The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-12-26
A MERRY
CHRIS TMAs.
Jersey City Was Very
Kindly Treated by
Good st. Nick.
GIFTS FOR YOUNG AND OLD
Big Dinners a and Happy Time
for all Santa Claus's
Friends.
GIFTS FOR YOUNG AND OLD

Friends.
| The weather man seems to be making
more blunders than ever this year. He
| forgot all about snow for Thanksgiving
until it was just tWenty-four hours too
Hate, and he turned on the rain instead
to1 the snow for Christmas. Perhaps he
had his spickets wrongly labelled. At any
| rate, it is the first time such mistake
has happened for years-usually the.
weather apparatus is frozen.
However, people have learned not 70
depend too much on the weather man,
and Christmas was Christmas even in the
rain. Nothing planned was omitted or
postponed on account of the drizzle, from
| the Christmas party to a game of golf,'
| and while there might have been some
| few individuals who remained indoors the.
majority were only too glad to give new
umbrellas and mackintoshes, left BY
Santa Claus, an airing. The attendance
at church was good. So were the col-
| lections.
| Santa Claus was especially good and
| lavished his gifts upon Jersey City. like
| the sun, on the rich ana the poor. Thou-
sands of children were made happy by
the public distribution of candy in Sunday
| schools and other institutions, the Chii-
dren's Home and the Home of the Home-
| less especially, and through the gener-i
| osity Of -nrs. Benson and the Greenv1fle
| ladies and others it is doubtful if any
| body went without Christmas dinner
Providence provided for those who
| couldn't provide for themselves.
Although the new sled had to be laid
| away with the tennis racket for future
use, the small boy made it up on the
Christmas turkey and was happy As for.
milady, she remained indoors and wore
| diamonds instead of furs
Christmas services were held in all the
churches on the Heights yesterday. Spe~
ciai programmes of music were rendered.
The societies of the churches distributed
food and clothing to the needy of their
respective districts Tuesday evening.
The patients at the City Hospital and
the inmates of the Home for Aged Women
on Bergen avenue were well cared for
yesterday. Special services We're pros
! vided.
! Despite the care exercised by the conn
mittee in charge of the distribution Of
I free Christmas dinners TO the poor OF
EGreenuille an TUESDAY, there We're many
families, 1t was said who received the
dinners and were not entitled to them
| The distribution took place in the base
ment of Public School No. 20. The dim
ners were limited to 165. Mrs. Mary Hud-
speth Benson and the other ladies in
charge had decided to give the dinners
only to families who were without the
means to buy them. Notwithstanding the
efforts of the committee number of
families, it was said, received the dinners
| who could have well afforded to pay for
! them Some of these families come from
the downtown section. They were not
known to the ladies in charge. con-
sequently no discrimination could be
made.
/ 1t was not until the distribution was
over that the committee was aware that
| it had been imposed upon. Many poor
families, however, were provided for and
the happiness which the free dinners af-
forded was well worth the funds expend-
/! ed
The committee in charge Of the distri-
button included Mrs. Hudspeth- Benson,
! Mrs. Harvie Hall, Mrs. G. Judson,. Miss
Strong, Mrs. Robert Hudspeth, Mrs. Kel-
lily and Mrs. Bennett
| Each applicant came with big basket
to be filed, and as the majority were
known to the committee in charge din
ners were dealt out according 10 the size
| of the families. Where there were chill
dren twice the quantity was given. with
oranges and candy enough to go round.
There were 155 chickens bought by the
committee and weighing about five
pounds each, three hundred cans of veg
etables and fruit the gift of the children
OF Public School No. 20, a box of oranges,
the gift of Mr. Seeman; fifty pounds OF
candy in souvenir half pound boxes, do
mated by Senator Hudspeth; about two
barrels Of potatoes given by Mrs. G..
/ Judson and others, loaves of bread to go
round. hundred pounds of sugar, 40
pounds of coffee, celery, apples and cer-
eels. Then there was a donation Of mon
! ey MrM. Keely gave five dollars, Mr..
! DONNA five dollars, DR.. Hollister TWO dol
lars, besides like and smaller amounts
from people too modest to give their
! names. Some Of the Greenville ladies'
contributed fifty jars Of preserves, which
/ with other delicacies were sent to the
sick. The total number of dinners dis
| tributed reached l65.
1--WE never had so many people outside
! Of our own district" sal dMrs. Benson,
this morning. "Of course we could not
give them all dinners. We have to draw
the line somewhere, but as far as we
could we gave dinners where we thought
the cases worthy. Our own people we
know or If we didn't somebody else does,
but this year we had applicants from