The Origin of Christmas Boxes.

Southland Times, Issue 19543, 25 April 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Origin of Christmas Boxes.

Whimsical old John bunton, in his primi live “ Notes and Queries," says: “ Christ ■ mas-box is as ancient as the word Mass. Ni ship goes out to the Indies but the priest have a box in that ship, under the protectioi of some Saint. People must put somethin! in for Masses. If the Mass nt the time wai Christ’s Mass, then the box was Christ-Mass box.” Prom this it followed that servants and others had liberty to get box-money, sc that they might be able to pay for Masses, because it was a case of “No penny nc Pater-noster," for*' though the rich paid largely, yet the poor were expected to pay something. The custom can be traced bach to early Boman times, and in the seventeenth century “ thrift-boxes ” of earthenware were carried round at Christmas by apprentices, described by Browne as “apt to take in money, but restoring none till they be broken." These are thus alluded to by Gay : “ When time comes round a Christmas-box they bear And one day makes them rich for all the year." Some derive this “box" from the Persian “ backshish.” A Christmas Card for the Blind. One has become so accustomed to see a blind man reading the Bible by fingering his way along the Braille type that one is apt to forget that other books—and even magazines—are also made eligible for the blind. This type is now taught to all blind children. The idea of giving Christmas cards to the blind is, however, comparatively new. The cards are illustrated by means of embossed pictures, and the greeting is conveyed in Braille type. These Christmas cards for the

blind are published by the “ Weekly Sum- ■ mary," the only newspaper in the English language for the blind. The cards can be had in twenty-two different designs, with sacred or secular words, and the price varies from one penny to sixpence each. The sketch illustrates a penny card, the message it bears being as follows :— A Happy Chuistmas. “I am the Vine, ye are the branches ; he that abideth in Me, and I in him, bringeth forth much fruit." John xv., 5. ’• The King of the Roast. Let other fowls each week appear, One only rules each closing year; We hail him, ns we drink the toast— King Goose, who rules the roost and rotuj. The Christmas goose does not diner from any other goose, except in regard to the time it reaches the executioner. The goose in Germany is an important national asset, and a large trade is done in the exportation of geese to Russia, which eats them in preference to any other bird of the barnyard. Every nation joins issue on the question of a goose-infected palate at Christinas, the English no less than any other, and we of the States and colonies join in the procession us a matter of savoury duty. It has often puzzled the thoughtful why a simpleton is called an ass, since an ass is among the most sagacious of four-footed creatures ; and similarly it has worried them to know why a foolish person is called a goose, seeing that it occupies a like exulted position among the feathered bipeds. In any case, how can a man be a goose seeing that there is the bar of gender, and among a polite generation, how can a woman be, the gentler question not occurring? Many wise men have extolthe virtues of the goose in life ven as epicu- © '

res have the same qualities in death, and at one time it was to the honor of his or her gooseship that it the pen was mightier than the sword it rested with the species to provide the weapon. Hence the Byronic line, “ Ohnature’s noblest gift my grey goosequill,” an expression which found vent at .i time when if every goose in the world had been suddenly despatched the art of writing might have temporarily perished. In these days we write with steel pens, and worship the'goose merely in a culinary way, which will probably remain the custom while the goose commands tho pride of the place in the barnyard, and the vegetarian lacks it in the kitchen of the faithful. Many are tho compliments which have been paid the bird of the season when in its most favoured garb—well browned and in a dish. He was a famous lord who having declared that the left leg of a goose is incomparable, explained, when asked his reason for particularising the side, that a leg is only properly appreciated when it is left—the diners having been hungry and tho nppreciator a guest who has been delayed. One of the highest compliments, however, ever paid the goose is conveyed in a negative way in Barnard’s famous picture “Boast goose and happle sauce is hoff, sir,” the speaker being a waiter and the spoken to a K- n of the restaurant who has put on a © appearance on Christmas 0 Day. The compliment is in his expression, one of mingled dimgust and disappointment borderjpg almost on tears.