Two thousand newsboys and homeless men and women were fed through the generosity of Mr. Fliess, who provides such a feast every Christmas. His father began giving these annual dinners forty-five years ago, and his son is continuing them in his memory. Seven hundred pounds of turkey, three hundred of ham, four barrels of potatoes and four of turnips, fifteen hundred pies and countless gallons of coffee, tea, and soup were the principal items of his provision last night. Two hundred applicants were seated at a time. There was no disorder.
One man, arriving late, when the last dishes were being cleared away, was referred to Mr. Heig.
“Misteer,” he said, “I came from Peekskill, walking all the way, and I am most famished. Can I have something to eat?”
“There is a cup of tea or coffee left, anyway, and a piece of bread. Give it to him,” Mr. Heig said, turning to his assistants.
Presently a plate of steaming turkey and vegetables was placed in front of the man. Mr. Heig said one of the girls helping in the kitchen,[Pg 181] who hadn’t eaten anything since morning, had insisted that her share go to the traveller.
Mr. Heig said the closing of many manufacturing plants in the last year had set thousands of boys adrift. The Newsboys’ Lodging House had become a haven, he said, for all the homeless and friendless lads in the city, and in the last year had sheltered 3,844 different boys.
Christmas and other holidays give occasion for accounts of various forms of celebration, of which the following story from the New York Evening Post is a good example:
Just when the afternoon shadows were beginning to lengthen in Trinity churchyard, the snow-hedged paths were filled with children hurrying to the service known as the “Visit to the Manger.” By scores they surged along, bearing banners, until the church doors swallowed them up. It was the day of one of Trinity’s most hallowed customs. Nobody knows exactly when it was instituted, although tradition says that it began during the late Dr. Dix’s incumbency. With the passing years the “Visit to the Manger” has become the recognized prelude to the Sunday School feast and Christmas tree, on the day before Christmas.
In the church long streamers of greens twined the pillars, and here and there gleamed holly; above the rows of heads the banners with their inscriptions trembled. Shrill young voices joined in the carols. Notes of the processional rang clearly.
Once in royal David’s city