It was on Christmas Eve, 1783, that Washington laid aside forever his military clothes and assumed those of a civilian, feeling, as he expressed it, "relieved of a load of public care." After Congress removed to Philadelphia, Martha Washington held her first public reception in the Executive Mansion on Christmas Eve, when, it is stated, there was gathered "the most brilliant assemblage ever seen in America." At Yule-tide a few years later, 1799, the country was mourning the death of the beloved Father of his Country. In later years, the season continued prominent in the history of great events. The most notable of these were the two Proclamations of President Lincoln, the one freeing the slaves, January 1, 1863, and the other proclaiming the "unconditional pardon and amnesty to all concerned in the late insurrection," on December 25, 1868. And may the peace then declared remain with this people forevermore! THE VOICE OF THE CHRIST-CHILD The earth has grown cold with its burden of care, But at Christmas it always is young, The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair, And its soul full of music breaks forth on the air, When the song of the Angels is sung. It is coming, old earth, it is coming to-night! On snowflakes which covered thy sod, The feet of the Christ-child fall gently and white, And the voice of the Christ-child tells out with delight That mankind are the children of God. On the sad and the lonely, the wretched and poor, The voice of the Christ-child shall fall; And to every blind wanderer opens the door Of a hope which he dared not to dream of before, With a sunshine of welcome for all. The feet of the humblest may walk in the field Where the feet of the holiest have trod, This, this is the marvel to mortals revealed, When the silvery trumpets of Christmas have pealed, That mankind are the children of God. --_Phillips Brooks._ INDEX Alaska, 193 Alexander the Great, 55 Alexander, King of the Scots, 42 Alfred, King, 35 American Flag, The, 193 Andros, Governor, 187 Archbishop of York, 42 Aryans, 13, 57, 104 Asia, 15 Baal, 22 Bambino, The, 133, 141 Balder, 15, 16, 17, 22, 99 Banks, N. P., 188 Berserks, The, 26, 27, 29 Bethlehem, 63 Boar's Head, The, 39, 40 Bocaccio, 132 _Bolero_, The, 156 Bornhern, Island of, 99 Boston, 185 Boxing-day, 61 Bradford, William, 180,183,185 Bragi, 19 Brewster, Elder, 180, 181 Brooks, Phillips, 197 Bull-fights, 164 Cadiz, 161 Caesar, Julius, 23 _Ceppo_, 136, 139 Cervantes, 150 Christ, 13, 17, 21, 28, 63, 135, 185 Christ-child, 100, 101, 102, 129, 196 Christian Fathers, The, 21 Cid, The, 150 Cole, Sir Henry, 46 Columbus, 150, 169, 171, 172 Congress, 194, 195 "Cream of the Year," The, 50, 51 Czar, The, 116 Dante, 132 Druids, 17, 22, 31 Easter, 89, 97 Edda, The Younger, 14, 15, 17 Elizabeth (Daughter of Henri VII), 44 Epiphany, 127, 129, 145, 165