SERBIANAustrian Christmas at Highland Boy BY CLAIRE N O A L L
The house of Pete and Milka Loverich was warm from more than the flame on the hearth and the glass in the hand when Dr. Paul Snelgrove Richards first paid his friends a Christmas visit. That snowy day in 1923 he called on nine different families at Highland Boy, a Utah mining camp in the right-hand fork of Bingham Canyon. As in the other homes of the settlement of between 3,000 and 4,000 people, at the Loveriches he was greeted with the joyous expression, "MzV Boze, Kristos se Rodi!" Pete slapped this new friend on the back and gave him a kiss on both cheeks. Young Milka, Sophie, and the boys in the family echoed their parents' greeting in English, "God's peace, Christ is born!" The whole large dining room of people, miners who were boarding at this house and some of their friends from other homes, spoke up, offering the traditional greeting. "You honor us," said one. Another man gave the doctor a friendly slap. Genuine hospitality would be extended to everyone who entered this door during the three days of the festivities. Some of the women were dressed in their native costumes. And as it slowly Mrs. Noall is an author and former contributor to the Quarterly. Dr. Paul Richards, about whom Mrs. Noall writes, was company physician and surgeon for the United States Mining, Smelting, and Refining Company at Bingham for 35 years. In writing this story the author consulted the typescript "Memoirs of Dr. Paul Snelgrove Richards" (in the possession of Mrs. J. Bryan Barton) ; "Serbian Christmas Customs," by Voislav M. Petrovitch, and "Why Do We Celebrate Christmas on January Seventh?" in The Messenger; and notes from Mrs. Ethel Richards Baker (daughter of Dr. Richards), Walnut Creek, California. T h e author is grateful for the assistance of the following individuals for their help through personal interviews: Mrs. Lucile Ewart Hutchings, Miss Mary Joy Richards, Mr. Steve Smilanich, and Mrs. Milka Smilanich.
