The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-04
PLAYING AT
 SANTA CLAUS
How $50 Children of Dayton, Ohio,
 Found a Real Present Bearing
St. Nicholas

Charlotte Reeve ConoVer.
 CExclusive Service The Survey Press Rureau.l
 This Christmas season of 1909 sees the twentieth anniversary of re- markable individual effort toward help fulness and happiness On the day
 man of Dayton, Ohio. had her atten- tion called through personal investi- gation to the barrenness of some homes during this season Resolving that in neighborhood. or in the city at large. should be left unwarmed by the Christmas spirit. she has bent her en- ergies all these years to playing San work has become one of the perma- nent agencies for happiness in the community.
 Miss Stutsman's plan has two things
 to recommend 1t. secrecy and simpli- city. Of the hundreds of children
 whom she has made happy. not one ever suspected the name of the giver. She began by sending not only use full but distinctly attractive presents
 to few children in her neighborhood. using her own not unlimited means.
 Then the demands grew. as she found the unspeakable happiness produced by so little outlay, and she longed to do more. Seeing how carelessly rich chf- dren treat their toys and how ire quently they are replaced by new ones. lit occurred to her to beg for these play things and make them do duty
 a second time. To ask was to have. and offerings poured In from all sides.
 Dolls with no heads. heads with no
 bodies. wagons on three wheels. tables
 which had lost leg. fire engines
 with the paint nicked off, odd balls
 and battledores. tennis racquets un- lstrung. roller skates with a wheel gore, toy pianos with broken strings, l-everythirig was grist to Miss Stuts-
 mans mill She enlisted the wiling
 services of a school boy with fnechan- | fcal cleverness who gave his Satur-
 days and together they glued and
 painted and w'hittled and tackled by the hour, supplying the lack for every | thing from missing legs Gables or dcllsO to missing wheels (watches or
 in books. supplied lost parts to games and painted faces for rag dolls In
 course of time the one boy became a
 dozen and the rooms in Miss Stuts-
 mans house where they worked look ed like a Nuremberg Kinder-Spielen Fabrik One room held the doll-dres-
 sers with their gay pieces who worked steadily, kept up by their hostess's en-
 thusiasm and her hot lunch served at
 noon
 Every one who saw wanted to help 4 and offers in increasing numbers pour ed in as the years grew; offers Of
 money. of mechanieal skill. of toys new and old. Miss Stdtsman accept
 ed all but never once asked Her ! friends carriages were kept busy 1 Christmas Eve from four o'clock until
 eleven delivering packages.
 | Care is taken to find out who the | children are. what their ages and what
 they want. Miss Stutsman's aiders and abettors are the school teachers the
 district nurses. the policemen and the | women's Christian Association ward
 workers They know the children.
 even the poor. who will have some | kind of Christmas celebration. and
 they know the children who will have
 none. And these are the ones Miss | In 1891, fifty children were given a
 treat at an outlay of sixteen dollars. Each child had half pound of pure
 candy. an orange. a bag of peanuts
 If a boy loved to read. he got a book. | if he was ''crazy for roller skates,
 he found them in his stocking. if a fgirl had never had a doll. there 1t was with clothes that would come off and go on. a doll which became in itself a lesson in tidiness since hands must be kept clean to handle so gorge ous a being
 In 1892 Miss Stutsman had twenty | seven dollars in cash and enough toys
 to make Christmas for 12T children Although done so quietly. news of her
 work spread among her friends who began to put down her claim as
 among the first when the spirit be- .
 other offered a carriage for delivering.
 some came to do duty for weeks dres-
 sing dolls in the workrooms, and oth- CTS spent long laborfous evenings
 helping verify lists and tie packages.
 Many of these were high school boys ! and girls who came out of school
 hours. putting in their scanty leisure
 under her direction One girl eleven years old dressed dozen dolls. Ar | ter the holidays. heads of department
 stores offered her toys cost price. | which were put away until the next I season. Che merchant regularly in ! structs his clerks to lay aside all rem
 nants of sash ribbons and lace for the
 annual doll-dressing- A paper frm gives orders When Miss Stutsman
 comes give her anything she asks for"
 which means paper and twine for hun
 dreds Of packages. The box factory I sends candy boxes according to her estimate over the telephone Her last request for TOO. was honored with a | Thank you for the privilege of con- | tributing."
 Now the work lasts the year around. Il Miss Stutsman slows away bargains during January sales. orders dolls In
 June. buys silk remnants in August and dresses the pretty babies all ember. When it Is learned that twen- ty-ave dozen dolls were ordered last
 summer for this Christmas of 1909, it T may be surmised that the work of The dolls are always dressed in light clothes. white if possible. with gay J ribbons and lace A doll in gingham ' is never sent to one of Miss Stuts- | mans children-it is the gingham side of life that is theirs.' the silk side that they want.
 If Miss Stutsman stands as the un- ti known benefactor. she does not lack 4 testimony of the joy her work has
 brought into empty little lives From doctors. visiting nurses, policemen and l teachers come stories of the trans lformation upon the faces of little