Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1888-01-06
Abolishing Santa Claus.

This age grows daily more practi-
cal and prosaic Now il is proposed
to do away with the children's saint,
who gets more prayers than any
other in the calendar; to take all the
poetry out of the night before Christ
mas, and the stockings hung at the
chimney, and the rush of the children
in the dim light of the morning to
see what Santa Claus has left behind
him besides the sound of his sleigh
bells which the little folks, with their
glowing imaginations, almost believe
they could hear. The good old saint,
who has Gone more to difuse the
warmth of kindly feeling throughout
the human family than all the others
on the list, it is to be stricken off,
strange to say, on moral grounds.
Babyhood, an interesting little maga-
zine deYoted to the welfare Of iufants
and very young children, has been
having tiny symposium" on this
subject, to which parents and pastors
have been contributing. "a. P. G ;"
Jamaica Plain, Mass, is surprised
that excellent parents, who intend to
be perfectly truthful and to teach
their children to be 80. will yet tell
the most deliberate falsehoods in re-
gard to Santa Claus" When the
children learn this 'must not their
moral nature suffer some injury at
the discovery" &c. B. NJ ;" Can
ton, H.. decided long before her first
baby was old enough to be told any
thing about Santa Claus, to tell her
the truth Her two little ones, nearly
two and four years old last Christ
mas, enjoyed their presents and the
day just as much when they under
stood who Santa Claus was. She
was even careful to tell them that the
old man in the Sunday school is
''made up" to please little folks.
Materfamilias," New York, thinks
that to keep up such delusions Ia
| larger children there must be many
white lies told," and that when they
fiud cut the deception the children
will never have the perfect conf
dence in anything that their parents
tell them that they had before" She
thinks there is happy medium be-
tween doing this and giving up
Santa Claus entirely. Whan Decem-
Der comes she tells them stories in
the half hour before bedtime about
make believe man named Santa Claus
Poor children
But one of the most emphatic op
ponents of Santa Claus is DR.. John
Hall, who says:
Il do not think there is anv need
for long statement as to the wisdom
of telling little children lies about
Santa Claus or any other saint. Lies
never do good The danger is that
when the little children find out the
lies-as of course they do in time
they will be tempted to class with
them the religious truths which they
are taught. True, the lies about
Santa Claus and the like may give
them temporary pleasure; but enjoy
ment bought through lies is gold
bought too dear" if indeed it can be
called gold"
Santa Claus is corrupting the little
children of the couUtry. Now the
warm apple red would deepen in his
cheek if he could hear this accusation.
and from a man he admires so much
as he does Dr. Hall, too. What! he
do anything to diminish the respect
of the children for truth and honor?
If any thing could destroy the cheer
ful equanimity of Santa Claus. it
would be such charge as that; and
you can almost imagine him go far
losing control of himself az to give
Dasher and PraGcer a real cut with
the whip, something that has not oc-
cured before in centuries, and causes
Dunder aud Blitzen, who are as gem
tie as their names are terrible, to
wonder what has got into their kind
hearted master. But be doesn't lack
for defenders. The chief of them is
Rev. Dr.. VIM. NJ. Taylor, who comes
to the aid of the old saint in this pos
tive way:
"I cannot see that any harm is
done By the references to and repre-
sentations of Santa Claus at Christ
mas In the Sunday school Of the
Bethany Church, which is supported
by the Broadway Tabernacle and does
its work in Tenth-ave, we have bad
Santa Claus every year since | have
been in the country and, 80 far as |
have been able to discover, with no
detriment to the truthfulness or truth
lovingness of the scholars. The pur-
ism which would rule that out OF all
Christmas celebrations would deprive
the nursery of all such Classics" as
Jack and the Bean Stalk" Jack the
Giant Killer" "Gulliver's Travels"
and the like; would overlay entirely
the youthful Imagination; would put
an end to all childish playing at this
or that; and would, in a word. make
it all only very dull prose. | am not
sure but that, fssirly carried out, 1t
would taboo all the literature of i'm.
agination, and destroy everything in
the shape of book that is not literal
fact. Perhaps your correspondent
has not sufficiently pondered the dis
tinction between truth and fact, and
has failed to perceive that thing
may be true without being fact. The
proper antithesis to fact is fiction, and
fiction may teach deep truth, Santa
Claus is fiction; but the truth be-
meath that fiction, which sooner or
later comes to the surfaces. is love-
the love of parents for children, teach
ers for scholars, and Christians for
each other; and probably in the end
that truth is more effectively taught
because of the Impression made by
Santa Claus in the beginning -Er.
Value OF a Hobby.