December 25 Wednesday – Christmas –­ Sam’s notebook:

Christmas in Germany.

In the week, a prodigious audience of parents & children in the big theatre. A curtain hung across middle of stage from right to left. In front, a lady with a lot of eager children around her on stools. She asks what familiar story from folk lore she shall read. They clap their eager hands & name a story. She reads, they applaud, or laugh or are grieved—all well drilled & natural—& as she finishes the curtain slowly rises & displays in tableau an exquisite picture from the story. The children in the audience get so carried away that they applaud, shout, cry & make comments aloud [MTNJ 2: 255].