St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-12-25
It is Christmas Day, and the Great Festi-
val Will be Celebrated in the
Sanity City.
Senator Mcmillan, Home From the Capital,
Says He is in the Field for
Reelection.
Smoke Consumers Cannot be 1ns1steo
on by the City Council, Say
the Judges.
Numerous Rtts of News That Do No
Touch on Chrfstmas--NeW1n IN
corporations.
,TIS CHRISTMAS DAY.
The Modern Idea of Santa CLAUSE
Many Christmas Festivals.

The Modern Idea OF santa Claus
MANY Christmas Festivals.
Christmas is here Cnce more. For a week
Santa Claus has been busily engaged in Sc
lecting from grooming counters toys and
presents to please the hearts OF the little
ones. Santa Claus is no longer the myth that
he was twenty-five years ago. Ihen ne WAS
regarded as a mysterious being with gener-
GUS beard and a still more generous neart |,
who came from some unknown place on
Christmas eve and drove his melted rel ndeers
with the speed of cyclone from one sloe VI
ChrStendom to the other in q single ulS hl'
climbing down the chimneys OF happy MONIES
ana depositing in suspended hosiery various
articles calculated to cheer the hearts Oh
the sIumberine ones WHO had closed their
ewes TO dream of this wonderful man and MS
inexhaustible supply Of good Things Inen
as the little ones gathered around the neartn-
stone, their eyes sparkling with Joyous anucF
patton and their hearts overhoWlng Win love
for the great benefactor whom they had only
seen as pictured by the brush OF the arilst,
or painted by the simple words OF ootng
parents, or as they knelt at their motner
knee and whispered their evening prayer
every breath of wind that stirred the ecnoeS
of the great chimney startled their Attie
hearts and they instinctively looked Tor the
snowfiecked form of Santa Claus with his
stock of goodies to emerge from among tne
flames that fitfulIy flickered in the yawnlng
fireplace, and drop their share OF MS GIFTS
into the stockings waiting for them IEen a
package Of snowy popped-corn, q tlny SACK
of Vari-cOlOred candies, penny whistle, 4
diminutiye doll, or wiry and grotesque ng-
ure that would perform funny antics on
PAINTED stick would satisfy the hearts OF the
little ones and bring bursts OF joyous laugn-
ter from their innocent lips as they pulled
them. one by one, from their hiding places,
long before the sun had lifted the shadows OF
night from the valleys, or slumber had flown
from the eyelids of their parents.
THERE HAS COME CHANGE.
Santa Claus is no longer robed in the mys-
terry that in years gone by had made him an
object of such childish wonderment. 1t is
known nowadays that he buys tickets in the
Louisiana lottery once q month and never al
lows free lunch to pass into the irrevocable
whence without bestowing upon it liberal
patronage. 1t is known that he kisses the
servant girl in the front hall and grants his
wife the privilege of building fire in the
morning. It is known he INDUCES in harsh
talk when he poliShes his shoes and finds that
his wife has used the shoe brush to establish
a shine on the Monarch of the Kitchen" 1t
is known that he stays down town late nights
to attend to business, and when he comes
home in the morning he is so full of business
that he places his trousers in the bed and
hangs himself on the back of a chair. 1t is
known that when ne does any sewing, whether
fancy or otherwise, that he takes a darning
needle and No. Sc o. n. T. thread. 1t is
known that when he goes to a spectacular
drama he goes out between the acts and eats
Mocha coffee to take the smell of colored fire
out Of his mouth. He is known as the same
man who goes hurriedly home from church
after having found that his pistol pocket is
full of eieht-ounce tacks, and taking his ten
year-old son out into the wash house
breaches him q brief sermon, and
then beats it into him with a large
well-developed clothes stick. He is known as
the two-prOnged animal, always allows his
collar button to slip down into his boot and
then suggests to his wife that she ought to be
in Dantes Inferno for misplacing it. There
is only about one in every million nowadays
that is not onto Santa Claus with their entire
Quartette of pedal extremties to use COM
mon and vulgar expression. Stockings are
not worn by chimney posts on Christmas eve
as commonly as they were quarter of CEN
fury ago. Santa Claus usually comes up the
front steps these days and walks into the
front door, taking care to wipe his boots be-
fore he enters and thus preventing an affec-
tionate scene with his wife, that might be-
painfal fertile children to behold. No pop
corn and painted candy go these times; seal
skin sacques, sewing machines, corner lots,
chamber sets and farms are the favorite
presents, ana every Christmas gift that don t
beckon to the principal portion of S20-dOlar
bill is looked upon as thing that has been
weighed in the balance and found wanting.
Thus has the mysterious Santa Claus been
crowded into the past by wisdom and narrow
chimneys.