Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-24
THE STORY OF SANTA CLAUS.


From Harpsr's Bazaar.
II IL little singular that we should make
connection between the observance of the day
Of st. Nicholas and that Of the nativity, a. We
do in letting children labor under the pretty
delusion that the gifts which come to them
fully three weeks later are the gifts Of Santa
Claus-a contraction, Of couse, Of st. Nicholas,
who has his own day in the first week Of Decem-
Der, when he is honored by towns and by nations
and by peculiar classes Of the population with
an honor all his own. It is not yet fifteen years
since the boys of one of the leading public
schools in England kept the eve of st. Nicholas
with procession which levied from all passers-
by on q certain spot contributions of money in
return for gift Of salt, which money was sup
posed to apply to the uses of the captain of the
band when in the university.
Another mode Of procedure in honor of the
saint, although different in form, yet having
much the same motif, was to be seen until late
in the sixteenth century, in the conservation Of
a boy bishop in the English cathedrals, who,
until Innocents' day, some three weeks later,
was allowed to ape and mock the practices of
the real bishop, at first in the serious contrast
of childhood and innocence, but at last in a
burlesque that caused the whole thing to be
done away with. To-day St. Nicholas is the
saint receiving most honor at the hands of all
the Russians; and he is not only the patron
cdlut VI Cuuntu, Dut VI young WOueu, VI
scholars, and of sailors. Legend assigns to
him many miraculous and many benevolent
deeds in behalf of these young women, and
owing to them 1t early became the custom in
conventual schools on the European continent
to recognize and acknowledge his benignity, in
return for which homage he was suppos ed to
deposit in the shoes or the stockings Of the
young people candies, fruits and gifts Of more
or less value-an observance which among our
selves has been transferred to another and q
subsequent day and date.
The same good st. Nicholas is often pictured
with three golden balls on account Of his sup
posed gift of three purses containing dowries
for three maidens; and although the three
balls have become also the sign of a pawn
broker, yet the pawnbrokers came from under
the reign of Medici, whose symbol it was, and
who had taken it for their own in remembrance
Of the generosity and the wealth Of the saints.
Nowhere, however, is the festival of st. Nicho-
las observed with such splendor and earnest
ness as in a seaport of the south Of Italy where,
in q subterranean building of Saracenic archi-
lecture, beneath the superb church of st.
Nicholas, the saints bones are treasured-a
church where, if the king Of Italy himself at
tends he is person of less consequence than
the prior Of the church, who claims to rank
with archbishops and cardinals. Pilgrims to the
number OF many thousands attend the festival,
all with slaves bound with olive and pine, many
of them barefooted; all of them fed, if they
will, at the priory gates, all Of them clad in
their picturesque ancient costumes, devoted,
earnest, fiery and observing a rite that has
been known from time immemorial.
A novel and interesting part Of the ceremo-
MES is seen when the sailors of the port, in
memory possibly Of some old rites in honor Of
Neptune, take the saints image from the care
of the canons, bear it through the streets and
far out to sea, only returning with it at night
fall, when, with bonfres and rockets and torches,
the whole population informing chants and lit
anies, they carry it about from shrine to shrine,
and at length restore it to its keepers under the
late stars with solemn earnestness, and all the
wild but half-suppressed religious excitement
possible only to the high-wrought southern
On the whole, St. Nicholas has
all his share of honor, and we think he should
keep his hands off of observances
and honors and ceremonies that do not belong
to him.