The Lancaster Herald. (Lancaster, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 48, Ed. 1 Friday, December 22, 1922 Page: 3 of 8
eight pages : ill. ; page 20 x 13 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
driving them back to the * tables un-
til tbld night’s ,w«*k is done,” she said.
"If you’re awake when we gat back,
you may do it as always.**
How the children stared l “Was< Httle
old mother going all alone on that
long, wild drive over towns and for-
ests and oceans and up and down
chimneys,' and goodness knows where,
without asking St. Nicholas If she
might? »
Yes, that was just what she was
going to do! “For, when a good
thing needs doing.” she said brightly,
"no permission is needed.”
"Keep the fire going, be sure that
the baby has the fur rug well np
around his chin, and gife your father
a good breakfast when he wakes,” she
called over her shoulder and was away
out pf the door almost before they
had realized that she was going. They
heard the scampering of the reindeer
hoofs, faster the dimmer they got, and
then just the stillness of the North
pole.
That was last Christmas Hive. And
If you ask any child who lay awake
to see St. Nicholas, and peeped out
with one eye, all the time, pretending
to be fast asleep, he will tell you that
it wasn’t St. Nicholas he saw at all.
It was just a tiny, sprightly old lady
with frosty white curls and a red hood,
who filled naughty Willie’s stocking
just as full as good Marguerite’s, and
' HIS is a story of last
Christmas day; and I will
\TWm|| tell you right away that it
ended happily. But it be-
gins sadly- H wus Christ-
mas day up at the North
pole, and as usual on the
day before Christmas, St. Nicholas
had been hurried and rather grumpy.
Only this time, Mother Nicholas
thought to herself that he was Just
a bit grumpier than she had ever
known him. And at suppertime she
found that she was right.
He came into th.e kitchen, closing
his workshop door with a bang, and
sat down with all the little Nicholases
to his porridge.
“Well, I’ve said It before,” he
growled, “but this time I mean it. The
children down there In the world will
get nothing from my pack this night.
It’s time they were taught a lesson.”
All the little Nicholases gasped, but
Mother Nicholas only asked calmly:
“Why, what is the matter now, fa-
ther? After you’ve been working for
them the whole year, you wouldn’t
go and disappoint the poor dears
would you?”
“Yes, I would,” declared St. Nich-
olas, swallowing his porridge in great
gulps, and pretending that he was not
a saint at all. “Half of them go around
saying that there isn’t any St. Nicho-
las, poking fun at me, and laughing
In their sleeves. And the other half
think it makes no difference whether
they are good children or not, I’ll fill
their stockings just the same. It’s a
thankless job, I tell you. And I’m
too old a man for it. So!”
“Come,” said Mother Nicholas, sooth-
ingly, “here Is a plate of griddle cakes.
When you have eaten you will see
things differently.”
“No, when I have eaten I shall go
to bed. That’s where an old fellow
like me belongs, an old fellow who
children don’t believe In.”
Mother saw that he was determined,
and that there was nothing to do for
It, since griddle cakes wouldn’t help.
So she put her finger to her lips to
motion the children silent, and went
on quietly about her work. And when
St. Nicholas had finished his supper,
he did roll away to bed, only telling
the little Nicholases to be sure to hang
their stockings, for they had been good
children all the year and still believed
in him.
The minute the door closed behind
him the little Nicholases burst into
excited chatter. “Oh, what a pity!
Those poor children! Surely there
must be some good ones! Oh dear,
what fun will Christmas be to us If
all the children In the world down
there are unhappy!”
“What Indeed!” Mother Nicholas
shook her head and looked often at
tjf JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN
YEB my cabin on Twin Sisters’ slope
the Rocky Mountain National Park
the December moon in blue-
H v black sky
To light the Old Year out, the New
Wf Tear in.
W Tilonn “Yn M ry In the Mountain
ggfc i; Tope—”
«] £jir rimmed about with lofty snow-
clad peaks,
la derating with new-fallen snow; its
- cup
over with the silv’ry radiance.
Tabosa Valley looms Longs Peak,
af the Rockies,” with its tow’ring crown
• monstrous, dark, grim precipice
r to the flood of silver light.
Ilie rise The Twins to timber line,
>ent In silhouette as if carved
l&giei of the Master Sculptor—
abd parcel ef a perfect whole
IjbjLihe Maater Architect himself.
Pd through the agoe by His will—
ith sheer beauty makes the heart to ache.
St. Nicholas Welcomed Her Back Air
fectionately.
left many more bon-bons in both than
was usual. That peeping child will
also tell you that before she went
back up the chimney, she gave baby
a kiss on bis pink cheek, a thing St
Nicholas (who is as afraid of bablei
as a burglar is, and for the same re*
son) has never been known to do.
And mother, will you beliefs mes,
in spite of having stopped to kiss all
the babies, was back at the North
pole a whole hour earlier than St
Nicholas had ever been able to make
it, even In his younger days. Het
work was well done, too 1 But in
spite of the early hour, she found tha
children and her husband waiting foi
her. St. Nicholas welcomed her back
more affectionately than the children.
“I woke in the middle of the night,”
he said, “out of such a horrid dream—
all about crying children and-and •
mothers. Bless ytou, good wife, fot
not letting that dream come true l”
“Oh, don’t mention it,” said Mother
Nicholas. “It was no trouble at
Indeed, it did me good. I think, Ifc- -
tber, since you are getting so oMk X
will take over this job myself troa*
now on.” . VY :
St Nicholas looked thoughtful at
that. He paced up and down the-
floor. Then he cam$ and stood in
front of Mother Nicholas, strtiigbj <?&«■''
lng up and looking almost as young
as In his early days. /
“No, mother,” he said firmly. "A
woman’s place is In the home. I’ll at-
tend to the business hereafter, thank
you.”
And mother, who, after all, only
wanted everybody to be happy, made
him some griddle cakes for his break-
fast.
But that was last year, the year’
you got a stocking full, even though
you hadn’t been so very good. This
year you had better watch out, for
It Is old St. Nicholas himself you have
to deal with.
the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will,
to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to im-
plore His protection and favor.”
As everybody knows, George Washington was
no liar. So that when he wrote these words he
wrote them because he believed them.
In short, the United States of America was con-
ceived and established in exactly the spirit set
forth In Washington’s words. The nation of his
time was a Christian nation. Its sense of de-
pendence upon God was very real because of real-
ization of perils past and difficulties to come. It
saw the guiding and protecting hand of Providence
in the past. It hoped for a continuance of guid-
ance and protection of Providence In overcoming
the problems and difficulties of the future. For
America was then a child among the nations and
Its way to maturity looked long and perilous.
America has now come to that maturity. And
he is a dullard who cannot see the hand of Provi-
dence in our national history since the beginning.
In the 133 years since George Washington’s first
Thanksgiving proclamation America has accom-
plished much. It has made its maturity rich and
powerful. Today America stands the wealthiest
and most favored nation of the globe—so rich and
so favored that a pre-war prediction has coine
true: America has emerged victorious and un-
harmed from the Great War and without a friend
among the nations of earth. America Is too
wealthy, too powerful, too resourceful, too well
able to move on toward Its destiny without “en-
tangling alliances*’ to please the rest of tlie world.
America Is so favored that It must have a care
lest In Its complacency It thanks God It Is not
as other nations are.
It Is true America is not as the Turk, who Is
pounding on the gates of Europe, with all the as-
surance of a victor who asserts that he has wiped
out past defeat by present victory and demands
new opportunities for crimes against civilization.
It is true America is not as the Bolshevists In
Russia, who apparently are growing rather
stronger than weaker, seeming to gain strength
from the ruin they have wrought, and phrade their
Red Army as an object lesson to the°nations of
earth.
Yet America sadly needs to take heed of the
Eleventh comfnandment, “Love one another.” And
it needs a Twelfth commandment, “Thou shalt
not profiteer.” For the profiteer. It has been said,
•“takes the Eighth commandment by the throat,
knocks the Tenth commandment on the head and
treads the golden rule under foot.” And as for the
Ten commandments handed down from God at
Mount Sinai—it Is Increasingly evident that If Is
the task of the good citizen and the church and®
the press to build up the moral manhood and
womanhood that is suffering alarming deteriora-
tion. !
'There are many who believe that in acceptance
and practice of practical Christianity He Ameri-
ca’s only hope of emergence from the greed arid j
lawlessness of 1923, Anno Domini.
In this connection the progress of a movement
begun in the United States by "Christian Business
will doubtless be watched with interest by t
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong
would triumph.
Held we fail to rise, axe baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake.
The poet speaks truth. Providence has so cre-
ated man—or evolution has so shaped him, if you
prefer to put It that way—that there Is no greater
spur to hta soul than the Incentive of the un-
achieved. Always the unaccomplished that seems
worth while challenges his ambition, his courage,
his determination.
Man has already accomplished much on this
earth—so much that he has now a vision of what
his goal should be—so much that he Is now able
to see bow far he has fallen short of reaching that
goal. And no age has been so well equipped to
move on to that goal as this present age. Never
has the Incentive to the achievement of that goal
been so strong. For man cannot stand still. He
must press onward to the goal or fajl back aDd
lose much that ho has gained. Failure to reach
the goal emphasises the incompleteness of all
that has been accomplished. And this shining
goal Is nothing less than the message of the sea-
son:
“Peace on earth, good will to men.”
Practically this means the reformation of human
nature. And the reformation of human nature
means nothing lesa than the world-wide applica-
tion of precepts ef Christianity to the affairs of
mankind.
Christianity was blamed for not preventing the
great war. It has since been blamed for not pre-
venting tha industrial strife and the economic 111a
and other evils that have afflicted the world. Per-
haps' the best answer in brief to this charge Is the
utterance credited to George Bernard Shaw:
“Christianity has nat yet been tried.”
It is a noteworthy fact that during the last year
men of affairs;' speaking from the viewpoint of
business and not that of religion, have publicly
declared that in the application of the teachings
of the Gospel lies the one cure for the industrial
Ills growing out of world-wide economic warfare;
Some of them have gone so far as to declare that
nothing but a sincere acceptance of Christianity
can save society from utter ruin and civilization
from a complete collapse.
It Is not contended by them that Christianity
contains a panacea that will at once cure all In-
dustrial and economic Ills. They know that no
such panacea exists. They admit that Christian-
ity does not teach economics; does not Instruct as
to production and distribution ; does not. In short,
set forth a system of Industry in any form or
sliape. They start from a different basis and
their reasoning Is about like this:
Christianity, however, does set forth a moral
formula that can be applied at all times to all
systems. This moral formula is an active solvent
of wrongs under any system. Its application can
cure the defects of any system, not so much by
changing the system as by changing the attitude
of men toward one another.
Practical Christianity would not tolerate Injus-
tice of any kind. With injustice of all kinds ban-
ished from the affairs of men and nations existing
economic and industrial systems would either re-
model themselves or would be cast aside. In short,
economic regeneration would come about as a by-
product In connection with the larger moral re-
generation of mankind through the acceptance of
Christianity. For In the last analysis the faults
of systems have their source in the hearts of men.
A stupendous undertaking? An Impossible
vision? Well, they ask, what other course Is there?
The converse of the proposition has been tried to
the uttermost. And where Is the world? Appar-
ently civilization In this Twentieth century Is fac-
ing the great crisis.
George Washington. 133 years ago, as America’s
first president, proclaimed America’s first national
Thanksgiving day. And hla preamble declares:
“It is the duty of ull nations to acknowledge
us on. The noon sinks and Is gone,
i that blase like beacon fires
watch the weary moon has quit,
ir passes out; comes In the New
rand, a token or a sign,
hint ef life. Can It be true
t shine again and day come back
* tar the glad green spring once more
sot unto us another year?
* staged with eeremonievs pomp
rent miracle of the dawa
worthy of the Master's art.
Leg worthy ef the glad New Tear:
te Sisters grows a pearly glow;
S overtopping crown glows ruby red;
clouds in The Pass to the south
rith geld; the sky-Une of the plnea
heir glory stands raggedly out.
f t great golden disk thrusts up
sUbonetted Sisters’ crest.
Meeker, Lady Washington,
;y and Estes Cone change white
tints. Wooded slopes doff black ter
u the sun mounts In the sky.
Sir shadows from the Talley floor.
tea up and dances forth to help
ike off their hurd’nlng robes ef white.
r lilts in a sheltering pine.
rabbit gees sedately past
be first mark on the untracked snow.
IS Valley smoke goes up—
l-amoke that tells of kindled hearth,
astfr and life and love 1
ijtands Longs—unchanged, unchange-
»ew glad spring shall come again,
'time; harvest time, another year.
• *••••
IS born to us this glad New Tear,
k Twenty-three Anno Domini—
Tjear of Our Lord,” the Son of God,
ight man, “Do as ye would be done by,1
d upon the tiroes to save mankind.
*• "ITWni jOfydfl! saying and wise: “Let the dead
^-||pr-’fcurr- Hs jdeedl” Its wisdom, however, .lies
' tafpily taishat~it really means rather than In what
Seva. For burial does not mean both
burying and forgetting. And it should not. What
the adage means Is this:
^ta£sfirb ever a new leaf on New Year’s day,
I92t, «nd try to make a better looking page than
:aaid to be “no new thing under the
i: Certain It la that we are digging up records
nowadays that ahow human nature to have been
Jktairt the nM 1® 4,000 B. C. that It is now. So
ffilSL jsHS man has been making New Year's reso
since there was any New Year’s day.
And doubtless be has been breaking them just ns
' rsgnlarty. And doubtless the cynics and the pes-
simists and the professional jokers have been
over the performance through the ages,
jiefmthcleas, this recurring New Year’s per-
formance la a lot more than merely the material
’ fsr a-Jest. In fact, it is one of the things that
^1Mig|taQAiivs the faith In human ■ nature and the
world is progressing year by year
TlUff* ar«» 0f course, many foolish people who
Mf* only to eat, drink and be merry. And there
are the predatory ones, who take what they want
-rtll they can get It. But most people believe in
a future life and are always trying, often vaguely
and half-unconsciously, to live the kind of a ll'-e
that seems to them fit to survive. Hence tb-nr
New Year*s-re*niutlons. Many a man In bln heart
ea New Tear's day would be, with Robert Brown-
"Yes, 1 Would,” Declared St. Nicholas.
the closed door, behind which St. Nich-
olas could already be beard snoring.
"Anti the reindeer!” ewed the old-
est boy, “what will they do without
their yearly exercise? It seems as
though father might have gone,/if only
for their sakes.” /
Mother Nicholas thought so, too.
And at that minute they heard the
reindeer’s little hoofs beating on the
hard snow crust at the door. Wise lit-
tle beasts! St. Nicholas had never
delayed the Chrlstnias-Eve journey so
long before, and so here they were
to save him the trouble of going for
them. The Nicholas children felt that
they never could face the poor little
reindeer’s disappoiritmetk.
But what was Mother Nicholas do-
ing so busily over there by the cup-
board? The children Iboked In amaze-
ment. It was seldom that mother
left the snowhouse at any time of day.
And here she was. after dark, and
Christmas Eye, too, putting on her
hood and cape, afid pulling ou her
gauntlets!
“Are you going to drive the rein-
deer back to the stables?” asked the
oldest boy. "Oh. please, let me. Fa-
ther always lets me, yon know.”
Mother shook her head. “I’ll mot be
Men
the nation. %
In some American city—probably Detroit—will
be held early in 1923 the first? convention of the
Federation of Christian Business Men’s clubs.
Probably 100 clubs in the principal cities of the
country will be represented. “To search out and
apply the= laws of God Id all commercial relations
between ourselves and all men” |« the stated pur-
pose of the federation. AM members agree to make
the golden rule fundamental In their commercial
dealings. The clubs reserve at ull meetings u chair
for Jesus Christ, ’’the unseen Guest,” whom the
members acknowledge to be their “directive head.”
At a recent conference In Kansas City, Mo., dele-
gates were present representing clubs In Kansas
City, New York, Philadelphia, Lincoln, Neb., Tulsa,
Okla., St. Louis, Wheeling, W. Va.. Chicago,
Rochester, N. Y„ Cincinnati, Columbus, O.. St.
Paul, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., Olumbia, Mu, ar*J
Detroit.
Choosing the Holly.
Superstitious people assert that one
should be careful about the choice of
the holly for the decorations. Part
should be smooth and part prickly.
Then providing both kinds are car-
ried Into the house at the same time,
all will be well. But should the prick-
ly variety be taken In first, then the *
husband will rule the household dur-
ing the coming year; If the
Is brought in first the wife will be
“top dog.'*
Christmas Spirit Needed.
None of ns can have too much of
the Christmas spirit.
W*m
1 1’
m
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Tufts, Minnie Wetmore. The Lancaster Herald. (Lancaster, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 48, Ed. 1 Friday, December 22, 1922, newspaper, December 22, 1922; Lancaster, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth543244/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lancaster Genealogical Society.