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DECEMBER 15, 1905
The Commoner.
s
IN THE DEFENSE OF "A GRAND OLD MAN"
Each year, just about this time, the friends
of Santa Claus find it necessary to combat the
efforts of those who would have the world re
ject the grand old man. s
"The world is growing too old and too wise
for Santa Claus. It has made ua its mind that
it will have, none of him." This is a sample of
the statements made by the skeptics of this
period.
A New York newspaper sums up the argu
ments' made by the enemies of Santa Claus in
this way:
"It is said that Santa Claus is childish,
that Santa Claus is irreligious, that Santa
Claus is a delusion, that Santa Claus is
trivial, silly, pagan, misleading to the mind
of the child.
"Educators have denied the very existence
of Santa Claus and protested against the tell
ing of the old Santa Claus stories on the
ground that they are all lies.
"Religionists have attacked him violently
with the accusation that he is only a pagan
myth, and that he distracts the minds of chil
dren from the real meaning and purpose of
Christmas.
"The board of education has turned a cold
shoulder to him. They have not forbidden
him entrance to the schools, but their rules
governing Christmas are all against him.
They have not legislated to keep him out,
but the rules against Christmas trees, the
regulations forbidding any religious exercises
and the growing prejudice ugainst "school
entertainments" are all conspiring to force
him from the public schools.
"Even the Sunday schools the last
stronghold have begun to frame up acts of
exclusion. Some of the ministers think that
the lesson of the Christmas manger is for
gotten in the hope of the Christmas pack.
Some of them have made the danger of fire
from Christmas trees the apparent reason
for excluding him from their Sunday school
rooms. Others think that the money expended
on the parish children could hotter be dis
tributed among the abject poor.
"The truth tellers have a mighty argument
built up to support their contention. They
say that when the child's world is peopled
with the sort of folk that one must lie awake
at night to see as one does for Santa Claus
on Christmas Eve he must grow up under -the
disadvantage of having at every step to
free his mind from a delusion, an error, a
wrong belief.
"They say that the child whose father or
mother has told him that Santa Claus and
the fairies really live, must, as his knowl
edge and experience increases, gradually grow
to distrust the word of his parents, to be
lieve himself deluded by them in other more
important facts of life. They say that it is
a humiliation for the child to find that a
deception has been practiced upon him, just
as it would for an older person. They say,
moreover, that it is an insult to the intel
ligence of the child to ask him to place his
faith in anything that is not strictly true,
and they appeal to the science of ethics to
prove their arguments."
After presenting in very feeble sort of way
the arguments of "those who declare- that Santa
Claus is real," this New York newspaper con
cludes: "But on the -whole the truth-tellers have
the best of it. This is a practical age and the
tendency is toward bald, bare, absolute truth in
everything."
But the truth-tellers are certainly not among
those who ure so "all-fired" practical that they
make bold, through a mistaken notion t)f duty,
to deny the existence of Santa Claus.
According to this New York newspaper the
"truth-tellers" say that "when the child's world
is peopled with the sort offolk that one must
lie awake at night to see as one does for Santa
Claus on Christmas Eve -he must grow up un
der the disadvantage of Jmving at every step
to free his mind from a delusion, an error, a
wrong belief." Well, the child's world in all the
years of Christendom has been peopled with
just that sort of folk; in all the years of Chris
tendom little children on Christmas Eve kav
shoved. the "sand man" farther and farther .away,
and have strained their little ears in the effort
to hear the footsteps of the good old Saint
whose existence, as whose coming, they have
never for a moment doubted. Yet d urhig aH
wornJlS Ch,1?r;? haV0 growa l0 manhoodnd
womanhood and thoy have never found them-
S?,hS hlcTca ,u th0 8trBBlo with the great
im,U i, ecauso Lhoy spent theIr childhood
ilio nf i flm"owed Precincts whoro the exlst-
?s barred IS recognized und tUc akeptlc
"Kriss Kringlo" ia the patron saint in Ger
many,' and it is known by the well informed in
that portion of tho earth that he actually made
his rounds on Christmas Evo and dropped down
the chimney gifts for the good and obedient. In
Russia it is Saint Nicholas, and it is not dented
that he was a real man who lived about y00 A. T).
AVe are told that this man was a noted bishop,
whose name, because of his good deeds and gen
erous acts, became a synonym for kindness and
generosity. According to one story, tills good
old saint, clad in fur from top to toe, was in the
habit of going around in a sleigh drawn by iloot
looted reindeers. From one of his thoughtful
acts came the custom of hanging up stockings
on Christmas Eve. It is said that a poor noble
man in Russia, having no money with which to
provide marriage dowers for his three daughters,
was about to force thera to support themsolvos
by a degrading life. Saint Nicholas learning the
facts, passed the nobleman's house one Christmas
Eve, and throw a purse of gold, shaped as a
slipper, through the window. On the following
night the second daughter received a similar
gift, and I he third night the youngest daughter
detected the good old saint throwing a stock
ing filled with gold Into her window. In this
way a dower was provided for each daughter,
and from these incidents is said to have grown
the custom of placing gifts in shoes and stock
ings on Christmas Eve.
From these reputable ancestors the Santa
Claus of today is descended.
Don't let them fool you, children! He is
not a myth, the so-called truth-tellers to the con
trary, notwithstanding. He is a real being who
acts; and so- strong is his personality, so Inspir
ing are his characteristics, that he sways tho
hearts of men in every clime where the crucifix
is the emblem and Christ is the Master.
Who would begrudge tho world the happiness
it has obtained from its conception of tho gen
erous old messenger of Christmas Eve? Who
would withhold from men the inspiration Santa
Claus has given? Who would tear from the
life book of "of such is the kingdom of heaven"
its best and brightest chapter?
Here's to Santa Claus! May his shadow
never grow less! He is the annual reminder
that "I am my brother's keeper." He Is the
walking delegate of the Brotherhood of Man.
He is the living exemplar of the Sermon on tho
.Mount; the Declaration of Independence might
have been written within his tool shop; and tho
treaties declaring peace between warring peoples
might have been framed upon his workbench.
The duties of Santa Claus are not confined
to the filling of children's stockings. Where
women have fallen he gives words of cheer and
extends a helping hand. Where hope is dead
within the breasts of men, he revives it. Where
God's creatures nro naked ho provides clothes;
where thoy aro hungry ho gives food; whoro
thoy aro disconsolate, ho gives encouragement.
And whenever in tho horizon of a llfo there Is
not to ho seen a single star, ho touches tho
situation with his magic wand and, lo and be
hold, in that same horizon thero Is not to bo
found a sjnglo cloud.
In tho life of tho adult ho js a strong and
permanent force, according to tho alacrity with
which men turn from tho shadows to tho sun
beams, and tho onrncstncfiB with which thoy cul
tivate those habits of thought that lead men
upward and onward
In tho life of tho child ah, that Ik where
tho good old saint is at IiIk best! Tlioro he Is
at his hoht not only for tho happlnens ho brings
to tho little ones, but because that happiness
is of tho eontngooua kind and results in the dis
tribution of blessings atid sunshine and in the
cultivation or love and Joy and optimism oven
sometimes among eminently practical men and
women who, mingling with the little ones as they
empty their stockings on Christmas morning
may learn that "It Is not all of life to live, nor
all of death to die." ,
This Now York newspaper asks how it would
seem to havo placed over the door of the little
shop at the North Pole the sign:
SANTA CLAUS
FORCED OUT OF
BUSINESS
When such a sign has been placed above
the banking houses, the counting rooms and tho
factories of the land; when hope has died within
the hearts of men; when lovo has faded from
the earth; when civilization has been acknowl
edged a failure; when It has been conceded that
might Is above right; when men havo turned '
from all that is good and noble and tender within
this vale of tears, then it will be time enough
to place such a sign ahove the workshop of this
grand old man. Uq has done more to cultivate love
and more to Increase tho sum of human happiness
than any other brought Into being since the
heavenly host song, "Glory lo God in the Highest,
and on Earth Peace, Good Will Toward Men,"
and the wise men of the east poured their treas
ures Into tho manger at Bethlehem.
RICHARD L. MHTCALF13.
DO EYES DECEIVE?
In his message to congress Mr. Roosevelt
says: "This government stands for manhood first
and for business only as an adjunct of manhood."
If that means anything at all, it is a declaration
in favor of "putting the man above the dollar,"
Now, will some of these republican editors who
have so often sneered when democrats insisted
that the dollar should not be placed above the
man, enter their formal protest?
THE PRIMARY PLEDGE
I promise to attend all the primaries of my party to be held between now -and
the. next Democratic National Convention, unless unavoidably prevented, and to use
my influence to secure a clear, honest and straightforward declaration of the party'i
position on every question upon which the voters of the party desire to speak.
Signed.
Street.
Postoffice.
State.
County,
Voting precinct or ward.
t2T Fill out Blanks and mail to Commoner Office, Lincoln, Nebraska.
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