Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-12-25
Opinions Differ.

SpinioNS biHS's
What do you mean by Santa Claus?
Do you mean a merry old fellow who
drives reindeer to a wonderful sleigh,
races over the housetops and climbs
down the chimney to fill the stockings
of all the good little boys and girls?
Well, as to that, opinions seem to dlf-
fer. There are certain sour curmud-
geons who declare positively lhat
there isn't any such Santa Claus. But
for every such person whose eyes can
not see him there are thousands and
thousands of keener eyes that have
beheld him, eyes still blessed with the
vision that belongs to the glorihed
world upon whose unearthly light
they have-who knows?-so lately
gazed. Who is there so wise that he
is prepared to prove that faith is not
as substantial as knowledge and that
the things q child knows are not as
real as those the foolish savants be-
lieve? And if he cannot prove his con-
tentions, what business has he to state
his mere conclusions as the facts in
the case?
Times change and Santa Claus
changes with them. That doesn't
make him non existent, for he is only
what people know him to be. He used
to ride in a sleigh and he used TO
have reindeers hitched to his sleigh
and he used to have the merriest bells
that ever chimed out gladness to the
world. Fashions have changed, that s
all. Reindeer have been relegated to
the elysian pastures of myth and
fable. No sleighs could possibly stand
the wear and tear of being driven ov-
er the ragged skyline of modern ar
chitecture and that annoying discoV-
cry of the physicists that two bodles
cannot occupy the same place at the
same time has played havoc with the
ubiauity of the jolly old gentleman
with the white whiskers.
Sour Students Shame.
Who knows that if some sour old
student delving away in his labora-
tory. had not tossed out that hard
fact without stopping to see where 1t
was going to fall or whom it was go
ing to hit, the conception OF santa
Claus would not have had to De
changed at all. But that was tao
err and no mistake-that cold. hard,
heavy and inexorable fact that one
man. especially one loaded down with
presents and getting along IN years
into the bargain, could not be In every
land and every home within the leW
hours between the time tired little
ewes close and the time they open on
all the wonders of Christmas morn
ing. Shame on the spectacled pnllo-
sophers who in their clumsiness let
fan upon all the iridescent castles Oh
childhood that crushing blow OF a
mere fact in physics which did them
no good ANYHOW and wrought such in
finite sorrow.
But there is nothing to be sorry
about, in reality. Santa Claus Is
more than a match for all the physl-
cists in the world. Just because they
cav he can't be in numberless places
at once is no sign he can't, Tor ne
does. And his iingling bells can be
heard almost any time these days OI
course, the sticklers for accuracy VIII
say chat what you hear is only the
sound of the coins Ginning In the
Doclets of the Good Fellows and the
Thousand and one Santa Clauses VINO
are going to make this Christmas the
shanpiest ever" Oh, very well, II
Won want to be so terribly precise
about it. But what does it matter
what's the difference, anyway, be-
tween a sleigh bell and couple OF
GoGd Fellow dollars or Raggedy
Stocking or Mayors Christmas tree OF
what-not dollars jingling against each
other in some warm-hearted man