Word: st
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...clad small fry whoop into "Grandpa's" bedroom, bounce on his bed, shout "Merry Christmas," and dive for the bulging red stockings hanging from the mantelpiece. After breakfast (smoked sausages and scrambled eggs) the President and the immediate family motor around old Lafayette Square to the grey granite St. Thomas Episcopal Church...
...matter of Santa Claus last week, as they do every year. To strict Calvinistic subjects of devout Queen Wilhelmina it would smack of blasphemy to observe Dec. 25 otherwise than with solemn thanks in church for the birth of their Savior. They figure, however, that Santa Claus, or St. Nicholas, the patron saint of Generosity, was born on Dec. 6, do their giving then. Dutchmen conceive the Saint as a bishop whose ecclesiastic dignity is above lugging presents around in a sack. This is done by his far from humble minion, Black Peter, a capering minstrel in braided doublet...
Many Dutch villages have their St. Nicholases and Black Peters, generally two popular local characters who know all the children. By prearrangement with parents, they leave toys for good children or threaten to leave a birch switch for bad as they go from house to house. Especially naughty moppets are supposed to be terrified into good behavior when grimacing Black Peter threatens: "Unless you mend your ways, I'll carry you off in my bag to Spain!" According to one legend, Blackamoor Peter came from one of the ancient lands of the Moors...
This year Netherlands troops guarding the frontier with Germany were visited on St. Nicholas Day by the mitered Saint, bearing aloft his bishop's crook and preceded by capering Peter, who brought sugar cakes for the soldiers. Dutch cameramen snapped St. Nicholas peering through field glasses at cruising bombers outlined against the sky. Amid jollification, Saint and minion tasted the troops' pea soup, which gulping Peter pronounced "prachtig" ("swell...
...bankrupt Rock Island, Missouri Pacific, St. Louis-San Francisco, to the prosperous Union Pacific, Burlington, U. S. winter wheat adds up to a substantial portion of summer revenue. Largest of the winter wheat carriers is the Santa Fe. Wall Street Journal dug up some interesting figures on Santa...