HIS DOUBLE 1 Paul B

V 3 ÉANTA CLAUS "LIVES Trns-y HIS DOUBLE 1 Paul B. Mnason* Whose Snow-framed Features Smiled at Thousands of Children. Will Pose No More. Man of Mys¬ tery. He Once Led a Religious Sect Called the Angel Dancers By ARTHUR CHAPMAN He was Santa, he was a sea captain, he was King Lear 'Mí Mnason first appeared Storms turned on him. "John the Baptist,*1 . in New Jersey as a lay whose real name was John McClintock, com¬ ]m exhorter in the Metho- mitted suicide, and in October, 1901), Mnason m dist faith. He told of was legally ejected from the farm under the visions which he claim¬ landlord and tenant act. It was then that ed he had. His ideas he dropped from sight until, several years were so radical, par¬ later, with his hair and beard snow white, he where appeared in New York City as a model, and Mnason in a pose reminiscent of his "Lord's ticularly they Farm" days concerned marriage, in specialized as "Santa Claus." Apparently he K which institution he had given over all idea of re-establishing a HE man who was Santa Claus is dead. bread or anything of always declared he did religious colony. He wrote verse which was 3j£ on He was a man of many names, but that sort, be would not /» not believe, that one religious topics, and he lost no opportunity ' to set forth his ideas on religion to one T at the Art Students' League, where he go to the butcher's and night he was waylaid any who be inclined to posed fer beginners, and in the stu¬ get 3ueat. Of late, he Pin the dark and half his might listen, but for the most part his time was the best had been talking about hair and whiskers were occupied making dios of the known artists, where he was rounds of the at the re¬ going to France to see shaved off. This hap¬ studios, generally sent for when a "Santa Claus type" was need¬ quest of artists who had Santa Claus a boy he had raised- pened at Pascack. Fol¬ pictures he was known as to make and who now are bereft because ed, Mnason, the first "n" The boy is now twenty- this they lowing event, declare that nowhere in New York or its en¬ being silent one years old. I used to Mnason went to Jersey virons is to be found such another model for Over in see letters that sent Jersey'City, where Mnason lived. he City, but he soon re¬ the patron saint of Christinas. the children in the neighborhood are still sor¬ to Mr. Mnason in ear¬ appeared in the Pas- lier "There is no type more difficult to find than because "Santa Claus" is years.-very af¬ . cack He waslo- rowing gone. They region. the venerable old man type.particularly the used to call Santa fectionate letters." on the farm of "Hello, Claus," after him j&ft cated sort with a sparkle of humor, which Mnason when saw on Mnason was seventy- Garrett near they him the street, and they ^jr Storms, had," said a well known artist. "It is no would four years old last De¬ Woodcliff say "Now, don't forget to send me that Já Lake, who, trouble to get old men, of course. There are cember. He was .HI for Christmas." Or it was a sled or buried ¦y with his brother Rich¬ of them to be seen on perhaps in plenty the streets and le, or whatever else happened to be fore¬ Scranton, Pa., near ard, his sister Mary in the parks. Not all of them would pose, his a most in the mind of the child. And the man birthplace, niece and his mother, became even if asked.but there are few we would at Morris who was Santa Claus would always promise Plains, N. J., so interested in the want under any circumstances. A model may claimed to send whatever they asked. having the teachings of the ex¬ have the flowing white beard, the long white "He said that American parents always got body. horter that soon Mna¬ btSsshy locks and the generous girth of an ideal their children whatever the children wanted," When he was posing son was in control of SantX Claus. He may have, the ruddy glow 'aid .Mnason's landlady, a motherly woman in occasionally the model the farm, which he of he^ith in his cheeks, but when it comes to whose house the Santa Claus model had lived for Santa Claus would made the headquarters painting such a model, he lacks the something .for ten years. "Such being the case, he did not hint to his artist friends of his cult. Here he necessary to make a vital picture. ¦kesitate to promise the children whatever they regarding cei'tain ex- raised vegetables and "Probably it is because few of us reach old afked for. If he had thought they might be periences in his life in "Line's Busy".a Christmas took them to market age without bearing evidences of some of the which his pronounced and individualistic re¬ drawing by Orson Lowell for which Mnason posed. and hard knocks we have received. We jiisappointed he never would have made a sold them. Wayfarers were wel¬ may try as was ligious views played a part. It was A delight Reprinted by courtesy of the editor of to hide it under a brave front. We may have fromise, he fond of children. Hardly "Judge" come at the "Lord's farm," and hoboes soon to talk on subjects. InWact, one a ready enough laugh, and we are day passed that he did not come home with religious learned the way there and ate many a free perhaps e Christmas season he been hired a classed as but will or two children by the hand." when had by meal, with no greater than cheerful, something furtive New store to dress up. as penalty hearing show in our in of Huntsman T. Mnason, or Mnason T. Hunts- York department Mnason expound his radical doctrines. eyes spite ourselves. Or. n, or Madison T. Santa Claus and receive the messages of the there may be lines in the face which we sim¬ Huntsman, or Paul B. There were protests on the part of neigh¬ ason, as he little folk who flocked to the toy department, ply cannot hide. Get those lines under a had been known at various bors, and Mnason was even tarred and feath¬ es in his it was said the engagement proved to be short studio skylight and they are the first thing career, probably had his picture ered and ducked in ice water. But he was an more lived, because Mnason had "talked religion" to an artist sees. In youth or middle age it may produced times than any other man. of non-resistance even in those circles «customers. apostle days be possible for a near-type to get by, but '».art he was famous as the type that so far ahead of the and all aeant The files of New York newspapers of an great war, such when it comes to old age the model must beard, joviality. Santa Claus was "mere incidents" did not have ef¬ «a earlier contain articles about Mna¬ the desired stand every test. chief subject in later years, when his clay many fect of making him quit the community. >eard had become son, whose activities as head of a religious sect "Santa Claus, as most people have him snowy. Artists say there authorities conducted an »ever has been in New Jersey involved him in difficulties with Bergen County treasured in the imagination, isn't a another Santa Claus like of the "Lord's farm" in just ¡4nas«n. his neighbors and even got him into theLcourts. investigation ISO?,. commonplace old fellow, with a They drew and painted him as ready grin. ..anta The Dancers, or the Church of the Liv¬ There were twenty-eight followers of Mnason Not: at all. He lives to the immortal de¬ Claus foi ne covers, Angel up posters, God, was what Mnason called his sect. on the farm, nine of them long-haired men, in 'The Before advertisen ents, illustrations for sto- ing scription Night Christmas.' ¡«"way" the "n" into his name because in the seventeen women and two children. Biblical The of Santa Claus that ';' Senre paintings. They found He put picture always sticks «im Bible xxi, there is the following ref¬ names abounded, some of'them being "John in my mind is one that I out of a short the ideai type, on account of his (Acts 16) got snowy : the Baptist," "Silas the Pure," "Titus" (Gar- in "St. written ward, his beari ¡g, the erence story Nicholas," by Washing¬ jolly twinkle it, his of the dis¬ rett Storms) "Thecla" (Mrs. Jane Howell I ton ClêS,hls and "There went with us also certain Gladden, back when I was a boy. his intelligence. Also one "Poebe" Storms) and "The Orson ciples of Caesarea and brought with them (Mary Holy One," "An artist could almost draw a picture of Lowell, who drew Mnason who was Mnason himself. Indictments fol¬ J*hands'times Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom that sort of Santa Claus without a model. Santa Claus, says he had the and all but Storms, who has since ,'3;'«as that wenl we should lodge." lowed, Mary I say 'almost' because he'd probably be hunt¬ with the type.hands that were found Mnason and «*essed For almost a score of years who died, guilty.

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