THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher ....Owner-Publisher
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Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Friday, December 23, 1949
GOD’S SON WAS BORN ON EARTH
(By Rev. Robert Treat)
Fo rthe very first time a mother held her baby . . .
shepherds came and told of the message: “Peace on
earth, good will toward men,” and the world in the
hushed expectancy that all men know at the breath
taking hour of birth, wondered at the words “For unto
you a Saviour is born.”
Only blind hearts ever say “just a baby” even though
this one was born in a stable. The Wise Men may have
wondered, but eyes of faith helped them see what the
busy self-centered ones missed: God was born among
His people, where they lived, and worked, and prayed.
This was a birth that was to change the manger to a
shrine. It was only a mother holding her baby, but it
was an event that was to change your life and mine.
The calendar was changed—the tax that seemed so j
unjust is remembered as something that happened that
year, and the people that almost all their lives had been
ruled by one nation or another are remembered as the
people who gave birth to—and rejected—the Christ.
And so God was born on earth, “and came to His own,
and His own received Him not”—except here and there
and there. O God, grant us the simple vision of the shep
herds, and the faith of the wise men, to let His life come
to us.
CHRISTMAS—1949
At this time of the year many persons enjoy re-read
ing the “Christmas Carol.” It is Dickens at his best, us
ing his great talents to show his readers the difference
between Scrooge before and after he looked Christmas
in the face and heard its merry voice—the difference be
tween a selfish, miserly old man and a happy radiant boy.
This is among the best of the Christmas blessings, be
cause it restores us for a few brief hours to childhood
days. To forget one’s childhood is to forget much of the
best that life has brought us. Some things are still re
vealed to little children that the years have hidden from
the wise and prudent. We come nearer to renewing our
youth at Christmas than at any other time of the year.
Much as Christmas has meant to humanity, it has
meant no less to those lowlier creatures who share with
man life’s joys and sorrows.
The Spirit of Christmas is the eternal foe of cruelty. \
No man' who yields to its sway can look with other than
kindly eyes upon the least of those living things that ;
have capacity for pain.
Christmas is a day of hope. It brings the promise of a
better future. It witnesses to something that lives be
hind the shadows that darken the present, and the evil
that threatens the future.
iWhat ever the burden of suffering that rests upon the i
animal world today, it is less by many fold than it was
before that night when a little Child was born in the
stable in Bethlehem.—Our Dumb Animals.
WHEN CHRISTMAS WAS UNMERRY
Merry Christmas has not always been merry in Amer
ican history. Unmerry times started very early. The Pil
grims landed at Plymouth four days before Christmas
1620. Christmas day found them between the Mayflower
and the cold, hostile shore. Most of them were still liv
ing on ship and didn’t believe in celebrating anyway.
Washington’s ragged troops were crossing the icy
Delaware in the dark early morning hours of Christmas
1776. They defeated the Hessians at Trenton next day.
Christmas 1786 found unrest in New England. Shay’s j
rebellion flared that day. The rebels had a rough time.
In 1837, Col. Zachary Taylor and his troops were down
in Florida fighting the Seminole War. Christmas day
found them defeating the Indians at Lake Okechobee.
The Mexican War also saw Christmas Day action
when Col. Doniphan and 450 volunteers defeated 1,1001
The Story of Christmas
Told by Great Artists of Mistory
— THE NATIVITY: Van Dyck (1599-1641)
"And she brought forth her firstborn son. and wrapped him
in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there
was no room for them in the inn."
—THREE WISE MEN: Stoddard (1861-1940)
"Behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
Saying. Where is he that is born King ot the Jews? lor we
have seen his star . . . and we are come to worship him."
—ADORATION OF MAGI: Laib (15th Century)
"And when they were come into the house, they saw the
young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and wor
shipped him: and . . . they presented unto him gilts."
Mexicans at Brazito in 1846.
The national Capital had trouble the Christmas of
1851 when the Library of Congress and part of the Capi
tol burned. Nine years later on Christmas, 1860, South
Carolina issued its declaration of independence, the
spark that made the Civil War inevitable.
One of the Classic Christmases of the un-merry type
will long be remembered by the men defending Bastogne
in 1944. The Battle of the Bulge and the fight for the de
fense of the little town were at a climax. It was just two
days later that the isolated Bastogne garrison was re
lieved. Christmas Day found the boys deep in fighting.
Secy. Symington
Will Christmas
In Alaska
SEATTLE, (/P)—Comedian Bob
Hope and air secretary W. Stuart
Symington flew northward today
for a white Christmas in Alaska.
They took off in the personal
plane of Brig. Gen. Frank Arm
strong, the air force commander
in Alaska. The takeoff was short
ly before 9:30 a.m., about an hour
behind schedule.
Hope is going north to enter
tain air force units on the Christ
mas weekend. He is taking his
wife and two children, Linda, 11
and Tony, 10,
ANCHORAGE, Air Secre
tary Symington’s visit to Alaska
—his second in three months— is
for the express purpose of person
ally investigating the territory's
winter housing conditions, sour
ces here said today.
Symington, in company with
comedian Bob Hope, will be
joined Tuesday by governor Ern
est Gruening for a conference on
the housing problem.
The air secretary will leave
here Christmas day to inspect
Ladd field at Fairbanks and other
Alaska stations, including the Al
eutians, where the air force re
cently ordered troops withdrawn
for lack of funds. His visit to Ladd
Field includes a talk to enlisted
troops and an inspection of living
quarters for them and their fam
ilies.
This is the second Christmas
that Symington and Hope have
gone abroad to be with American
troops. Last year, they spent the
holidays with men on the Berlin
airlift.
Santa Sans Deer
Visits Minchnmina
FAIRBANKS, (#») — Sophisti
! cated city tots who dispute the ex
istence of Santa Claus will have
to argue with six child eye wit
. nesses from Lake Minchumina.
Lt. Louis Button of the 10th
Rescue Squadron at nearby Ladd
Field clad himself in whiskers and
traditional Santa apparel Thurs
day and dropped 1,500 feet from a
C-47 onto the runway of the iso
i lated civilian aeronautics adminis
i tration station 150 miles south
i west of here.
“Santa” carried a bag of toys
from the airmen who were fed
i and housed by the station's fam
ilies during a recent search mis
| sion for Lt. Alexander Murphy,
i 10th Rescue Squadron officer who
disappeared on a routine flight
Nov. 3.
Button said one four-year:old
skeptic demanded reindeer, but
I the station’s five other children,
aged two to four, accepted both
Santa and the presents with equal
credulity. .
Louis Bum chi, formerly a mer
cantile clerk in Nome, now oper
ates a wholesale house in Anchor
age, exporting and importing for
building material firms.
Mrs. Charles Traeger, whose
husband is ill in the hospital, left
for Unalakleet to spend the holi
day with their children.
-.- >
Robert Lewis, youngest eon of
Mr. and Mrs. Norvin Lewis, who
is serving with the armed forces,
based in Fairbanks, is home for
the holidays.