The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1909-12-24

| my nina,
No trace OF Santa Claus I fnd,
my Christmas saint has changed.
Instead
'Of jolly, wTinkled visage red,
Behold lady where she stands.
The fairest maid in all the lands,
Her thrall am / for veal or woe
Sweet saint. whose crown is mlstle-
toe!
M. d. Caruthers in Christmas Col
Tiers.
Let Us Keep Our Illusions.
Mrs. Donald Mclean. of New
York, former president-general of
the ID. A. r. is a notable woman and
one that we are accustomed to gaze
at with awe from afar. 1t is re-
refreshing to catch such heart
glimpse as this plea for Santa Claus
from her pen in the National Month
ly shows us:
IF / weren't so sure that nothing
In this beautiful or bleak world, as
the inhabitant sees IL, could deal
death to that Saint, Kris Kringle."
or Santa Claus. / woui0 start
child's crusade to the rescue! The
Pied Piper of Hamlln' would make
but sorry showing by my army OF
children, and l would lead them
away and away to where the
silver jingle of the sleigh bells, and
the antlers of the deer, and the
crisping cold, and the gllttering ice.
and the smooth white snow would be
music to their tiny ears and pic
lures to their beaming eyes, and
then and there, into the midst lie
would be found and all would know
in a moment
1T must be st. Nick, and not a
child. not one out Of the whole army
should return to hungry arms and
lamenting hearts. This punishment
ON each and every man or woman,
who would deprive a little child of
its blissful knowledge of Hope, its
first joys of realization, its first tour
into thu enchanted realm of the
Imagination.
Don't prate santa Claus
stories teach our children falsity."
What do you mean by falsity. Is
love false? Is tenderness false? Is
generosity false? Is happiness false?
All these things does Santa Claus
teach.
1--WE do not 1--we by bread alone.
You who believe that literal truth
demands the sacrifice OF Santa Claus,
you tear down the pictures from
your walls, an artists imagination
may have burned upon the canvas
such beauty as never was ON sea or
land. SO tbs not literal truth. Tear
it down.
Go to your library walls, throw
wide your bookshelves. cast out first
your poets! You do not believe
Keats really saw Endymion, as it is
false. You hardly think Tennyson
viewed with his physical eye, "A
Dream of Fair Women'-Then what
place has It in your domain of
thought?
"As for fiction-I shudder to
mention it in this presence, immacu-
p late Diana of the Crossways.' Burn
Bleak House and thrust away Our
Mutual Friend don't even love the
! 'Boo'ful Lady If you can help 1t?
But you shall not obliterate Becky
Sharp nor deprive us of life's pur-
est and truest gentleman for we
simply cannot and will not exist with
Colonel Newcome.' And as for en-
during the round of existence with
out Peter Pan and Puck of Pook' 5
Hilr il is inconceivable!"
All hail. Spirit of Christmas FIJI
our hearts with freshness, Joyousness
and hope.
| Open our eyes to a world filled
with new and interesting things.
Attune our ears to the general song
of good cheer and make our hearts
and voices responsive to its message.
/ Let us know in its full measure the
blessedness of the privilege both of
giving and of receiving, the inter-
change OF the Christmas message of
love and remembrance.
Help us to put aside the fear, the
IVORY and the petty strife of yester-
day. and to face tomorrow with the
radiant face of those who have seen
the star in the east and who have
heard the angels message GLORY to
God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward men."-Ex-