Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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V Pape Eight f ' - ' THE CLINTON CHRONICLE —- t \ Thursday, December 22, 1949 PLENTY OF TREE LIGHTS AVAILABLE For the first time in about eight years, Chntonians wont have to “know” someone to get bulbs to fill’ their strings of Christmas tree lights. And if their old strings of lights are about ''shot,” all they will have to do is go into almost any store, pick out the kind they want of the price they want to pay and that’s it. Yes. Christmas tree lights bulbs are plentiful. In fact they are so i plentiful that some merchants had them on display and for sale around | Labor Day. So that part of Christ mas, the standing in line or furtive ly following a tip that “so and so has some” is past. Last year there were enough strings of lights to go around, if you wanted to buy new strings, but the replacement bulbs were still fairly scarce. . . And no matter what kind of a string of lights your needs call for this year, they’re yours for the as!;-' ing. However, Clintonians should j be careful that they purchase th^j strings to meet the need. Indoor lights won’t work outdoors and al though the outdoor lights will op erate in the house, usually the cord is so heavily-insulated that it tends to weight down the boughs of the tree, particularly as the tree be gins to dry out. Due to scarcity of bulbs, dealer’s last year pushed the sale of full strings, mainly because that’s about | all the ►manufacturers produced.; BuT ITs a much different story now. | As for the rest of the Christmas | decorations, you can buy just about! anything you want. Tinsel, by the, yard, red paper bells, whitened pine cones, cellophane, tinfoil decora- j tions and tree bulbs are available! in all shapes, sizes, colors and 1 prices. Plastic ornaments are more abundant too, replacing the fragile glass variety. And as last year, mistletoe, holly! and the long holly garlands, are, plentiful* for table, mantle and out door decorations. Fireproof Yule Costumes Urged If children wear flammable flim sy costumes and dresses of gauze like fabrics, they should be made flame-resistant with a solution of nine ounces of borax, four ounces of boric acid and one gallon of wa ter. The fabric should be satu rated w ith the solution, then wrung out by hand, and hung to dry. Fab rics so treated will retain their flexibility and softness. However, the flame-retardent qualities are lost when the fabric is washed •ygain, and the process must be repeated after each washing. RiHE TO IHfc CHRONICLfc | “The Paper Everybody Read*V ' X McGee’s Drug Store West Main St. — Phone No. 1 In •nay we wieli • most 'pleasant Christmas to you and those about you. -A1LEEN THOMAS -AMILEE STAGGS —EARL DONNAN —DELL CREWS Dell’s Beauty Shoppe Yjew IJorh Claim5 Scania Claus to ($* Sts private Property While the claim may cause the rest of America to bristle, ^New Yorkers insist that Santa Claus is peculihrly New York's own. ' Not only did he land ih Manhattan with the Dutch settlers, they point out, but for almost two hundred years he never took his activities or pres ents out of New York state. The New Yorkers advance some interesting points to bolster their contentions. They declare that in the genial company of Washington Irving, James Kirke Paulding and Clement Clarke Moore, Santa Claus gradually lost the grim, stern as- spect he wore when he arrived with the Dutch settlers to the bulging, benevolent mien he now offers. It was in New York, too, they assert, that Santa acquired his reindeer sleigh and his habit of arriving on Christmas instead . of on the Dutch St. Nicholas eve (December 5). And thus, in his New York panoply, he fin ally found his way to all parts of the United States, England and even Australia and India. Indeed, as the New Yorkers will tell you, New York, as New Ams terdam-m-^ne beginning, was dedi cated tq Santa Claus, or St. Nich olas, by its Dutch founders. For Santa Claus—or Sinterklaas, as it is sometimes written in Holland— is of course only the centuries-old pet name which Dutch children gave to their patron and gift bring- er, the good Bishop St. Nicholas. Ard it is said that the ship which brought the first Dutch children to Manhattan island bore his face as figurehead. From the first, too, his special day of December 6, was set aside with Christmas, New Year’s, Easter and Whitsuntide, as one of the five chief holidays of the new colony, just at it had been in Hol land. So. year after year, as regularly as St. Nicholas eve came around in New Amsterdam, in Breuckelen (Brooklyn), in Fort Orange (Al bany) and many other hamlets above the icy Hudson, the children in every good Dutch family gath ered in expectant circle. For weeks beforehand they had learned their lessons and helped with the milking and churning in an agony of good behavior. And now, all ready, they sang their song to Santa Claus. In the midst of the song would come a knocking at the door and in would stride Santa Claus, himself—not round and jolly, but solemn and majestic in trailing robes. In one hand he might have a basket of presents or a purse, but in the other was sure to be a birch rod—an awful warning to a naughty boy. Santa questioned each child in turn about his behavior in the year just past and gave him a pat of approval or a warning shake of the head, as the record indicated. Then, bidding them all look for presents in the morning, the good saint sud denly flung a handful of lollipops into the room and, in the ensuing scramble, vanished into the night. Then the children set out their sabots, or later the great blue yarn stockings made for the purpose. However he did it—and the tale varies in many lands—San^a Claus got about, for in the morning over the hearth steaming with waffles and sausages and other good Dutch fare, were the blue stockings bulg ing with apples, balls, dolls and tops. M atx y* The Stable of Bethlehem did not 1 in any way resemble the airy por ticos — complete with plaster of paris animals and adoring shep herds — so dear to the heart of modern Christendom. With comfort increasing through out the western world, the poverty of the Nativity scene simultaneous ly startles and fascinates us — as perhaps Matthew, the publican, was impressed by the story of the Wise Men; and St. Luke, who had been a ship’s doctor and probably knew very,little about shepherds, was charmed by the shepherds abiding in the field. There was no room in the inn that night, so Jesus was bom in a stable, • place of shelter hewn into • reeky ledge of the Judean oountryaide. It was cold and dark and damp, and Judean travelers— frequently ‘put Up’ in such caves— welcomed rather than disdained joint tenancy with beasts because the breath of the cattle and the heat of their bodies provided a little warmth, while the guests in side the inn had no heat at all. The cave, which was the birth place of the Saviour, is now a grotto beneath Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity; and though fasci nated by the simplicity of the origi nal Nativity scene, Christianity has been unwilling to maintain its pov erty and has covered the entire surface with costly ornamentation. W PI /S T m P i To remember folks like you with on earnest wish for your well-being and happiness, is one of the delightful privileges we hove at Christmastime. m t’ o I R i' 11 o r V .11 <