OCR Text |
Show r "Wlio Was! Who? I U ri 'i rf V -i By Louise M. Comstock ?j U Si SANTA CLAUS JUST as many children speaking many tongues have gradually converted con-verted the name of Saint Nicholas Into the familiar -American Santa Claus, so his many admirers in many different nations have created the conventional Christmas saint out of a figure which was In real life very different. Nicholas was bishop of Myria, In Lycla. Asia Minor, during the Fourth century of the Christian era, the youngest bishop in the history of the church. His father was a wealthy merchant, and Nicholas by Inheriting his fortunes was enable to build up for blmself a reputation for generosity gener-osity and benevolence toward the poor that has lasted down the centuries. It is a matter of legend that Nicholas, because he disliked to be thanked for his gifts, once dropped a purse of gold down the chimney of the hut, where lived a poor old man and his little granddaughter. Instead of landing on the hearth, however, the purse fell into one of the little girl's stockings, hung up before the hearth to dry. Thus commenced the custom of hanging hang-ing up Christmas stockings for Santr-Claus Santr-Claus to fill. How the grave saint of the early Christian church became the jolly fat Santa of today is another story. His figure and smile-wreathed face he borrowed bor-rowed probably from some jolly pagan good-fairy such as were worshipped before the Christian era. His gay red costume is the contribution of Russia, where he Is a patron saint. His reindeer rein-deer are the gift of admirers in Lapland. Lap-land. MAGGIE THE hero of that familiar song, "When Yon and 1 Were Young, Maggie," was its author, George W. Johnson ; its heroine was Maggie Harris, Har-ris, the girl he found and won for his bride during a gold prospecting trip in the wilderness of unexplored forest, Indian ambuscades and occasional occa-sional white pioneer settlements which in 1S30 comprised East Tennessee. Many years later, old and gray and alone, Johnson returned to the spot on the Haiwassee river that was the scene of his courtship, reviving In his mind's eye every dear detail of the settlement as he had first seen it, the green grove where stood the Harris cabin and where he had first seen Maggie, the old mill where they had walked on a summer evening. Noting sadly every change, he wrote down his poem to take home to his wife in the East: The green grove is gone from the hill, Maggie, Where first ' the daisies sprung; The creaking old mill is still, Maggie, Since you and I were young. And now we are aged and gray, Maggie, Mag-gie, The trials of life are done, Let us sing of the days that are gone, Maggie, When you and 1 were young. The poem remained unknown until 1SS6, when the composer, J. A. Butter-field, Butter-field, wrote the music to which it is sung today. KING ARTHUR WHETHER King Arthur was a historical his-torical figure or not, and scholars schol-ars are recently renewing research into this fascinating subject, there stand today In Cornwall, England, ruins of an ancient fortress, crowning the promontory Tintagel Head, which are generally known as "King Arthur's Castle." As the birthplace of the glorious glo-rious King of the Round Table, this spot has recently been transferred to the possession of the English government govern-ment to be used as a national park. If King Arthur was a historical figure he was a comparatively insignificant insignifi-cant Cornish chieftain of the early period just succeeding the withdrawal of the Romans. Such a chieftain is celebrated by the Sixth century historian his-torian Gildas, in connection with an account of the Battle of Mount Radon in SIG, the decisive struggle which checked temporarily the advance of the Saxons against the Celts. Nen-nius, Nen-nius, writing in the Eighth century, calls him by name and attributes to him victory in twelve battles. The date of his death in the battle of Camlan in 537 is added in the Tenth centur. Cambrian Annals. By the Twelfth century the Monks GoelTrey of Monmouth and William of Malmes-bury Malmes-bury were able to produce accounts of his heroism already embellished with much of the legend made familiar by Mallory and Tennyson. Actually, only the foundations o( the chapel of "King Arthur's Castle" date from anything like as early as the Sixth century. The rest of the ruins have been established as Thirteenth Thir-teenth century Norman. (. 1932- Western Newspaper Union.) |