The Christmas Masquerade

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Christmas Masquerade. On Christmas Eve, the Mayor's stately mention
presented a beautiful appearance. There were rows of different colored
wax candles burning in every window, and beyond them one
could see the chandeliers of gold and crystal blazing with light.
The fiddles were squeaking merrily, and lovely little fawns flew

(00:23):
past the windows in time to the music. There were
gorgeous carpets laid from the door to the street, and
carriages were constantly arriving in fresh guests tripping over them.
They were all children. The Mayor was giving a Christmas
Masquerade to night to all the children in the city,

(00:43):
the poor as well as the rich. The preparation for
this ball had been making an immense sensation for the
last three months. Blackards had been up in the most
conspicuous points in the city, and all the daily newspapers
had at least their column devoted to headed with the
Mayor's Christmas Masquerade in very large letters. The Mayor had

(01:07):
promised to defray the expenses of all the poor children
whose parents were unable to do so, and the bills
for their costumes were directed to be sent in to
him of course, there was a great deal of excitement
among the regular costumers of the city, and they all
resolved to vie with one another in being the most
popular and the best patronized on the sculor occasion. But

(01:30):
the blackouts and the notices had not been out a
week before a new costumer appeared, who cast all the
others into the shade directly. He set up his shop
on the corner of one of the principal streets and
hung up his beautiful costumes in the windows. He was
a little fellow, not much larger than a boy of ten.

(01:50):
His cheeks were as red as roses, and he had
on a long curling wig as white as snow. He
wore a suit of crimson velvet knee breeches and a
little swallow tailed coat with beautiful golden buttons. Deep lace
ruffles fell over his slender white hands, and he wore
elegant knee buckles of glittering stems. He sat on a

(02:13):
high stool behind his counter and served as customers himself.
He kept no clerk. It did not take the children
long to discover what beautiful things he had and how
superior he was to the other costumers, and they began
to flock to his shop immediately, from the mayor's daughter
to the poor ragpickers. The children were to select their

(02:36):
own costumes. The mayor had stipulated that it was to
be a children's fall in every sense of the word.
So they decided to be fairies and shepherdesses and princesses
according to their own fancies, and this new costumer had
charming costumes to suit them. It was noticeable that for

(02:56):
the most part, the children of the rich, who had
always that everything they desired, would choose the parts of
goose girls and peasants and such like, and the poor
children jumped eagerly at the chance of being princesses or
fairies for a few hours in their miserable lives. When
Christmas Eve came and the children flocked into the mayor's mansion,

(03:18):
whether it was owing to the costumer's art or their
own adaptation to the characters they had chosen, it was
wonderful how lifelike their representations were. Those little fairies in
their short skirts of silken gauze, in which golden sparkles
appeared as they moved, with their little funny gossamer wings

(03:38):
like butterflies. Looked like real fairies. It did not seem
possible when they floated around to the music, half supported
on the tips of their dainty toes, half by their
filmy purple wings, their delicate bodies swaying in time, that
they could be anything but fairies. It seemed absurd to
imagine that they were Johnny Mullen, the Washwoman's son, and

(04:01):
Polly Flinder's the Charwoman's little girl, and so on. The
Mayor's daughter, who had chosen the character of a goose girl,
looked so like a true one that one could hardly
dream she ever was anything else. She was ordinarily a slender,
dainty little lady, rather tall for her age. She now
looked very short and stubbed and brown, just as if

(04:24):
she had been accustomed to ten geese in all sorts
of weather. It was so with all the others, the
red riding Hoods, the princesses, the beau peeps, and with
every one of the characters who came to the Mayor's ball.
Red Riding Hood looked round with big, frightened eyes, all
ready to spy the wolf, and carried her little patch

(04:45):
of butter and pot of honey gingerly in her basket.
Bo Peep's eyes looked red with weeping for the loss
of her sheep. And the princesses swept about so grandly
in their splendid brocaded trains and held their crowned heads
so high that people half believed them to be true princesses.

(05:07):
But there never was anything like the fun at the
Mayor's Christmas Ball. The fiddlers fiddled and fiddled, and the
children danced and danced on the beautiful waxed floors. The Mayor,
with his family and a few grand guests, set on
a dais covered with blue velvet at one end of
the dancing hall and watched the sport. They were all delighted.

(05:29):
The mayor's eldest daughter sat in front and clapped her little,
soft white hands. She was a tall, beautiful young maiden
and wore a white dress and a little cap woven
of blue violets on her yellow hair. Her name was Theoletta.
The supper was served at midnight, and such as supper,
the mountains of pink and white ices, and the cakes

(05:53):
with sugar castles and flower gardens on the tops of them,
and the charming shapes of gold and ruby colored jays.
There were wonderful bombons, which even the mayor's daughter did
not have every day, and all sorts of fruits, fresh
and candied. They had cowslip wine and green glasses, and
elderberry wine and red and they drank each other's health.

(06:16):
The glasses held a timbleful each. The mayor's wife thought
that was all the wine they ought to have. Under
each child's plate there was a pretty present, and everyone
had a basket of bonbons and cake to carry home.
At four o'clock, the fiddlers put up their fiddles, and
the children went home. Fairies and shepherdesses and pages and princesses,

(06:39):
all jabbering gleefully about the splendid time they had had.
But in a short time, what consternation there was throughout
the city. When the proud and fond parents attempted to
unbutton their children's dresses in order to prepare them for bed,
not a single costume would come off. The buttons buttoned
again as far as as they were unbuttoned. Even if

(07:02):
they pulled out a pin in it would slip again
in a twinkling, And when a string was untied, it
tied itself up again into a bow. Nut. The parents
were dreadfully frightened, but the children were so tired out
they finally let them go to bed in their fancy costumes,
and thought perhaps they would come off better in the morning.

(07:23):
So Red riding Hood went to bed in her little
red cloak, holding fast to her basket full of dainties
for her grandmother, and bo Peep slept with their crook
in her hand. The children all went to bed readily enough,
they were so very tired, even though they had to
go in this strange array. All but the fairies. They

(07:44):
danced and pirouetted and would not be still. We want
to swing on the blades of grass, they kept saying,
and play hide and seek in the lily cups, and
take a nap between the leaves and the rains. Yes,
the poor charwymen and call heavers, whose children the fairies were,

(08:05):
for the most part, stared at them in great distress.
They did not know what to do with these radiant,
frisky little creatures into which their Johnnies and their Pollys
and Betsy's were so suddenly transformed. But the fairies went
to bed quietly enough when daylight came, and were soon
fast asleep. There was no further trouble till twelve o'clock,

(08:26):
when all the children woke up. Then a great wave
of alarms spread over the city. Not one of the
costumes would come off. Then the buttons buttoned as fast
as they were unbuttoned, the pins quilted themselves in as
fast as they were pulled out, and the strings flew
round like lightning, and twisted themselves into bal nuts as

(08:47):
fast as they were untied. And that was not the
worst of it. Every one of the children seemed to
have become in reality the character which he or she
had assumed. The mayor's daughter she was going to tend
her geese out in the pasture, And the shepherdesses sprang
out of their little beds of down, throwing aside their

(09:08):
silken quilts, and cried that they must go out and
watch their sheep. The princesses jumped up from their straw
pellets and wanted to go to court, and all the
rest of them likewise, poor little Red riding Hood sobbed
and sobbed because she couldn't go and carry her basket
to her grandmother. And as she didn't have any grandmother,

(09:28):
she couldn't go, of course, And her parents were very
much troubled. It was all so mysterious and dreadful. The
news spread very rapidly over the city, and soon a
great crowd gathered around the new costumer's shop, for everyone
thought he must be responsible for all this mischief. The
shop door was locked, but they soon batted it down

(09:51):
with stones. When they rushed in, the costumer was not there.
He had disappeared with all his wares. Then they I
did not know what to do, but it was evident
that they must do something before long, for the state
of affairs was growing worse and worse. The mayor's little
daughter braced her back up against the tapestried wall and

(10:14):
planted her two feet in their thick shoes firmly. I
will go and tend my geese, she kept crying. I
won't eat my breakfast, I won't go out in the park,
I won't go to school. I'm going to tend my geese.
I will, I will, I will. And the princesses trailed

(10:35):
their rich trains over the rough, unpainted floors in their
parents poor little huts, and held their crowned heads very
high and demanded to be taken to court. The princesses
were mostly geese girls. When they were their proper cells
and their geese were suffering, and their poor parents did
not know what they were going to do, and they

(10:55):
wrung their hands and wept as they gazed on their
gorgeously apparelled children. Finally, the mayor called a meeting of
the aldermen, and they all assembled in the city hall.
Nearly every one of them had a son or a
daughter who was a chimney sweep, or a little watch girl,
or a shepherdess. They appointed a chairman, and they took

(11:17):
a great many votes and contrary votes, but they did
not agree on anything until someone proposed that they consult
the wise Woman. Then they all held up their hands
and voted to unanimously. So the whole board of aldermen
set out, walking by twos, with the mayor at their head,

(11:37):
to consult the wise Woman. The old women were all
very fleshy and carried gold headed canes which they swung
very high at every step. They held their heads well
back and their chins stiff, and whenever they met common
people they sniffed gently. They were very imposing. The wise

(11:59):
woman lived in a hot on the outskirts of the city,
she kept a black cat. Except for her, she was
all alone. She was very old and had brought up
a great many children, and she was considered remarkably wise.
But when the old woman reached her hut and found
her seated by the fire holding her black cat, a

(12:21):
new difficulty presented itself. She had always been quite deaf,
and people had been obliged to scream as loud as
they could in order to make her hear. But lately
she had grown much deafer, and when the olderman attempted
to lay the case before her, she could not hear
a word. In fact, she was so very deaf that

(12:41):
she could not distinguish a tone below G sharp. The
old woman screamed till they were quite red in their faces,
but all to no purpose. None of them could get
up to G sharp. Of course, so the oldermen all
went back swinging their gold headed canes, and they had
another meeting in the city hall. Then they decided to

(13:03):
send the highest soprano singer in the church choir to
the wise woman. She could sing up to G sharp
just as easy as not. So the high soprano singer
set out for the wise woman's in the mayor's coach
and the aldermen marched behind, swinging their gold headed canes.
The high soprano singer put her head down close to
the wise woman's ear and sang all about the Christmas

(13:26):
Masquerade and the dreadful dilemma everybody was in in g sharp.
She even went higher sometimes, and the wise woman heard
every word. She nodded three times, and every time she nodded,
she looked wiser. Go home and give them a spoonful
of caster oil. All round she piped up. Then she

(13:49):
took a pinch of snuff and wouldn't say any more.
So the older woman went home, and each one took
a district and marched through it with a servant carrying
an immense ball and spear, and every child had to
take a doze of castor oil, but it didn't do
a bit of good. The children cried and struggled when
they were forced to take the castor oil. But two

(14:12):
minutes afterward, the chimney sweeps were crying for their brooms,
and the princesses screaming because they couldn't go to court,
and the mayor's daughter, who had been given a double dose,
cried louder and more sturdily. I want to go and
tend my geese. I will go and tend my geese.
So the Olderman took the high soprano singer and they

(14:35):
consulted the wise woman again. She was taking a nap
this time, and the singer had to sing up to
be flat before she could wake her. Then she was
very cross, and the black cat put up his back
and spit it. The Olderman give them a spanking all round,
she snapped out, and if that don't work, put them

(14:56):
to bed without their supper. Then the old woman marched
back to try that, and all the children in the
city were spanked, and when that didn't do any good,
they were put to bed without any supper. But the
next morning when they woke up, they were worse than ever.
The mayor and the aldermen were very indignant and considered

(15:17):
that they had been imposed upon and insulted, so they
set out for the wise woman's again with the high
soprano singer. She sang in g sharp how the old
woman and the mayor considered her an impostor and did
not think she was wise at all, and they wished
her to take her black cat and move beyond the
limits of the city. She sang it beautifully. It sounded

(15:40):
like the very finest Italian opera music. Deary me, piped
the wise woman when she had finished. How very grand
these gentlemen are. Her black cat put up his back
and spit five times one black cat, our five black cat,

(16:00):
said the wise woman, And directly there were five black
cats spitting and mewling. Five times five black cats are
twenty five black cats. And then there were twenty five
of the angry little beasts. Five times twenty five black
cats are one hundred and twenty five black cats, added

(16:23):
the wise woman with a chuckle. Then the mayor and
the aldermen and the high soprano singer fled precipitately out
the door and back to the city. One hundred and
twenty five black cats that seemed to fill the wise
woman's hut full. And when they all spit and meal together,
it was dreadful. The visitors could not wait for her

(16:44):
to multiply black cats any longer. As winter wore on
and spring came, the condition of things grew more intolerable.
Physicians had been consulted, who advised that the children should
be allowed to follow their own bents for fear of
injury to their constitution. So the rich oldoman's daughters were
actually out in the fields herding sheep, and their sons

(17:06):
sweeping chimneys or carrying newspapers, while the poor charwomen's and
called hebers children spent their time like princesses infairius. Such
a topsy turvy state of society was shocking. Why the
mayor's little daughter was standing gee sat in the meadow
like any commengoose girl. Her pretty eldest sister, Violetta, felt

(17:29):
very sad about it, and used often to cast about
in her mind for some way of relief. When cherries
were ripe in spring, Violitta thought she would ask the
cherryman about it. She thought the cherryman quite wise. He
was a very pretty young fellow, and he brought cherries
to sell in graceful little straw baskets lined with moss.

(17:51):
So she stood in the kitchen door one morning and
told them all about the great trouble that had come
upon the city. He listened in great astonishment. I had
never heard of it before. He lived several miles out
in the country. How did the costumer look, he asked, respectfully.
He thought Violetta the most beautiful lady on ass. Then

(18:14):
Violetta described the costumer and told him of the unavailing
attempts that had been made to find him. There were
a great many detectives out constantly at work. I know
where he is, said the cherryman. He's up in one
of my cherry trees. He's been living there ever since
cherries were ripe, and he won't come down. Then Violetta

(18:37):
ran and told her father in great excitement, and he
at once called the meeting of the aldermen, and in
a few hours half the city was on the road
to the cherryman's. He had a beautiful orchard of cherry trees,
all laden with fruit, and sure enough, in one of
the largest way, up amongst the topmost branches, sat the

(19:00):
Stuma in his red velvet short clothes and his diamond
knee buckles. He looked down between the green boughs. Good morning, friends,
he shouted. The aldermen shook their gold headed canes at him,
and the people danced round the tree in a rage.
Then they began to climb, but they soon found that

(19:22):
to be impossible. As fast as they touched a hand
or foot to the tree. Back it flew with a jerk,
exactly as if the tree pushed it. They tried a ladder,
but the leader fell back the moment it touched the
tree and lay sprawling upon the ground. Finally, they brought
axes and thought they could chop the tree down, costumer

(19:43):
and all. But the wood resisted the axes as if
it were iron, and only dented them, receiving no impression itself. Meanwhile,
the costumer set up in the tree, eating cherries and
throwing the stones down. Finally, he stood up on a
staf brand and, looking down address the people. It's of

(20:04):
no use you're trying to accomplish anything in this way,
said he. You'd better parley. I'm willing to come to
terms with you and make everything right on two conditions.
The people grew quiet then, and the mayor stepped forward
as spokesman. Name your two conditions, said he rather testily.

(20:29):
You own tacidly that you are the cause of all
this trouble, well, said the costumer, reaching out for a
handful of cherries. This Christmas masquerade of yours was a
beautiful idea, but you wouldn't do it every year, and
your successors might not do it at all. I want

(20:51):
those poor children to have a Christmas every year. My
first condition is that every poor child in the city
hangs it stocking for gifts in the city Hall on
every Christmas Eve and gets it filled too. I want
the resolution filed and put away in the city archives.

(21:15):
We agree to the first condition, cried the people with
one voice, without waiting for the mayor and aldermen. The
second condition, said the costumer, is that this good young
cherryman here has the Mayor's daughter, Violetta for his wife.

(21:35):
He has been kind to me, letting me live in
his cherry tree and eat his cherries, and I want
to reward him. We consent, cried all the people. But
the mayor, though he was so generous, was a proud man.
I will not consent to the second condition, he cried angrily.

(21:57):
Very well, replied the costumer, picking some more cherries. Then
your youngest daughter tens geese the rest of her life,
that's all. The mayor was in great distress, but the
thought of his youngest daughter being a goose girl all
her life was too much for him. He gave in
at last. Now go home and take the costumes off

(22:21):
your children, said the costumer, and leave me in peace
to eat cherries. Then the people hastened back to the
city and found to their great delight that the costumes
would come off. The pins stayed out, the buttons stayed unbuttoned,
and the strings stayed untied. The children were dressed in

(22:42):
their own proper clothes, and were their own proper cells
once more. The shepherdesses and the chimney sweeps came home
and were washed and dressed in silks and velvets, and
went to embroidering and playing lawn tennis. And the princesses
and the fairies put on their own suitable dresses and
went about their useful employments. There was great rejoicing in

(23:04):
every home. Theoletta thought she had never been so happy
now that her dear little sister was no longer a
goose girl, but her own dainty little lady self. The
resolution to provide every poor child in the city with
a stocking full of gifts on Christmas was solemnly filed
and deposited in the city archives, and was never broken.

(23:27):
Theoletta was married to the cherryman, and all the children
came to the wedding and strewed flowers in her path
till her feet were quite hidden in them. The costumer
had mysteriously disappeared from the cherry tree the night before,
but he left at the foot some beautiful wedding presents
for the bride. A sober service with a pattern of

(23:49):
cherries engraved on it, and a set of china with
cherries on it in hand painting, and a white satin
robe embroidered with cherries down the front. And of the
Christmas Masquerade by Mary Eleanor Wilkins,