The Delta Courier (Cooper, Tex.), Vol. 48, No. 50, Ed. 1 Tuesday, December 10, 1929 Page: 3 of 12
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CURRENT
COMMENT
By J. H. (Jim) Lowry
last month on the calendar. It had
1
now.
ceive, nor
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NI
fully. There was a big fuss in the Ladies’
t
first we will pass under the influence of such aid as may be needed.
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Letter
Santa
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(Copyright* 1929, by the Home Color Print Co.)
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e
and had two more payments to make.
pie the next day that you shook your fat I further volunteered the information
e
4
ten months, and it has last place
It took its name from decern,
course, but the public begging system
is economically unwise and a nuisance
as well. Many make begging a business
or profession, traveling their routes as
regularly as drummers make their trade
territory. No matter how much they re-
A twenty-fifth, when Christ-
mas comes, and the other
on the twenty-first, when
the coal and gas trusts
kick the sun across the
time he ran across a gift for Sallie that
I had written my name on. For illustra-
tion: “Here’s another present that cost
about two-bits, from Joe Sap, to Sallie
Haskins.” He kept the crowd in an up-
roar of laughter with these cynical re-
marks. I was too humiliated to look up
even, but I was told by a number of peo-
t
d
e
h
e
e
Thirty years ago I would have named
the youngster William Bryan, but when
Billie played fast and loose with his in-
structions at Baltimore the name would
have grated upon the nerves of the
father. Happily I haven’t had to rustle
a name as yet, but if I am ever called
upon to delve into momenclature in or-
der to label a male heir, I will give the
youngster the name of a statesman who
is dead, or of one of the Apostles of our
Lord.
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t
lo
is
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?
‘s
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Capricornus the goat, but the things
mentioned, .assisted by Christmas bills
and taxes, will soon get our goat. There
will be the usual number of people who
do not do their Christmas shopping
early, the tic trade will be good, like-
wise the traffic in socks, and dear
father will get something from the ten-
cent store.
December
ECEMBER has always been the
r
s
t
s
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f
e
u
d
Christmas Reflections
(Continued From Page 2)
for Christmas time. One Christmas Eve
I chanced to visit the city hall in the
town in which I live and saw upon a
desk a bottle half-filled with whiskey,
with three apples, the property of a
man who was wallowing on the floor of
the jail as- drunk as the proverbial
Long
By JOE SAPPINGTON
your whiskers and don’t let them get
singed. Your friend.
JOE SAPPINGTON.
a y ed
2
music, he soon tired of the singing,
went out in the rain, walked the street
and took a drink. It was his first drink
—the one that led to ruin. I believe I
might have married into a wealthy fam-
ily if I had been educated in art. I
seemed to be getting on fairly well with
the fair creature until one fateful day
when we visited an art gallery. We
viewed the work of the masters for
some time; then I begged to be excused
for a time and left the hall. When the
dear creature finally came out I was
feasting my eyes upon a billboard cover-
ed with circus posters. My excuses and
pleas for pardon were scorned. Again I
say, we must educate all down the line,
from the negro banjo picker to Galli
Curci, and from philosophy to football.
would have regretted my rashness, ordered an expensive part for a piece
Whose mind is clear as to the guilt or and a word in favor of either contestant speech in the presence of the concoction
installment plan for the last ten months count their heart-beats by seconds,
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19
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Good-bye, Santa Claus, be careful of yielded full granaries and plethoric
h %
t
b
s
which I am told means ten in Latin, and
liked its name so well that
it did just as a few old -
maids who are getting ./
►married these days are
doing by sticking to the 26
old name. There are Iwo
very important events in 52122
December; one on the 88258
Aid Society over which of two young and then dropped in a Chinese stink pot.
ladies should be the church organist, Then one of the fellows made a Socialist
sides every time you handed Billy one of
my presents to Sallie. All I have to say
at this late day, Santa, is that if I had
known then what I know now, I would
have given you some of the same
“rough stuff” I gave Billy when he step-
ped out of the church house.
Clearing Up Some Things
Well, Santa Claus, old scout, in all
probability this will be the last letter I
shall ever write you, but in order to
clear up some things that have been
bothering me ever since last Christmas,
I shall ask you the following questions,
to-wit: Have you changed your method
of distributing presents? Have you
traded your reindeer and sled for an
army truck, or airplane, now that you
are dealing in rugs, radio sets, shotguns
and bath tubs? Last but not least, when
did you start giving away things on the
installment plan, the recipient to do all
the paying? Now, I’ll tell you why I
propound these questions. Last Christ-
mas my folks, not including myself, re-
ceived some very handsome presents,
presumably coming from you and,
Tropic of Capicorn for a
field goal and ushers in "5
the winter solstice. December claims
the shortest day of the year, but
this is incorrect. The shortest day
known to men is January 1, when
they have their Christmas bills to pay.
The only horoscope of December 1
care to risk my reputation on is this:
People will be happiest on the
twenty-fifth, and saddest on the thirty-
first, when they have to pay their taxes,
and the death rate will be considerably
heavier, due to Roman candles, toy pis-
tols, duck hunters and a little more
booze in the automobiles. On the twenty-
thinking you still did business in the
same old democratic way, I took it for
granted that the gifts were paid for. It
now seems that nothing was settled in
full except the tie and pair of socks you
bought for me at Woolworth’s. I’m still
paying monthly installments on the rug,
radio set and shotgun which you so gen-
erously bestowed upon us. The shotgun
was for my son. Another Christmas like
the past one in my family circle will put
me hoplessly and eternally in debt. Just
how much they possess, they
keep on begging, just the
same, because it is their
chosen trade or profes-
s i o n . Investigation in
many instances has shown
that mendicants w h o
travel over the country
and pose in most pitiful
plights are in comfortable
4 ♦ 4
The wisdom of the great judge Solo-
mon is badly needed on the benches and
in the jury boxes of our courts these
days. Solomon did not depend upon the
testimony adduced at hearings in order
to reach a just verdict, but alas, our
judges and jurors do. When two women
claimed a baby, and each swore with
earnestness and tears that the child was
hers, there was a conflict of testimony
which left all in doubt, but wisdom
granted from on high enabled Solomon
to quickly determine which of the
women was the mother and which the
imposter. Seldom is there a trial of a
worthy person; the professional beggars
know this and so they continue their
rounds, confident of their earnings. I
truly believe it best not to contribute to
any public beggars, but to pass their
hats or cups by with the feeling that in
so doing you are not refusing to exercise
the noble grace of charity, but are as-
sisting in breaking up a system that is
economically unwise and perhaps moral-
ly wrong. Let the worthy poor apply to
officials or charity organizations and
furnish evidence of their worthiness.
The people then will be glad to extend
* * *
Don’t name your boy after your fa-
vorite statesman or politician; if you
do you may come to grief. Forty years
ago if the stork had left the finest boy
in the world at my house I would have
given the youngster the name of Grover
Cleveland; but years later, when Cleve-
land refused to support Billy Bryan, I
e l
had sold a large bill of furniture on the
installment plan, and the purchaser had
left the country between suns, taking
the furniture with him and leaving no
address.
The young lady teacher, in spite of
her learning, beauty and popularity,
was in tears and her voice trembled
with emotion. She had been brutally
“bawled out” by an irate parent for not
passing little Willie, who all his school
life had never learned a lesson.
And even the rich banker had not
escaped grief and sorrow. One of the
clerks had cashed a check for a large
sum, and a blind man should have been
able to see that the signature was a
forgery.
The doctor was sleepy and sad. He
had been up all night with a patient
who would never be able to pay him one
“biled owl.” The whiskey, of course, was
for the husband and father, and repre-
sented two or three dollars of his
meagre earnings. The apples cost a
dime or fifteen cents, and were for the
wife and children. No doubt the little
ones sat up late and looked longingly
for the coming of father with their
apples—but father never came, and
broken-hearted the children sank to
sleep on that blessed Christmas Eve
with their little faces bathed in tears,
to awaken in the morning choked with
sobs because Santa Claus had not come
to gladden their little hearts.
♦ * *
The Year That Is Passing
Time is divided and subdivided all the
way from clock-time to eons. People
B___________________________________
123 last place when there were only
lor, a playmate of mine, whispered to
me just before you began calling off the
, * * * Promethus and blows and coughs and
Of course nobody can have Christmas spits himself away, and the medical pro-
all the time, yet I know several ladies fession is as helpless as a baby in mid-
whose stockings are filled with pretty ocean. Here I wish to confess, brethren,
things every day in the year. that I have never been able to cure a
* * * cold that got hold of me, but if a cold
I am inclined to say with the poet. gets hold of you, drop around and I’ll
“twas ever thus; from childhood’s hour suggest several remedies that will cure
I’ve seen my fondest hopes decay.” I yours.
Christmas, advising you that I was a about it being you.
good boy, industrious, washed my face At this auspicious time, Santa Claus,
and neck every morning, no matter how before I forget it, I want to clear my
cold the weather, and scattered sun- name of a cloud that hung over it for
shine and happiness wherever I went, many years. I refer to the Christmas
Then, as a sort of after thought, I gently tree episode, whereupon some wicked
hinted that you reward such nobility of boy “goosed” you, causing you to jump
character by quietly slipping down our from the ladder and skin your knees on
chimney on Christmas Eve night and the floor. I was never a tell-tale and
leave me a general assortment of took all the blame when I knew I was
presents, ranging from a jumping jack innocent, but now, after a silence of
to a rocking horse with dark chestnut nearly fifty years, I shall divulge the
mane and tail. Santy, your response to name of the culprit; it was Davie Jones,
that letter was not of a nature calcu- All I did was to bet him my pocket
lated to strengthen and cement a last- knife against his French harp that he
ing friendship between us. Judging from wouldn’t dare goose you.
the things 1 found in my sock that far- Regular Attendant
off Christmas morning it occurred to 5
my childish mind that you were long on I was a regular attendant at all our
tin goats, white pine whistles and pew- Christmas trees from the night you
-agr pocket knives, but short on every- made your “initial” appearance until
iGDing worth more than a nickel. Of whiskers broke out on my chin.
course, I felt hurt and denounced you Santa Claus, do you remember Sallie
as a “short potter,” vowing to myself Haskins? She was the girl who got so
that I would never write you another many presents from the Christmas tree
letter. Childhood sorrows ’ and disap- the night Billy Hawkins and I pulled off
pointments are soon forgotten, however, that fight. In order to keep the record
and I have long since forgiven you. straight and avoid misunderstandings,
I wrote my name in the corner of all
Santa ( laus race to race the presents I put on the tree for Sallie.
Santa Claus. I remember quite dis- Everything would have been great had
tinctly the first time I ever saw you Billy kept his blamed mouth shut while
face to face and eye to eye. It was the delivering the gifts to persons whose
night you presided at the Christmas names were called. He was a rival of
tree at the Cave Creek school house, mine for Sallie’s affections and, in order
Even back in those good old days there to humiliate me, proceeded to call out
were doubters and scoffers. Billy Tay- my name in a loud tone of voice every
bank accounts to some, while its blight-
ing drouths withered the hopes of oth-
ers. Thousands of homes have been
turned into houses of mourning, and as
the year crosses the divide and ceases
to be it will look into thousands of faces
stained by tears because of the sorrow
it brought. So many mounds have been
raised above the forms that were
loved that there will hardly be
enough roses in the early springtime to
lay a flower upon each, and the songs of
despair sung by those who have lost all
(Continued on Next Page, Column 5)
of machinery, and the man who gave have a neighbor, and that neighbor had
the order had left the country, without three fine meat hogs. I could almost
leaving his address, and the expensive catch the aroma of the sausages, back-
part for machinery was on his hands, a bones and spareribs in advance of the
dead loss. hog-killing. But a hog buyer came along
The furniture man was in real grief and my neighbor sold his porkers on
and had no kind word for anybody. He foot.
Eleven years have been added to the
past since the cannons ceased to roar in
Belgium and France and the great
world war became a memory. It seems
to me that the war scars have healed
rapidly, all the nations having been for-
given except Russia, who quit the game
when the excitement was highest. The
people of America are now quite friend-
ly with the people of Germany. The Ger-
mans are borrowing money right along
from the Americans and the Americans
are eating about as much sauer kraut
and Limber cheese as they did prior to
the great struggle. It appears to me that
America forgave Germany quickly con-
sidering the way Germany treated us.
It must be remembered that we went
to heavy expense and traveled a great
distance in order to whip Germany, and
then Germany quit and deprived us of
the great pleasure of licking her.
***
Public Begging a Nuisance
I do not like to knock on any profes-
sion, more especially such a popular
profession as public begging, but in my
humble opinion this is a profession that
should be squelched. The deserving poor
and unfortunate should be assisted, of
innocence of the man? Possibly only two would cost him his job.
people in the world, Pantages and the The only man I could find who had no
girl, really know. The girl swore she troubles to relate was the fellow who
was mistreated, and much testimony was beastly drunk. He had them later on.
supported her claim. Pantages swore he We must educate; we must educate
was “framed” and much testimony sup- all along the line or suffer the awful
ported his contention. Either story consequences. Not only must we have
could have been true, but fallible men a literary education, but we must be
had to say whether Pantages deserved educated in art and classical music. One
the severest penalty the law could in- poor fellow who is a devotee of John
flict or was the victim of a designing Barleycorn attributes his downfall to a
woman. And it is an awful thing to in- lack of education in music. He attended
flict a severe penalty upon an innocent French opera in New Orleans one rainy
man or turn an arch criminal loose upon evening. Having no ear for classical
(
* * *
Of all persons entitled to sympathy
and pity at Christmas time, the most
deserving is the boy who already has so
many playthings he can’t’ think of any-
thing else to ask Santa Claus. His state
is far worse than that of the boy who
hasn’t any playthings at all and can get
a thrill out of anything which happens
to come his way.
* * ♦
The flu being with us again, certain
fellows possessed of a great store of
curiosity are seeking its origin. Some
say the flu originated from the poison-
ous gases on the battlefields of Europe.
I am sure this theory is false. I am
strong in the opinion that the flu was
caused by an incongruous mixture stir-
red by a lot of good fellows who were
drunk on Chock beer or some other hell-
ish liquid. The fellows concluded to
make something fit to be called the
“devil’s mixture.” They threw in seeds
of anarchy, added an ounce of metaphy-
sics, sprinkled the two with high-life,
♦ * *
Family Tragedies
One of the tragedies of every-day life
is an honest man struggling hard to
earn a livelihood and save a few dollars
for the proverbial rainy day with a fool-
ish wife who keeps his nose to the grind-
ing stone by her extravagant ideas of
living and an effort to do society. A still
more sickening tragedy is a pure good
woman, the mother of bright, innocent
children, struggling day after day to
make her home what it should be,
studying the happiness of her loved
ones and doing drudgery every day and
night, while a trifling husband squan-
ders his earnings to satisfy his own vile
cravings without any thought of home
or family. But the worst tragedy of all
is a wife who won’t work, but demands
everything that is best to eat and wear,
and a husband who won’t work, but
adds to the demands of his wife a good
supply of the beverage that isn’t pos-
sessible or salable under the law. When
you run against a tragedy like this the
suffering gets beyond the family; the
dry goods merchants, the grocers, the
doctors, the butchers and the bakers all
suffer.
I .
’___M
measure sermons by minutes, reckon
work-periods by hours or days, obtain
and grant credit by months, and meas-
ure ages by years. And this reminds me
that the world is about to move up an-
other notch and add another year to
its age. Yet a few days and we shall
know Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-
Nine no more forever. Even now the
fires are burning low in the grate and
in the flickering flames we may see and
recount the joys and sorrows,
fruition of hopes and the bitter disap-
pointments the year has brought us. It
has been a good year and a bad year. It
le
ed
is
id
it
st
i:
is
ar
y
d
Claus
society. Wisdom from on high is as bad-
ly needed on the bench today as when
Israel’s king looked beyond the maze of
conflicting testimony and found the
light of Truth.
* k * "
Trouble for All
Once upon a time, believing I was
carrying nearly all the troubles of the
world on my back, I decided to jot down
for a week the experiences of the people
I talked with, just to see how they
fared. My first stop was with the beau-
tiful young saleslady at the ready-to-
wear store. I was sure she was happy,
because she had a beautiful face and
perfect form, lots of pretty clothes and
many beaus, but lo, she told me of a
customer who had just brought back a
lovely dress on which the store had
spent a dollar for alterations, and which,
it was believed, the customer had worn
three times.
The hardware man was perturbed, in
spite of his wealth and the fine
patronage accorded his store. He had
criminal case these days that the minds cent, and lost another case that would
of those who hear or read the testimony have been good for $200 spot cash.
and the arguments are not filled with The good minister was afraid to speak
doubt as to the guilt or innocence of to any person lest he be accused wrong-
that one more payment was due on the
radio set, which was also a “gift” from
you.
I won’t ever tell you, Santa, what
my wife and daughter said to me after
the lady had departed, for I don’t think
it’s any of your business. Another ques-
tion or two and I’ll bid you a long fare-
well. Do you think the Democrats will
ever elect another President? What do
you know of the Einstein theory of rela-
tivity and, as a parting shot, how do you
stand on prohibition?
■ ■ 8 j a • ■ •
_ A
financial circumstances
and suffer no physical ills
of consequence. People as
a rule prefer to help many
unworthy people rather
than refuse said aid to one
last week a lady friend of ours
was admiring the beautiful rug, in-
quiring innocently of my wife and
daughter from whom it was purchased,
but before they could reply I spoke up
and said it was a gift from Santa Claus
and that I had been paying it out on the
the accused. Take the case of Pantages,
the wealthy moving picture man, who
was accused of mistreating a girl.
sne
r ,-52225.
122229225,,
EAR SANTA CLAUS: Doubtless presents that it wasn't you, but old Tom
I! you will be surprised to hear Sawyer. He knew it was old Tom, he
■ from me again after a lapse of said, by his voice and the way he limped
• so many years. It is just possible in his left rheumatic leg and had almost
that you have forgotten me alto- convinced me that a rank fraud was be-
gether, as it has been more than ing perpetrated on the good people of
fifty years since I communicated with Cave Creek. But when you began dis-
you by letter. However, if you will look tributing the presents, and finally call-
through your letter files of the late ed out my name from a card tied to the
seventies you may find my letter. It was neck of a tin cat, minus a tail, that settled
composed and written just before it and removed all doubts and fears
and it exploded. From that evil day to
this the flu has covered the earth.
*#0
A correspondent of a daily paper
makes a big kick against the high price
of dying and urges that the national
government take charge of the entire
undertaking business of the country and
give the people relief from excessive
funeral charges. Against this form of
Soclialism I urge my most solemn pro-
test. Under government ownership of
undertaking it would require a month
to get a corpse buried. Two agents
would be sent to make an examination
of the soil before the grave was order-
ed, and then the sexton would not dare
begin work until the government archi-
tect at Washington had approved plans
and specifications.
♦ * *
The Gideons, a splendid organization
of traveling men, have placed a copy
of the Holy Bible in every hotel room
in the country. Truly a fine work. But
every time I pay a hotel bill I have a
notion to phone the Gideons that they
forgot to place copies of the Good Book
with the manager and clerk.
***
It’s time of year for colds—the com-
mon every-day kind of colds before
which frail humanity stands a chained
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The Delta Courier (Cooper, Tex.), Vol. 48, No. 50, Ed. 1 Tuesday, December 10, 1929, newspaper, December 10, 1929; Cooper, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1541241/m1/3/?rotate=90: accessed June 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Delta County Public Library.