Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-17

l
| into the remotest corners of the earth. they
carry Christmas with them as gift to the
| savages with whom they come in contact.
| The American troops have done this in the
| past two or three years in some of the
hitherto untraveled islands of the Philip
| pines, where the Spaniards had never dared
| to venture.
Strange, indeed, are some of the expert
| ences which fall to the lot of these adven-
| utrers when they first play Santa Claus to
| barbarian race that has never heard the
glad old story of Yule.
| Sheldon Jackson, an official employed by
| the United States bureau of education to
work in the wilds of Alaska, carried Christ
| mas to the Eskimo children there in 1891.
| He gave a deeply interesting account of
how he did it in a report to the bureau.
For several days Immediately preceding
Christmas. he said II took occasion to
tell the scholars how 1t was observed by
the whites, and explained such features
about the day as my limited knowledge of
the language would admit of; that by
the close of school the day before they
pretty we'll knew why 1t was observed
"All through the winter the almost starv-
ing condition of the natives had been so
impressed on us that nothing but the
knowledge that our supply of food was
very limited prevented us from distributing
regular rationS to them
Il told the children about Santa Claus
ana Tor them to tie their fur stockings up
near their beds, as he was coming to visit
them for the first time and would remem-
Der every child.
Il made up a lot of little bags out of
empty hour sacks. and into each one put
eisht cupes OF white sugar, about a dozen
pieces of dried apples and a dozen raisins--
not very appropriate assortment for a
christmas present for a white child but it
was the best we had, and found ont after
nc
preclated by the little Eskimo
Although our supplies were very limited.
concluded to take enough from such as
we had and give each family the same as
sortment 1t was made up of a tin can Allied
wlth hour. eight navy biscuits one pint of
rice one,half pound of sugar and one-third
village and about 100 persons all told. The
supplies above enumerated were made up
into ten packages
1 had the herders harness one of the deer
teams TO sled, and at II O'Clock starte
with four natives for the village a half miIe
west of the station.
When Santa Claus Came.
when we reached the first house took
fiashlight view of the deer standing bv
the little skin window, through which a
faint CLEAN of light was thrown from the
Oil lamp burning below
II occurred to me that perhaps this was
the nrst time in the history of civilization
tnat a live Santa Claus made his midnieht
w vs., n.i upon an errano or mercy with a team
oI reindeer, and that the Eskimo were the
hrst TO actually experience what throueh-
OUT Cnrlstendom is only myth.
e III became necessary to dig away the
frost from one corner of the window IN or
der 70 get the packages through. and in
nearly every instance the operation alarmed
.Hose peloW, when a package was imrne-
quiet Ao
While in my STOPPING position at the
nrst mouse suddenly lifted my eyes to the
IioIth ana oeheld the most gorgeous aurora
Witnessed at any time during the winter
The night was glorious one. cold and
crisp, with the stars shining in lustrous
splendor from the pale-blue canopy above,
and not breath of air was stirring
Across the whole northern horizon floods
or wavy light surged and swept from east
to west, sending up further into the heavens
streams of vapory light, dancing I'D and
down In graceful shadows that easily led
me TO imagine that they were caused by
invisible spirits.
For time I forgot the object OF my
visit and lay watching the play of the
aurora as it shot forwards and backwards.
ana When hnally came to myself l looked
around and found the natives lost in deep
and silent awe at the spectacle.
The hour | spent in this service was one
of supreme delight to me, especially so as
the little handful of food distributed made
the bright eyes of a hundred people glisten
with happiness and supplied as many
stomachs with feast they enjoyed before
they again closed their eyes in Sleep
1T will take too much space to record all
the items l gathered as l peeped through
their little skin windows and saw them
dancing around in great glee, old and
young, and expressing their th4nkfulness
for the many good things received the like
of which they had never before eaten"
Where Santa Claus Caused Terror.
Mrs. Bertha Slower. the wife of mission
cfotf ID
amusing story of how Santa Claus terrified
the black children at her mission station
when he first appeared to them a year or
two ago.
They had celebrated Christmas at Baflun-
du before, but they had never had Santa
Claus, so Mr.. Slower dressed himself up as
the benevolent saint.
He had been padded and powdered and
packed until his own mother would not
have known him. said Mrs. Slower. Pres
entity we gave the signal. the door flew
open and in walked Santa Claus. But, dear
me, what consternation!
He was greeted with shrieks and groans
and cries of:
Let me outr
Tt is the evil one!
" 1t is the day OF Judgment
1.-The small fry, catching the infection of
terror from the elder black people, fed to
the bed rooms, fell down prone upon their
faces, crept under chairs and tables-any-
where to hide themselves.
Poor Santa Claus never had such a
greeting before. AS soon as he realized the
panic he had caused he tore off his tall hat
and white cotton beard. and from the bags
on his back began to throw gifts right and
left and to tell who he was.
Treasured once more, they were soon
all laughing ana chatting, munching the
great red breads (doughnuts), tasting their
fruits or nibbling at the sweets in the ia
miliar little bags.
zone man wondered which end up he was
to hold the fork Santa Claus had given him
Another immedia tely tried on his new shirt.
The girls arranged their bright-hued hand
kerchiefs into nobby turbans, while others
tried to find some place about their scanty
clothing where they could stow away the
bunch of thread, paper of needles and cake
of soap given to them.
each one tried to talk founder than his
neighbor, as they examined the costume
of good old Santa Claus, who had frighten-
ed them almost to death. One man said
he thought Elijah had returned, another
that it was John the Baptist. Yet another
thought it was Satan himself and all my
sins rose up before me: while fourth con-
fessed, My only thought was to hide my
self"
Nearly Caused Bloodshed.
The Rev. Frank Patton. son of the famous
South Sea missionary. John G. Patton. tells
of thrilling Christmas which he spent