The Key West Citizen Newspaper, December 24, 1938, Page 8

PAGE EIGHT Banker Plays Role of Santa For Prisoners. Distributed Money to Charity Under Name, “Mickey Finn" SIOU7: CITY, IOWA.—A -nysterl- ous Santa Claus whose identity was | ed only at his death early in will be remembered here each | Christmas as one of Sioux City’s | most beloved characters. His name was Ed T. Kearney, a al estate man and banker who | ght Yuletide joy to hundreds | with anonymous contributions to in- ; mates of prisons and missions. His gifts were always accompanied by | poorly written letters bearing the | signature, ‘Mickey Finn.” | A sample of Kearney’s unusual letters has been uncovered in the | note written to the sheriff of Cook county. IIL, in 1930: | cHicaGo ML deC 2 0 1930, | Ere sHeriF pLesE usE tHe sMal cHecK inClosEd | fo bY sUm nUts er kandY eR fRutE fEr | enY poRe pepUl yoU maY haV wiTh yUre jAle oN cRisMus da¥ | aN tel: eM t gO sTraTe aN doNt @RinK eNy buZe feR tHe roTin sTuf wE giTs noW wil suR kl aNy oNe wHo GRinks {T. 1 bln siCk aN kaNt git mUch wOIK | aN aM hArD uP mYself buT i gO sTratE | NoW feR | fOnd oUt tHat crUkidNiss dOn pAy nuN. 2N giVe eM aL tHe bEs 1Uv aN | winiss uV, thEr tRew trEn aN wel wishir, i 2 sfisite patel OE fNn. The identity of “Mickey Finn” was not discovered until Kearney ‘was. in a Sioux City hospital during his Jast illness, A daughter, pos- sessed of some circumstantial evi- dence, confronted her father with the question and he confessed that Ke was “Mickey Finn.” When his private papers were examined clip- pings were found substantiating his confession. The character of Mickey Finn was ‘ereated early in the 1900s when Mr. | Kearney was president of a bank at | Jackson, Neb. He met many bank- | ers from over the country at conven ~ “fions and when he started his Santa Claus role in the person of “Mickey Finn,” he simply wrote his banker friends in other cities and obtained their co-operation tn sending the checks and keeping his identity se- | cret, Ancient Holly | Still Spreads — Holiday Cheer ‘In homes throughout America this meg aaay the holly plant will carry jon age-old duty of spreading f¥uletiae spirit, a custom that dates (back to the pagan tribes of conti- mental Originally the holly grew wild in | United States over a range from ssachusetts to Missouri and south to Florida and Texas, But too | ‘much harvesting in northeastern | \Unitea States has destroyed much | \of the natural growth. Today mos! | holly is grown from Norfolk, Va., te | Florida within 50 or 60 miles of the } Atlantic coast, and westward in the ‘Gulf region to Louisiana. | Current popularity of the holly is continuation of the custom of the | Druid feasts which honored the mis- | ‘tletoe and holly in pagan rites. In Europe the tribes undet Roman rule sent holly branches to each other as | evidence of good will. Homes and churches were decorated with holly Jaden with crimson berries when the | pagans celebrated the feast of Sat- urnalia, the ‘“‘turning on of the sun.” Yuletide, the feast made to the | Celtic sun god, Yaioul, finally be- came the celebration of Christmas, and the holly tree, known as the holy tree, became the sacred tree for decorations at our Christmas festivals. Holly does not bear berries un til it is five years old. Before that time the male and female trees can- not be told apart. There are more ‘than 300 species of the plant, all of them native to the temperate and tropical regions of both hemi spheres. Only the American and English holly trees have rich green leaves. ‘These are outlined with sharp spines or teeth, and the fruiting branches have round crimson berries. FO OPPPIPIT OP PIO LITO TIT TL HONEYMOON GOES ON JERUSALEM. — “Please don't | shoot—we're just married,” was the appeal chalked on the back of a car in which Charles Turn- stall Evans, a senior British of- ficial, left with his bride, Kath- leen Armstrong, on their honey- moon in troubled Palestine. An armored car escorted the motor- car. aldwin asks aid for victims of *- xplosion of man’s inhumanity” Germany. Hurry, Pop! What's the Reason For All These Fake Whiskers? THE REY WEST CITIZEN Fateful Meeting Dy eee N THE graying dusk of a De- | cember afternoon the slowly moving figure seemed almost a part of the landscape. Half a dozen cars whizzed by but not one stopped | to offer him a lift or ask where he was going. If the Spirit of Christ- | mas, of kindness, was abroad, it was | surely passing him up. | Ten minutes more of plodding | through the chill, darkening air, and | another car came roaring down the road, passing him by as the others had done. The grim lines around his mouth grew deeper, then he heard a | loud grinding of brakes. Peggy Hopkins Joyce plays hostess to all the Santa Clauses in New | York at a luncheon in the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria. Lucky no youngsters | old man.” He shuffled into the va- were around or there might have been trouble! What will you answer this Christ- mas when starry-eyed Junior raises his face and asks: “Daddy, how come I saw three Santa Clauses downtown today? Or: “Mother, why was Santa Claus riding in an automobile today? Are his reindeer hurt?” Or, looking at a newspaper: “Why was Santa Claus so thin when I saw him on the corner to- day? He's fat in this picture!” This is the season when harassed | parents must think up quick an swers or destroy Junior's faith in St. Nicholas. For Santa Claus. though a messenger of juy. can also bea pest. In Omaha a sympathetic mayor last year ruled that the army of fake Santas must leave the streets, thereby bringing sighs ot re. lief from Mother and Dad. But in other towns and cities. papa may restrain an impulse to ingle every red-suited gentleman he meets on the street. To prevent | this mass liquidation, thoughtful | H persons have now offered a solution | whieh has worked before and should | work again, When Junior wonders | about so many different kinds of Santas, the explanation is that they aren’t Santas at all, but just his; helpers. Simply wreathe your face | in a benevolent smile, take Junior on your knee and repeat the fol- lowing: “You see, Junior, Santa is a very | busy man and he needs lots of help. So he has helpers who ask boys and girls what they want in their stockings.” The only trouble is that Junior may answer: “Yeah, but papa, why did that man there say that he really was Santa Claus and that he’d be sure to bring me a big train set, an’ a lot of toy soldiers and a drum an’ Qe Mavbe the situation paituation is hovele hoveless! 50,000 SUGAR CANE LABORERS MAY BE REPLACED BY MACHINE (By Ansociated Press) BATON ROUGE, ‘La., Dec. 24.) —If a new sugar cane ‘harvester | | comes up to its owner’s expecta- | | tions, it may replace 50,000 negro | cane-cutters, | Allen Ramsey Wurtele says his, | machine will do the work of 50, | negroes, and that 1,000 machines | could handle the $20,000, ,000 | | Louisiana crop. That would help | solve a major problem of the) cane growers—crop destruction | by frost because of an uncertain labor supply. Most of the negro workers now | more than two feet wide severs! , the stalks at the ground. An- other revolving disc tops the ance strips off the foliage. Both the cane and the tops— “nubbins” valuable as stock feed —are deposited on the field in convenient piles. Old-timers, although not fully convinced, admit that the har-' vester and two newly-devised windrowing machines have Pos- | sibitities. | The windrowing machine, de-| “Almost passed you up,” voice eried, “Pretty fine of you to stop for an a gay cant seat as he spoke. “Oh, that’s nothing,” the gay voice was a bit embarrassed. “But I did almost pass you up. With this Christmes business, and the rush and hurry, one could pass up their own mother.” “I like to hear you say that. It’s what I've always believed. The fact AN UNUSUAL. STORY | FOR CHRISTMAS is, I was making a bit of a test to- day—had a bet with a friend about it. What’s your name?” “The name is Tod Jenkins. I’m | headed for St. Louis—going home to spend Christmas with mother. I ; graduated in engineering last June.” | “An interesting story.” Tod | turned to look at the old man as he spoke. He almost swung the car off the slab. “‘Why—why you look years and years younger than I thought!" A hearty laugh sounded against the sharply rising wind. The man was speaking again.‘I’m not so old, Tod,” he said slowly; “I’m a long way fiom the old fellow you were kind enough to pick up. Yesterday we had an argument at the club. I made a bet with a fellow that I | wouldn't have to walk an hour be- fore I would find the Spirit of Christ- mas. It was rather a crazy thing to do, but I happén to be rather an ‘eccentric scientist. My name is | Perry Birch.” cane and a barbed wire contriv-|° “Petty Birch!” Tod's eyes wide" ened in astonishment, and his foot , | went off the accelerator, bringing | the car almost to a standstill be- fore he went on. ‘“Why—why,” ae stammered, “I've been wanting to meet you all my life, I’ve read ev | erything you've written — studied your methods and work for years. In fact,” his voice grew more embar- rassed, “I’ve been hoping that some day I might follow in your foot- | steps. The biggest wish of my life | depended upon to bring ‘down}signed for use when a freeze is wie the cane crop move in from the) cotton field. A big cotton year! means a late sugar-cane harvest. ! That happened last year and the| freeze beat the planters to 1,000,- 000 tons of the rich crop. Wurtele, a one-time navy offi-! cer, tried out his new harvester) on his 5,000-acre plantation in Pointe Coupee parish. | Mounted on a four-wheel trac- four tons and travels ping, stripping and cutting the! | sugar-bearing stalks at the rate | of a ton every three or four min- utes. A whirling, razor-edged disc DURING THE MERRY tw SREB LaLa eT: WEST FOR THE NEW threatens, would cut the cane and | place the stalks over-lapping on! the ground to protect the sugar-| bearing butts from the cold. The! | cane later would be hauled to the | mills for stripping and processing. Wurtele is a graduate of the naval academy, class of 1915. He was a lieutenant commander in| the navy but resigned in 1925 to! He bought his plan-; —_—+ Roosevelt summons home en-! voy to China for consultation as| }concern over Japan’s course | grows. S-10-25c STORE WE WISH TO THANK ALL OF THE PEOPLE OF KEY SPLENDID PATRONAGE GIVEN PAST YEAR—AND TO And A Prosperous YEAR edt dt ddd dAddtdtdtdbAbtAtstttstdéddad A CHRISTMAS Santa Claus of the Air BOSTON.—New England has an aerial Santa Claus in the person of Capt. William H, Wincapaw, who annually flies from West Quoddy Head to New York city, dropping Christmas packages to isolated lighthouse keepers en route. Win- Peed started the service 10 years o and is now aided by his son, |be chief engineer on a federal! aa Jr., who handles ‘target work” | tor, it weighs a little less than) barge line. over each lighthouse. The captain steadily | tation in 1927 and went to work | dives low oyer the lonely outpost | down a row of 12-foot cane-top-|on the harvester in 1934. i and yells, “Let ‘er go!” and Bill ; Burls the bundle out the window. Senator Byrnes demands Cen- gress set up new formula for pending U. S. relief funds. ry isieinin hhh hhh cdindnhahahahaknhoi US WISH ALL A ‘MANY TO TAKE EXAMINATIONS RELATIVE TO MERIT SYSTEM| OF STATE WELFARE BOARD (Speetat to The Citizen) JACKSONVILLE, Dec. Nearly 200 persons have signified their intention of merit system examination of the 24.— | State Welfare Board, to be held} on February 11, for the purpose of increasing the eligible list from which vacancies for district director, unit supervisor and vis tor may be filled, it was an- nounced today by Ivey Futch, of Lake Placid, merit system examination mittee. The deadline for filing applica- tions is January 2, Mr. Futch stressed, as time must elapse be- tween the closing of the applica- tion period and the examinations in which to make required inves- tigation of eligibility. SUeS who desire to com- take taking the| chairman of the} the | American Turkey Has Foreign Name | You'll eat your turkey and like it this Christmas, but do you know | where this festive bird got its name? ‘The turkey is the only species of | poultry native to this country. Its | name is attributed by some to its call notes, “turk-turk-turk’’; others beliéve that its head ornaments, re- ' sembling the fez worn by natives of ; Turkey, gave rise to its name. Another explanation is seen in the | fact that the first turkeys from America were sold in Spain, largely by Hebrew merchants. Since the | bird was frequently confused with | the peacock, it is said that the He- brew traders called it ‘‘tukki,”’ their name for the peacock. With the widespread use of, this name in English, it easily became the pres- ent “turkey.” i Eden, in address in New York, says the democracies must meet ' challenge of a world dominated by force. tests were urged by Mr. Futch to forward their applications to; State Welfare Commissioner C. C. Codrington at Jacksonville, without further delay. Some months will elapse before another | examination will be held, he said. oe PITT AIAISI IIA LOOT E TO EVE As Christmas draws near. thoughts turn to those of y New Year... and all the years to come. CHEELY LU N ae ean aae IIAP RAT I. A Very Merry Christmas! indispensable part in our success. ing you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperously happy is to assure you of continued high quality and courteous service throughout the coming year . . . Carcline and William Streets RYONE: PIS LP SE PEPSI EPS ¢ SSEESE FIAIFISPLLLAL AL it is only natural that our ou who have played such an Our best way of wish- MBER CORP. Ni SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1938 WITH SINCERE WISHES FOR A Very Merry Christmas And A Joyous New Year To you, without whose friendship and co- operation our business relations would have been less pleasant, we sincerely extend’ the most cordial greetings of the season. May the beauty and joy of life be yours, may your troubles and hardships be forgot- ten, may the happy spirit of Christmas be increasing abundance throughout a joyous 1939. wich you in ever These are the sincere wishes of this firm for all our friends, BENJAMIN LOPEZ FUNERAL HOME Phone 135 Night 696-W PS IDIPDSAAASLAMALALLALAZLALLLALLLLALAALLAL Ad Loss SOSVDEOITISIOSSTILOSOMOITMOETTOMIOOOE ES, ak as N N N N N % N N N N N N N iN N N N : N APP . N ; . N . . : : . ih) . ) KN N : ‘ . . \ N DURING THE BEST WISHES RECIATION OF OUR PAST YEAR, FOR AN OLD ME AND A BOUNTIFUL NEW YEAR NOT IN THE SENSE OF CUSTOM, BUT WITH A GENUINE PLEASANT ASSOCIATION WE EXTEND TO YOU OUR FASHIONEDD RRY CHRISTMAS —AND A— HEAP Py NEW YEAR --- THE--- Key West Electric Company B. L. GROOMS, President (ALAA AAAALA LAA AA Ad ddddd di dhaddiddddhhadchddchud EEL A LO SES MS Ne TNE