New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-12-24
SANTA TO FLOOD
CITY WITH CHEER
New York, Rich and Poor,
on Eve of Greatest
Yuletide Celebration.
ASTOR WILL FEED
THOUSAND FAMILIES
Street Fetes and Tree of Light
Celebrations in All BOrOughs
Immigrants Not Forgotten.


Christmas tomorrow Is going 20 be
the most thoroughgoing general cele-
braton that New York has ever in
dulged in il Pa Knickerbocker has any
thing TO say about it. There isn't a
single variety OF person. young, old,
rich. poor sick or well. that he hasn't
made some special preparation for, so
that Yuletide cheer this year may al
most be considered municipal COM
modify.
Commander Evangeline Booth an
nounced yesterday that ell prepsra-
lions had been made for the biggest
Christmas dinner ever given by the
Salvation Army anywhere in the world.
More than $4,000 persons in the metro
politan district will partake of the feast
and will get nearly twenty thousand
children, dolls, toys, candy and
other gifts calculated to charm child
hoods fancy. The dinner, a. usual,
will be distributed tomorrow morn
ing from the 9th Regiment Armory, in
/ West Fourteenth Street.
/ Aston to Feed 1000 Families.
/ Vincent Astor will provide dinners
for 1000 families through hospital so
cial service bureaus and other agen-
cies, it was announced yesterday by
Miss Mary Wadley, head o. the So
cial service department of Bellevue
| Hospital. The dinners will be sent
out from the Aston Market. Broadway
and Ninsty-Atth Street, from a. m
to .. p. m. Friends Of Mr. Aston will
provide automobiles for the delivery
Of the dinners. In some cases bushel
o. coal will accompany the basket.
Mrs. Theresa Mason and Miss Jo-
sephine c. Hill have charge of the dis
tribution.
Representative George w. Loft will
make his customary gift to the poor
people Of his district. the 18th Con-
gressional. embracing Il great part Of
the lower East Side. Adult 5000 bss-
kets of food will be given out. Mr..
tended TO to-day, and the rest to-mor-
row.
Through the generosity OF it's read
ers, the "Giornale Italiano" dstribut-
ed 5000 parcels Of Christmas cheer to
poor Italian families yesterday.
The children's wards Of Bellevue
Hospital have lost their medical air
and now resemble florists. Physi-
clans and employees have purchased a
handsome 4O-foot tree for the lawn.
In addition, each of the FIVE wards
will have an individual tree.
Alimonists to Celebrate.
Christmas Eve a boys choir from
the Church Of the Epiphany, Lexing-
ton Avenue and Thirty-ffth Street,
will sing for the patients, and on
Christmas morning Santa Claus will
visit the children, with several Of
the trustees and workers. 10 distrib-
ute presents. Grown-ups will not be
forgotten, and in addition 200 presents
for children Of patients have been pro
vded.
Christmas festivities on Ellis Island
commenced yesterday and viii continue
to-day and tomorrow. Twenty-sever
members Of the Alimonv Club. head
quarters in the Ludlow Street Jail,
will stop playing pinochle tomorrow
long enough 70 eat big turkey din
ner provided by Warden Thomas
Rock. Tonight presents will be ex-
changed. and a tree lighted. Also, the
club quartet will sing selections.
Five hundred newsboys Of the Brace
Memorial Newsboys House will get
regular full course Christmas meal in
the clubrooms at Ia New Chambers
street tomorrow night, and afterward.
p good old-fashioned Christmas night,
with a tree. The boys have prepared
/ vaudeville entertainment.
Two big geese and two bigger
4 turkeys, sent by the American Defence
League, will help feed the 100 neediest
children found by the blueiackets Of
the dreadnaught New York az novel
entertainment provided tomorrow sf-
ternoon aboard the ship.
The Santa Clausesses," an organ
ization Of young women on the upper
West Side, will distribute stockings
full of Yuletide surprises and Christ
10 the poor children of the lower West
Side section, according to an announce
ment of Miss Edna Hunter, % West
End Avenue, chairman Of the club.
A dress rehearsal of the fantasy
Seven Gifts" which will be given at
the foot of the Tree of Light. at Madi-
son Square. Christmas night, was held
yesterday afternoon at the Century
Theatre. Some of the cast will be
stage favorites, but most of the char
acters will be played by children Of the
Christodora House. Ia Avenue B.
Christmas for $4,000.
Other Trees Of Light will stand in
City Hall Park and before the Cathe-
dral Of st. John the Divine and the
PENNSYLVANIA Station. Another will be
mounted on a motor truck in front of
the LINCOLN House, in West Sixty-third
Street, and will travel through the va
rious negro sections of the city A
picked choir will sit at the foot Of the
tree and sing, while the people have
been asked to open their windows and
join in the choruses.
Both Flatbush and Staten Island will
have community trees. An immense
spruce has been mounted at Tompkins-
Vile Square. and all the residents have
been invited TO n musical concert and
motion picture show. The Flatbush
Congregational Church has set up
large Illuminated tree on the lawn at
Dorchester Road and East Eighteenth
Street, and arranged a programme Of
. Christmas carols.
Following the ceremony day before
Yesterday at the grave of Clement
Clarke Moore. author of Twas the
night before Christmas the children
/ Of the Chelsea Neighborhood Associa-