St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-12-25
A Symposium of Christmas
Thoughts Entertained by
st. Paul Citizens.
What Many Of Them Expect
to Get in Their Holiday
Socks for Presents.
Startling Discovery Made by
"Fosco" Regarding Mas
cuIine Footwear.
An interviewer Who Finds He
Has Been Blindly Cropping
in the Dark.
The Christmas poet MARBLES.

And his lay is long and sweet,
And you'll notice that his measures
Seem to 80 III stCcklng-feet.
Washington Star.
Ok THE WING AND STILL WINGING,
Dec. 24.-Dear GLOBE: When these
lines reach you | hall be far far away.
1t will be worse than useless to attempt
to follow me, or hire sleuths to camp
upon my trail. l am something of a
sleuth myself.
Speaking of self-made men, am re-
minded of those who have achieved
prominence in this home industry in
st. Paul. 1t was recently my rara good
fortune to interview a number of them
upon q holiday topic dear to us all
their pOcketbOOks than to careless, sang
frOid hildhOOd-Christmas stockings
and, exc, the holiday socks,
Gov. William Il. Merriam Skillfully
avoided discussing political topics with
me by being entirely absent from his
Office at the time of my call. Subse
quently. by aid of a compound, reYer-
Derating telephone with electric buzz,
duplex denuncatOT and patent prOfan-
ity check valve, | learned that the gov
ernOr would hang up at least one stock
ing in its accustomed niche and trust
TO luck.
You may say" added the governor
''that the stocking may be found OH the
first floor, as l would not require an old
man like Santa Claus, who has long
Outliyed his usefulness, to climb up
stairs in the cleaning"
Mayor Robert A. Smith candidly adj
mtted that he expected to get some
thing in his stocking tomorrow morn
ing. which he should ever afterwards
prize most highly, not so much for its
intrinsic value, but as a guarantee of
good faith. He said:
Down at Washington, ID. c., from
which city | recently had the pleasure
of returning, they are preparing to hang
up one of the stockings Of the Goddess
of LibeTty-with derrick"
Mayor Winston, of Minneapolis met
me cordially, inquired If it would be
necessary for me to remain long, and
finally said:
Il understand that Mayor Smith pro-
poses to hang up one stocking. and at
first the thought occurred to me that |
would go him one better and hang up
two. But that would be in rather bad
taste, look OStentatiOuS and all that sort
of thing, you know, so yOu may say in
the GLOBE that l have decided to hang
up the same stocking twice. That is, l
shall remain alert and awake, and when
his jays, Santa Cruz, or Santa Claus, fills
in the back room and set it again. !
give you this confidence frankly, be-
cause | know you Will not abuse it, and
that l can trust you to say nothing
about it.o
Consequently, under such circum-
stances, cannot let it go any further.
Clerk of the District Court r. T.
O'COnnOr said that he had a pair OF
pink silk stockings, clOcked with terra
sl,s-,f a Of aI Io
should certainly suspend near the steam
radiator, and TO which Santa Claus, and
the public as well, should have free ac-
cess. From time to time they could
deposit in it such vOtive offerings as
they thought the owner of the stocking
could adyantageOusly utilize.
However" continued Mr.. O'COnnOr,
81 would not be understood as belong
Ing to the silk stocking Democracy, and
don't, and these pinky, crinky stock
ings L never use except for Christmas
purposes"
Hon. lgnatius DOnnelly said:
80 they propose to celebrate Christ
mas again this year. Well, it is an eX-
Celent idea to preserve these old tradi-
tons. They gladden. the heart of child
hood, and cause even wrinkled age to
renew its youth. You know. of course,
that in all civilized countries the an
nual recurrence of Christmas has been
celebrated with festivities of various
kinds. In none, however, was it more
1Oyfully welcomed than in England,
where even still the old honour has not
altogether fled. In that country it was
the custom on Christmas eve, after the
usual deYOtiOnS were over, to light
large candles and throw on the hearth a
huge log, called the Yule log, or Christ
mas block. At court and in the houses
of the wealthy an officer named the Lord
of Misrule was appointed to Superintend
the revels; and in Scotland a similar
functiOnary used to be appointed under
the title Of Abbot of UnreasOn, till the
year 1855, when the Office was aban-
dOned by act of parliament"
My object, Mr.. DonpelIy. is to ascer-
tain the antcipationS of some of our
prominent men concerning the probable
yield of their individual stockings on
Christmas morning"
''Ah, yes, exactly" replied Mr.. Don
nelly. "Weil, it occurred to me only
yesterday that | might hang up my left
stocking by the fire place, and, in case
Santa Claus didn't have anything left, !
would, at least have something left,
and, consequently, not be left. Now, a
dollar, for instance, silver dollar,
might nestle snugly in the region in
habited by the big toe in the day time.
OF u might be. lnJuulclOuSlv, invested
In pop corn that would fill bed tick.
The possibilities of dollar, you see, are
almost infinite"
IL. p. Hall-What do L expect to get
in my stocking? Not the earth, GER
tainly, for those who know me best well
know that | have never clamOred fol-
it. | shall hang up my stocking promptly
at $50 p. N. and visit it every half hour
throughout till morning. Then l shall
20 through it, deity, and swipe the
doodle. l have heard a great deal about
Santa Claus-a great deal that
wouldn't say anything about for the
sake of his family-and l want to see
how he does it; catch him in the act, as
as it were.
Sheriff Beam shall run one of my
stockings up on the city hall flag hal
lizards at 7:25 p. m. Santa Claus in
passing over the city will tumble to it.
or in it, as the case may be. [ expect tC
get bananas, haVanaS, bandanaS, cara
mels, butterscOtch and peanuts.
p. j. Smalley-YeS, l shall elevate
one stocking on Christmas eve. l have
already written a letter to s. Claus
Esq, in which the writer makes me
"My Dear Sir: At the time of your
last farewell tour of the United State:
you made slight error in filling my
order for Christmas goods. Instead Of
the gold, chrOn0meter movement, STOP