Life — December 2, 1920 — page 54: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Holly foreath red-ribboned, hung On fwindots curtains, green and gay. A carol by 2 choir sung Through stained glass doors across the fay. A crimson sled—a train—a house— Tin soldiers red—a fuzzy mouse— Piled in the Windows of a shop Where parents tahisper us they stop, A don't believe in signs—but these Are signs that neber fail. An “VES, ye: many children as ever believe in me, . + and, more important still, I con- tinue to believe in children.” “Don't you think,” asked—for interviewers have to ask some- thing—“ don’t you think that the old-time Christmas Spirit is dying out?” “Christm: said Santa Claus firmly, “will never dic out.” He was a little heated. One could understand his touch of anger—the question had amounted to asking him if he didn’t think himself superannuated. “T have been taken over by the Depart- ment Store,” said Santa Claus, “and Christmas has been taken over by the De- partment Store. So my future is as- sured!” The interviewer asked for elucidation, and Santa went of “In the old days, children made my acquaintance in the churches and Sunday schools. They used to have Christmas trees there. And there were Christmas trees in the Home. In some backward communities, no doubt, children still are left to the guidance of the Church and the Home. But in the more pro- gressive centers, the Department Store has taken complete charge of Christmas. “And this is a good thing, a good thing for me, a good thing for Christmas. It ensures the perpetuation of Christmas. “The American Home is a shifting, haphazard sort of place, subject to further changes at any moment (like the railroad sched- ules) without notice to the pub- lic; the American Home is always on the move, both physically and spiritually, said Santa Claus, “just as the interviewer Sigqus Great heaps of mistletoe for sule—— ADweet, fussy dolls piled rofv on rofe— A suit to make ol Santa hale— And mica nunurfactured snot. A breathless crowd on all the stre And babes endofucd foith brilliant sfurcts— Gay little trees come into tof Grom off the hillside bare and brown. F don't believe in signs—Eut these Are signs that meber fail. Christmas Life Great bells that ring of ‘Peace on eartl"— A prompting in the heart ta sing— A star that shines npow our mirtl Aunt bicsses esery festal thing: A laugh for youtl;}—a smile for age— An odor stueet of thyme and sage— A great log in the fireplace "Neath little socks—a peering face — FI don't beliebe in signs —but these Are signs that meber fail! Joseph Andrefe Galahad. Interview with Santa Claus By Don Marquis “But the Department Store is more permanent; it is, perhaps, the most per- manent thing in American life; it is the real temple of Americans. It is the Pantheon of your gods, the core of your being, the center of your civilization; the large, important, typical American Insti- tution; the Department Store is, in fact, Americ: Saint Nicholas looked extraordinarily like a College President as he delivered this last sentence—lie all College Presi- dents—and the interviewer could not help asking him if he were rclated to Saint Nicholas Murray Butler. He looked flat- tered at the imputation, but went on with- out answering: “Tt is not merely that the Department Store clothes you and feeds you and fur- nishes you and sells you portable ready-to- wear houses when you want them; it also PORTRAIT OF AN INGENIOUS OLD GENTLEMAN WHO, BY MEANS OF A FEW FALSE WHISKERS AND A CHRONIC NASAL RESEM- BLANCE TO SANTA CLAUS, FINDS IT POSSIBLE TO ESCAPE SNOW- BALLS AROUND CHRISTMAS TIME educates the American multitudes, urban and suburban. It forms their tastes; i directs their zsthetic development; lessons them in the arts, “ And, less obviously, it is the Guardian of Public Morals as well. For the De- partment Store exerts a powerful fluence upon the daily newspapers of America. The basic moral conceptions of the Great Advertisers will be found, upon examination, to be identical with those held by the Great Newspaper “So, I repeat, Christmas is safe, for Christmas has been taken over by the Department Store. Personally, I am de- lighted. . . . I feel that I have, at last, Got Across into the Big Time, if you get my meaning. I have a good job in the Toy Department, and they will see that the Great Christian Festival survives.” in- T’S the Children that keep Christmas from dying, and there are a lot of chil- dren that might be kept from dying if Christmas lasted the year around, eee Some lucky families may find their stockings filled with coal this year. eee Christmas, of course, has its drawbacks; but, at that, the chronic kicker deserves to find nothing but a corn in his Christ- mas stocking. see None of the old festivals arc what they used to be. In the old days, hundreds of unpopular uncies were burned every Christ- mas, their cotton whiskers catch- ing fire at the Christmas-tree candles when they played Santa Claus. But in these decadent times electric lights are used on the Christmas trees, comicbooks.com