Evening star., 1914-12-24
Reporter Finds Its Magic in the
Hearts of Plain
People.
DINNER FOR POOR BOYS
OVERLOOKED BY OTHERS
Tree for Family of Five That Lives
on $50 a Month-Bits of
Yuletide Magic.

| "Christmas spirit Thought the re-
porter who was thus assigned for
Christmas eve) is a very hard matter.
| report a court trial, or to ask a man in
the middle of the night why his daugh-
| ter wanted to marry young Mr.. Van
Tango, who has to wear a mustache
to keep from being addressed as miss
all these things are definite. But to
have the assignment book show oppo-
| site your name Good story on Christ
mas spirit" is rather a staggerer. espe-
cially when the rules require "terse-
ness, accuracy and correct spelling of
names"
However, The Stars Christmas spirit
reporter made a try at running the
spirit into a corner and getting an in
tervleW. He tried to find him in a great
big finished office, with rosy
faced boy in buttons. who took in a
business card and allowed visitors in
side as a sort of high-class favor The
Christmas spirit wasn't there at all,
although the rich person inside was
Shoveling out checks and five-dollar
gold pieces to a Christmas list of men,
women and children who would dun
him for them like stale bills if he dared
overlook one. When finished with the
check signing he turned Il switch in
his mind, which blotS out Christmas S
until ,a year hence just as he blots- out
The correspondence OF the dag, until
his secretary brings the necessary let
ters to sign.-
Too Busy for Christmas Thoughts.
Then he tried young man who is far
away from home
"By George" said this busy person,
"it is Christmas eve, isn't it? And 1
had forgotten all about it,. You see,
I'm so busy. This is the most success
ful year l ever had. No time for gifts
and stuff this year.
isn't there some one away off," sug-
gested the reporter, who will sit by a
fireplace where Santa Claus used to
come down the chimney every year
until you grew too big to care? Don't
you suppose she will see the holes in
the mantelpiece where the hooks were
to hang up your stockings and your
brothers stockings? And there won't
be any stockings there, and haven't
been since you became SO busy and sue
cessful. What do you think about it?''
The young man said he thought there
might be something to it. and for a
minute the far-off look in his eyes
seemed to augur well for the Christmas
spirit, but then a thought entered his
mind:
Pardon me-got to rush off. Got a
customer who is worth a thousand i
month to me-
He rushed. So did the Christmas
spirit. If there is mother by the fire
place where the little hooks did serv-
ice for SO many years she'll get a tele-
gram dictated to a stenographer and
something costly picked out by proxy
No, there wasn't any chance to talk
TO the Christmas elves with that sue
/ f,,1 loo hrr ha III
aside
Yet tie reporter found what he was
after.
Christmas Charity on the Sly.
There was a cashier counting none y
| in a heavily barred steel cage, so ar
ranged that 1t was easy to put money
| into the little window, but hard indeed
to get any out again. The cashier, one
| of the busiest men in the city of Wash
ington, was te1ephoning:
"All right, thanks. I'll put you down
| for d quarter.
| Then he hung up the receiver.
| That's my Christmas dinner for
boys" said the cashier.
| And then he told about it in a mod
| est way. For years he's been doing ii
on the quiet. He arranges a dinner for
poor boys on Christmas day-boys who
|
and who rarely get anything to eat
| between seasons He and his wife
with all the things they have to do in
a housekeeping and workaday way
collect money and gifts and warm
clothes, invite the little boys and see
that their little skins are stuffed with
turkey and cranberry until they can,
move without great discomfort.
/ Now the strange thing about the
Christmas spirit is that when you fine
| q irfC frey n ar1rs
vision. II he perches on your shoulder
and turns your eyes toward this
Christmas feast of poor boys tomorrow
perhaps he will also let you look far
4 ther on. so you may see those little
boys mothers, pinched and cold, but
not noticing it, because, no matter how
hard the wolf barks at their door, they
are happy because their little ones are
| feeling Christmas.
Helen's Tree for Poor Family.
Then there was q woman who me,
The Stars Christmas spirit reporter a,
NewsYork avenue and 18th street:
You ought to see Helens tree
what, you haven't heard about it:
Where have you been?"
| And then she told about Helen, who
| is her daughter, and how she hac
| snooped about and snooped about anc
found a mother with five children, who
hadn't heard their father saying "Mer-
| ry Christmas" for three seasons past
The oldest is coat boy in club
and clubs don't allow tips. Thirty dol
lars a month is what that family car
count on-and the mother has not hae
a stitch of new clothes for two years
and with rare exceptions the littl,
children haven't had u thing to ca
| except bread for so long that you't
| scarce believe it.
Last year Santa Claus did not stop a
that house at all. Perhaps there wa,
no way to get through the window
and doors all stopped 10 keep out lh,
1 cold-for fire was Il luxury. Perhap