The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 25, 1896, Page 30

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY. DECEMBER 25, 1896. MOST NOVEL CELEBRATION OF THE CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL ' \ A Chinese Santa Claus Is the Remarkable Feature of a Christmas Eve Jubilation of Celestials at the Presbyterian Mission Home 4T was a strange crowd of people that l; assembled at the Stockton -street % Church to celebrate the yearly festival of Christmas. On one side of the large audience room there were women with their babes in their arms and their older children clinging to them. On the other side were men of all ages and stages of ex- jstence. Quakers? No, Indeed—the Cki- nese!. There were a few Americans pres- ent, the teachers in the mission schools | and a few of their friends, but so few were they that they looked out of place. ‘Ihere was a Christmas tree at the farther end of the Church, covered with gay- colored trinkets and pretty wax candles. The children looked like an animated field of vari-colored poppies in their strange little costumes. After I had locked around atall this and had marveled at the happiness of the | children and the contented looks of the women and the interested attitudes of the men, I heard them saying. and saying it with fervor, as though they meant it: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men!” Then a bright-looking Chinese boy hur- ried up to me. “Come,” he said, and he took me to a seat among the women and children, and driited back again through the crowd. On the platform the little ones were singing their little songs and reciting | verses with great precision. Not one be- | came stagestruck from the tall girl who said the poem of *“‘Bethlehem” in the same tone of voice from beginning to end, with absolutely no pauses (I began to won- der if she ever would get breath again), to the strange little piece of humanity whom they had to put upon a chair while he said his three little lines about Santa Claus, with a great deal of prompting. There were other babies who toddlea up to the high platform and looked over that | sea of upturned faces with wonder pic- | tured on their own little yellow counte- nances and in their peculiarly bright little eyes, and sang about “The little manger where Jesus lay his first morn- ing on earth.” For two hours the children acted their little parts and the elders ate or stood and listened anda smiled and applauded | roundly, and then there was a commotion in the back part of the room and some- | thing happened which sent the children | into transports of joy, for there walked ! down the aisle, a sack on his back and a | great horn mn his hand, a Santa Claus. | Now, who ever heard of a Chinese Santa | Claus? Yet there he stood, whiskers and | snow and all, with his round, good-na- | tured face beaming with delight, shower- | ing gifts upon the little ones. H One Chinese woman held a tiny baby in | her arms. The child wore a daintily enu- | broidered white dress such as the Ameri- | can children wear and its straight black ! bair and queer little face looked out of | ce above it. She 1s a Christian,’” said a teacher. ““Her husband is 2 merchant and a deacon here in the church.” “But wby doesn’t she dress the child in its native dress?” asked I, taking exce tion to its unnatural appearance. The little one looked as strangely awkward as a Chinese woman in a tight-fitting corset and a hator a Chinaman in a stiff collar and patent-leather shoes. “Why,” she exclaimed, with wide-open she is trying to be a Christian.” e Rev. Mr. Condit beamed upon all with his kindly face. It did not matter how toey were clothed or what they did or said—it was all the same to him when they meant well. “They are mere children,” he said, *‘that is, the women are. You see, heretofore | they have been like slaves, shut up for generations with no knowledge of any other life. But they are guick and apt to learn. Indeed, they are the greatest imi- tators in the world. When we teach them a song we sing it for them and they repeat exactly, mistakes and all, not only ex- pression in voice, 'but in face and manner, “You think they are sincere?” 'The good workers among these people looked surprised at the question. > il “No doubt of it,”’ one said; “not the least.”” And she passed on up the church aisle, aistributing little red bags full of candies. “You see,’” said another, a pleasant- faced little woman, “they are very hard to reach. They do not like to have us come into the privacy of their households, es- pecially the merchants, but after we do interest them their homes are always open to us, and we notice that they are more cleanly and they move into better quarters if their means will allow and their homes are decorated more pret- tily. “We have a missionary who speaks their language, and she, of course, assists us greatly, for few of the women can speax our language. But they are just like children,” she added. I watched her as she passed up the aisle, smiling and speaking to every one, no matter who they were. And I glanced at the faces, some of them hard—hard as flint—their owners giving a dissatistied }excmmuun at her: greeting. Others, | with their little ones about them—and | none of these were hard—returned her smiles and looked happy when she spoke “ to the children and hushed the little ones with endearing little pats and shakings of their glossy black heads. And others? Oh, they sat or lolled about on the seats, 772 \a' —===) ‘““Are you & Christian ?”’ I asked of one. He shook his head and laughed. *“Are you going to be?”’ He shook his head again. “Me? No good,” he said. nice—yes!”’ and he laughed. I laugped, too, for I had heard belore that ‘‘religion was good for women and children.” ‘“How long has this mission been estab- lished 2"’ “Only forty years,” said a mission- ary, seriously. ‘‘But we ars doing well. We have a Chinese pastor, the Rev. Soo Hoo Nam Art, and a Cbinese Christian Endeavor Society, and the Chinese King’s Daughters, and all the societies that other churches have.” “And you never get discouraged ?"” “What have we to discourage us? They will all come in after awhile. We have over 500 members now." And forty years! These are the people who are going to “Chill’en ’u' @’%@ iy e stay together. They like each other best; but like this country, too, if they make woney, and after while they learn. But you have customs we no like to have our- selves learn.” “Indeed ?” “Yes,” hewenton. “TheChinaman he pretty bad; but not all through. He not greedy, has big heart. You treat him well A NOVELTY IN CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS —A CHINESE SANTA CLAUS. and one woman was sitting in an arm- chair in a fashion that would have made a grotesque dancer at the head of his pro- fes:ion turn green with envy. The Chinese are never hard or indiffer- | ent to kindness. They receive your pleas- | antries with broad smiles of satisfaction, and answer your queries as best they can. : vote. The people who are, in time, going to fill the land with their manners and customs unless they conform to ours. “And will they ?” I asked of a converted Chinaman who stood near me. He looked up through his glasses into my face. “Not at alll” he said, frowning as though in deep thought. *My pzople like —he—""and he laughed pleasantly, ‘“all rignt."’ Then he hurried away. It was a steep climb to the home and it was late, but I wanted to see them put the “bables’(as they are called) to bed. So I walked slowly along and the animated | flower-garden clattered ahead on their lit- i tle wooden shoes. Behind us, far down - the hill the street lamps struegled bravely to pierce the heavy darkness, and suc- ceeded in intensifying the shadows. In the east the moon tried to peer through the dark-rimmed clouds that obscured her vision, And all these people, what were they doing and where were - they going, and would the odor of the Christmas greens leave pleasant memories or would they forget it all and sink into their narrow life again for another year, and some, per- haps, foreyer? “Glory to God in the highest,” said a voice behind me, *“and on earth peace, good-will toward men." Ilooked back, but it was only a bright- faced China boy talking with companion. Up in the brightly lightea rooms at the home the children laughed and taled and sang while they prepared for their night's rest, and then the tiny lit- tle figures, robed in their white gowns, knelt by the little white cots, and with folded hands and hidden faces soitly murmured their evening prayers. And then the little ones, with no thought of fear or sorrow or trouble, jumped gleefully into bed and were tucked in by kindly hands, **Lily,” said one of the ladies. ‘‘can you tell us something you are thankful for?"” Little Lily turned her eyes to where we were standing and replied, modestly and seriously : *Yes'm; big feet.” And noonelaughed. “Tell us why?°’ ‘“‘Because,” she said, and she caught her white gown in each of her pretty brown hands, and her chubby, well-shaped feet gleamed against the dark floor, ‘“pecause now we can go out into the bright sun- light and see the sky and the flowers, and hear the birds sing, anda run about and vlay, and all the little girls can come to mission school.”” Then she made a grave little courtesy and scampered to her bed. “You know,” said the young lady, ‘‘the girls with small feet dare not leave their homes alone becatse they would be kid naped, but those with large feet can go anywhere with a great degree of safetyw Children have been stolen from here, you know, but we usually recover them 1f they wish to come back. And they gen- erally do,” she added. 1looked once more at the queer little faces, with their narrow eyes peering at me from under the bedclothes, and went out into the street. And the moon was shining brightly and the street lamps did not lock so dreary. They bad not so much darkness to battle against now that the moon’s face was un- covered. The streets were very quiet and I looked about, but there was no one near. But all the way I heard, *‘Peaceand good- will.” JEAN MoRgIs. Coffin Plates as Ornaments. The coffin plate asa room ornament is being discussed in the Boston Transcript | and Miss Maria Louise Pool sends to that paper the following contribution to the subject: **When I was driving from Berk- shire County down to Boston some years ago I stopped at a prominent house in a village. In this house dwelt a distant con- nection of my traveling companion, which explains why we halted there rather than at a hotel. At nignt we were conducted to alarge chamber, on the mantelshelf of which were placed the coffin plates of the deceased members of the family. These plates were set up so tbat the names and dates were easy to be read. Over them was a mourning piece, with tombstone, weep- ing willow and threse mourners at the grave. In the morning our hostess tried to0 persuade us to stay longer, offering as an inducement to take us to the cemetery. We didn’t stay. But this 1s not typical. It 1s the only time I ever saw such plates used as ornaments of a room.” A Ch;stAmas Dance i'n Hlaska Hunters and Jrappers Brave Dangers Hundreds of Miles Over Arctic Wastes to Gelebrate é.\’ the 10th day of December, 1 _ fleet-footed Indians—Aleuts, Klin. kats and village of Odiak, on Prince William Sound, Alaska, upon amost unique mission. They ‘were messengers, sent out on foot, in the depth of an Alaskan winter, to travel hundreds of miles over trackless wastes of snow, to say to hunters and trappers: *Ugh! Heap big dance at Eyak heap soon. Come on!” For there was to be a Christmas-eve cel- bration =t Odiak, which was to take the form of a dance, and the bold white men who were bidden to come were invited to travel alone ithrough blizzards; following down the course of ravines, which de- bouch in a general way from Alaskan wil- dernesses, toward the sea; to come, draw- ing their provisions with them, on sleds; armed to protect themselves against the wolves, whose “long howl" is still “heard on Unalaska’s shore.” Itisa memorable fact that, of the twenty-three white men within 200 miles of Odiak, not one failed to embrace this chance to celebrate Christ- mas eve. The bunters and trappers and also the fishermen along the coast heard the sum- mons with pleasure. They were Danes, Bwedes, Norwegians, Russians, English- men, Canadians and one or two Ameri- cans. They were living separately, each in his cabin which he had built far re- mote from any other man’s domain. Six months in the year they lived in what | seemed like an illimitable world ot snow | and ice, Arctic desolation, by day setting and tending traps or hunting over the snowy wastes on snowshoes. Each man was adaptable to circumstances, some- times hunter, trapper, trader or fisher- man; sometimes prospector, searching for shining particlés of gold along the Alaskan rivers. . Blizzards such as are taken account of in North Dakota were blowing frequently day and night. In the solitary darkness of this isolation tke dismal music of the storm winas and the beating of sleet on the roof was often varied by the scratch- ing of howling wolves at the outside of the cabin which sheltered its adventurousand stout-hearted owner. Not one of the men who was invited in somewhat uncere- monious fashion but knew all the dangers of a long midwinter journey. Not one could resist temptation to have a Christ- mas eve frolic. Where it was reasonably convenient two of the hardy northmen traveled to- gether towara Odiak. Generally they proceeded singly. The rivers and other water courses had long before been frozen golid. The sweep of tne fierce winds had filled the river up level, from bank to bank, with snow, so that there was noth- ing to tell the traveler whetber he was passing over land or water. All familiar Jandmarks on the route seaward were ob- literated. A trail was buried by the snow as soon- as it was made. What then? Christmas eve dance “or bust,” to tray- esty the old saying about Pikes Peak. 1 washes—left the little | | several davs on their sleds. | miles. The hunters, traders, trappers and fish-) cians. en drew on their winter supply of pro- ons and loaded enough to last them These were narrow affairs, perhaps two feet wide and five to six feet long, with turn-up runners infront. The doors of cabins were made secure before the start to prevent the wild animals, wolves and wolverines from get- ting in during the absence of tenants, so that when the owners came back from their “lark’ they might not find that their win- ter food had all been devoured. A few days beiore Christmag those near- est to the village came in. The distances ranged from twenty-five miles up to 200 The shorter distances were enough to turn the wearer of afur coat into a pretty fair resemblance to Santa Claus— Santa Claus on snowshoes. The tempera- ture averaged from- 20 degrees to 30 de- grees below zero. Snow or sleet falling froze in an instant. Ten minufes after its first exposure each fur cap and fur coat was frozen stiff. Later it accumulated several layers of snow and ice. Clad from head to footin furs and with only peep- holes through the fur caps, which were drawn close down over the face, with thick wooien mittens on their hands, one hand holding a trusty rifle and the other draw- vi | inga loaded sled, these plucky devotees of fun stalked into the village one after another. Those who came from long distances were several days on their journey. They encountered storms which arove the frozen snow like bullets through the air. They lay down at night on snowbanks thirty feet deep, and, wrapping more furs abont them, slept securely, the wolves howling in the vicinity but not veniuring to make an attack. They lived mostly on salmon, dried ralmon and smoked saimon, as they journeyed. Their sppetites were gooa enough to give anytning eatable a relish. They never lost their way, because they traveled, every man of them, by compass. They were navigators of the snow. Charlie Foster of Berkeley was the only Californian who was present at the Christ- mas eve dance in Odiak in 1895. He had been living in Odiak some months, his time being occupied in building boats, large and small. He told yesterday the story of the Christmas eve dance in which he participated. The event was charac- teristic of Alaska and of no other piace. They had the dance in a building which, in the season, is used by the Alaska Packers’ Association. Walter Storey of San Francisco has charge of it. It is a two-story affair, sheathed with rustic and built very strongly to stand the heavy gales that blow there. The upper floor is a bunkroom. The lower part is diviaed into dining-room, kitchen and store- house. The building is about 40x90 feet long and the dining-room, where the dance took place, was more than half the whole of the ground area. Around the room were benches. At one end was a-pile of benches built up into a sort of rough stage for the musi- The orchestra was somewhat primitive, consisting of'two fiddlers and a banjo player. The fiddlers were traders, both Swedes. The banjo-player was a | pastry cook, who is employed by the Pa- cific Steam Whaling Company at Orca station, which is four miles from Odiak. He wcs sent for by a native, who went in a canoe. In fact, other fishermen were sent for in cances. Some of them came in single canoes and some in a ‘‘three- hatch bedarky.” The *‘prompter” was Jack Shepard, a bunter, who was master of ceremonies. He has lived in Alaska fifteen years, and has hunted all along the Yukon. Now there are no white women in Odiak. In the village there may be 150 persons. Among these are native girls who can dance, Siwashes, Aleuts and Klinkats. Some of them are very good- looking, with b'ack eyes, straizht black bair and fair ficures. They all came to the dance. 8o, in fact, did every inhabi- tant of the village, men, women and children. The natives were dressed as ordinary, all excent the girls, who flared out in various patterns of calico gowns— every one ol them being in calico. Two lanterns with reflectors, throwing out a blaze like the headiight of a loco- motive, and haif a dozen kerosene lamps, the sides of the room, furnished the neces- sary illumination. The natives filled their allotted share of the benches. Among the spectators were little Aleut babies, fastened to boards and placed not very far from the big box stove, which stove, red hot, glowed at the end of th room farthest from the orchestra. s That was a great night in Odiak—the greatest in its history—and it will supply a date by which to place other events, which will be recalled hereafter as having taken place before or after the Christmas eve dance of 1895. The proceedings were | opened at 8 o’clock in the evening with a which were fastened up in brackets about few preliminary plunk-er plunks on the pastry cook’s banjo and some very vigor- ous sawing on the hunters’ fiddies. Tten the voice of Jack Shepard rose with the an- nouncement of a square dsnce, and the hunters, prospectors, miners, fishermen and traders in furs went at it with enjoy- ment and vigor, according to the labor which they had undertaken and accom- plished to be there. The most of the hunters and others were dressed in thick woolen clothing, some with blue shirts and all in a rough and ready way, with omne exception. This one exception was a trapper who had somewhere found a full-dress suit. This he wore in a spirit of fun, and the party so had one dude. Every girl danced every dance, when invited, round and square. By 10 o'clock the ‘‘aude’’ had shed his coat; at 11 he was also without his vest. At 12 dancing was off for a time and the men went into the kitchen and sat around pine tables and had refreshments. The men did not invite the squaws to eat with ihem. The first table was only for the white men, who varied the pro- ceedings by a few songs and some speeches. Then the girls ate and then the dancing was resumed. In the meantime the native men and older women made their way to the kitchen and banqueted. The bill of fare began with salmon, ended with salmon and had salmon in )Y lady stepped from her carriage M’ and walked haughtily in to buy \Y some Christmas presents.. The odors of “*Araby the blest” perfumed the circumambient air, floating from her dainty garments. After she had alighted the shiny door of her carriage was closed by an obsequious footman. A moment later the footman was on the box beside a gorgeously appareled and rubicund coachman and seemingly became petrified. The coachman, whip in band, was the larger of the two. He was as immovable and as 1mpassive as that Egyptian exam- ple of architecturs, bounded by a polyg- onal base and with plane trangular sides which meet in an apex, commonly known as a pyramid. Pir-em-us, so ran the original Egyptian word to describe verti- cal height. Pir-em-us, something lofty, is the only way to describe that coachman. 7 the middle. The fish diet was washed down with coffee. If any of the white men had pocket-flasks they did not show them up. The natives all drank coffee. The banjo player strummed until his fingers were sore. The fiadlers worked out all their repertoire and then worked it over again. The native babies went to sleep on their boards to be awakened by some shout of glee at some unusual terp- sichorean feat and then sank off stoically into slumber again. The natives sat around chewing tobaceo and occasionally using it for snuff. There were hundreds of grunts of approval from them during the progress of their dance. There was time, for the dancers kept at it until day- light. Then they stopned only because they were tired. One week luter the hunters, fishermen, miners and traders started forth again tr;vel:zg g:or the Arctic solitudes and with the belief that they had properly celebrated Christmas and had *‘done it up brown.” Charlie Foster in his Berkeley home smiles still as'he thinks of that Christmas eve. i Naturally being more ornamental, the footman was more like a human being— something between a cold tumulus and a man—perbaps more like a Sphinx. This was in the height of the Christmas shopping in S8an Francisco and the Christ- mas street fakers were in their glory. Those who saw them knew that Christ- mas would not be ushered in according to proper form without the fakers. The task before the two solemn men on the carriage box was to keep solemn and oblivious of everything going on in Market street, all excepting the movements of her ladyship, and a smile would be a cardinal sin. A middle-aged lady came along the sidewalk, flanked by two cherubs, evi- dently her own, and she had one hooked on at either side, by her crooked fingers, as boats are hooked onto a ship by davits while it is proudly sailing through the brine. = “Here, y’are, git a climbin’ monkey for two bits; only place in the United States to get a monkey that every one ¢an make | The woman with the two cherubs stopped. “Buy me a monkey, mamma ?”’ “You can’t buy ber a monkey unless you buy one for me, too.” “‘Here, there, kid, stop pullin’ at that monkey! Yes'm; two will be four bits. No’m; can’t sell two for forty cents. Mean thing? Well, I like that! You’d better go where they sell whole menageries for a quarter. Move on, please, and let the public buy these monkeys and be happy.” The monkeys were climbing strings, rattling their tin legs and arms seduc- tively. They were radiant in red paint and made to appear doubly supple and nimble by the deft hand of a master in the art of manipulating the string. Two chil- dren looked wistfully and sorrowfully as tbey were dragged away. The mother went a half block, came back and meekly laid down a shiny hslf dollar for two monkeys in boxes. When she went away first she was trying only a “bluff” that did not go. When she went away the second time the children were radiant, and it was the mother who seemed to be wistful and defeated. Hara by a post stood a man who seemed to have a small cylinder of paper protrud- ing from his mouth, and there were other cylinders on either side of his mouth, ex- tending horizontally. ~ His appearance at- tracted the attention of a half dozen Chi- nese babies. Queer little fellows they were, as much like ‘‘brownies,” gotten up for a masquerade, with all sorts of colors in their clothes and caps and white-soled shoes. Their eyes were slanted equal to those ot the Khan of Tartary and they were as pig-tailed as a Mandarin. Puff! The man with the paper cylinders has emitted his breath with the necessary force to suggest the vigorous action of leather bellows. The three cylinders of pa- per have suddenly shot out horizontally and downward, and here is a real Mephis- topheles, with fierce paper mustachios and elongated and not less fierce paper goatee, long projecting downward. £ The Chinese babes were fascinated. They stood as still as statues as they were herded by their Chinese femaile relative, who had imposed upon her the duty of keeping them from being run over by cable or electric cars or other vehicles. The faker drew in his breath and the mustachios and goatee shrank back to nothingness. Herrmann never had a more admiring audience than the street faker jound in these little Mongols. In fact they were too appreciative. They appeared to have no nickels, but they were admirers. When the faker puffed out his breath their eyes glistened with joy. When he drew in his breath their eyes bulged out with wonder and the fear that he had swallowed his whiskers and would die—paper whiskers longer than Judge Campbell’s real ones. But they bought nothing and blocked the way so that no one else bought. The wicked ‘“running-mouse’” boy was The Fakirs Yuletide Glory. Humor of the Season When the Jin Monkey and Other Funny Gontrivances Are Much in Evidence. there. He sold rodents that ran so nate urally along the sidewalk that they seemed real to the children, who showed their sex ~ by the way they acted. The mechanical rats ran straight for them. The Chinese girl babies squealed and tried to get away. The boys kicked at it. The woman who bad them in charge ran away and as she shimmered through the sober-suited crowd, gay in her Mongolian finery, with the little, luminous Chinese babies trail- ing after, 1t was like the flight of a comet for glitter. One faker raised his voice in mild adula- tion concerning the merits of a table full of fuzzy dogs. Another had an outfit of jumping green frogs which looked like Aldermen of the reedy pool in dress coat of vivid and staring green, with an inordi- nate display of white shirt frontand “‘wes- kit,” as Sammy Weller might say. Still another had crocodiles, long, tin fellows, green as grass or greener, with wide star- ing mouths, and they were propelied by strings in and among the pedestrians, young and old, so that those who did not “walk Spanish” promptly adopted the “goose step,” and bump-d against or fell over each other to avoid stepping on the tin saurians. 0dd fellows enough some of the fakers were to hang on a Christmas tree for sou- venirs. While a fair share of them were boys, they were not the everyday street boy who sells trinkets. At once the youngest youngster, ten minutes after he struck the curbstone, was a full-fledged merchant. Not Wanamaker nor A. T. Stewartever had the commercial idea more strongly developed in their tender youth, ‘With one impulse they all shouted, screamed, vociferated—in fact, used their voices in so many ways that a glossary could be filled with the requisite descrip- tive terms to embrace all their vocal ef- forts. Not all the vestal virgins of Rome ' had more thumbs than the fakers tv point with. “Here is Mary and John,” shouted an urchin, as two tin images were mechani- cally paced across the sidewalk drawing & tin dog. They looked like a country couple out for an airing. Another urchin sold books for children, fairy tales, “Cinderella,”’ ‘‘Goody Two Shoes,” ‘‘Bluebeard” and so on through the list—books with flaring and gaudy covers—and expended two dollars’ worth of energy diposing of four bits’ worth of ods. lw‘l‘he most singular wares sold by the street-fakers to gladden the Christmas throng were skeletons. True, they were skeletons not over five inches long, toys of the grisly and ghastly sort, whirling manikins articulated with wire and pro- pelled spasmodically, almost galvanically, with elastic bands. The ribs of these un- canny toys were white as driven snow. The thin leg and arm bones were pale as Death’s white horse. The tiny skulls had hollows for eye sockets. Now the fakers may bave sold some of these, but no chila was seen to buy one. People from the country only looked at them curiously,