Official Organ Of The Slavonic Benevolent Order Of The State Of Texas, Founded 1897 HUMANITY
BENEVOLENCE
BROTHERHOOD
Postmaster: Please Send Form 3579 to: SUPREME LODGE, SPJST, P.O. Box 00, Temple, Texas 76501 VOLUME 62, NUMBER 42 OCTOBER 23, 1974
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK For about two weeks now, in Central Texas the weather has been very pleasant and truly fall weather has arrived. After the 'rainy, dark days we had during most of September, the bright sunny days we are experiencing are truly welcomed by all farmers, ranchers, merchants, youngsters, the elderly, and all! It is in some way, reminding us that Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and . . . winter, are just around the corner! We have a letter (in Czech) from Brother Thomas 1Vlynar, 1507 Alviso St., Inglewood, California' 90309 with some things he requests and they are translated herewith: He states that he is in the process of buying some property in Taylor, Texas, and will move there as soon us he can He states that he has some 70 books for Brother Otto Hanus and our SPJST Library and requests that if someone from Texas would be making a trip to California and back (Inglewood area), to please contact him and he will be glad to send the books by them to Brother Hanus. The remainder of his requests are being taken care of by your editor, personally, by letter and via mail. * We have quite an amount of material this week, some of which may have to be delayed, such as in-
WHAT IS REAL GOOD? "What is real good?" I asked in a musing mood: "Order," said the law court; "Knowledge," said the school; "Truth," said the wise man; "Pleasure," said the fool, "Love," said the maiden, "Beauty," said the page, "Freedom," said the dreamer, "Home," said the sage, "Fame," said the soldier, "Equity," the seer — Spake my heart full sadly: "The answer is not here;" Then, within my bosom, softly, this I heard: "Each heart holds the secret — Kindness is the word." —John Boyle O'Reilly formative items, etc. We appreciate our contributors, and the effort they make in writing and sending articles to the Vestnik We are constantly striving to make the Vestnik as interesting as possible. We urge you to continue to contribute to your fraternal weekly newspaper. Jack-o'-Lanterns are probably the most prominent symbols of Halloween. We see them made from real pumpkins, grinning or scowling at us from front porches and windows, and novelty stores are full of papier-mache replicas of
all sizes. Yet, popular as they are, history does not tell us who was the first person to cut a face upon a pumpkin to make a jack-o'-lantern. The name, "jack-o'-lantern," is a most appropriate one. The dictionary defines the word "jack" as a popular form meaning man, and jack-o'-lantern becomes "man of the lantern." One of the many definitions is "to play the jack,' which means to deceive or lead astray. This is the true spirit of the jack-o'-lantern. Halloween is really a celebration of the harvest time. Much of the spirit of superstition of Halloween has come down through the ages from Europe. But the use of pumpkins was begun in America. The pumpkin is a native vegetable of America, and with the coming of the white man it was introduced all over the world. Under his hands it has been cultivated to enormous size. Often a single pumpkin may weigh as much as fifty pounds. The pumpkin which is used to make jack-o'-lanterns has an individuality all its own. It is marked in from five to eight ridges, with deep grooves between them. The grooves converge in the center toward the stem which holds the pumpkin strongly to the vine. The color is orange, and a pumpkin of