Volume 14 , Issue 52

NW Okie's Corner

Duchess let you know that this week's OkieLegacy Ezine is being published on Sunday instead of our Monday evening edition. That is because of Christmas Eve falling on Monday of 2012.

I have been searching for Washington Irving's complete poem published in 1821, two years before Clement Moore's poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas. In 1821, the following poem was published in New York, the first lithographed work in the United States of America. It was also the first to print a picture of Santa Claus. "The Children's Friend: A New Year's present, to Little Ones from Five to Twelve, by Washington Irving, included eight illustrative plates (hand-coloured upon additional payment) and eight verses about the American gift-bringer's activities. Irving's poem reads:

Old Santeclaus with much delight
His reindeer drives this frosty night.
O'er chimney tops, and tracks of snow,
To bring his yearly gifts to you.

The steady friend of virtuous youth,
The friend of duty, and of truth,
Each Christmas eve he joys to come
Where love and peace have made their home.

Through many houses he has been,
And various beds and stockings seen,
Some, white as snow, and neatly mended,
Others, that seem'd for pigs intended.

Where e'er I found good girls or boys,
That hated quarrels, strife and noise,
I left an apple, or a tart,
Or wooden gun, or painted cart;

To some I gave a pretty doll.
To some a peg-top, or a ball;
No crackers, cannons, squibs, or rockets,
To blow their eyes up, or their pockets.

No drums to stun their Mother's ear,
Nor swords to make their sisters fear;
But pretty books to store their mind
With Knowledge of each various kind.

But where I found the children naughty,
In manners rude, in tempers haughty,
Thankless to parents, liars, swearers,
Boxers, or cheats, or base tale-bearers,

I left a long, black, birchen rod,
Such, as the dread command of God
Directs a Parent's hand to use
When virtue's path his sons refuse.

Meanwhile let us leave you with this quote by James Arthur Baldwin quotes (American Essayist, Playwright and Novelist, 1924-1987) ~ "Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go."

HO! HO! HO! Happy Birthday, Ellen Ludtke (24 December)!
Good Night & Good Luck researching your family ancestry!   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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