The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-12-26
NJ. E.
TRACY
Celebrates Holiday Season
With a Story of Christ
mas Down IN the Hot
Valley of the BIO GTOnde.
SAYS:

/ JNOOOU VI WV %SNO ~ NfNN0NN
Nothing seems more appropriate
to Christmas than a good story. I
am not saying that this one is
good, but it possesses the merit OF
having been told.
Place-The Rio Grande Valley.
Time-Christmas, 1909.
Characters-A dozen guests at
the hotel, three resident families,
some Mexican laborerS and fifteen
or twenty children.
& Il
San Juan has become quite a
town since, but then it consisted OF
small hotel, a grocery store,
three residences, some jacakals, a
school house and blueprint, with
streets not only laid out, but
named, with lots all priced and
with sites for churches and public
buildings set aside.
San Juan was headquarters Tor
one OF those irrigation projects
which have made the Rio Grrande
Valley famous.
A sea of cactus, chaparral and
scrubby mesquite stretched away
on every hand. Tarantulas walked
complacently over the dry, dusty
soil at twilight, rattlesnakes were
uncomfortably numerous and
coyotes howled in the night from
every horizon. December was like
July in New York, though a little
more balny.
Most of us we're from the North
and found it hard to believe that
Christmas was at hand. We ac-
copied the calendars word for it,
however, even if the climate
seemed to have gone back on us.
Mrs. A. w. Roth, wife of the
head of the company, was unani-
mously drafted as chief Of opera
tions. and while the rest Of us dec
grated the school house with
thorny boughs, installed a mis-
shapen mesquite as Christmas
tree" and performed such other
offices as the occasion demanded,
She not only nominated her hus-
band, DR.. Roth, as Santa Claus,
but proceeded to dress him for the
part.
She sewed cotton on his sleeves
and coat-tails and made him a
wig and whiskers out of the same
material. When finished and fur
nished, he resembled anything but
the usual production.
BY no stretch of the imagination
could he be regarded as disguised,
much less beautified, but we
trouped over to the school house
with absolute faith that the chill
dren would be just as well pleased
as though he were dolled up ac-
cording to the latest department
store style.
r Il
tt was one of those warm, pleas
ant evenings such as make Wild
cats want to be wild. The ther-
mometer stood at about so, big
rough moon beamed down from
mid-eastern sky, and the stars
seemed low enough for one to
shoot them off with a rifle.
We sat in the school house, with
doors and windows open, while the
children spoke their pieces and
sang their songs
Then came Santa strolling in
with a crocus bag full of toys on
his back which he deposited be-
side the candle-lit mesquite.
His greetings was of the COM
monplace sort--"Well, you have
been nice little boys and girls?"
land "It's sure good to get down
here from the cold and frozen
North"
Santa reached for a present
near the top of the mesquite and
Mrs. Tracy, who sat beside me,
said, "Oh!" in such a way that I
knew something had happened.
No explanation was required,
however, to know what it was, for
fire leaped from one of Santa's big
cotton cuffs.
He slapped it against his thigh
to extinquish the flame, but in
stead caught his coat-tail afire. He
put his hand up to his face, as
men will when puzzled or sur
prised, and caught his whiskers
af1re.
We men gathered to his rescue
in true Christmas spirit, shifting
him hip and thigh, dragging him
through an open door and con-
tinuing to smite long after it was
necessary.
The situation looked bad for a
few seconds, but Santa Claus came
out of it little the worse for wear.
His whiskers and ermine were
black in spots, but beyond that
there were no serious scars of bat
tie.
He said things when he got his
breath that were not exactly in
keeping with the occasion, but
went back and finished the Job
like a hero.
We all agreed that it was one Of
the greatest Christmas shows we
had ever seen, and that we had
celebrated the day right royalty.
even if there were no snow, no
tinkle Of sleiQh-bells and no ap-
propriate setting for the custom
airy approach Of jolly old st. Nick