The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-25
KRIS KRInGLE'S DAY
WAS USHERED IN WITH CHRIST
MAS TREES BEFORE THE CAi4-
ENDAR WAS READY.
MANY PRETTY SERVICES
DID HONOR TO BETHLEHEM'S
BABE, WHILE BRINGING JOY
TO BLEEDING HEARTS.
INCIDENTS OF THE YULnrIDE
Held Yesterday and Last Night
in ST. Paul.

A gerat big Christmas tree, richly
laden with goodies. Hundreds of little,
pleading hands outstretched toward
it, hundreds of bright eyes glistening
with childish anticipation! For all that
hung upon it was to be theirs.
Surely such a spectacle was enough
to transform the dark and dingy inte-
rior of the old market house into a
radiant bower of fairyland. Most un-
inviting were the surroundings, plain
and humble the people, but the pic
ture-with that lofty Christmas tree
and those eager, excited children sur
rounding and gazing at it in perfect
ecstasies of admiration-Well, it was a
subject for the brush of a great artist.
This picturesque scene was witnessed
last evening in the old market house,
on the first floor, in that space which
has been occupied by the exhibits of
the Manufacturers union. A gigantic
Christmas tree was taken in there and
loaded with the things that children
love, ard grown folks, too, for that
matter. The gifts were donated by the
various wholesale and retail houses and
the manufacturers, as well as by the
tenants of the market house, who all
dren's Christmas tree. For that tree
and its fruit were for the children of
the poor.
Who shall describe the scene, when
those children were let in? If they had
been old folks they might have
been ''speechless with admira-
ton, as old folks some
times are. But admiration doesn't have
that silencing effect upon the little
ones. They fairly screamed with de-
light as they gaZed upon that tree.
And what a sight it was to be sure!
Every limb, branch and twig bore a
treasure. ROsy-cheeked apples and
succulent oranges dangled from dizzy
heights, tin horns and jumping jacks
caused young America to dance for
joy coquettish dolls and strings of
pop corn and candy set many a little
girls heart in q f1utter. There was new
er anything like it before, that's GER
tain.
And there were more serious and
substantial presents for some Of the
parents of the poor, though the good
old Christmas tree could scarcely bear
such enormous pumpkins and squash
and such punches of vegetables as lay
DenSdIu us Sudue 1HGIc WtIC IdDDilS
to be had too, both dead and alive.
Now, it must not be understood
that all these good things came down
from the tree for the mere looking at
them, eloquent as were the appealing
eyes Of the children. There must needs
be Kris Kringle, and more than one,
to scale the tree and pluck it's precious
fruit. And who should do that but
Mrs. Augusta Berger, an active en-
thusiastic little woman, who keeps
vegetable stand in the market? and
who could more appropriately assist
her in passing the gifts to the chill
dren's hands than Theodore Wickers-
helm, the old janitor of the old market
house So Mrs. Berger mounted the
ladder, and climbing well up toward
"the topmost round" she proceeded
to detach the Christmas presents and
drop them down into Janitor Wickers-
helms hands.
What hub-bub there was then!
Gimme dats' Oats mine" 81
want dat horn" Il amt got nothin'
yeti" shouted a score of urchins.
Cant I have that apple?" please
give me that doll" ooh do give me
some candy" cried ever so many of
the little girls.
But the children were not the only
clamorous ones. One old lady COM
planned that the children were getting
everything. Janitor Wickersheim pac-
flied her with a pumpkin. Another old
lady wanted something, and Mrs. Ber-
ger dropped a wreath trimmed with
paper roses on her head, and Janitor
Wickersheim gave her a rabbit.
Meanwhile some of the more auda-
cious children crept under the tree
and proceeded to strip it's lower
branches of everything in sight, even
to the glittering tinsel
Mrs. Berger received as her reward
a pretty doll and doll baby, and Jani-
tor Wickersheim found a box of CT
gars with his name on the outside.
After it was all over, and the chill
dren had departed, footing their horns
and toting their dolls, a poor forlorn
mongrel black and tan nosed around
under the barren tree and licked up
the crumbs.