| Show olia aino ass V j g lne night before ChAst mas I 1 ai WAS the nahl before christmas when all through the house not a creature no ins not even a boumel IV the stockings were hung by the with care W in hopes that st soon would be therel the children were nestled all anon in their beds while visions of sugar blunts danced through their heads and mama in her and I 1 lip tur cap find just settled our braini for a lonc nop when out on the iowa there arose such a clatter t from air bed to see what won the matter away to the window I 1 how like a flash tore open the shutters and threw up the mash oab 14 the moon on file brenat of the new fallen anozo 11 5 2711 gave a luster of to objects 74 w wil az when what abut to my eye but bat a miniature lelah anil and clalia tiny reindeer with a little old driver so 0 o eisely and quick I 1 know knew in a moment it must be st nick more blore rapid than alian cagler him churners cour ners er they comet came and he whistled and shouted hooted and called them by br now dambert now now MOM mud and on cowell comet I 1 on cupid on dander and diligent to the top of the porch to the top of the he halll now dash away array dash dah a nay away daub away all an A d dry lenea leaves that before the he wild hurricane fly by when they meet with na an olvat oele mount to n the he okyo ky so sop HP to the housetop house top the cour churners ners they hey flew with hh a elsh sleigh full all of toy tore and st nicholas too 0 o and then them in a twinkling I 1 heard on the root the and pawing of each little hoot hoof an A I 1 drew in my head fiend and was turning around down the chimney st nicholas with a bound lie ile was wa dreamed all in a fur from life lil head to his hl toot foot and him III clothes were mere nil thed with nhe ashen aind sooil A bundle of toy he be had tiling flung on his linck back and he looked like a ped peddler iler just opening his hl pack I 1 ills eyes how they twink ledl his til dini dimple ples bow merryl III cheeks cheeka were like rose roe file lil none like a cherry ills ilia droll little mouth vins franu up like a bow and the he beard on his hl chin ani no as a white on as the ahe now mow ithe the tump stump of a pipe be held tight in him teeth and the he smoke moke it encircled his hend head like a ww reath lie ile had bad a broad anee ace and a little round belly that shook chook alien lien he like a bowl full of jelly lie ile was chubby and plump a right jolly old off elf and I 1 laughed when I 1 saw him la in spite ef e myself A wink of his hi eye and a twist of his aln head soon save gave me to in know I 1 had nothing to arend lie ile spoke raube not BO a word but went tibt to llo bl awk and filled all time axi then turned with a jerk jo and laylor his hl finger aside of him noses abid nd giving a nod up the ch chimney lainey he rose roe JA ile he sprang to his sleigh to his bl team save move a whistle walle 3 and away they hey ill all fleim like the down of a tattle but I 1 heard h eard him exclaim ere lie he drove out oat or of lichtl to nil all and to all a frood nighat clement Clenie nt 0 alcore by ELMO SCOTT WATSON I 1 LIEN HEN recent press dispatches carried the news lint a new york woman mrs airs tillie hart who for four months had withstood the siege ot of a wrecking crew seeking to tear down her home hoine to malke make way for a apartment house bouse had at lost last capitulated and the house to be demolished there was one good reason why the story was more than lhnn merely a local new york ne news ws item for the disputed building has rightfully been called the birthplace of santa claus claua because in it more than a hundred years ago dr clement 0 moore wrote a famous christmas poem in which for the first time the american santa claus claua was described ills big mode of traveling was pictured picture and the lata liness of tits hla giving was made known that poem was tile night before christmas which every american has recited or heard recited fit at some time or another and for that reason the news that the birthplace of santa claus was to be wiped out of existence had nationwide nation wide interest quite aside from hla his fame as the author of the night before christ inas bias doctor moore was a notable nan man ills his father bishop benjamin moore the second protestant episcopal bishop of new york and th the e third president ot of columbia university as alsted at the inauguration of washington and administered the last rites to the dying alexander Un hamilton milton after the fatal duel with aaron burr clement C Q moore was gra graduated dusted from columbia university in 1708 1798 an and 1 I was a professor of hebrew and greek in the general theological seminary from 1821 21 to 1850 he was a prolific writer one of his literary productions bearing the imposing title of observations upon certain passages in mr air jeffer sons notes on the state of virginia which appear to lave have a 0 tendency to subvert Itell glon and establish a raise false philosophy however tits roost most important work the one at least upon which he be believed his fame as a scholar would tw be secure was A corn com pe pending adlus lexicon of the hebrew lan guage ile he little realized that hat future generations of americans would remember hlin him better as aa the author of what he was accustomed to call a silly poem the authorship of which he refused to acknowledge for a long time yet such was the case for a short time before christmas in 1822 doctor moore wrote for his children a christ mas poem and they were delighted with the rol locking tale as other ahll ahli dren not only in this country but in many other lands have been ever since A daughter of rev dr david butler rector of st SL pauls church at troy N Y who was a niece of doctor 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 ed aitor saying he did not know who had sent it by the next year it had find appeared in many other newspapers and magazines and within a few years it had found its way into the school books by this time inquiries were beginning to be made as to its author ship and eventually doctor moore none too well pleased that his sil poem was so eo well known whereas his scholarly lus lexicon at traded little attention except from other scholars admitted its authorship P and gave the autographed original manuscript of the poem to the new york historical society in ili its original form the poem differs slightly from the present version particularly in the names of if the reindeer of the original has become vixen and donder has been changed to dunder the title which doctor moore pave gave to tits his verses was A visit prom st nicholas but the modern version taken from the first line Is tile the night before christmas its popularity however has been unchanged throughout the years it has been trin translated slated into many foreign tongues and it has delighted the children of many na nations timis doctor moore died in 1803 1863 at his summer home borne in newport it 1 I Ms his body was taken to new york which was waa then in the throes of the draft riots and was placed temporarily in a vault at st lukes church in hudson street later it was waa removed to the churchyard of the chapel of the intercession Tri trinity tilty parish and there it rests today in a plot of ground which holds also the bodies of his wife und and their three children in fact this plot has been more of a christmas shrine than has the house near chelsea square where the poem wis was written and a very pretty christ was was ceremony in memory of doctor moore takes place there every benr rev dr hillo H gates vicar of the chapel ot at broadway and one hundred and fifty fifth street has long been an admirer of the poem and its scholarly author in 1011 1911 he held the first service in doctor moores memory about children gathered with him at the grave at the foot of the hill ov ershad owed by the high wall which Is topped by riverside drive since then the number has ins grown to more than axx 2000 the ceremony begins at four on christmas eve w with alth the feast of lights in the church then the chit dren gather in the cloister while a fanfare of trumpets from the bell tow er heralds the procession to the aeme tery led by the trumpeters trum peters they move along one hundred and fifty fifth street carrying banners lighted candles candies torches and lanterns past the huge christmas tree in the corner of the churchyard all broadway Brn adway traffic Is 19 halted as they cross the swell of their music rising above the noise of the street and falling away again as they pass prom from the steps of the cemetery and the road that flint winds around from side to side down the hill the voices ma may still be heard beard on the busy street sing ing little town of bethlehem silent night holy night we three kings of orient are god test yo Y terry merry gentlemen and many other favorite christmas hymns and carols except for the lights in the chit drens hands banos it Is quite dark by the time they reach the stone mar marked ed clement clarke moore born in new ex york july 15 1779 died in N newport eap w rt it II I 1 L july 10 A finni care carol he I 1 sung as a wreath Is laid against the stone and before disbanding the pro cession moves on to a grave bearb ne arbi to honor the memory of alfred tenny son dickens eldest son of charles dickens author of another christmas classic A christmas christinas carol another ceremony honorl honoring ng doctor moore moone Is held annually at st peters church on twentieth street A tablet Is erected to tits his memory here because he fie was the first warden of that church and also gave the land upon which it stands as well as the laud land upon which was built the gen oral eral theological seminary with which lt it has bus a close 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