Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-12-29
Christmas Spirit Prevails
In wildwood With Civic
Club and Firemen Act
ina as Aids TO Santa

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| Weekend as it never did before. Or
Friday the wildwood firemen "dit
their bit" helping Santa Claus IL
bringing joy to the school children
About noon on Friday the firemen re
ceived a telegram from Santa saying
that as he would be so busy on Sun
day night he thought he would have tC
come see the Wildwood school kiddies
that afternoon and would. the firemen
please help him. The firemen quickly
rallied to the call and when Santa
arrived in town that afternoon he
found one of the fire trucks and a
score of fremen in uniform at his
service He gave a jolly laugh and
climbed aboard the red truck (Which
matched the color of his suit and
started the rounds of the public gram
mar school. In the ear of his truck
was his big bag filled with over zoo
packages containing 900 pounds of
candy. AS each school was reached
Santa and his corps made a round of
the rooms and every pupil received
their box of Christmas sweets. After
the kiddies were all treated the truck
made a trip to Harry Foster, retired
fireman, who lives near Cape May,
and there Santa told Mr.. Foster all
about his experiences as chief of the
fire department in the North Pole
Third Ward.
On Saturday the Home Section OF
the wildwood Civic Club showed their
holiday spirit when 20 some of their
members travelled to Cape May Court
House to the county farm, where they
presented the inmates with a SIS Vic
trola. The money for this purchase
was raised by popular subscription.
The committee in charge of this work
consisted of Mrs. w. COPYRIGHT Smith,
Mesdames Alfred Taylor and Charles
Glenn. Mrs. Louise Stretch also as
sisted in the work. Over 200 phono-
graph records were taken over to the
farm with the machine. These were
donated from various parts of the
Island. A peculiar thing is that of all
this number no duplicates could be
found. The speech of presentation of
this fine gift was made by Mrs. wash
ington Hilton, chairman of the Home
Section. A response was made by
Miss Scheck, one of the guests of the
county at the farm and was very ap-
propriate for the occasion. After the
presentation the new monograph was
demonstrated to the old people n
little Sarah Smith danced a solo dance
for their amusement. Saturday night
was the big night for the kiddies of
the Island. Here again the Civic. Club
Home Section were the helping aides
to Santa Claus. I. T. Woolson donated
and placed in front of the high school
a massive cedar tree which reached
to the top of the large building.
This was deliberately Illuminated by
the West Jersey Electric Company in
a manner that made the tree eclipse
in grandeur all previous efforts for a
tree.
About seven o'clock that evening
the Wildwood City Band, under direc-
ton of Prof. Oscar Huebner, gath
cred at the foot of the tree and began
playing several Christmas selections.
The crowd son gathered and filed into
the High School Auditorium where
again the band entertained. The
building was crowded to its utmost to
accommodate the large crowd, 80 per
the Island. The exercises were open
ed by a prayer by Rev. j. H. Clarke.
The audience then joined in singing
three Christmas carols. These were
Silent Night" Little Town of Beth
lehem," and "It Came Upon the Mid
night Clear" Rev. I. H. Fisher led
the singing of these carols and also
gave a short address, giving informa-
ton to the kiddies as to how they
would receive their candy from Santa
in filing out of the building. This ac-
ton done 1900 children received socks
of candy as gifts from the Home Sec
ton. These socks represented many
hours Of labor by the ladies of the
Home Section both in making and in
filling Of them. The committee in
charge of this work was made up of
many prominent ladies Of the city
with Mrs. A. d. Austin as chairman.
Besides the distribution of the candy
filled socks to the school children in
the high school the committee also
sent 40 socks of the candy to the
guests at the county farm, and also
supplied candy to the colored
churches of the Island for their
Christmas exercises. Another gift to
the old folks at the county farm must
also be mentioned. This is a gift that
will bring much pleasure to these PEG
pie and it consists of a daily and Sun
day Philadelphia paper which they
will receive throughout the year from
the Ladies' Auxiliary of ST. Simeon's
Church. All in all it was a Christmas
that will long remain in the minds of
the people here. And as long as the