A Reformed Santa Claus

SADRžAJ

The employees of Harrison's mine have been out on strike for a long time. The men wait for him until he is leaving his office in the evening. They try to state their case but he entirely ignores them. They attack him. In terror, he flees before them, escaping by entering the home of a poor widow with two children. She is just preparing for the children's Christmas. She has a Santa Claus suit in which she expects to get some friend to dress to carry out the Christmas belief in old Saint Nick. When Harrison is admitted into the house he tells the widow that he is being pursued by the strikers and asks her protection. She tells him to get into the Santa Clans suit, which he does, and he is just carrying out the part of distributing the gifts to the children when the angry mob burst in the room. They detect the disguise of their employer but hesitate to practice violence when the widow appeals to them and points out the effect that such an occurrence might have on her little children. The men depart from her home. Mr. Harrison, grateful for his escape, thanks the poor widow, not forgetting to add to her happiness by making a liberal present of money. When he reaches his own home, he is dejected and downcast. His thoughts turn to the scenes through which he has just passed, bringing him to a realization of the condition of those worse off than himself. He calls up the leaders of the striking employees and tells them he will grant their claims and they can go to work on the day after Christmas. His mind easier, his heart lighter, he orders a large Christmas tree and many gifts to give his own child, to whom he has given little heed in the past; a Merry Christmas, and to make it complete, he invites the widow and her children to make merry with them.