New-York tribune., 1919-12-25


Christmas Eve that John R. Voorhis
hung his stocking over the dying en-
bers in the big Dutch fireplace Of his
fathers house in Greenwich VILLAGE
lie was eight then, and, though he is
ninety years old now, his recollection
OF finding that stocking empty on
Christmas morning is bitter memory.
His elders told him that boys who
didn't believe in Santa Claus shouldn't
expect to find full stocking.
There aren't any long, blue, wooden,
hand-knit stockings in New York any
more, and they don't mold the Christ
mas candies in the form of ferocious
purple, green and red animals, and the
cider nowadays is contaminated with
Denzoate of soda, and the only sleigh
bells left are in the hands of The prop
erty men in the theaters. Moreover,
the winters aren't as cold as they used
to be. Mr.. Voorhis knows.
Temperate in Eating
For the information Of any strangers
IN town it may be necessary to explain
that Mr.. Noorhis is President of the
Board of Election Commissioners was
Police Commissioner in 1879, a police
justice another time, and besides hav-
ing held many other important munich
pal ana state posts, is still known in
Iammany Hall as Grand Sachem."
Each weekday he is to be found in his
offices on the eighteenth floor of the
Municipal Building, because, as he ex-
presses it, he has ''to earn a living"
Mr.. Voorhls says luncheons repre-
sent lntempe rance in eating, and
while the other members of the board
were eating theirs yesterday, prior 10
adJournlng over Christmas, the presi-
dent began to reminisce about Christ
mas in New York when he was a bov.
II wonder" said Mr. Voorhis, "whv
we don't get the kind of Christmas can
dies that were sold in New York in
the days when |, was hanging up a
stocking. | don't eat many sweets, but
ia break rule if l could get some of
those candy animals they used to make.
Some were nodded in the form of ele-
plants, and then there were pink cats
and green dogs and purple tigers. They
were made out of pure sugar and they
weren't doctored up with chemical fla
vorings like the stuff sold nowadays.
Fur on EN-, Too
Sometimes there was fur on those
animals, too. You see, I'd hang my
stocking, a long blue woolen one knit
by hand by my mother-you can't get
EN- like that any more-Pd hang it
right in the fireplace. That fireplace
was half as wide as the side of the
tion at all to fancy old Santa coming
into the house through the chimney.
No steam heat those days Well, the
fire would be blown up in the morning,
and the candy animals would get soft
and sticky. and when I'd take them out
of the stocking, like as not there would
be wool on all of them. I'd like to have
real fuzzy one right now
The white hair on Commissioner
Voorhis's head is parted at the back and
brushed forward. The points of his
collar are widely separated and as his
thoughts went back to Greenwich
earlier than the gold rush to Cali
fornia. his square chin sank on his
chest and appeared to be framed in
white starched linen. so that he
suggested an engraving of an Ameri-
can statesman of the sos.
Village in Late sos
As he pondered Mr. Voorhis en-
gagged the stubby fingers of his right
hand in wrestling contest with those
on his left, and when each left hand
finger had been defeated he reversed
the leverage and subjected the right
hand fingers to defeat. After that he
drummed with them on the mahogany
top of his table, leaned his chair back
against his roll top desk and gazed
out over the domes and towers Of Park
Row buildings. His blue eyes, that
are heritage Of pure Dutch ancestry,
saw none Of these, but instead, per-
haps, the low skyline Of the Village
in the late thirties; and his ears, when
are just trife less efficient than
streetcar gongs into the jingle of
sleigh bells
Cider used to be the big drink at
Christmas time" continued Mr.. Voor-
his. Il don't mean the concotion they
call cider nowadays. It's just labeled
cider. I won't drink it. My daughter
brought home bottle few nights ago
and thought it was going to be a treat
for me. / drew the cork and took
swallow. That's not cider | told her.
Why, | bought it at the church fair
she said; and l replied, I don't care if
you did, you got cheated. That's not
cider; not what l call cider.
My My! That Applejack
THE cider we got was pure juice of
the apple and the Dutch always served
with it. There is no hole
in a real doughnut. It's the cruller
that has hole in the center. Those
doughnuts would melt in your mouth
"Another drink in my Young days was
applejack. At Christmas time when
the young bucks would go about to
pay calls and extend the seasons greet
ings each house would serve some
thing of the sort. You'd need it, too.
riding in a sleigh. Generally it was
served as apple toddy. You take a baked
apple, no core and no skin, but with