8 _ NORTH -cSHORE BREEZE 
North Shore Breeze 
Published every Friday afternoon by 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE CO. 
33 Beach Street Manchester, Mass. 
J. ALEX. LODGE, Editor, 
Telephones: Manchester 378, 132-M. 
Subscription rates: $2.00 a year; 3 months (trial) 50 cents. 
Advertising rates on application. 
Entered as second-class matter at the Manchester, Mass., 
Postoffice. 
VOL. XIV 
December 22, 1916. No. 51 
Is THERE A SANTA CLaus? What shall we tell the 
curious and impatient little folk who are too old to. be 
interested by the time honored legends of childhood folk 
lore and who are too young to be robbed of the joys of 
youth and its harmless deceptions and pleasures. Is there 
a Santa Claus? Is there a real live Santa Claus who 
cares for little folk and rides over hills with snow white 
reindeer to fill the “tockies” of good little boys and to 
reprove the recalcitrant youth of his naughtiness by 
“scimping” his measure of toys, candies and Christmas 
presents? Is there a Santa Claus? It has been written 
in response to a query from a little girl: 
“Dear Editor:—I am eight years old. Some of my 
little friends say that there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 
“If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the 
truth; is there a Santa Claus?—VirciINIA O'HANLON.’ 
“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists 
as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, 
and you know that they abound and give to our life its 
highest beauty and joy. Alas, how dreary would be the 
world if there were no Santa Claus; it would be as 
drearv as if there were no Virginias. There would be no 
childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make toler- 
able this existence. We should have no enjoyment ex- 
cept in sense and sight. The eternal light with which 
childhood fills the world would be extinguished. You 
may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the 
noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world 
which not the strongest man, nor even the strength of all 
the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only 
faith, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain 
and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory be- 
yound. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world 
there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! 
Thank God, he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand 
years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand 
years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart 
of childhood.” 
VINCENT Astor Has ANNOUNCED that as a Christ- 
mas gift he will give every employee on his estate at 
Poughkeepsie an amount of money equal to ten percent 
of the annual wages earned in 1916. This is a conces- 
sion given not as an increase in wages, but as a free gift 
to assist the workmen to meet the increased cost of living 
The money will be a welcome gift to the workingmen. 
The example might well be followed by many another 
employer of labor. 
ONE OF THE TRAGEDIES of the war is the undoing of 
the work of years of peaceful progress. Laborers in 
Canada are tearing up miles of railroad, needed for the 
proper development of the country, to be shipped to 
Furope for military purposes. The world has become 
used to the losses caused by the war. While only inci- 
dental the destruction of American railroads is a tragic 
illustration of the far-reaching results of the war. 
Dee. 22, 1916. 
WHILE TEACHING IN THE CLAssroom Professor 
Hugo Munsterberg was stricken and died. Professor 
Munsterberg has held a position of influence as a psychol- 
ogist and has been among the leaders in the teaching of 
that science and in the pursuit of psychological experi- 
ments. As a teacher he won the friendship and admira- 
tion of his pupils and the respect of the philosophical 
world. For his work in this important branch of science 
alone he achieved a position of wide influence and power. 
In more recent days he has been a storm center because 
of his loyalty to his fatherland, Germany. A teacher in 
an American institution he never renounced the claims 
which his fatherland made upon him. The outbreak of 
the war aroused his soul and was the beginning of days 
of stress and anguish that eventually caused his death. 
He was a faithful German and strove in every legitimate 
way to gain the sympathy of the American people in the 
German cause, but his work was in vain. As a patriot he 
was placed in an uncomfortable position, hating war, 
val to Germany and loving America—a difficult place 
for any man, but he acquitted himself honorably. He 
believed that Great Britain, Germany and America should 
understand each other and have codperated to the end 
of obtaining for the whole world the advantages of cul- 
ure and progress in the ways of peace. The tragic days 
following the attack upon Belgium and the declaration of 
war by Great Britain and the almost immediate turn of 
sympathies in America to the Allied cause undid all that 
he had vainly hoped for during a lifttime of patient and 
faithful industry. The war once on, he used his pen and 
his voice to stem the tide of opposition in America against 
Germany, but without avail. 
THE Cominc ConstiTuTIoNAL CONVENTION has 
aroused considerable interest since the election deter- 
mined that it was the will of people. The vote for the 
convention was close, showng a very decided tendency to 
leave the constitution alone. The majorities, however, 
now prevail and the convention will be held, but it will be 
interesting to note the results of its deliberations. In 
1853 after a session of careful discussion the voters re- 
jected all of the amendments submitted to them. In 
New York state the same turn of events caused a waste 
of the entire expense of the convention. The same re- 
sults may obtain when the new Constitutional amend- 
ments are presented to the people. The progress of this 
important work will be watched with interest. 
Tur Epucation oF THE PEOPLE in the laws of 
hygiene and health is one of the objects of the committee 
on sanitation and safety of public buildings and convey- 
ances, of the Women’s Municipal League of Boston. 
Mrs. Godfrey L. Cabot of Cambridge and Beverly Farms 
is chairman of that committee. One of the far-reaching 
plans put in operation the last summer through Mrs. 
Cabot’s efforts is the placing of Healthgrams—a poster 
about a foot square—in conspicuous places about Boston 
—in railroad stations, subway stations, car barns, fac- 
tories, schoolhouses, department stores, etc. These are 
issued once a month. A list of them may be had at 4 Joy 
street, Boston, by applying to Mrs. Stone. 
CALIFORNIA Has Vorep for good roads at a surpris- 
ing ratio of nearly twenty to one in one county and four 
to one all over the state. The question of bonding the 
state for nearly fifteen million dollars for state highways! 
There was a time when it was necessary to start cam- 
paigns of education to prove the desirability and the ad- 
vantages of good roads? The automobile is doubtlessly 
the great sauce for this unprecedented movement for 
good roads. 
