text: - Cluck Cluck's EisTer Colhes.- .4^ ifW **t: Jm-'- 'n+t •<« erwta Iimi m* IN T W|>V. 'l l Qmu 0m-I 9m f IM |« *»r («.:<••(, t »« n*! f * IX a -* M.' h*n .p «H| li til* fat. ttat' »#■«'» ft a* 9 (tna m wt-lij \ Tm f. a*..a - ; a «■» > - f i|k £.(.<1 ;Mr ir lUlarlwWu. • Ttri kl all 'tram a '!< r* ki »«f» uw r~* mi 1. ^ >ad •«ss •• :*« ii.-l to ur*> oi/t ta« dr*. «■»'« < 4 C!«*a aa4 Hi e» U ca^pt a* • tra* HtV Pkic Ciuei " (t* raaml crkl' ■ Yaw 'k - in' ft it p<i tad aotn v# • C-r^ ft • sno do to lain- <i« j r«f tin tt •**i tv a a ttutr arar J l> 'Hit -| tko tt»7~r*J as« t i*. i't l»H (it - btOrt a (*»*»/ ajt i • f ••> cham **4 k> cai.tt ia lit a-.-*:. " the ■ Legend o p tHe 'EASTER,- RsABBIlx THE wonderful rabbit which lays the red, white and blue Easter eggs is one of the old est of historic characters. In fact, wise men who have tried to trace the story to its source have gone back far beyond the earliest beginnings of written history only to find its big, woolly ears sticking up through the mists of tradition and superstition. But the strangest thing about the Easter rabbit is that you will find him in every part of the world—in Africa and Asia as well as in Europe and America—and if he is not laying East er eggs lie is doing something equally remarkable and noteworthy. People who think the rabbit only a timid, stupid, and commonplace member of society are entirely mistaken. The children, Mother Goose, may be more familiar where English is spoken, but the Easter rabbit is known to the little one in every language. Not even the greatest students have ever been able to learn how it happens that the rabbit lays Easter eggs. All they know is that little children, and particularly little children in Germany, make, as their grandfathers did before them, warm nests of hay during Easter week, in which they find on Easter morning a lot of beautiful colored eggs, laid there, of course, by the Easter rabbit. Sometimes the Easter rabbit even leaves a little candy or china linage of himself behind him in the midst of the eggs, by way of a card. But really no proof is needed. Years before the oldest man can remember it was always said that the rabbit laid the Easter eggs, and there is no more reason to doubt it now than there was then. In St. Louis, the shop windows are now crowded with Easter rabbits, and the Easter cards as often as not show the Easter rabbit's picture. Ask somebody why it is a rabbit instead of a woodchuck or any other animal. You will find nobody that can tell you. Nobody knows. All they can do is to make shrewd guesses at it. Going back behind the first books, you have found that the rabbit was regarded as a sacred animal by widely scattered people all over the world. Even the American Indians, who had never, so far as we know, heard of Easter, had their feast of the Great Hare, or rabbit, and in the sixth century after Christ, before the early inhabitants of what is now England had been Christianized, the hare or rabbit is said to have been sacred to Ostara, the goddess of dawn and of spring. Among the natives of South Africa there has been for centuries and still is a story which connects the rabbit with Easter in a curious way. The spots on the surface of the moon form, as these natives say, the perfect image of a rabbit. And as the moon sets or dies and rises again every thirty days, it sent the rabbit to take its message to the children of men. "Go," said the moon to the rabbit; "go and say to men that, even as I die and rise again, so shall they also die and rise again." But the rabbit was wicked, and did not carry the message straight. "The moon says," the rabbit told the South African natives, "that even as I die and do not rise again so shall you also die and not rise again." When the rabbit came back and told what he had done, the moon was naturally angry, and struck at him with a jaatoliet. The blow struck the rabbit and split its upper lip. People who doubt the story are asked to notice that the rabbit's lip is split to this day. And besides having its lip split, the rabbit was much frightened at the moon's anger, so that it ran away and hid in a hole in the ground, and has been timid ever since. Going over to Asia, we find that the rabbit still holds its place as a serpent animal. In China and all the other countries where the religion of Buddha prevails, the story runs that the great Buddha himself was at one time terribly hungry, and wandered up and down on the surface of the earth looking for something to eat, but found nothing. Finally, the rabbit saw the hungry god and felt sorry for him. Going up close, so that Buddha could not fail to see him, the rabbit laid down at his feet. “Eat me," said the rabbit to Buddha. But the Chinese divinity was not to be outdone in generosity. Instead of eating the rabbit, he transported it up to the moon, and there to this day the little Chinese children can see it. Against the bright face of the moon, they can make out a tall cassia tree, with a spreading top. Under this tree, it sits the rabbit on its haunches, pounding continually in a mortar from which is made the water of life. Perhaps if our children will look carefully at the moon, they, too, may be able to make out the shape of the rabbit which lays the Easter eggs. And today in China, at the time of the celebration of the great moon festival, which corresponds in season to Easter in Christian lands, the figure of an Easter Pie. Many and quaint are the devices for Easter that are got up to amuse children. One of the newest designs is prepared in the following manner: A deep tin pie plate is lined with grape paper. Any color may be used, but pink or yellow is the most effective. Set the plate on a piece of paper cut round, but much larger than the plate. Fold the paper upright, pinching it into make it set flatly against the sides of the tin. Tie a ribbon of same shade as paper tightly around to hold paper in place. Allow enough ribbon to tie. In two good-sized bows on either side of the plate. Then count as many little square or round boxes as there are children; fill with bonbons or favors, and to the top of the box fasten by glueing or sewing a small chicken or bird. These may be got at any Japanese store in various colors; yellow cotton chicks or black birds. Place these in the bottom of the pan at regular intervals. Over these lay a piece of Chinese tissue paper matching the crape paper. Where the chicks’ heads come gently, break the paper and pull the heads through. Banter Orange Flag. This pretty Easter gift is made of shirred tissue paper, cut in fan shape. The pieces are bunched at one end and tied tightly with narrow white ribbon. A dozen tangarines are laid in this; then the ends are bunched and daintily tied with a golden cord. Easter in the New Century. In the century just begun there will be 5217 Sundays. In that which we have hardly yet learned to speak of as the last Easter Sunday has occurred once on its earliest possible date—March 22, 1818—but this will not recur till the twenty-third century. The earliest Easter in the new century will be March 23, 1913. Easter Sunday will fall once on its latest day—April 23, in 1043. This also occurred once in the century just passed—in 1800. Ascension Day is prarically all the rabbit is stamped on the moon cakes, which relatives and friends exchange among each other in the place of Easter cards. In certain parts of England, even at the present time, much more is made of the Easter hare than in this country. In Leicestershire, for instance, there is a custom still in vogue called “the Easter hare pie scramble.” So many years ago that everybody has forgotten it a certain plot of ground was given to the rector of the parish perpetually on the condition that each year on Easter Monday he and his successor should contribute two hares or rabbit pies and a quantity of ale to be scrambled for by the villagers. As late at 1892 the “hare pie scramble” was observed as a great festival, all the villagers turning out to march in procession behind the men carrying the hares, cut up into fragments. When they reached a spot known traditionally as “Hare Pie Bank” the sacks were emptied and all the crowd engaged in a tight or scramble for the pies, which are supposed to guarantee good luck to the possessor. For the ensuing year. So the children who credit the Easter rabbit with laying the Easter eggs are simply following a tradition so old that no man knows its beginning. And in every corner of the globe, other little children, white, black, yellow, or red, are, in one way or another, paying allegiance to the same tradition. Street car conductors are never beautiful. In fact, they are not even passing fare. Then fasten the edges of the paper to the pan with glue, allowing the grape paper to come above it and hide the join. With the thumb and finger gently press out the folds around the edge of grape paper, allowing it to flare in ruffle fashion. Around the head of each chick tie a satin ribbon matching the paper in color, allowing an end a half yard in length to lie over the side, to which end is attached a bow knot. This pie is intended to be served at Easter breakfast, and each child pulls a chick out by means of the ribbon attached. The pie is set in the center of the table. An Easter Dinner. For an Easter dinner, no colorscheme can be more chaste and suitable than green and white. The fragrant lilies and hyacinths with masses of green are beautiful if one may have them; if not, a most artistic table can be had with the use of ferns alone. These range in price from five to ten cents per dozen, the best results being obtained with the long, slender varieties. Arrange a low, graceful center piece, and then at each place with two extra long ferns outline a wreath large enough to show outside the plate when placed. Curve the ferns symmetrically, crossing the steins at the bottom in style similar to the conventional empire wreath, and pin them flat in visibly to the tablecloth. A simple white place-card may be put in the center of the wreath. This decoration is novel and the effect is very charming. In May, but on three occasions in the past century it occurred in June, and in the new century this will happen four times.—Newcastle Chronicle. Hot Cross Bung. "How many people are aware that the hot cross bun of Good Friday dates back thousands of years—to the very dawn of the human race?" writes S. P. Butler in the Woman's Home Companion, discussing "The Antiquity of Sacred Cakes." "Like many another rite or symbolism which figured in the religious ceremonies of the heathen world, it was adopted and invested with a holier meaning by the followers of the new faith. Buns known by that same name were used in the worship of the queen of heaven. Ishtar, or Astarte, as early as the days of Ceres, founder of Athens, 1500 B.C. A German Plan. If the wind is in the east on Easter Sunday, it is considered in Germany to be a wise plan to draw water and wash in it, for then the wind cannot do any harm to the bather during the remainder of the year. Painting: Easter Egg: These clever artists are busily engaged in decorating eggs for their Easter celebration. The picture was reproduced from a postal card recently received by the Free Press from Berlin. Mothers: Mothers are the queerest things! 'Member when John went away, All but mother cried and tried When they said good-bye that day. She just talked, and seemed to be Not the slightest bit upset— Was the only one who smiled! Others’ eyes were streaming wet. But when John came back again On a furlough, safe and sound, With a medal for his deeds And without a single wound, While the rest of us hurrahed, Laughed and joked and danced about, Mother kissed him, then she cried— Cried and cried like all got out! —Edwin L. Sabin, in Century. How the Elephant Slipping. One of the most erroneous of the many queer ideas which the layman has on the questions of natural history is the one respecting the elephant's mode of sleeping. Even the old schools of naturalists declared that the elephant has never been known to sleep except in a standing position. Of late, however, say within the last century, it has been learned that mere terror came about by persons studying the habits of such beasts as had not been long in captivity. Such animals, when undergoing the process of domestication, have been known to stand for 12, 18 or even 24 months without once lying down to sleep. This is regarded as a want of confidence in their keepers, coupled with longing desire for liberty. When elephants are perfectly at ease and reconciled to their fate, they will lie down on their sides and sleep as all other beasts do. A Hear Aboard Ship. “Rears make good pets,” said Lieutenant Clark. “When I was in the revenue service at Alaska we had one on the boat and he made things hum. We named him Wineska. He used to climb to the crosstrees, going up hand over hand by the ratlins. One day he ventured out on the yardarm, and there he stayed. We had to get a rope and haul him down. Once he vaulted over the head of our Chinese cook and went into the locker, where he helped himself to sugar and blitter. We had a tacking made for him, much the same as a harness of a pet pug, and would drop him overboard, with a rope attached, to take his bath. Once he landed in a native boat and nearly frightened the occupants out of their wits. He was as playful as a kitten, and although sometimes he disobeyed, he was never treacherous or unkind. When he was lost or hid himself, as he often did, we would look in the dark till we saw two balls of fire. These were his eyes, and gave him away every time.”—New Orleans Picayune. A Noble Hoe. A gentleman recently sold his villa just outside Paris to move into a flat within the city walls. On leaving the country, he parted with his Danish boarhound, too big an animal for a Paris flat, to a gamekeeper of the district. The new owner found the cost of keeping so big a dog too great. He decided to be rid of him. With this idea, he took the dog out in a boat to the middle to the neighboring Marne, tied a stone to his neck and pushed him over. But the stone came untied, and the Dane swam after the boat. The gamekeeper struck the poor dog with an oar, so that the water was dyed with blood; but still the Dane swam after the boat. Enraged at his persistence, the gamekeeper rose and swung his oar to strike the Dane again, so violently this time that he overbalanced and fell into the water. The gamekeeper could not swim, and must have been drowned, had not the noble Dane come to the rescue and held him up till he managed to clamber into the boat again. A revulsion of feeling took place. The gamekeeper bound up the wound in the dog's head, and he now says that death alone shall part him from his dog.—De Temps. A Doll Story, When I was a little girl, mamma gave me a large doll. This new doll was very pretty; for she had round, rosy cheeks, bright blue eyes, and black, curly hair—of course, make-believe hair, for she had a china head and a kid body. My dolly, when mamma gave her to me, was dressed in a gown of lovely blue silk and a cunning white apron trimmed with lace; and upon her feet were some little black kid shoes, or “ankle-ties." Oh, how I loved dear pretty dolly! I could not think of a name nice enough for my precious china baby until one Saturday afternoon, when school did not keep, mamma took me to a “show," where I saw some “little people,” pretty little dwarf people. I well remember Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren—a tiny grown-up man and a tiny grown-up woman, not much larger than good-sized dolls. On the way home, I said, “Oh, mamma, I am going to name my dolly Lavinia Warren!" Near the house where I lived when a little girl there was a stone wall; and I loved to go out there with Lavinia in my arms, and climb up and sit on the wall, and look off at the fields of green grass and watch the little birds hopping about in the trees, and gaze up at the broad blue sky beyond the treetops. I was a very little girl, you know, and mamma often told me I was careless and forgetful. Therefore, I must have been naughty sometimes, and not have tried to remember to “hold on tight” to anything I had in my hands. I know you will say, "How could you have been so forgetful!" when I tell you that one day I dropped poor Lavinia Warren upon the wall, and pretty pink face, with her blue eyes and black curly hair, was "smashed on the stones! Oh, how I cried! I am to mamma, crying and sobbing, "Lavinia Warren's broke!" Mamma took me in her lap, and said: "Don't cry, my little girl! Crying won't mend Lavinia's head." And then she took me by the hand, and went with me to the spot where headless Lavinia was lying. Her dear little kid arms and her little upturned feet, and her pretty face all scattered about her, caused me to cry more than ever. I shall never forget that sight. Mamma bought me another dolly, but this new one had a wooden head. I was fond of her. Still, I never loved her as I did dear Lavinia Warren. But I have always remembered since that sad mishap, to "hold on tight." Mamma said I would not forget again, and I have not.—Eay Laurance, in Little Folks. The Story of Dirk, the Turtle. Dick's life is not all sleeping and worm hunting. Every second day he has a long swim in the bath, and he has certain social and domestic duties to perform which are very important. When company is expected Dick has to wear his swellest garb, a broad crimson ribbon, which is tied around his shell, and into a huge bow upon it. Back. So attired, he gravely marched about as if he considered himself no unimportant personage. When all the pets are "dressed up" with similar ribbons, the effect is very comical. Dick has to do his share of the work, too; for this is insisted upon by a very young lady, whose commands are not to be trifled with. She owns a small cart and a vague number of dolls, including one springy rubber man. To the hinder edge of Dick’s shell is affixed a ring—a solid gold one, by the way: for it rightly belongs to the stem of a certain watch. The cart has a cord and a gold snap, which should be at the end of a watch chain I know of. This snap is fastened to the ring, the lady dolls are seated in the cart, the springy rubber man is placed upon Dick’s back, and hay!—away they all go for a 10-foot dash down the stone walk. This performance never fails to no purpose. The young lady who owns the dolls, while Dick does not mind it in the least. One terrible day—I almost shudder to think of it—the rain had left a pool about four inches deep at a low spot in the walk. Dick was hitched up to take his party for its usual airing; and lo! "He turned away," as the young lady put it. Away he went full gallop, straight for the pool. The party came near being drowned! So exciting was the work of rescue and the restoring to consciousness of the lady passengers that the rubber man was forgotten. Later, after the pool had been dragged and everything possible had been done, he was found in a thick growing plant, where Dick had left him a la Absalom. Dick for a time strove to make friends with the black turtle; but of late he has discovered his own image in a mirror which extends to the floor of the studio. He climbs up the carved moulding, and intently regards his reflection for an hour at a time. Whether he fancies that he has found some captive maiden of his race or merely desires to be sociable, as other turtles are upon logs, I am not prepared to say. Taken up on his merits, Dick is a harmless and most interesting pet. He has already shown much more intelligence and I should not be astonished if a few years of good treatment developed his faculties much further.—Our Animal Friends. The Antithetical Chinaman. To attempt to get a Chinaman to assign a reason for anything is futile. One day, while riding a donkey through the country west of Pekin, I noticed that the women of the country villages, mostly farmers' wives and daughters, did not bind their feet. I said to the donkey driver, who was running along beside me, "The country women do not bind their feet, do they?" "No." "Why?" "They do not bind their feet." "Why is it that the Chinese women bind their feet?" "They bind their feet." "But why do they do it?" "That is their custom." "But why is it their custom?" "There is no reason why—no reason whatever." Ask a child: "Why did your brother not come to school today?" "My brother did not come to school today." Or, inquire of a man: "Why is it that the Chinese build a pagoda 13 stories high?" and he will most probably answer, "That is the way to build a pagoda."—Isaac Taylor Headland of the university of Pekin, in Washington Star. To think a point, Mark Twain lays great stress on the pause just before the point, in the use of which he regards Xrtemus Ward and James Whitcomb Riley as the greatest adepts. For instance, Aristides Ward would say eagerly, excitedly, "I once knew a man in New Zealand who hadn’t a tooth in his head"—here his animation would die out a silent, reflective pause would follow. A, low; then he would say, dreamily, and as if to himself—“and yet that man could beat a drum better than any man I ever knew."—Argonaut. 