The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-12-26
In New York
By PAUL HARRISON

| haps the omniscient MT. $. Claus knows for sure who wrote the fa- nous children's poem beginning: '"Twas the night before Christ mas ..
 That may be news to the millions of people, of numerous generations, who always have supposed that the author was Dr. Clement Clarke Moore. The bibliographies, encyclo- pedias, histories and copies of the poem itself all give that name. So do the markers which show where the spacious and many chimneyed Moore house stood on West Twen- ty-third street in the old Chelsea district. Every Christmas Eve. too, lot of children gather in the courtyard of the huge apartment developmnt which now. occupies the site of the Moore estate to sing carols and recite the poem in trib- ute to the memory of that notable scholar and somewhat less distin- guished poet.
 The family of Dr. William S. Thomas, however, will tell you that all this Clement Moore busi- ness is @ mistake. It is their con- tention, backed by a family legend more than & hundred years old that Dr. Thomas great-grandfath- CT, one Henry Livingston, Jr., wrote the poem himself.
 They believe he composed it
 in his home near POughkeep-
 sic. N, Y., Q few days before
 the Christmas of 1922, read it
 mt the breakfast table the next
 twnr~ n fn n
 house guest who later showed
 1t to Dr. Moore.
 Scholar and . Poet
 The facts on both sides of the case are meager but interesting. Dr. Moore himself was of unim. peachable character and couldn't be accused by anyone of intention ally appropriating some one eises verse. His father was the Episco- pal Bishop of New York who as- sisted at the inauguration of George Washington and adminis- tered the last rites, to Alexander Hamilton. Clement Moore was a great scholar, but didn't go in much for whimsey. For example. his principal work was "A Com pendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language" Another bit that he dashed off was observations Upon Certain Passages in MT Jefferson's Note on the State of Virginia Which Appear to Have a Tendency to Subvcrt Religion and Establish a False Philosophy"
 Dr Moore did write verses. He published a volume of them in l844. and "A Visit From St Nich- olas''-the original title of the dis puted poem--was included. h. cidentally, 1t was by all odds the best of the lot, and there was only one other poem in the book which was done in the same meter.
 Henry Livingston had been dead ten years when the volume was published, and his family evident ly made no strenuous protest against Moore's claim of author ship. Moore, on the other hand. seems to have offered no further proof. He lived to be well past S0, died in 1863, and was buried in the cemetery behind the Chapel of the Intercession at One Hundred and Fifty-fifth street and Broad- way. His grave is still Christmas Eve shrine for sentimentalists who go there and sing carols.
 First Published Anonymously
 MT Livingston seems to have just as unimpeachable a reputation as pr Moore. He was g. statesman, a soldier and an author. And he also wrote book of poems. "Twas the Night Before Christmas" was not among them, but the family legend contains an explanation for It's ab- sence. The minority faction In the literary feud also claims that many of the Christmas poems phrasings and tricks of expression are used in the book. And 1t is fact that nearly half of the verses are in the same meter.
 The most baffling part of the whole mystery is that the poem first was published anonymously in a newspaper, the Troy Sentinel, in 1923. Mir Livingston was a reader of that paper. The editor put in a little note saying 1t was a fine piece of work but he didn't know who submitted it. Neither Moore nor Livingston claimed authorship at that time, and neither left any writings mentioning it. The origin al manuscript, should 1t ever turn up. would be almost priceless. It also would settle an ancient argu-