cured of uterine inflammation and ovaritis by the use of Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound. “Dear Mrs. Prysuam:—I have been so blessedly helped through the use of Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound that I feel it but just to acknowledge it, hoping that it may help some other woman suffering as I did. “For years I enjoyed the best of health and thought that I would always do so. I attended parties and receptions thinly clad, and would be suddenly chilled, but I did not think of the results. I caught a bad cold eighteen months ago while menstruating, and this caused inflammation of the womb and congested ovaries. I suffered excruciating pains and kept getting worse. My attention was called to your Vegetable Compound and the wonderful cures it had performed, and I made up my mind to try it for’two months and see what it would do for me. Within one month I felt much better, and at the close of the second I was entirely well. “IT have advised a number of my lady friends to use it, and all express themselves as well satisfied with the results as I was.”— Miss RosE Nora HeEnyessy, 410 S. Broadway, Lexington. Ky. The experience and testimony of some of the most noted women of America go to prove beyond a question that Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound will correct all such trouble and at once, by removing the cause, and restoring the organs to @ normal and healthy condition, “Dear Mrs. Prinxuam: — About two years ago I consulted a phy- sician about my health which had become so wretched that I was no longer able to be about. I had severe backache, bearing-down pains, | pains across the abdomen, was very nervous and irritable, and this trouble grew worse each month. The physician prescribed for me, but I soon discovered that he was unable to help me, and I then decided to try Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetabie Compound, and soon found that | it was doing me good. My appetite was returning, the pains disappear- | ing, and the general benetits were well marked. | “ You cannot realize how pleased I was, and after taking the medi- i | | cine. for only three months, I found that I was completely cured of my trouble, and have been well and hearty ever since, and no more fear the roonthly period, as it now passes without pain to me. Yours very truly, | Miss Peart Ackers, 327 North Summer St., Nashville, Tenn.” When a medicine has been successful in restoring to health more than a million women, you cannot well say without trying it “TI do not believe it Will help me.” If you are ill, do not hesitate to get.a bottle of Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound and write Mrs. Pinkham at Lynn, Mass., for special advice. Her ad- vice is free and helpful. Write to-day. Delay may be fatal. $5000 FORFEIT if we cannot forthwith produce the original letters and signatures of above testimonials, which will prove their absolute genuine@ess. Lydia E. Pinkham Med. 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