Grand Rapids Herald-Review Newspaper, December 20, 1911, Page 8

CHRISTMAS IN CIVIL WAR TIME. | A Veteran Tells About the Box } That Came From Home. bad EERING all the people buying Ss Christmas things now,” said a veteran of the civil war, “makes me. think of some Christmas experi ences of my own. first of the time when | used to hang up my stockings by the fireplace, sticking forks through them and then jamming the forks into ai¢rack under the mantelpiece, where Santa Claus couid get at them bandily when he came down the chimney, and then of a time when we were more grewn up and Santa Claus came to us fm the army. “The regiment | served in put in 3 good part of its time in states on the seuthern Atlantic seaboard, in South Carolina, Gcorgia and Florida, where with water transportation to us we could be got at rather more easily than troops not so far away, but at imterior points, and so, while you covidn’t bave things shipped to you there as you could to this town or the otber in times, of peace. you could get things there, pretty well, and the patron for whom our company was mamed when it was first recruited used Yeo see to it that at Christmas time there was delivered to us a big box @ied with things from friends at home. * “We no longer bore his name in the ‘army, for from the minute we were mustered into the United States serv: ice we had become simply. Company Be-and-so, of such and such a num bered regiment;-of such and such state volunteers, but’ we never forgot our friend at “one, and surely be pever forgot us, and at, Christmas time be used to see that our company got that box ‘ “Well, in advance be would announce fm the home papers that on such and such a date a box would be sent to the company and if friends or relatives ot members of the company would bring im’the gifts they wished to send they would be carefully packed and duly shipped. And then the people used to bring in the things, and, though some- how | never thought of it then, I have thought often since with what loving ware and tenderness must those Christ- meas gifts have been prepared, those things sent from home to their soldiers @ the field! BY A STATESMAN. BHAMP CLARK, Representatives: | xm a strong believer in Santa Claus. | got mucb pleasure out of. nim when | was a youngster. My children have en joyed him greatly, and | want Wife. 1 am opposed to abolishing Santa Claus or any myth which affords pleasure to the tittle forks, and old folks too. i remember that my Christmases on a farm in the -Mississipp] valiey 4 Were the happiest days of my life We boys ener used to save up bog biadders from bog killing time until Christmas, when we blew them and had great fun bursting them. ‘They sound like cannon. We aii had bebsieds and homemade popguns and whisties and en- joyed many simple pleasures on Christmas. If we were to abolish Santa Ciaus it is bare to tell where we would stop. %, «ae © ian BY A SETTLEMENT WORKER. 188 JANE ADDAMS of Hui) belief tm Santa Claus sbould be encour- aged in children. f think the idea a very pretty ope, and not for the worid would | try to dis courage it ‘Ihe chief value of it lies in giving ebiidren an idea of the kindly spirit that waiks abroad about Christmas time. Aj! the children im the neighborbood of Hull House believe in | sate Banta Claus. We enter into a conspiracy with. their. mothers and take the trees to their bomes CHAMP CLARK. to see us and gravely teili us all about the mys- tertous visit of Santa Claus No one could look fmto the big, wondering eyes of the littie ones and wish to dispel the {liusion. They get utilitarian views soon enough. | think the belief in Santa Claus is &@ good infivence in the lives of children. It is a very pretty way of express- D and the longer they keep up the belief the JANE ADDAMs. A SENATOR. na HELBY M. CULLOM, United States Senator From Illinois: Of course | believe in Santa Claus, and | am old enough to be him myself Banta is much* better to the young folks now than he was in my day. few pieces of candy for Christmas or some other simple gift | believe In Santa Claus so strongly and her two children at Christmas. | am going to have a Christmas tree and jet Santa trim it for the little girls, and | expect they will be de lighted with the presents he brings them, as they have been good girls. 1 | Speaker of the House of | otber people's | ebildren to derive ali the pleasure they can from ! House: The | after they are asleep Then they. come next day } We were glad to get’ a | that I am going to entertain my granddaughter | BY A LABOR LEADER. RS RAYMONIT) KOBRINS. President Na- tional We trade Union League: Do 1 believe in Santa Chiuss Most certainly 1 do, with all my heart. | was brought up in a Kriss Kringle atmoxpiere. bur the uame doesn’t .mat- ter in our home the windows were thrown wide open to let in the ¢bristmas spirit. I do not suppose that | was wore imaginative or jess imaginative than other children, but | do not re. call that | ever regarded the Christmas tree as anything other than an expression of the Christ- mas spirit. But I love the idea and can enjoy it x mow as much as when | was a little girl, I bave “8S. B41 MOND ROBINS. mo sympathy with those who want to do away with all illusions. The doing | @way with mystery to a child is doing away with a fundamental fact im tife. ‘The longer we can remain children the better. Life is full of mystery anyway, and in that respect we grownups do not differ much from children. We kneel @own and ask for things witb that same faith the children show when they write their little letters to Santa Claus. We cannot understand any more than they can, but we feel and bope and are comforted. The idea is very beautiful and should be encouraged. Kvery little illusion that makes for bap- | pines is good for children and grownups alike. * BY A MAYOR. ARTER H. HARRISON, Mayor of Chicago: 1 believe we ought to believe in Santa / Claus. My Cbristmas. however. comes election Gay, and my faith in the old gentleman depends ' wpon what be slips into my stocking at the pri- maries. Every man who has the right spark of youth im him believes in Santa Claus, and the elder be grows the more he cherishes these tra- @tions that give color and joy to childhood. | believe in the joliy old saint just as | believe in | music, paintings, flowers, stories, iiterature, Jaughter, song, good cheer, fellowship. 1 like to believe in everything that is the expression of a | beautiful sentiment. ‘here's nothing like keep- | ing the fountains of youth eternally bubbling in one’s heart, and tbat’s why 1 | Selieve in old Santa, - it fx es Rear | eR ek k= lens CARTER EB. HARRISON. i} Ee BY AN ACTRESS. a ARGARET ILLINGTON: It wasn’t 80 much the fact that it was Christmas that delighted me when | was a child, but it was the regular Christmas party at the Sunday school. 1 was always the little fairy who distributed the gifts, and it always pleased me more to watch the expressions on the children’s faces when I'd band them a doll or something. I'm as young now as | was then, for | love to go to Christmas parties yet. My, what wouldn't | give for a good old fashioned Christmas? Of course I be- nta Claus! eee ee MARGARET ILLINGTON. ——= [SSS and safely packed, and then he'd bike the box down to New York, and there the quartermaster’s department would put it down to us, So Santa Claus wasn't coming to us with hie pack on | iis Dack, Gown the chimney, Dut in a box in the hold of a steamer. \ “When we got our first Christmas “When everything was all in our | box we were on an island down the | gaged In “building “corduroy roads through swamps by day, and by night in hauling by hand, with a whole regi- ment on the ropes, heavy mortars and guns over these roads, and also, under the same friendly cover of darkness, in building masked batteries in which the said guns and mortars were mount- ed, all this in the course of besieging on another island. | “It-was plenty of hard work and not much play, and. most of the freight that came to us, besides the usual com- ,Missary supplies, was guus and mor- tars and powder and shot and shell and ; the various materials of war, but one ;day there came ashore op a lighter | for us soldiers. | “We kauled it up from the beach | and set it down carefully, right side | up, at the end of the company street, | ana I doubt if any fireplace on a | Christmas morning was ever a greater | magnet of attraction to children than that box was to the men of Coinjany joe a transport anchored off, along |x To a man they gathered around it “It was a big box, a big dry goods packing box. big enough to hold some thing for everybody, and carefully we opened it, and with the lid off if seemed fall of innumerable treasures, so full to the last inch of space was it packed. , “The orderly sergeant of the com- pany made the distribution. He raised bie hand and reached over aud picked Bp a package that lay at the center of the box and lifted it amd read the mame on it and passed it into the out- stretched band of the man to whom it belonged. “Then be went on more rapidly, pick ing up the things and reading off the Bames and passing them over, pack- ages of all sorts and shapes and sizes, all eageriy received. Some men stay ed to see everything given out, and | some went to their tents to see what the folks had sent them or to read the jetters that bad come with the gifts. | And so the things in the box got low er and lower, while still there were some men who had as yet-got nothing , and who now were°more and more | anxious. And how joyfully relieved j when at last something came up for them: “But there were a few, a very few, | Who lingered in vain, who among ai! ; these gifts got nothing, and plainiy | disuppcinted were some of these, while | Others took it jauntily—perbaps they bad no one to send them, these—but still al’ bore it bravely, and be sure | that those who got shared what they , could share with those who bad noth ing in the box. . | “What came in the Christmas box? Well, not much bric-a-brac, pot many | fancy candlesticks nor cardcases ner fancy purses nor that sort of thing | but mostly useful articles, though among these there were watches and | pocketknives, and so on, but there were home Enit stockings and sewing ‘kits and suspenders and shoes and | books, not forgetting Bibles and Testa ' ments, and tobacco and pipes and | gars, all sorts of useful things and {many letters and pictures. | “And from whom did all these things |come? From wives and from children and from sisters and sweethearts and mothers, and it war that that made |them all so dear. And, bless their | dear hearts, they did not forget—thes did not at all forget the things to eat ; Phe box seemed full of roasted chickens and cookies and jellies and | sausages and sealed up cans of butter and grand cakes and ~alf manuer of good things to eat. True, we had pork enough, and we bad plenty of hardtack, but here was someting that savored of Christmas. “Now when | see everybody buy ing Christmas things and the children and everybody happy it makes me smile and, I confess, choke up a little with barrels of pork and kegs of pow- {ae | to see what Santa bad brought thew that Christmas box from home ‘trom home. —— Have you logging } or other heavy teaming to do? If you have you will need good, heavy harness. It will pay to buy the best. Good material is what counts. Cheap leather is the most ex- pensive leather. And it should be well made up. Honest work is important. This is where LITCHKE comes in handy. He has the best stock that money can buy. He does his work well and guarantees it to be as represented. His guarantee is good. He's right here the year ‘round to make his word good. He shows you what you are getting be- fore you pay for it. That's honest business LITCHKE has everything in horse furnishings. Also Plush and Fur Robes EMIL LITFCHKE, : seat! Minnesota | Grand Rapids : ag ot : A MODERN HOTEL THE RIVERSIDE J. F. McCORMICK, Propr. friend would have the. things securely | coast there, drilling some and doing guard and picket duty, but largely ep a fort occupied by Confederate soldiers as | recall that Christmas in the army.” All Fresh Killed I will have one of the finest bunches of Dressed Turkeys and Geese FOR THE | LET THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT | EXPRESS ITSELF IN A PRACTICAL GIFT CHRISTMAS TRADE Ever brought to Grand Rapids. None of this stock was left from Thanksgiving. The | Pioneer Store Pigs for Roasting If you want a pig for your Christmas Dinner you’d better hurry, as I have only a few. and they weigh from 12 1-2 to 20 pounds. In Green stuff I have Celery, Radishes, Onions and Lettuce. F you are in doubt as to what to give for a Christmas or New Years gift call at the PIONEER STORE and the large display of useful and dependable: goods displayed in all departments will suggest JOHNSON’S MEAT MARKET Newly Furnished Rooms, Large, Well something appropriate and acceptable. Ventilated, Heated and Lighted. SUPERFLUOUS HAIR, MOLES, WARTS Permanently removed by electricity. Exclusive specialist, expert operator. MISS AMES, 425 Lindley-Skiles Building, 620 1-2 Nicollet, Minne- apolis, Minnesota, Phones: Main 414, Center 3330, ACCOMMODATIONS BY DAY OR WEEK John Beckfelt GRAND RAPIDS, MINNESOTA RATES REASONABLE Second Street and Leland Avenue, Grand Rapids.