The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-23

! gioycd hands he held a crush hat II
! was only his size and the tiny gauze
wings On his coat that convinced the
! bachelor Girl ne was a spirit. Sha
knows that wings are seldom visible
on the ordinary raglan. Besides, there
was bunen of holly berries in the
4 SPIRITS coat and the room was filed
| With faint, Christmasy odor.
| Don't you know" said the Spirit, air
| Hy waving the formality of en- intro
| duet-oa, i think Scrocge was right about
! Chr s. mas
"Scrooge?" quiered the Bachelor Girl
! weakly surrendering the poker to the
spirit, who poked up the Goals in { mas
: terful way that was very masculine and
altogether disagreeabIe
Yes Scrooge-the fellow wso said
Christmas was humbug, you know
! sad the Spirit impatiently.
HumbuS, echoed the Bachelor Girl in
surprise.
:. My dear young woman, please don't
echo every word | say" said the Spirit
testify. S agSravating, and wretched
form. besides. Scrooge was a man VINO
considered Christmas a humbug. We
sent one of our people down to convince
him that 1t wasn't"
| "And did you convince him?" asked
! the Bachelor Girl deciding to ignore the
testlness, for she noticed that the Spir-
/ it's round little face was netted with
/ fine wrinkles.
"Oh, yes. we convinced him, but l
| tel you its becoming more difficult every
day. | don't know what's coming over
| che people,"
The Spirit slipped off his raglan, re-
1 moved his gloves and laid them on the
table with his crush hat.
DO you object to smoker" he asked,
] taking neat cigarette case out of a
! pocket in his evening coat and selecting
from it the tiniest of cigarettes.
Not at ALL" answered the Bachelor
| Girl politely, "if you
/ Now know you are going to repeat
| some imbecile joke about smoke and the
other world and that sort of thing"
said the Spirit with little grimace.
please don't do it! There's really moth
ing in it, I assure you"
/ He smoked for awhile in silence, his
head thrown back, his legs comfortably
| crossed.
MY work is the most difficult q ALL"
he finally vouchsafed, tonight I EEL
especially discouraged"
Tell me about it," said the Bachelor
Girl coaxingly, placing an ash tray
at her guests, elbow
/ All, thanks, nodded the Spirit, deli
cately Tipping off the ashes from his
cigarette. Tell you about it? iell,
haven't any special objection and it is
| comfortable here
/ You see," he continued, his eyes fixed
| on the Goals, there are myriads of US,
and our work is to fill the world with
the Christmas Spirit. We are separated
into four divisions Some of us look
after the rich, some the poor, some the
middle class, and the rest the children
| tell you, the chaps that look after the
| little folks have an easy time of it. Put
a Christmas spirit in child's heart!
Why, bless you, it's always been there,
ana only needs the least bit of happiness
to make it grow and flower into blossoms
as rudy as these holly berries.
And the poor-Well, it doesn't take
much TO make the poor happy. It's such
neck-and-neck struggle with them.
| poor creatures, that a small gift, the
| least suggestion of a remembrance
makes the day seem rosy After all, it
| is only your poor that are contented
| nowadays.
My work has nothing to do with the
poor, however, as you probably have
judged from my clothes. / am sent out
during the Christmas time on a special
mission. My work is to take peoples
minds off Christmas"
"OH Christmas" calculated the Bach
elor Girl, and then she glanced with
some trepidation at the Spirit But he
was still gazing at the fire and appar-
emily had not noticed that she had again
| offended
''You know" he said sadly, "there are
| any number of people in the world for
whom Christmas is just a torment. Peo-
| pie who have made the worst of their
| lives. or who have suffered some great
| loss, or for whom life has held but little
nave very bad times during the holidays
Christmas, especially, seems to rub 1t in
if you'll pardon the expression. I think
1t was one of your own poets who said
something once about fellow being
richer by one hooking Christmas past
"It was Kipling," said the Bachelor
Girl promptly, glad to be able to furnish
| some information, for she was beginning
to feel at a decided disadvantage.
was it?' said the Spirit indifferentIy.
| Wen, it doesn't make any difference,
only it happens to be true. There are
several people who feel rich in that way
| Wednesday,"
But What can you do, asked the
| Bachelor Girl examining with some curl
osity the SMALL wizened face
| It's delicate work. said the Spirit.
! muslngly. "Of course, no two people. can
| 6e treated in the same manner. The
| great thing, l find, is to get them inter-
| ested in something or in somebody. And
must confess the chaps who look after
! the children help me out here. Only to-
! mght, for instance, one of them gave
me the tip about two little mites of
children who are pinning their faith on
| an all-powerful Santa Claus that would
| fill their ragged little stockings in spite
| of the fact that the rent wasn't paid,
the father was i'll and the larder empty
AS soon as | received the tip l straight
| way wished myself in q certain library
IN this city where knew a dreary, mid
dle-aged man was moping over fire. I
looked straight into that mans eyes ana
thought steadily of those children At
first l desDaired of the plan working.
but presently he began to get restless,
and finally he touched bell and a
thin. scraggy looking woman entered.
christmas will be here very soon, Mol
ly." the man said, thoughtfully. The
woman stared at him in a surprised sort
of way. l fancy he had not impressed
her as being the kind of man who would
| become interested in holiday foolishness
81 was wondering he said, shyly, IF
there were any poor anywhere around
for whom you might bay a few things
I will write out check, and if you'll
look after the matter I'll be much obHg-
ed This cold weather must be hard on
the poor"
hurried to the servants side and
whispered something in her ear
'Why. sir" she said, with a short
laugh, you won't find any poor In this
neighborhood, but there's the woman
who helped me clean yesterday. She
seemed poor creature, and 1 remember
she said her husband was Ill and there
were two children"
well. see that she has something"
said the man. going over to his desk
and taking up his check book
The servant hestated 81 have her
address. but she lives In poor part