1939-12-22 — Page 40

Friday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.

December 22, 1939.

Brush Sets

Make Welcome Gifts

THE LEADING MAKES BY "KENT" OF LONDON

AND

MASON PEARSON

ARE OBTAINABLE

IN A VARIETY OF STYLES WITH REAL LEATHER CASES SUITABLE FOR BOTH

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

FROM

THE HONGKONG DISPENSARY

A. S. WATSON & CO., LTD.

TEL. 20016.

BE SURE

OF THE

Christmas Programmes

From Home

PYE Radios

G.E.C.

Radios

A SMALL INEXPENSIVE RADIO

TRZENIT 438

MAKES AN IDEAL X'MAS GIFT

MOUTRIE & CO., LTD.

YORK BUILDING

MODERNIZE

BATHROOM

PHONE 20527.

CHATER ROAD.

VOU will be repaid many times the moderate cost-in comfort. convenience, and increased home vatuc. Estimates cheerfully prepared, without obligation,

'Phone 20269

GONE

ARE THE HORSE

AND CARRIAGE

And done with them are the old. fashioned methods of waxing the

MANY COOKS MAKE A

CHRISTMAS

WE

PUDDING

A

the Turkey becamo E celebrate Christ- of travesty of it, became popular pies and their contents were land

mas in 1939 on the at the Christmas festival when precisely the same as the ones Christmas dish in old England

so much else was travestled. we eat f 1939. Turkeys and in about 1660. 1603rd anniversary This was the Snapdragon-a plum puddings were not known It was known here, before of the day that Julius dish of lighted fruits which the as Christmas disnes then the that. Sailors from the New Bishop of Rome, first fixed kuests had to pick out of the traditional fare was the boar's World returned with some speci- for Christians to com-Blames with their fingers. head, decked with rosemary and mens as far back na 1640, when memorate their Saviour's In the West Country a jug served with plenty of mustard. Archbishop Cranmer forbade his Have you been using the sonic auto

of cider in which a lighted candle

clergy to have more than ono wax for years simply through | birth,

has been fixed is drunk at

turkoycock served up at a singlo force of habit?

Don't use a

Christmas. It is called a flag

meal, horse and earringe auto wax.

dragon.

carriage.

to

It is no longer necessary to work all day, to wear yourself to attain a RUB and RUB, in order to waterproof, weather resisting wax finish for your ear.

Try WHIZ LONDON COACH WAX for longer lasting beauty for your automobile and less worlt for you.

and buggy, will be

Your waxing troubles, like the horse Gone

Bold Here HONGKONG

HOTEL

GARAGE Stubbs Rd.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The family and other reintives of the late Mr. Walter Hung wish to thank their friends for their kind sympathy and floral tributes at the tuneral,

Okt

Hongkong Telegraplı.

Friday, December 22, 1939. Wyndham St., Hongkong

Telephone: 20615

THE prefix "Special to the Telegraph" Is used by the "Hongkong Telegraph" to Indicate news which in sirletty copyright under the provisions of the Telecommuni cations Urdinance, 1939. Buch news as Dear the indication "UF" in received in Itongkong on the date of publication by the United Press Associations, who serve all rights and forbid republication. either wholly or in part without previous Arrangement."

Eviction Laws

But 200 years before Bishop Julius the scattered congrega tions of the early Church had

been honouring Christ's birth

clay then.

With the Mediaeval Church

BUT when Cromwell abolisheà Christmas under the Com- came the carols, the earliest go origin or some of its ceremonies, THE original plum pudding monwealth, disliking the Pagan back to King Henry III's day, he abolished the boar's head was served with the first and the stockings and Santa along with it and that dish was course as a special Christmas

And for many centurles be fore and after these celebrations Claus.

have been added to out of the

bread. never restored. mythology, the folk-lore and the saint of Bari, who gave all his He is St. Nicholas, the patroni

Charles II. brought Christmas were mixed with the dough and Currants, spices and raisins history of all the mtions. patrimony away in gifts to poor back to England, though he the whole, compound came in a The Christmas that we know girls so that they might be ever could persuade the Scots special dish called 3 plum to restore the old feast when porridge. In the course of the in England has borrowed its furnished with a marriage trappings from many sources portion. St. Nicholas' Day is they restored the old monarchy. eighteenth century all the cle-

over many centuries-from the December 6, Druids who Arst hung the mistletoe bough to Albert Prince Consort who introduced the first Christmas tree.

A

THE last days of December were a festival long before Christ was born in Bethlehem.

They are the turn of the

And in good King Charles' ments of a Christmas celebration Before the Reformation little golden days we find the first settled down into their present girls used to hang up their turkeys and the first plum place. stockings overnight in the belief puddings.

So did the ingredients in the that before morning come St. The turkey does not come plum pudding, which was well Nicholas would visit them and from Turkey. It was called a established in its modern form all it with his gifts. But after turkey derisively by the Greeks by 1798, when the poet, Cole- the Reformation abolished St. because of the bird's pompous ridge described in his letters Nicholas feast the custom was strut and the scarlet "fez" on home how impressed he had be- transferred to Christmas day. its head. Its home was in New come with the Christmas treo But it was not until Elizabeth England and when the Pilgrim in Germany. He died 10 years had been on the throne for 30 Fathers celebrated their first too soon to see it introduced into years that Englishmen began to harvest after landing in the new England in the eighteen-forties The daylight, shortest on bake their pies in pastry shaped world in 1621 they naturally when, after Queen Victoria's December 21, has begun to to recall the manger where the feasted on the fowl that was marriage, it first set the seal on lengthen out again; the sun, as infant Jesus lay.

most plentiful locally. From a every Merry Christmas, the simple peoples that once

thanksgiving dish in new Eng-

George Edinger. adored it saw, gives promise of a glorious return and the wheel -the Yul is the Gothic word for it has come full circle.

year.

Before Caesar landed in Kent the Druids went forth when the days began to lengthen to cut the mistletoe from the oak, a tree held holy to the sun god.

They distributed a sprig lo every home, where it was hung

These were the first mince-

Packing The Christmas

· Presents

In

The

Dinners

Past

The traditional British Christmas the ancient Christmas feast. So, too, TURKEY and Christmas pudding}} The swan was another favourite at dinner. So, at least, R is popularly was the peacock, which served up supposed. Yet actually the Christ-

mas dinners of our forefathers were decked with its own gorgeous plum-

very different from ours.

age and Its beak gilded-a most ornate dish, doubtless, though by ni What, then, did they eat at Christ! mas time? Earliest predecessor of accounts, not at all palatable. turkey was undoubtedly the Strange Flavours

the

boar's end which, decorated withị bay and rosemary, was brought to the table with great ceremony amid: a flourish of trumpets,

over the doorway to invite the HALF the joy of receiving god's protection Marriages presents in the exciting job scaled by

klas under the of unwrapping them. Remem- mistletoe were held lucky. That ber this when you start to tie was 2,000 years ago; but we still Mr. Justice Fraser's carefully kiss under the mistletoe bough up your gifts, and spend a few

pence weighed comments in his judg-when Christmas comes.

on attractive packing material. ment concerning an eviction claim, the text of which appear-

Fancy boxes, seasonably designed

Though much of the food was the same as we eat nowadays, it must ed. in our columns yesterday, THE Romans, every schoolboy wrapping paper and tape, volatured

have tasted very different. Strange illuminatingly reveal the peculiar roads, laws and buildings. They can be bought cheaply.

is taught, brought Britain string, Christmas seals and labels,

ideas of cookery prevailed in cen- The important thing is to see that turies past. Instead of separating premises upon which the Hong- also brought Christmas decora With these additions you may the present is not loose in the par- flavours the. aim apparently was to kong Eviction Ordinance istions, paper caps and Christmas dress up your gifts in their "party cel, but packed around tightly so that mingle-as-many-incongruous ones an

A plain brown possibic. based. Complaint is not direct- presents. December 25. was at trocks," and in so doing, give double. it cannot move.

the season of their feast of pleasure to the recipients.

paper wrapping may be used to

Sweet Ingredients ed against the learned judge's Saturn, who, they said, had been

cover the more attractive one in- But don't forget the commonsense

mixed with salt ones, and real decision; if anything, one can King of the Gods in the vanished part of the packing as well. Make side. Te this round firmly

with;

The com- sympathise with him, for he was

golden age.

sure that your presents will travel strong string and stick on a gummed' savoury dishes were rare.

pounds were generally,smothered in On the feast of Saturn, the safely, and net give your friends the label.

spices or condiments, often Including at times clearly torn between

houses were decked with bays wrong kind of surprise by sending] Here are a few hints which, if sugar, or, as that was then a costly and holly, friends gave gach gifts which arrive in "pieces." Par- followed, should ensure your gifts commodity, the native substitute,

destinations in good honey. other presents and for ten days cels are head to get a lot of knock-reaching their

the necessity of strictly apply ing the law and the inhumane implications which thereby became apparent,

Address all labels very plainly

the social ties were broken and ing about at this time of year If you condition and at the right moment:- Jack was as good as his master, send them by post or rail, so they

Rich men waited on their must be well protected.

their on

can be used, too, and has the ad- The Romans departed from vantage of making any present look Britain-leaving their Saturn-nore valuable, alla behind them; the Pagan Norsemen came in.

They came with a new Christ- mas rite-the Yule log.

block letters are best,

Put an addressed label inside the

Ericlose sender's name and address in case of non-delivery.

G. O. J:

GRIN AND BEAR IT

were freely

Confectionery of a sort existed,

The mediaeval table was plentifully strewn with sugar comfits, nougat, and quaint sugar shapes known as "subletics," and sundry other tit- bits. Colouring tinctures were ex- tensively used, particularly saffron, Cochineal was employed from the earliest times.

Wines And Wassail

Foreign wines, heavily spiced, were imported to augment the native drinks, eider, ale, and mead. Also,

bowl, Blled with hot spleed ale, In which roasted apples floated.

By Lichty there was the time-honoured wassall

It probably comes as a 'shocleslaves and parents

Corrugated cardboard is an ex- to many to know that under the

children and men made merry cellent shock absorber, and so is parcel as well as out, in case the with masks and coloured caps crumpled newspaper, Tissue paper wrapper gets torn. Hongkong law, "hardship" for a land paper noses. tenant does not mean being asked to

pay rent which is beyond his purse, Anybody in such an unfortunate position, says the law, must clear out and get into cheaper accommodation, even though that may involve living in a house which is vulnerable to fire dangers, has no flush system and boasts only wooden staircases. Such dwell- ing houses are for the poor. If you want anything better, you must be able to afford it.

This sounds harsh, and prac- tice proves it, even though the law deny it. The Eviction Or-

C. E. WARREN & CO., LTD. dinance may well be criticised on

St. George's Bldg., Chater Rd,

THE HONG KONG SOCIETY FOR. THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN

The Society asks for

$35,000

in 1940 to meet the Increasing needs of

sick and destitute children in Hong Kong.

A copy of the Annual Report for 1939

may be obtained from:

Mr. A..McKELLAR, CA.

c/o Mackinnon Mackenzie & Co.,

P. & O. Bullding

Mr. KWOK CHAN,

c/o The Banque de L'indo-Chine,

Hong Kond.

Hon, Tronsurera,

It was their custom at the close of every year to light a huge log which was supposed to burn away, all the hatreds and worries of the past 12 months and enable men to make another sturt.

ater the Yuletide log WAS inced by a glant candle-and the little candles on our Christ- mas trees to-day are the last; relic of it.

WIS

ALONG with the Yule log the their Norsemen brought this ground, and justifiai te "trial by ordeal." An accused) domands made for a revision of man had to carry a hot iron bar fundamental philosophy upon a certain distance. If his scar which it is based. But the healed within a certain time he simpler method, and one which

pronounced innocent. A would provide less headaches and milder form of the ordeal, a kind heartaches for litigants in eviction cases, would be the introduction of a separate not necessities." It hardly seeme Government measure prohibiting possible, in these days of vaunted dwelling housca which are progress, that the law should, invįlations to a Guy Fawkes domand such a statement. It Is bonfire, which have no flush high time the authorities turned systems, and which, generally these so-called amenities into speaking, require a stretch of necessities. Until they do, the imagination to be described Hongkong's laws are likely to au habitable.

carry a stigma of far greater

Mr. Justice Fraser called these meaning than Mr. Bumble's conditioris "amenities which are cynical "quip."

“It's a bargain when you stop to figure how wages and materials

"have gono ̋up since the wart***

A Christmas dish of widespread consumption, however, Was thot termed "frumenty." This in simplest form was hulled wheat, seasoned and bolled in milk. After various enrichments, this frumenty evolved into a concoction termed Tlum Porridge," which wha generally composed of raising, prunes, gingerbread and sundry other ingredients, stewed in beef or mution broth

and richly spiced. It la dikult to Imagine what it tasted like, but anyhow, from this ex- fraordinary "Porridgo" probably emanated our present Christmas pudding.

The modern mince pie is another reproduction, though a much modified one, of a mediaeval

delicacy. Originally it was called "mutton ple"! A fourteenth-century recipe for

Д

Christmas, or mince ple Includes phonsent, hare, copon, partridge, pigeon, eggs, pickled mushroom, salt, pepper, spice, and vinegar. In directing the meat to be chopped up, the recipe naively advises that i many bones be taken out as possible! Our own idea of Christmas plenty la positively abstemlous Judged by the standards of other ages. One's appotila is surfelted even by reading the list of edibles offered to guests.

For a Christmas dimer in the reiga of Charica 11 there were provided two courses, with twenty-one dishes in. each, Sirloin of beef is one dish, s in roast lamb. and twan ple yet an- other. Towards the end comes a d'alt nt larke, neata fongues, and halled goose,

Page 40Page 41