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Show To Six Americans Belong the Credit For Making Santa Claus, the Children's Symbol of Christmas, a Living Reality By ELMO SCOTT WATSON (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) THE social historians will tell you that the Dutch gave to the world that familiar symbolical Christmas Christ-mas figure, Santa Claus, and that his name is merely a 6lurring of the Dutch pronunciation pronun-ciation of "San Nicholas" or "Sinterklass" which is, of course, "St. Nicholas." They will tell you, too, that Nicholas Nicho-las was an actual person, the bishop of Myra, in Lycia, Asia Minor, in the first part of the fourth century of the Christian era. In his honor December 6 of each year was set aside as a special feast day. But in the late Middle ages, when the Catholics and the Protestants both tried to do away with festivities which had grown up around St. Nicholas' day, the children refused to give him up. Gradually the festival in his honor was assimilated into the festivities festivi-ties honoring the Christ Child. Be Comes to America. When the Dutch settlers came to New Netherlands more than 300 years ago, of course they brought with them their custom of honoring "Sinterklass." In fact, it is said that the ship which carried the first Dutch children to Manhattan island bore likeness of him as its figurehead. But he wasn't the jolly little fellow that we know. For the Dutch children knew the good Bishop-Saint Nicholas Nich-olas as a solemn, majestic figure In trailing robes, wearing a jeweled jew-eled miter and gloves and mounted mount-ed on a fiery white charger. Even after the British took over the Dutch colony and New Netherlands Neth-erlands became New York, the WASHINGTON IRVING little Dutch children continued to look for the coming of "Sinterklass" "Sinter-klass" on the eve of December 5 and hang up their stockings. But the English colonists didn't believe be-lieve in "Sinterklass" and gradually, gradu-ally, as the Dutch became assimilated assim-ilated and some of their customs began to change, there came a change in the character and appearance ap-pearance of the good St. Nicholas, too. A Turning Point. The American Revolution not only marked a turning point in world history but in the history of St. Nicholas as well. He was no longer the Dutch saint as the Dutch colonists had imagined him. He was a Dutch saint as their English neighbors imagined him and he began taking on Dutch characteristics. Instead of being a severe, forbidding for-bidding figure he became a jolly fat little Dutchman. In place of his long robes he began wearing knee breeches and the shoe buckles of Dutch colonial fashion. No longer did he ride the fiery white charger. Now he went about on his errands in a little wagon, drawn by a fat little pony. And, finally thanks to six Americans Amer-icans he became the Santa Claus that we know today. These six Americans were three writers and three artists and all of them contributed their share toward the creation of a Santa Claus so familiar to American children. The first of these six was Washington Irving. Whether Irving simply followed a tradition that was already widely accepted In the state where he was born or actually created a new American Amer-ican Santa Claus is unknown. At any rate, when he published his whimsical "Knickerbocker's History His-tory of New York" in 1009 he gnve us the first full-length word portrait of Snnta Clnus, the American. Amer-ican. It is to Irving thnl we owe our Idea of the Dutch colonists as jo-vinl, jo-vinl, fat little men, wearing voluminous volu-minous breeches mid smoking long pipes nnd he nindc the pillion pil-lion snint of their children the firc htype of tliein nil According to Irving, Saint Nicholas wore a "low, tirond -brimmed hut and a wi W?&u ill The first known picture of Santa Claus (1839). huge pair of Flemish trunk hose" and he rode "jollily over the rooftops" roof-tops" in a wagon, dropping splendid splen-did presents down the chimneys of the houses where dwelt the children who were his favorites. It was also Irving who gave him another characteristic which has survived through the years. For, as the Knickerbocker history tells us, "when Saint Nicholas had smoked his pipe, he twisted it in his hat band, and laying his finger beside his nose, gave a very significant look, then mounting mount-ing his wagon, he returned over the treetops and disappeared." The next writer to paint a word portrait of Santa Claus was Irv-ing's Irv-ing's friend and one-time collaborator, collab-orator, James Kirke Paulding. Paulding, himself of Dutch descent, de-scent, in his "Book of St. Nicholas," Nicho-las," published in 1827, declared that Santa Claus was "as gallant gal-lant a little Dutchman as ever smoked his way through the world, pipe foremost ... he is a right fat, roystering little fellow . . . who scorns to follow the pestilent fashions of modern times, but ever appears in the ancient dress of the old patriarchs of Holland." Moore's Immortal Poem. It remained, however, for Dr. Clement Clark Moore, in his immortal im-mortal poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas," to fix forever in our consciousness the appearance of the children's Christmas saint. Moore was graduated from Columbia Col-umbia university in 1798, and became be-came a professor of Hebrew and Greek in the General Theological seminary in 1821. He was a prolific writer, one of his literary productions bearing the imposing title of "Observations "Observa-tions Upon Certain Passages in Mr. Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia Which Appear to Have a Tendency to Subvert Religion and Establish a False Philosophy." Philos-ophy." However, his most important impor-tant work, the one at least upon which he believed his fame as a scholar would be secure, was "A Compendius Lexicon of the Hebrew Language." He Little JAMES KIRKE PAULDING realized that future generations of Americans would remember him better as the author of what he was accustomed to call "a silly poem." Yet such was the case, for a short time before Christmas in 1822, Dr. Moore wrote for his children a Christmas poem and they were delighted with the rollicking rol-licking tale. A daughter of Rev. Dr. David Butler, rector of St. Paul's church at Troy, N. Y., who was a niece of Dr. Moore, was a Christmas guest in the Moore home and made a copy of the poem in her album. The next year she sent a copy of it to the Troy Sentinel and it appeared in that paper, prefaced by a note from the editor saying he did not know who had sent it. By the next year it hnd appeared in many other newspapers and magazines and within a lew years it had found its way into the sclioolUuiks. By this time inquiries in-quiries were beginning to be tniule as to its authorship and eventually Dl . Mom r, none too well pleased that his "silly poem" was so well-known whereas his scholarly "Compendius Lexicon" attracted tittle attention, admitted admit-ted its authorship and gave the autographed original manuscript of the poem to the New York Historical His-torical society. How much Moore drew upon Irving and Paulding for his description de-scription is not known. But there is a curious parallelism in some of his words and some of theirs, although Moore himself, 40 years later said that "a portly, rubicund Dutchman living in the neighbor-hood neighbor-hood of his father's county seat,! Chelsea" near New York city suggested to him the idea of mak-. ing St. Nicholas the hero of his Christmas piece for his children. The Reindeer Appear. It is certain that we are indebted indebt-ed to Moore for making Santa Claus' mode of transportation a sleigh drawn by "eight tiny rein-' deer." In its original form the poem differs slightly from the present version, particularly in the names of the reindeer. "Vis-cen" "Vis-cen" of the original has become "Vixen" and "Donder" has been changed to "Dunder." The title' which Dr. Moore gave to his verses was "A Visit From St. Nicholas," but the modern version, ver-sion, taken from the first line, is "The Night Before Christmas." As for the contributions of the three artists to our image of Santa Claus, the name of the " first one unfortunately for his fame is unknown. In 1839 a book called "The Poets of America," edited by John Keese, was published. pub-lished. It contained Moore's poem and the illustration for it DR. CLEMENT CLARK MOORE was a picture of Santa Claus (reproduced (re-produced above). Who the painter paint-er or engraver was has never been determined but it is believed that this was the first time that a picture of Santa Claus was ever printed. The world had to wait another 20 years, however, for another portrait por-trait of Santa Claus. In 1862, an edition of "A Visit From St. Nicholas," Nich-olas," illustrated throughout by F. O. C. Darley, was published in New York. Darley gave us several sev-eral views of the old fellow at work. One in particular was appropriate, ap-propriate, for it showed Santa Claus placing his finger slyly to one side of his nose, just as Dr. Moore had described. Darley probably was the foremost fore-most American illustrator at the time; but, after all, his version seemed to fail to satisfy completely, complete-ly, and another year passed before be-fore the real Santa Claus climbed into a chimney, just as readers of the ancient classic had pictured him in their minds. Darley had given us the sly twinkle in the eye of the good-natured elf, and he had made the reindeer at least as tiny as the poet had described them, but something was lacking. In 1863 a volume of favorite poems was published in which Dr. Moore's poem was included. It was illustrated by Thomas Nast, whom the American public remembers re-members chiefly as a cartoonist for Harper's Weekly, the crusader crusad-er who almost single-handed smashed the notorious "Tweed Ring" in New York with his vitriolic vitri-olic cartoons and the artist who added to our gallery of familiar symbols the Republican elephant, the Democratic donkey and the Tammany tiger. In this compilation, compila-tion, Nast turned his attention to depicting the features of Santa Claus, and for the first time converted con-verted an illusive figure into visual visu-al reality. Nast may, therefore, be said to have created a Santa Claus which remains the model for all who succeeded him. The social historians toll us that the Dutch gave to the world that familiar symbolical figure. Santa Claus, and that is true But it was the genius of six Americans Washington living, James Kirke Paulvling, Dr. Clement Clark Moore, Felix O. C. Parley, Thomas Nasi and lhal unknown artist for John Keese's "Poets of America" which made turn a living liv-ing reality for all tunc to come. |
